New Zealand

“The silent combines well with the wildlife.”

Once I did a friend in a hostel and she told me that her trip to New Zealand was amazingly beautiful but traveling there alone made her feel too lonely. I realize that happen the same with me. Maybe because we are both from the same side of the world, but the truth is Maria was right. I had to agree with my spanish friend that the silent I encounter was a bit too much after 4 weeks. There were days that I would see more sheep and cows than people.

But all the silent has a price and mine was the spiritual travel that I got and the pleasure of finding answers to understand what I have been going thru in this adventure. I believe the silent combines well with the wildlife. Allows me to see things with distance and to be detached from what looks like a big problem to solve.

I confess I thought I would sketch a lot more in New Zealand, but all the infinite landscapes take an effect on me that it just slows me down. Besides once you draw one landscape, the challenge to draw another is quite the same. So I decided to enjoy the silent, having a little break of sketching. Plus the way I choose to travel was by car and that also made my mind get lazy to take a snap instead of a one hour sketch.

Visited Places

Food

Get ready to go to supermarkets all the time. It’s the cheapest way to get food and it’s also very cool to cook it at the campsites or hostels that are most of the times prepared for that.

Travel

Hands down to renting or buying a car. It’s the best way to travel around, it’s easy to do both and depending if you’re traveling alone you can even do hitchhiking. In some south island towns, I even saw kids after school with their thumbs up asking for a lift like a normal thing to do.

Struggle

Making it cheap… that was my challenge every day to be able to survive reasonably with my savings. The cheap hostels are easily sold out and the options to go with the flow can be more expensive in the end. So plan it well or, my choice, sleep in the car.

How much

Although everything will be quite expensive, there are great deals that I found it amazing. Don’t ever lose the chance to eat a pie, since they are cheap and yummy! Get your bottle and refill it because it’s a great country to drink tap water and is cold! Say “G’day” to locals and mingle with them, they have a very generous behave all time and prepare to like beer!