We’ve been on the South Island for over 3 weeks now and to
quote U2, we still haven’t found what we’re looking for. Unfortunately, what we’ve
been looking for is what we had 13 years ago—easy, quaint, and friendly travel
in this beautiful country—and that might be disappearing. What we’ve gotten
instead has been a Groundhog Day-like
daily non-verbal scrum between us and stern, young adult—mostly—German tourists.
My favorite books as a kid were the Lord of the Rings books (though that’s NOT why I came to NZ) and on
our first trip here, we had a Shire-like experience akin to the beginning of
the Fellowship of the Ring, filled
with cheerful locals and merriment. This trip feels more like the Scouring of the
Shire, one of the last chapters of Return
of the King. It’s the one where Frodo
and gang return home, but the Shire has been horribly wrecked by war. The wrecking here might be more figurative
instead of literal—the nature is still incredible, though they have had significant
flooding(!)—but nobody seems to be enjoying the beauty, here in person. Maybe
it’s the curse of social media and the people getting their dopamine hits from ‘likes’
on social media rather than just being in the the moment? What we’re experiencing here is probably
related to the over-tourism that Dubrovnik, Barcelona, Venice, and the like are
all suffering under and wrestling with. So many places have sold their souls for
tourist money and, if successful, that almost inevitably leads to: 1) grumpy
locals who resent visitors and 2) tourists who compete like in a race, to get
to a nature site first or nab the campground sink before someone else, rather
than enjoying the place.
I wonder what most of these other travelers will say about
their experiences here? Based on our travel research before coming here, it
seems like this unpleasant side of travel is an untold story. All this to say
that I wish we’d known how drastically things had changed. I hope for the South
Islanders’ sakes that some solutions get figured out to make their daily lives
better.
Sam has said that our Big Trip is sort of like a real-life romantic
comedy…We fell in love with Greece, but there’s a conflict (i.e., we have to
leave after 3 months because of tourist visa limitations) so we decide to date
other countries for a while. Then we realize that the other countries we
thought might be sexy are just using us for personal gain. Needless to say, we’re
hoping for a wedding scene in Greece next spring when we intend to go back.
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| Picnic anyone? Flooding at Manapouri |
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| A fairly typical packed free campground, everyone bunched together |
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| Tourists take pictures of a kea under the van on the left |