The Kiwis | New Zealand

The coolest people on earth: Kiwis

Only now after an eventful last day of our NZ trip I get an inspiration to write a chapter of "Giuliandy".. I was chatting with our wonderful Airbnb host, Coleen, and when she said "you know kiwis are just nice to everyone", it stuck me that I think among al people we've randomly met during our travel, kiwis have been the friendliest and coolest by far. Such friendly folks!

Can't say enough good things about them...we had the best spontaneous conversations in NZ with people we'd literally just met. They are wonderful hosts and they just take you in like friends. When we were in Christchurch at Jamie's brother's place (one of my best kiwi friends), they invited Jamie's dad over just because I'd said "oh I'd love to meet your dad", and I was so happy he could make it, it kind of felt like family.

First of all comes Paul, I've only met him once in Shanghai through Chris and he was our virtual tour guide throughout our journey in Coromandel. Thanks to him we spent a beautiful evening at Luk's Kitchen and visited Otama beach and few more cool little spots he advised. He answered a thousand questions and pretty much tailored an itinerary for us and I just met this guy once!

In Ahipara, the guy Andy bought his board from, Rangy, literally drove up and down storages, shops and what not just to sell Andy a 350$ board, he gave us 2 leashes, a sock, wax and 2 wetsuits pretty much for free. And he was so smiley and friendly throughout the entire "transaction".

On one of our last days in NZ, in Tauranga, we randomly got into chatting with this nice dad with two daughters and a cute puppy who turned out to be working for a board shaper in Christchurch. He was genuinely interested in our travels and our experience with living in China, we talked about bali, Asia and pollution issues and I can't shake off my head how really genuinely interested his face looked. He was thoroughly enjoying the conversation and so were we.

In Auckland, we booked an Airbnb to sleep at during the car fairs, and we ended up staying at Bill & Coleen's house and having the most amazing evening chats with them...Such great people I feel like I can cal them friends already.

And this is only a few mentions of the wonderful people we met..many more, so many, I could write pages about it..the kiwis have it right. They live in a beautiful country and they take life in the most gracious of ways. They are simple but deep, they walk bare foot but they strive to protect their nature & native animals.

I guess Kiwis are one of the main reasons why New Zealand has been my favourite country so far. That and...the surfing :-)

Pssst ! Our Hobbiton Dinner Buffet on one of our last days in New Zealand.

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