NZ For Tourists - Tips and What To Expect

This video was inspired by a video by a friend of mine, ‪@AK-FS‬ who mentioned in one of his videos that his son wanted to visit New Zealand one day. So I decided that, instead of talking about one town or another in New Zealand, I would talk about our country as a whole. How to save $$$ as a tourist, and what to expect to see here. Even if you never plan to visit this great little country of ours, or you live here already, I hope you'll find this video interesting.

[@Driver2685Gaming]

Great video and informational.

[@russellwhitlock1942]

@@Driver2685Gaming Thank you very much, Driver. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@furymachinegaming]

another wonderful vid

[@russellwhitlock1942]

@@furymachinegaming Thank you very much, Fury. Glad you enjoyed it.

[@AK-FS]

Thanks for a fabulous and fascinating video! Loved every minute of it.
Chewin' da' fat. How many of us have adopted that term from Atomic67? 🙂 And yeah - I don't care what you're doing in here; I watch these to listen to what's on my friend's mind, whether it's farming related or not.
You're right - there are a lot of people in the US who have never been to the beach. It's probably only because I live about an hour and a half from it on the west coast, that I've been to the beach. Given my lack of desire to do a lot of traveling, I'd probably be one of those in my 70s/80s who'd never seen it before either... if I lived more in the central part of the country.
Travel to New Zealand - making notes:
1. You are never far away from the beach or the bush.
2. Save money by first flying to the south island, and then traveling NORTH through the islands, hopping to the north island via a 3 hr ferry ride.
3. Speed limits in town and on open road - 50 kmh/100 kmh.
4. There are generally no guns in NZ, even with the police. There are strict regulations on the use of firearms for hunting.
5. Cars drive on the left side of the road in NZ.
6. To get some idea of the cost of goods and products and real estate in NZ, check out trademe.co.nz, which is New Zealand's equivalent of E-Bay. Real estate prices are astronomical!!
7. NZ is very much into nature and birds. So many birds everywhere in NZ.
By the way, while our Constitution would give the right to do so, most people in the US don't go around with a gun on their hip either, unless they are a police officer. In my life, I can only recall two instances of encountering citizens who literally carried a gun on their hip. One was a lawyer, which made me wonder what kind of clients he had, and the other was our mutual friend. 😉
I could have missed it, but I don't think we heard your wife's phone when you mentioned it. I've noticed that at home when recording. The central vacuum cleaner is close by, and I can hear it clear as day, but for whatever reason it's never come into the recording. At least, not that I've ever noticed! 😂
I can't say what the norm is in the US on cars... but our little family very much shops for used cars when we need one. The only new car I've ever owned, was this little Ford Contour back when I graduated from college. I was a good little car, but alas, I crashed it in 2014, so it is no more.
You mentioned some car imports from the US and that they're not cheap. Are they typically 'novelty' or 'collector' type cars that are imported? Like the Corvette or Camaro that you mentioned. And when you import them, do they come with the steering wheel properly on the right side of the vehicle? If they do, then maybe that's the reason for the cost, as they aren't manufactured that way here. Probably why it works so well to get used cars from Japan, as they drive on the same side of the road as you.
Oh wait a minute... you said you saw a Corvette for sale for $50K? That's actually not as expensive as I was thinking it could be. To you or me it might be very expensive, but in general, based on the price of them here, that's not very expensive at all. Probably depends on the year of the car maybe.
Thanks again for the video. 🙂 If I may ask, how do most travelers do with driving in New Zealand? We're used to driving on the right side of the road here. How hard is it to adapt to doing it on the left?

[@russellwhitlock1942]

@@AK-FS Thanks for watching, AK. All rental vehicles in NZ have stickers on the dash reminding people to drive on the left., plus plenty of road marking reminders too. Even so, you do occasionally hear of a tourist driving around a blind corner on the wrong side of the road.
As for importing left hand drive cars, there are exceptions for classic cars from the 69's and 70's, but you could not import a modern car without it being converted to right hand drive first. And yes, the only US cars you get hee are something special, be it a Corvette, Camaro, Trans Am, Dodge Ram truck, etc. I have never, ever seen a plain old 4 door Chevy Caprice or Ford Crown Vic, or something just ordinary like that. As I said, the majority of our cars are Japanese imports. We own a Toyota Aqua and a Nissan Note - both hybrids.