Zoo Nealand

(as my super-clever friend, SYL, calls it)

Was awesome. I had a good time with my Mom, and it was neat to able to be traveling around with her – first, because of school and such, this is not often an opportunity I get; and second, because my mother was so genuinely excited about New Zealand, since it is a place that she never thought she’d get a chance to visit.

We did, like, the grand circle tour of the south island. We started in Christchurch, the big “city” on the south island. Then we went to Mount Cook, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Wanaka, Franz Josef, Nelson Lakes National Park, and the Marlborough wine country.

Some general points about New Zealand:

1. It has a lot of sheep.

Also, cows.In fact, one night, after an especially long hike, my mother and I were driving (which is to say, I was driving, and she was musing about how backward things seem when you have to drive on the left side of the road) on this dirt road WAY out in the country. It was dark, and suddenly, there was a herd of cows on the road. AND THEY WOULD NOT MOVE. So I drove the car slowly toward them, really, really glad that we had taken that extra insurance on the rental car (“Oh, that? Cow damage.”). I was afraid to honk the horn because I didn’t want to freak them out – I just wanted them off the road. Some cows ran, some cows ambled, and some cows just sort of lowered them heads and glared at us and refused to move. Luckily, these were not bulls, but the experience was slightly strange all the same as I tentatively crept through a herd of, like, 80 cows on a dirt road in New Zealand in the dark. Later, we learned that the cows come down onto the roads at night because the roads are warmer than the surrounding fields, and the cows like to sleep on the warm roads. Consider yourselves fairly warned.

2. It has a lot of spectacular vistas that look like Hollywood backdrops (funny thing, that).

3. Try as I might, I am not really a boat person. Boats are sort of like a necessary evil – you have to take them to get to neat places, but you don’t have to like them. What I do like, though, is the sort of romantic aura that attaches itself to boats and sailing.

4. It is possible to have fun with your mother.

In the spirit of having fun, click here to see a short video that my Mom and I made in Milford Sound. I told her to pretend that she was a "Daily Show" correspondent [the background to her story is that we had pretty foul weather in Milford Sound {see #3}. It POURED - which caused all these waterfalls to just start flowing from all the surrounding mountains].

5. There is good food to be had New Zealand. I also learned that I do not like cabernet.

6. There are also strange signs to be found in New Zealand.

7. Try as we might, we did not find any hobbits (better luck next time!).