Today we drove to Aukland from Rotura. On the long car ride we discussed many different facts about New Zealand. Their national symbol is the silver fern while the national bird is the kivi. People of New Zealand are called kivis as well as the fruit! The New Zealanders or kiwis have a huge logging endustry, but unlike some other places in the world, they follow the logging with a reforestation process where they harvest and replant trees. The trees take around 18-25 years to fully regrow. New Zealand is the second best reforestation country in the world. Along with having a very impressive logging industry they also have a very impressive relationship with the locals. The indigenes people of New Zealand are called the mouri. They are really well integrated in society and their native language is even taught in school. Surprisingly like Canada they promoted their native people even in the airport. Along side the Maori they also are very proud of their affiliation with Lord of the Rings. On our way to Aukland, we also stopped off at Hobbiton, which is the actual movie set of Hobbit apart of The Lord of the Rings series. I don't know much about the Hobbit, but what I do know is that it was such a cute set. There were dozens of mini hobbit holes and fabulous gardens as well as a life size pub where we could rest up and enjoy some ginger beer. (my new favorite drink, non alcoholic of course:) Once we left, we had another hour or so remaining before reaching the city so of course we ran through some more facts.
We got to Aukland, it was such a beautiful pier town with little restaurants decorated with the New Zealand Christmas tree which is called Potuha takwa. there were so many sail boats around the shore, made sense because they have the highest number of sailboats per capita. We have kept hearing about the relationship between Australian and new Zealand, we learned that it is a rivalry like brother and sister, always there for each other but still have a healthy competition some time or another. See you tomorrow!
We got to Aukland, it was such a beautiful pier town with little restaurants decorated with the New Zealand Christmas tree which is called Potuha takwa. there were so many sail boats around the shore, made sense because they have the highest number of sailboats per capita. We have kept hearing about the relationship between Australian and new Zealand, we learned that it is a rivalry like brother and sister, always there for each other but still have a healthy competition some time or another. See you tomorrow!
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