Snap Shot

Nothing wrong with Pak N Save. Well, the Pak N Save in Whanganui anyway. The, 'floor show' unwittingly provided by the other customers could be entertaining which took the edge off an other wise mundane grocery shopping trip.

They upgraded the Whanganui store about 18months before we left NZ. The improvements did make the store better. Remember, you can't polish a turd but you can roll it in glitter !

Pom_Chch

DXBtoDOH

I first saw NZ in 2001 and returned last year for several weeks. Loved the country. Was on SI most of the time.

Some of the comments I can echo. Far more tourists now. Queenstown is bigger and busier. Even little Wanaka seems busier. However, I never got the impression things were jam packed or overly crowded despite being there during peak travel (February into early March). I trekked the Routeburn and Kepler and there were a bit more people than I'd remembered from my 2001 Routeburn trek but still plenty of great open spaces. Perhaps I'm just comparing tourist crowds to tourist crowds in other popular places so by that measure NZ is still fairly uncrowded.

NZ was sort of expensive but not surprisingly expensive, even with a car hire. I found Australia noticeably more expensive. It seemed average for a western developed country. Truth be told, people everywhere worldwide are complaining about high costs, even in the UK and the US. When you are in your comfort zone (where you live) you know the prices and where to go for deals and what to avoid so it's easy to keep costs under control as if it was practically natural instinct. But when you leave your comfort zone such as travelling, you don't know where the places to go are and also travelling almost always makes you start spending a lot more money on a daily basis for food and accommodation and transportation, so everything suddenly starts seeming to cost more.

Can't wait till I return!

sr71

Yeah, people get stuck in their own frame of reference, they complain about NZ but in many cases don't realise that exactly the same things are happening all over the world, especially in the desirable places.

I went to Italy last year, previously I went 7 years ago and the change in the number of tourists and busy-ness is phenomenal. It was horrible to be honest and if I ever go again it will be in mid-winter. Crowds on a scale NZ will never see. I see the same in most of Asia too - the Chinese and Indians are just swamping many tourist destinations, Koreans and SE Asians not far behind them. And some of this change is so rapid you don't realise it stuck back in NZ. The rate of change in places like Bangkok, Singapore is very quick.

I agree on Australia, it has cheaper housing with a lot of caveats, but the food and shopping is similar - touristy stuff can be more expensive like hotels, attractions and restaurants.

DXBtoDOH

Agreed. There's no such thing as off season any more in places like Italy or popular destinations like Paris or London or New York. It's now always crowded and always expensive. The hordes have exploded and it's not just the Chinese. Many more Brazilians and middle class South Americans are flocking to Europe as their economies improve and the cost of international airfare declines. I remember a few years back I went to Kyrgyzstan, which is very much off the tourist path and the first two groups of other tourists I ran into were....Brazilians!

It's a bit sad. I still remember when places like Venice and Florence still had evident resident populations and everyday activities but now they're almost completely transformed into tourist traps.

Stuck in Auckland

Happy Birthday Simon (OP)

Did the wind keep you inside with the inlaws this past few days

jmh

I wouldn't normally do touristy things being a local and all, but I had family from the UK staying with me last August (ie. winter). We took the kids all around the Auckland tourist spots and was amazed at how busy they all were with overseas tourists. Good for local businesses I guess. Wasn't a problem.