February 13-17: West Coast

The last 5 days have been a mad rush up the West Coast to get back to Auckland for our flight tomorrow morning.  We didn't have as much time to explore the little places, but it felt like the West Coast was much more of a circuit with the same couple sites that everyone stops at.  But again, that was probably just our limited time. 

We did manage to squeeze in some fun, camping on yet another beautiful beach, kayaking through a bird sanctuary, and checking out New Zealand's most famous glacier, Franz Josef (which of course led to us calling each other Franz for a day or so.  This is what happens when you spend half a year interacting primarily with one person.)

So, I think we've gotten to the bottom of New Zealand's problems.  There are none really.  It is just a simple society, people living contentedly within their means, without the desires or aspirations that drive the capitalistic growth we're used to in North America (and increasingly the rest of the world).  Besides tourism, which overall is fairly low key, the major industries are sheep (wool and lamb) and fishing.  With the exception of Auckland which has some internationally focused businesses, most people run the farms that their parents did, maybe try and save up for a little place on the beach.  I'm torn. There is a part of this lifestyle that is incredibly appealing, to raise a family outside of the modern day rat race.  But there is something I love about the entrepeneureal spirit that drives innovation back home, working hard to create something new and useful for the world.  And everything that comes along with that, different ideas, people, etc.  Greg Caimi, a friend from Hawaii, once said "Culture is for people with bad weather."  The answer as with most things surely lies in the middle ground...

Tomorrow we shift gears.  With significant exceptions, like Bolivia, we've spent the last 7 months exploringly and experiencing the beauty of the natural world, from Alaska to Patagonia to New Zealand.  While this will always be something we look for and an environment we love being in, it's hard to say, but after so much beauty you do begin to get desensitized to it. (Who knew we would have seen so many glaciers this year?) So as we begin our foray into Asia, we're looking forward to a larger focus on experiencing different cultures, while I'm sure there will still be some natural beauty thrown in there.

Due to our weird round the world air ticket, the best way to get to Bali was through Hong Kong, which if you look at a map, is not at all on the way.  So perhaps some quick dim sum in Hong Kong, before we head to Ubud to meet up with Crispin and Alizanne, our long lost friends now in Singapore, who are meeting us for the weekend.

Good Bye New Zealand.  We'll see each other again soon.