Leaving New Zealand

What a lovely country New Zealand is! The flowers, trees, and animals were enthralling, yet there is so much more to like. The people are nice, and they have a sense of responsibility that I wish we had more of in the States. The public toilets were all clean - even the old ones - and we saw zero vandalism. We saw very little litter - I did see one beer bottle, but even in the cities, there was none. The emphasis on restoring land back to the original landsape - at least in places - receives broad support. Although there may be some homelessness, we only saw one man. We felt very safe walking around the city as we did not see any vagrants, though again, they probably exist, but the government has ways to helping those people. Drivers are pretty sane, and there is very little horn honking, except for when tourists accidentally cross the street when they shouldn't (guilty) or a driver driving on the wrong side. We are sad we did not get to the north island, but that's ok . . . we just may have to come back!