The Mole lands in New Zealand

Travelmole’s Graham McKenzie is discovering the delights of New Zealand and is blogging about his travels along the way.

Each week of the blog, Tourism New Zealand is offering you the chance to win a unique Maori bone-carved gift. The first giveaway starts today. If you don’t win first time, you can try again next week. The giveaway finishes on March 11. For more details, click here.

Today, our Graham lands in Auckland. Here’s what he had to say:

"Patience is such a great virtue and one that on occasion I, like a lot of UK residents, sadly lack. Think driving anywhere in the south east of England, Sainsbury’s on a Sunday afternoon or London Gatwick on a low cost flight. Exactly the sort of situations that would find even Jobe having a hard time keeping a lid on it.

Based upon my first 48 hours in New Zealand, patience is one characteristic the Kiwis have in abundance. It is evident in almost everything they do and how they act. I have yet to hear a car horn being blown, a person jumping the green light (which here is like the outline of a small Day-Glo lime man doing a moon walk) at a pedestrian crossing, seen much mobile communication of the texting/emailing kind and no major confrontations of any description. And yet this is in the country’s largest urban conurbation.

I often view people with patience as mature, happy with their lot, tranquil and relaxed. Others may view a nation like this as stuck in a seventies idyll.

So how did this Kiwi cool manifest itself to the benefit of somebody visiting the country for the first time? Well, due to a lengthy chat with the man who drove us from the airport to the hotel on Friday afternoon, we took a long and very interesting walk to Eden Hill and took in marvellous views of Auckland and its outstanding hinterland. On the way back we popped into a local micro-brewery and enjoyed some surprisingly good bitter.

After bumping into three security guards in Albert Park (pictured below) they correctly told us that if we came back at 6pm we would enjoy the most fantastic display of Chinese lanterns of all shape and sizes, Chinese food and entertainment. We did.

Finally, our hotel shuttle driver confirmed that a short 40-minute ferry journey across to the nearby island of Waiheke and a day visit was an excellent plan. This last item deserves special mention as when you arrive in Waiheke you could easily be transported to the Caribbean with associated beaches and mangroves. Turn the corner and you will be in the rolling dales of Yorkshire and then the next minute in an Italian olive grove.

On an island roughly half size of the Isle of Wight there are 32 separate vineyards (all open for tasting), one beer brewery and a whole host of cafes and restaurants serving local food. It’s the sort of island you could easily spend a fortnight on and if you thought the atmosphere was relaxed in Auckland try the island vibe here.

Already niggling away at me, however, is the feeling that despite allocating almost three weeks to the trip it will not be enough. There will be places, like Waiheke, where I will want to spend more time. Time that on this trip I may not have but I promise not to lose my patience.

PS There was distinct lack of tranquillity amongst the 1500/2000 European visitors who had just arrived from long 12-hour plus flights as they had to queue to get through the rather detailed customs and immigration procedures at Auckland airport on Friday afternoon. Tolerance on this occasion was severely stretched as only four kiosks were open."