Good country, exhausting tourist industry

New Zealand is a genuinely beautiful and interesting place. Tongariro Alpine Crossing is worth every superlative thrown at it. The manuka honey is legitimately excellent. very safe and easy to travel gave the trip real depth.

What I struggled with: the tourist infrastructure around the headline sites in Auckland is relentlessly commercial and very expensive is a genuine friction point. You can feel the gap between authentic New Zealand and the packaged version sold to tourists. The authentic version wins, but you have to work to find it.