I Went to New Zealand
posted by on November 29, 2024

I just recently returned from an 18-day vacation to New Zealand (Māori: Aotearoa). The goal was to celebrate being with my partner for over ten years and also try our best to learn and experience as much of the country as we could in that time. Our trip began in Auckland, and largely consisted of driving to new places, adventuring in and around them, and then driving or otherwise traveling to the next one.

To help make the scope of NZ easier to grasp for a USAmerican, I also looked up the population size, rough geographical area, and latitudes for the Northernmost (Auckland) and the Southernmost (Dunedin) cities we visited. I’m using latitude because that helps define a feel for the length of days and nights, seasons, etc:
- New Zealand is roughly the population of Colorado1
- Its area geographically is very similar in size to Colorado2
- Auckland is located at 36.8509°S, which is about as far from the equator as the southern edge of Colorado3
- Dunedin is located at 45.8795°S, which is about as far from the equator as Portland, OR4

Throughout the trip’s downtime, I often read the Timeline of New Zealand History for a…





























































