If you’re thinking about having a gap year in New Zealand, you may want to stop and consider a few things before you make any rash decisions.
Skydiving, eating delicious burgers, soaking up views of sheer beauty, meeting nice people, visiting movie sets can have serious effects on your wellbeing. EXTREMELY serious.
So here are a few reasons why you might want to reconsider New Zealand for your gap year.
1. Your Life Back Home Will Seem A Little Bit Boring
New Zealand is the adrenaline capital of the world. You will throw yourself out of planes, jump off bridges and sail down white water rapids… you will no longer get the same level of excitement from watching ‘Bake Off’ and feeding your cat as you once did. Nobody wants that.
2. Burgers Will Never Be The Same Again
You’ll go out for dinner, order a burger and just sit there and cry because the burger will not taste as mouth-wateringly delicious as the Fergburger you ate in Queenstown. No one likes a cry-baby.
3. Your Eyes Will Hurt When You Look Outside
Every time you look around New Zealand your eyes will physically hurt from the sheer beauty of this spectacular country. So you might as well spend your life in a small, black, box to save yourself the pain.
4. You’ll Start To Talk To People You Don’t Know
Kiwis are the friendliest bunch you’ll ever meet. You’ll notice that when you walk down the street, people will actually smile at you and say hello (Kia Ora!). This may have a knock on effect when you go home, you’ll start talking to people you don’t know. Acting friendly and polite is NOT normal behaviour especially in London, on the tube, in the morning.
5. You’ll Get Confused At The Sight Of A Bus
There is a bright green bus called the Kiwi Experience that road trips around New Zealand, it’s full of backpackers and really fun people. It travels the whole length of the country and most people jump on and off it when they like. But this is not a normal colour for a bus. So you’ll probably get confused when you see a red bus and start to have a breakdown.
6. You’ll Think You’re A Hobbit From The Lord Of The Rings
The movie The Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand and parts of the set are open to visitors. For example you can stroll around the ‘Shire in Hobbiton’ (near Rotorua) and drink hobbit cider at the Green Dragon pub. However, you’ll most likely get carried away and start thinking you’re a little hobbit with the quest of Middle Earth on your shoulders and forget you’re actually on your gap year.
7. You Won’t Be The Same Person Ever Again
Once you visit New Zealand you will never be the same person again. You will have made loads of mates and experienced things you never dreamed of doing. You will no longer look at the world in the same way as you’ve now seen that little bit more of it. Remember it’s important to stay the same forever. Never change, never grow, never learn, never explore and never EVER push yourself.
Okay we lied. New Zealand is awesome and the only want to find out for yourself is to plan a trip. From adventure tours, jobs to volunteering, there are a lot of options for travel to New Zealand, research your trip today.