Once arriving in New Zealand I was impressed with the number of local businesses that run this country’s economy. Thus far, we have spent most of our time in New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland. Auckland is fully of a diverse population and city life that can be walkable, but most often (and preferably) driven due to the never ending changes in elevation. Auckland had many large corporations that’s we see in the US like PwC, Deloitte, etc. however the streets are lined with storefront after storefront of small (and large) businesses, primarily in the food industry. Auckland is most certainly the most attractive location for tourists from Asia as it is geographically closer than any other major city, especially around the time of New Years Eve. Auckland has the sky tower that shoots fireworks off the top of it. It certainly was an attractive tourist site because you can go just about anywhere in the city and see the fireworks. Every street in view of the Sky Tower was filled shoulder to shoulder with people.
One very interesting thing about New Zealand business practices is the seriousness about holidays. Many New Zealand countries take around a 3 week holiday from before Christmas to around January 15th. I found this fascinating as this is not common practice in the US. Even small, local businesses were taking 3 week breaks from their storefront. While not all of them were like this, I was surprised that this is a popular tourist time since it is their summer and they still choose to have their storefront closed. This would never happen in America as the working culture is much more power and money focused. It’s much more common to live to work in the US rather than work to live in New Zealand.
Ultimately, New Zealand has a diverse culture of people all around the world. The native Māori people are sacred to this country and build the culture every day. They care deeply about their people and the environment around them. While similar in some ways to the US, they are equally different in their priorities of the environment and balance. I’m excited to see what the rest of the trip brings as we visit more cities.