Buying a Car to Travel New Zealand Part 1: Why?

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A random stop overlooking a windswept hilltop vista. Photo by Steve Collier, 2014.

One of the biggest decisions we made before travelling to New Zealand was whether to buy a car, rent a camper or try and travel using public/ backpacker transport. The main factor affecting this decision was that before travelling in August 2014, neither of us had passed our test! Yes, we left it pretty late compared to a lot of our peers to get on the road but we hadn’t really needed to before and the cost of running a car in the UK at that point presented a tricky financial prospect. Public transport in the UK is pretty decent if a tad expensive at times (we’re looking at you Chiltern Railways!) but it still worked out more cost effective than running a car. With the possibility of not being able to drive while travelling lingering in our minds, we decided to create a plan A and a plan B much like cartoon villains. Cue maniacal laugh…

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Talking To Strangers: Guidebooks and Sushi

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Unless you are an omnipresent, immortal being there is no way you will know every piece of information about wherever you are in the world. It is the accumulated knowledge from different perspectives that, if you pay attention, can transform your stay from a simple holiday where you tick the usual tourist boxes (not a bad thing) into a memorable tale that even your great grand kids will know by heart.

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Borders and Boundaries: The Berlin Wall

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Photo by Steve Collier.

25 years ago a period of social and political change in Europe allowed countries who, since the end of the Second World War had remained in the iron grasp of Communist Russia, to glimpse true freedom once again. Families were reunited after thirty years or more of separation, a country felt whole again and a positive future was in sight. Once a stark reminder of the divide between Eastern and Western political ideologies, the Berlin Wall had effectively split a nation and it’s people in half causing misery for those whose lives were torn apart.

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