The New Zealand Site

Whirinaki Forest in the central North Island is a place of crystal-clear water, blue ducks and soaring forests of ancient podocarps and beech. The forest park offers over 100 kilometres of tramping tracks that range from broad, almost flat trails through towering podocarp forest to rugged climbs over remote ranges clad in beech forest [...]

Rotorua is the top tourist destination in the central North Island. Most don’t go there for the smell, (although I quite like it), so it must be the spectacular scenery and the mineral-rich hot waters that draw people in. These have been created by volcanism that still burns deep beneath the city. There’s also an [...]

Rangitoto Island at the entrance to the Waitemata Harbour, Auckland (Waitemata means ’sparkling waters’ in Maori). This picture was taken on a kayaking trip from Okahu Bay, Auckland to Rangitoto Island.

Nelson Lakes National Park is in the South Island at the northern end of the Southern Alps, about 80km south of Nelson, and about one and a half hours by car from Nelson or Blenheim, or 5 hours from Christchurch. It’s an area of stunning glacier-carved natural beauty and offers great tramping.

Mt Tongariro is the most northern of the group of three active volcanoes that form the Tongariro National Park - our country’s first national park, gifted to us by a far-sighted Maori chief.

Mt Taranaki is a volcanic cone of such snow-capped, near-perfect symmetry that it is often compared to Mt Fujiyama in Japan. Its summit is the centre of Egmont National Park, which offers unforgettable tramping, climbing and skiing experiences.

Mt Ruapehu is an active volcano in Tongariro National Park, just south of Lake Taupo in the centre of the North Island. It’s ringed by forest, tussock lands, desert and glaciers, and in the winter its snowfields and peaks are used by thousands of skiers and climbers. Usually it’s a sleeping giant, but occasionally it [...]

The Marlborough Sounds area, which lies at the north-east tip of the South Island, is an intricate maze of drowned river valleys with 1,400 kilometres of coastline and waterways. It has dozens of reserves (both on land and at sea) and a wealth of opportunities for kayaking, boating, fishing, diving and tramping.

In the remote ranges of Te Urewera National Park is Lake Waikaremoana - a place of clear water, isolated beaches and untouched forest.

Kaikoura, on the east coast of the South Island, is one of the best places in New Zealand to eat seafood, and certainly the best place to see whales.