Even before the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit films put New Zealand on almost everyone's "must see" list, we have wanted to go there. Have a look at an actual globe – not just a flat map – and see where New Zealand is located: southernmost point in the Polynesian triangle, the South Pacific, the southern hemisphere. Way down under. It has an irresistible allure. And its remoteness has obviously impacted its flora, fauna and its people, both those of European and Maori descent. Although you can be reminded of other places in the world – the coast of Bretagne or California, England or Scotland's hilly countryside populated mostly with sheep, the Cascades or Rockies in the US, rain forests of the tropics – New Zealand is unique.
Naturally, New Zealand capitalizes on this uniqueness in a big way: the tourist trade is Big Business. Tourism contributed $15.0 billion to New Zealand’s total GDP and supported 9.6 percent of the total workforce in 2010. [Wikipedia] For a price, there are lots of activities to choose from: paragliding, zip-lining, river rafting, spelunking, abseiling, long-distance alpine hiking, flying and of course bungy jumping – just to name a few.
This blog is written from the point of view of the "mature couple", aged 64. We are fit, we think, and reasonably active. We have never been interested in extreme sports, so that is not what attracted us. Traveling to New Zealand is such a big investment, it is obviously important to figure out exactly what you expect and what type of activities you want to do – rather than just being swayed by the powerful tourist guide hype. We did a lot of driving and walking. We visited museums. And, completely unplanned, we did a bit of sea kayaking. Not very exciting some might think; we loved it.
The purpose of this blog is to share information on planning and budgeting, provide travel tips based on our experience and display our itinerary as inspiration. Young backpackers would do the trip differently, for sure. Older backpackers, too. This is primarily for the mature couple who will be taken in by the natural beauty of New Zealand but who do not need to push physical boundaries to prove a point.
Naturally, New Zealand capitalizes on this uniqueness in a big way: the tourist trade is Big Business. Tourism contributed $15.0 billion to New Zealand’s total GDP and supported 9.6 percent of the total workforce in 2010. [Wikipedia] For a price, there are lots of activities to choose from: paragliding, zip-lining, river rafting, spelunking, abseiling, long-distance alpine hiking, flying and of course bungy jumping – just to name a few.
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| Watching paragliders, Otago Peninsula |
This blog is written from the point of view of the "mature couple", aged 64. We are fit, we think, and reasonably active. We have never been interested in extreme sports, so that is not what attracted us. Traveling to New Zealand is such a big investment, it is obviously important to figure out exactly what you expect and what type of activities you want to do – rather than just being swayed by the powerful tourist guide hype. We did a lot of driving and walking. We visited museums. And, completely unplanned, we did a bit of sea kayaking. Not very exciting some might think; we loved it.
The purpose of this blog is to share information on planning and budgeting, provide travel tips based on our experience and display our itinerary as inspiration. Young backpackers would do the trip differently, for sure. Older backpackers, too. This is primarily for the mature couple who will be taken in by the natural beauty of New Zealand but who do not need to push physical boundaries to prove a point.
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| Castle Hill, Canterbury |
When to go?
We wanted to go in the summer - that is, New Zealand summer. We were cautioned against going in January since that is the school holiday so there are lot of holiday-makers on the road. We decided to go early February instead and return mid-March to make the transition less difficult – spring would just be arriving in Denmark. Going from summer to spring then summer again is fantastic – that is, if you're not into winter sports. For those who are, NZ has a lot to offer, too.
We started out on the South Island and the temperatures tended to be 18-22 Celsius. So from a Danish perspective, very warm! And it was even warmer on the North Island, sometimes up to 30 Celsius. The only place we experienced humidity was Nelson.
We had a few days of heavy rain, which is – we were told apologetically by several of the locals – very unusual. Certainly the amount of rainfall was unusual – the equivalent of one month is just two days! Some rain is inevitable – just difficult to deal with when are in, say, Queenstown and cannot see the gorgeous mountains which you know are right by the gorgeous alpine lake but which are covered in rain and clouds. And there is not much to do when it is pouring. But just a few days of rain out of the 37 days we were there, is an excellent record!
What we missed, though, was the pohutukawa tree in bloom. These huge, absolutely amazing trees are covered in red flowers in December. There are lots of them in Eastland (but not exclusively there), and it would be fabulous to seem them in bloom. We did see a few "strays", which gave us an idea of how overwhelming several would be!
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| Lake Pukaki, by Aoraki/Mt Cook |
NB: We booked our flights 6 weeks in advance, and it was almost too late. Good news is we managed to get economy tickets; we could have gotten them cheaper but ran into the Chinese New Year's and tickets were scarce ...
Tongariro, North Island
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