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Friday Flashback – Everything Is World Famous in New Zealand

Posted by on June 11, 2010 .

Feburary, 2009: We spent just over 60 hours in total on buses for 3 months in New Zealand.

Spending so many hours on buses probably sounds horrific to you, but thanks to the bus drivers it was honestly enjoyable – the bus rides with these New Zealand bus drivers felt more like long guide tours with travel guides who loved hearing the sound of their own voice than simply drive from pointA to pointB.

Every bus driver we traveled with had so many stories lined up for the whole ride, that they just simply wouldn’t shut up. Not that we wanted them to, they would tell both funny and interesting history of the land scape that was passing by the windows as we toured around the South Island.

(by the way – the bus company we used was Intercity – we had a awesome deal – flexipass – where you could get off and on as much as you wanted within 60hrs of bus travel – took us 2.5 months to use it all up)

It just amazed me how someone can talk uninterruptedly for five+ hours straight without caring whether anyone listened or caring whether people wanted to hear him. These men just talked and talked and talked, and without having to say a word they shared their own biography along with the history of New Zealand.

Our brains overwhelmed with so much information it was hard to remember it all, but one thing we got straight:

New Zealand must have the most ‘world famous things’ in the world..!

Every single village, including those so small you had passed it before the bus driver had even finished mentioning it, was world famous for something: World famous for the biggest loaf of bread, world famous for the biggest cookie, world biggest L&P bottle (as if L&P was sold anywhere else?), you name it…

It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if someone one day said that New Zealand was world famous for having the most world famous things…

However, I’m not sure where they came up with saying everything is world famous, maybe the well known L&P slogan *World Famous in New Zealand Since Ages Ago…* says it all!

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  • http://www.vagabondquest.com/ Dina VagabondQuest

    Hahaha, that L&P bottle is the world largest indeed, I bet! Delicious drink. These are my world famous encounters in NZ: Gumboot capital of the world (Taihape, in North Island), world biggest carrot (Ohakune, near Ruapehu Mount), green shelled mussel capital of the world (Havelock, Marlborough Sound). Did you see these ones too?

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  • http://www.baconismagic.ca Ayngelina

    I used the Magic Bus which also had a hop on hop off system and loved how the bus drivers would stop in the middle of nowhere to show us some cool thing and allow us to take photos. They were things we would have otherwise not even noticed.

  • backpackingmatt

    The World's Biggest Kiwi, Carrot, and more!

    Interesting the bus drivers essentially act as tour guides as well. Would make that 60 hours much more enjoyable … so long as you had an iPod to drown out the noise when you were ready to escape!

    Flexipass is probably good. I've not been on a bus in NZ yet, however a couple I worked with combined a Flex Pass with Intercity with a pass from Naked Bus. Worked out well for them too.

  • Sofia_AsWeTravel

    Haha no I don't think I saw any of them actually! We also saw a lot of this in Australia, they had sort of made a whole thing about making a huge statue of whatever the town was famous for, like a huge ugly shrimp or banana. Not as fun as making the real things like actually making the biggest carrot like in NZ… ;) !

  • Sofia_AsWeTravel

    yeah exactly! Often it's better going with a guide and like you say you actually see more than going alone. I love going with guides when they're fun and spontaneous!

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