Dunedin

We're back on the east coast of NZ. We basically crossed the width of the island (which, by the way, is 5x bigger than Vancouver Island) today.

From what we saw:

West coast of NZ: beautiful in a big-mountain and ocean way. The star attraction, Milford Sound, is a bit smaller than Indian Arm but an order of magnitude more spectacular which sheer cliffs, zillions of small waterfalls, and much taller and overall more spectacular terrain. We had a great guide in Milford with whom we spent the day (along with 11 others - UK, NZ and Saskatchewan). TBH though, the whole day would have been better had it been clear blue sky - it stopped raining, but it was foggy and COLD+++.

Central and east coast of NZ: beautiful in a rolling-hills and green (and sheep/cattle) everywhere sort of a way. It helped that it was mostly clear. We have 2 more nights here in NZ, but the second of those will be right by CHC airport so as to catch an earlyish flight to Fiji (3 hours away and directly north, about as far north as the north coast of Aus) on Wednesday.

I saw a "PARIS IS KILLING US" sign with pictures of cows, apparent reference to anti-climate change. A few anti-government signs here and there, probably similar to Canada.

Gas is about the same price as Australia and around $.35 more than Canada in C$. Ongoing talk of shortages but no actual experience. Saw an article in a local paper about farmers saying they are going to stop work because their fuel costs make it unprofitable. The guy in the story, who I guess is typical?, burns 500L/day which by my math works out to around $500k/year. That number means nothing without knowing what his corresponding revenues are, of course.

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