The Transcript

Karthika: Welcome, Megan. Thank you very much for joining me culturally. I cannot tell you how excited I am to have you on the podcast and chat with you as well as get to know you a little bit better and get to know your part of the world a little bit better as well.

Megan: Thank you. I’m equally excited to be here and to share a little bit of New Zealand with you all.

Karthika: Before we begin, could you tell us a little bit about who you are, where you’re from, just to help set the stage for this conversation?

Megan: Sure. I’m Megan Lawrence. I’m based here in Auckland, New Zealand, which is in the North Island of New Zealand. I have two grown kids who both live at home, I haven’t quite reached the empty nester’s state, but I have the freedom of being able to travel without worrying, without taking the kids with me. I have experienced life overseas and I like to travel a lot, but I’ve al lived in the States, Canada and Japan, New Zealand.

Karthika: Are you New Zealand born and raised?

Megan: Yes.

Karthika: Okay. Now, talk to me a little bit about Auckland. We were chatting before this before we started recording, I visited Auckland New Zealand and Auckland about 20 years ago. I’m sure a lot has changed but talk to me a little bit about your hometown and what it is like there.

Megan: All in all, I think it is a pretty special city in the world. we call it here the city of sails. And I think that kind of sets the scene for what the city is. I think actually we have the highest ratio of your ownership per capita in the world. And the reason for that is we sit on an incredible habitat, with beautiful islands dotted all around, but as well as the island, we al have a huge variety of different landscapes.  obviously, we have a city, it’s not huge as world cities go, but it does have over a million people in it. it’s not tiny, but within a 30-minute drive, you can be out into the wild West coast beaches with black sand, you could be sitting on a white sand, East coast beach. You could be doing Bush walks, rivers, et cetera. There’s something for everyone here. And I think what really sets Auckland apart, as well as the rest of New Zealand is the people. We’re known for, down and around the world for being friendly and really down to earth. Lastly, no city is any good without great food and great coffee and Auckland differently top both of those as well.

Karthika: That’s awesome. And I know we’re going to get into food and all that stuff a little bit later but talk to me a little bit about the pandemic and I know New Zealand did a fantastic job all around with closing everything. But I would love to hear your perspective on how the whole process went, how things are now and how has it been since the reopen. What does that look like?

Megan: Sure. I think New Zealand has done things a little differently as far as COVID is concerned. at the very beginning, when cases were first discovered here. At the end of March, we shut our borders completely.  We were well when I say completely, completely closed to international tourists. The only people that were allowed to come back to New Zealand were Kiwis returning home. And we went into a four-stage response to the pandemic with four levels of restrictions with level one being the least and level four being the most. We went straight into level four, which I think was one of the most restrictive lockdowns around the world. In level four, we were only allowed to travel out to exercise in our local area. It was recommended that it was only on foot and you were allowed to travel to your supermarket and to a pharmacy for a medical emergency. You were essentially home bound, and we wanted to maintain our own bubble. Our bubble was the people that were living in our home and that was not to change over the lockdown period. It was pretty restrictive here in Auckland, it, I think, was made so much better because we had unseasonably beautiful weather over there at first locked down period. We all, actually, didn’t mind staying home because the sun was shining. It was beautiful and warm. And there were actually many positive benefits about the lockdown. Everything went quiet, like going for walks. And the whole area was quiet. There was no car noise, all you heard was the bird and everyone was making the most of this beautiful weather. You just saw people out walking and exercising everywhere that you didn’t normally get to see. Obviously, there’s huge ramifications to the pandemic, but it was really nice to see something positive come out of it. And for me, having such a restrictive lockdown had benefit from it.

Karthika: Right. And, I’ve kind of read this and I’m sure you guys have as well, many places around the world, especially like March-April timeframe, because it’s suddenly there were, there was no traffic, foot traffic or air travel. Things started rebounding quickly. And it was quite fascinating to watch, like birds coming back and me of the animals and plants getting rejuvenated at a much faster rate. You’re right. There probably was something beneficial, from a natural perspective, right. From this whole situation.

Megan: Yes, absolutely.

Karthika: Now, you talked a little bit about Auckland and, being a city of sails and just the North Island. I know New Zealand is such a beautiful country and a lot of people want to travel there and want to explore from your perspective, from a local’s perspective. What do you think makes it special for everyone?

Megan: I think there’s several things that make it special for me. As an international traveler, what I can say is different about New Zealand, well. First and foremost is, always the people. I have come across other cultures where there are people that are very friendly, but what I love about New Zealand is that when you’re out for a walk or you’re out riding, people will wave and say hello, and that’s standard practice. And other countries, when I’ve gone for hikes and things, as a Kiwi, I will always say hello to people. And it’s just, it’s crazy how many people will not respond, or when you’re out on a hike who just will look away because they don’t want my contact with you. To me, that’s a little bit bizarre, but I think the other thing is New Zealand has got an incredible range of landscapes that are all that are al diverse, but accessible, easy to get to. Nothing’s too far away we are a little country, you’re never far from a beautiful beach or mountains or rivers. Everything is there. Everything is accessible and it’s not overcrowded.

Karthika: Now that’s awesome. Megan, and travel has changed much these past few months. Do you see that impacting your area? I mean Auckland is such a big tourist hub as well. Right. Do you see that impacting where you are?

Megan: Absolutely. Auckland does receive a huge number of international tourists. It is the gateway to New Zealand. With borders closed, obviously there are no international tourists coming in here at the moment. Things are quieter but the great thing that I’ve seen is because we only have domestic tourism and because our tourism industry is important to the Kiwis and making a real effort to see their own country. Whereas people would have perhaps naturally gone overseas. Now they’re making plans to go and see things that they haven’t seen before or to revisit them because it’s been awhile. The good thing without the international tourists are a lot quieter. You haven’t got the crowds that you may normally encounter at me of those places. Things have definitely changed and its Kiwi’s out supporting Kiwis.

Karthika: Right, right. That actually leads me quite nicely into my next question. Since I’m assuming, you’re all doing a lot of local exploring, if I, or embody else out there would like to plan a trip to New Zealand to Auckland or like the whole country in general, where would you kind of take us? I mean, can you give me a rough itinerary on where to go, what to see, what to do?

Megan: Okay. Well, New Zealand, I need a lot longer than I’ve got, But even in Auckland there is much to see, but in Auckland there are many incredible sites, but if I just had a day to spend with you and Auckland, for me, one of the great things that I look for when I go anywhere is, I want to go, I want to find out the unique things about a destination. An Auckland, I think one of the unique things about the city are the black sand beaches. A lot of people haven’t seen a black sand beach before I would take you out to the West coast. We’d go and walk on me of these beaches that have been made famous and movies like the piano and other ones around the world and see the gannets with their big colonies. We’d eat at a cafe and be surrounded by Bush with incredible views. And we’d be serenaded by the beautiful native birds of New Zealand. Once we’d enjoyed that, we’d hit back into town and we’d jump on a ferry across to Wahiki Island.  Why Wahiki Island? It was one of my favorite places in all of Auckland and I will go there at any given opportunity. It’s only a 40-minute ferry ride from downtown Auckland and you’re transported to a little microclimate. It used to be where hippies went and was a very eccentric little Island. It’s now become a very upmarket Island. You have a very interesting mix of the hippies and the extremely wealthy that because it is this microclimate that is the perfect place to grow grapes. There’s an amazing range of vineyards and wineries with of course, beautiful eateries and being an Island. It has no shortage of stunning beaches, right? you can be on a beach all by yourself. It’s got that total country feel there, there are roads, but they are country roads. I would jump on electric bikes and go exploring, because that way you get to see a lot of the islands, but you’re not doing it at a huge, fast pace. You’re not missing things as you.

Karthika: Right. I know. Ideal day in Auckland. That sounds fantastic. And just talking about electric bikes, I know here, we have a few places in the States where it’s like completely shut down for cars and motor vehicles and you have to just use bikes or your feet. And it’s such a wonderful way to explore. They’re not super big places obviously, but you just take things at such a slow pace. You notice that the buds, you notice the trees changing color, and it’s just a fantastic way of exploring. I think.

Megan: I think electric bikes are just, I think they’re amazing to be able to go a little bit faster than walking.

Karthika: Yeah.

Megan: And on a bike, you have that a little bit higher as well. You get to see a little bit more. I think they’re a great way to explore it.

Karthika: One of the things that I’m seeing and I’m perhaps you as well, is that a lot of travel now is kind of becoming more grassroots. People are not looking for those heavily touristed areas. They want something more off the beaten path. They want really hyper localized art. I’m going to ask you a series of questions and this can be for Auckland or even elsewhere in New Zealand that you’ve kind of traveled to and visited. I just want to know your kind of perspective and your rt of why. Okay, sure. You mentioned food is pretty popular in Auckland. What is your favorite restaurant and why?

Megan: Okay. Difficult choice, obviously there’s many great restaurants in Auckland, but my favorite would be a restaurant called Madame Wu. I love Asian food. It’s a Malaysian fusion restaurant and they serve the most amazing hookah rolls. I love my food and I’m all what people would say is relatively fussy with what they eat. I don’t like putting things in my mouth unless I know I’m going to like it. Wu has one of those menus that I literally could sit down and want absolutely everything on the menu. And I’ve worked my way through the entire menu just to test that. It’s hard to choose every time I go, because everything on it is delicious.

Karthika: A complete side note, my parents actually lived in Malaysia for 20 years. I had a couple of years of my schooling there. I actually worked there, Malaysian food fusion Cuisine is probably one of my favorites after Indian food. When you said it’s a Malaysian fusion, I was like, oh my God, it’s just something about that cuisine that just gets me every time.

Megan: And then the other thing with it is, is this restaurant it’s actually really decently priced. You want things I don’t mind paying for things, but it’s nice to get really good value.

Karthika: Ok, moving on. What’s your favorite activity to do?

Megan: At the moment? Because obviously things have changed. It’s really important for me to really see as much of Auckland as I can. On the weekend, what we like to do is pick a suburb that we haven’t been to or haven’t seen it other than to drive through it. And we go and sit down and have a nice coffee at a local cafe, and then we wander the local area and just see what is around that area. I’m really seeing much more of Auckland than I would ever have done before. I can thank the pandemic for it.

Karthika: There is something sweet in just wandering around your local neighborhoods and discovering all these little sorts of gems that you perhaps wouldn’t have, right?

Megan: Yes. It’s very easy to get stuck in a rut and just live just locally in your little area. And actually, I’ve had the last two summers I’ve actually spent in Seattle. And because I, because I was there for a limited time, literally just for the summer, each time I made the most of every minute that I had to, I was outside. I spent a lot of time hiking, but I’d al written a huge list of places that I wanted to go, which included where I wanted to eat and things that I wanted to see. And I worked my way through my list and it really showed me the value of making the most of an area. There wasn’t a single local that I came across that had been to any pretty much of the things that I’d been. It was like, it was really surprising. And, and one of the things that got me was that a lot of them had been to key tourist spots as well. It’s not that I was always going to tourist spots, but there are things that Seattle is famous for. And it was surprising how many locals hadn’t even been to those because they thought it was a tourist activity. Well, tourist activities become tourist activities for a reason. It’s crazy to think that people haven’t been to those things. When I came back to Auckland, it made me think about ensuring I was doing the same thing in Auckland as well. Nice and getting out and doing all of the things that Auckland is famous for as well as things that locals only know about.

Karthika: Right. And let’s jump into that a little bit.  are there any sort of outdoor spaces that are considered more like a local’s hangout that you’ve discovered

Megan: This definitely is in Auckland. Auckland is very geographically wide. There are huge areas around, but locally. I live in East Auckland and an area that tourists would probably never hear about as a place called music point. And I love music point because it is on the little peninsula, all of its own. And to drive there, you drive through a beach area and then you drive up through a golf course. This is up on clifftops. You literally drive through the middle of the golf course, and it’s a public golf course, anyone can go and play there. You are on clifftops. You’re surrounded by amazing views that you’re looking across the golf clothes on one side of Auckland city. And on the other side, you’re looking out to Waikiki Island and at the end of the points, there’s a bush walk that goes around the point. It’s called music point because it was an old radio tower. And you can walk down this and there are stairs and very steep stairs that walk down to the fishing area at the base of the cliffs. You can go fishing there and you will always see someone out on the rocks fishing. You look out immediately in front of you and there’s another Island called Brown’s Island, which is very close Then you look across to other islands which is the icon of Auckland and out further into the Gulf of Auckland to a lot of the other islands. It has spectacular views.

Karthika: I can just imagine. I’m imagining me of the places that you’re talking about. I remember some of my trip but don’t remember the names. The views are spectacular for sure and it sounds fantastic.

Megan: It is. It’s incredible. And as I say, it’s something that only locals really know about. It’s, it’s got this amazing Vista and viewpoint and things to see and as a tourist site, I think you’d never hear of it.

Karthika: Now you spoke about electric bikes and Music Point, are there sort of other experiences that somebody visiting may not be thinking about but should. Maybe kayaking or taking a painting class? I don’t know. I’m just kind of thinking out loud. What else could somebody do that is part of a different way of looking at Auckland.

Megan: Sure. One of the things that I would recommend people do is you can take a ferry across to Tiritiri Matangi Island which is another island off Auckland. It is a wildlife sanctuary. The bird life there is incredible. It’s a 75-minute ferry ride from downtown Auckland, and if you’ve got the time and you could all go across on a day where you could volunteer to do something like plant trees. They’re always planting more native trees to help with the bird life. There’s an amazing volunteer program there as well. You can get involved or you can just go across and enjoy the Island.

Karthika: Oh, that sounds fantastic. Loving this little gem, Megan. Thank you.

Megan: And the other great thing with it is the view. It’s a ferry ride. You’re getting to see Auckland city from a different perspective.

Karthika: It’s always fascinating. Here in Chicago, we have the Chicago river and we have like an architectural boat tour and as cliche and as touristy as it is, It’s just such a fantastic way of getting the skyline view. I do it every time. My parents would visit, and friends would too, and we always try to get them to do it because you wouldn’t see the city from that perspective if you’re just on the road. It’s just a different view.

Megan: Yes. Yep. Absolutely.

Karthika: Now I know we’ve talked about Auckland and I do want to get a little bit into the rest of New Zealand as well.  talk to me a little bit about maybe if not now, but in the past, when you’ve kind of explored your own country, me places that just blew your mind, you didn’t expect it to be as amazing or on the flip side, maybe it didn’t quite meet your expectations. Although I I highly doubt it. I haven’t got to tell you that I’m very biased about New Zealand. Tell a little bit about the rest of the country.

Megan: Okay, that’s a big question., for me, the South Island is absolutely one of my favorite destinations. The North and South Island of New Zealand are very diverse, very different landscapes. On the South Island, you have less population, you have much wider open spaces and you have huge mountain ranges everywhere. It’s a very different landscape. Probably one of my most recent trips down there, we went and did the Milford boat trip, which is a very famous tourist trip, for good reason because the Milford Sound is absolutely stunning and I’ve done it a few times, but what I really found was different this time, it was actually a really wet day. It was pouring with rain where we did the trips and the thing was about the Milford und trip is that the drive into Milford und is as much of a destination as the actual Milford boat trip. And I know me people would be disappointed on a rainy day because obviously there’s cloud cover and, and rain, and they’re not going to see the things that Milford und is famous for. But on a rainy day is actually the best way to see it because waterfalls pop up like literally everywhere you are surrounded, this is on the trip on the drive. And as well as actually on the boat, and there are just cascading waterfalls, you’re surrounded as you drive, it’s just incredible. That’s something that you don’t get to see. And I don’t think you could ever see many waterfalls in such a short period of time and I love waterfalls. It completely engages me. The Milford und is one of those destinations that rain or shine you are going to have; you’re going to be surrounded by spectacular scenery.

Karthika: It’s a beautiful place for sure. And I know when we went, it was raining and I remember the waterfalls I have; I think I have pictures too. It was far back where there weren’t digital cameras. It was actually like film cameras. For a change, we actually printed out all these pictures. And I remember pictures with the waterfall because you’re right, it was pouring. And all of these waterfalls would just appear and the boat would ride right out. I guess they pointed to all these waterfalls. And it was just spectacular with the mist coming in, just beautiful.

Megan: It is really beautiful. And then to contrast that, last year, my husband and I rode the Otago Rail trail ride. A few years ago, New Zealand, I might be saying it wrong, someone organized or converted old railway lines into bike trails. And the great thing with a railway line trail is that it’s relatively flat. You don’t have the gradient because the trains don’t travel on a huge gradient. Converting rail trails to bike trails is a great way to, for cyclists who don’t cycle a lot to be able to enjoy these things. And probably the most famous, one of all in New Zealand is called Tregoe rail trail cycle trail, something like that. You can do it in sections, or you can do the entire thing. We chose to do the entire ride and We did it over four days. What is really, you’re seeing an incredible arrangement of landscapes as you’re doing it, but what’s really special is that every night you’re stopping and staying in me tiny, tiny little town, and getting to experience and see what that life in that little town is like. And when I say tiny little town, like you might have a pub and restaurant and a shop, and that’s the total of the town for me of those places. When you’re eating dinner in the pub that night, that’s where all the locals come, and you see a whole different side of life and a different pace of life. You’re on a bike, you get to see a little bit more, but at a good pace. It was really special. And it was the catalyst for us deciding to purchase electric bikes to start knocking off all of the rail trail rides around the country, because they ask for such a unique way to see New Zealand.

Karthika: Oh, absolutely. It sounds fantastic. Four days is not bad. It’s not like two wholes weeks on a bike that me people might not want to spend a bunch of time. Four days are not bad.

Megan: Yep. Exactly. And you can just do a section of it if you haven’t got the time.You can totally customize how it works for you.

Karthika:Awesome. Thank you. That was, that was, I had not heard of this, that’s something I have to kind of put down on my list to do the next time I’m in that part of the woods.

Megan: I’ve got the full story on my blog, you can, you can get all of the details there.

Karthika: Excellent. Now, Megan, this is probably turning tables a little bit to get your perspective, and people have different perspectives, there’s no right or wrong answer for this question. Considering how you’ve been traveling and exploring more local areas and just how the whole travel industry has been shaken up and continues to be shaken up, what do you think is the future of travel going forward? Where do you see it kind of heading?

Megan: That’s a really big question. I think there’ll be two camps with travelers. , there are those who have always traveled who have achieved feet, and we’ll be just waiting for that moment that they can, they can travel again, like they used to. And I think there’ll be jumping on a plane as on as they can, but I think there’ll be another group of people who will be very hesitant about traveling and will think very carefully about where they go and how that trip might look now. If I was in the cruise ship industry, I’d be a little nervous about how that’s going to look, whether people will flock back to that style of travel. Only time will tell, and I know that parts of the world are already reopening, but in New Zealand it doesn’t look like we’re going to be allowed to travel for quite some time. For us down under, we are still very much domestic focused.

Karthika: You’re right. There are always two sides to a coin, right. Like everything else in the world, but it’s interesting because I’ve been kind of paying attention and looking at me news and jumping on webinars where they talk about the travel industry and it’s fascinating to hear people’s opinions because it gets you to think, and that’s why I asked this question because I want to know what people are thinking. I want to know how they see the future,because that might sort of trigger me things in my brain. For me, I know when I travel, I want to look for local experiences. I want to look for me of those experiences that really get me to understand a place and understand the people, it’s no longer a 24-hour journey. It might be a week’s journey because that way I can really get deep into a place. And I know time is not that, not everybody has that time, but it’s interesting to hear those conversations because it just triggers things in your brain as well. And you pause and you think, thank you for your answer. If, and when things open up, what are your travel plans? Where would you like to go next?

Megan: At the moment, we can’t dare to dream about travel because it really isn’t something that we can see ourselves doing for a little while. Coming up next, I have a camper van, or you might call it an RV trip planned around me of New Zealand, South Island. I’m really looking forward to that. And in fact, it’s been postponed. It was actually booked we were supposed to be doing it in August, but we went back into lockdown. We couldn’t, we couldn’t do itthen. It’s been postponed to November. I’m really looking forward to that because although I’ve done it before, it’s just nice to go back. And I have picked a route there’s one little part of the South Island I haven’t seen before.  That’s where we’re going first. And then we’ll carry on to me of my other favorite places. But if I was able to dream about traveling internationally, I was planning on going to Croatia and Portugal next year. They’re still at the top of my list to hit, to win when we can.

Karthika: Yup. We did Portugal in 2019 and that was actually one of my first trips into Europe. It’s again, such a beautiful country. We rented a car. We drove around just for the flexibility and it’s just gorgeous castles. And I mean, ifyou’re into that sort of history, which I am, it was fascinating to just, again, not having an agenda, just kind of pick a place, drive to it, explore the castles. And that kind of culture and history. You love it whenever you get to and that’s what I love about Europe.

Megan: Is it different from New Zealand? We don’t have that kind of history in New Zealand. For Kiwis, traveling to Europe, it’s such a different landscape.

Karthika: For sure. Well, thank you so much, Megan. This was absolutely fantastic. Through the whole interview, I had a smile on my face as I was remembering all those things that we did when we traveled. Thank you again. I really appreciate your time.

Megan: Thank you.