New Zealand Bests

Anyone who has spent a New Year's Eve with us knows that we love our "Year in Review" tradition, which involves coming up with all kinds of "best of" categories for the year & then thinking back on all the best moments and events of the year. So we feel that it's only appropriate to throw out a few New Zealand "bests" (some more obscure than others):

Best Holiday Park: Aspiring Holiday Park, Wanaka. Nice people, excellent view, and not crowded with monster-size tent compounds.

Best Motel/Hotel: Heritage Hotel, Queenstown. Views of the lake, giant room...and best of all, an in-room washer/dryer!

Best Beach: A deserted beach on Otago Peninsula, complete with lazy sea lions.

Best Meal: A tie between the Boat Shed in Nelson (excellent seafood) and a random Indian place in Dunedin that we stumbled upon.

Best Public Toilet (here's the obscure one): A fully-automated bathroom in Franz Joseph that speaks in soothing tones ("the door is now locked. You have ten minutes until the door will automatically reopen,") and pipes in the song What the World Needs Now (Is Love Sweet Love) while the occupant goes about his/her business. Best thing we did for under a dollar.

Best Ever Campervan: No contest in this category. We drove him into curbs and bottomed him out on windy dirt roads, but Ernest never gave up on us. While others might have snickered about the bright orange bus, we were proud of our spaceship.