very lush environment, again reminds me of some Central American places.
and pretty cool tunnel too.

an aside, as a Kiwi, what is your take (in general) on the view that Kiwi drivers are fast and aggressive? The Kiwis that I know here are super lovely people, but very much in the "gotta get there, foot down" sort of drivers. When we've talked about this, they figure that as people often have to drive a lot, and there aren't a ton of roads, folks have the tendency to very much "just get on with it" and hammer along, and this and perhaps narrow roads, can make for dodgy riding places for cycling tourists--in other words, one must choose routes carefully as a cyclist.

your thoughts?