to choose from but here goes.....
1. Abel Tasman National Park - I may say this more than once on this
top 10 but the scenery here is some of the most beautiful in NZ.
Picture perfect bays (Bark Bay sticks in my mind) with white sand,
glorious clear and warm sea and wild bush tracks to tramp along to
discover them. Not just straight beaches either - the uneven nature of
the coastline in NZ makes it something special. It was also not too
busy - a wonderful feature of NZ, which has beautiful beaches to spare
so you can easily find an empty or almost empty one. We did a half day
sea kayaking and walking trip with some swimming thrown in. Weather
was beautiful and it was a great experience.
2. Milford Sound - more beautiful scenery. This time an enormous fiord
(not a Sound) which is a valley carved out by a glacier which has
subsequently been filled by the (Tasman) sea. The scenery is similar
to Halong Bay (and very nearly as beautiful) but is further back in
the erosion race.
We did an overnight cruise which involved a lot of sightseeing
(including seals and the rare yellow-eyed penguins), some rough sea
kayaking and an enormous buffet dinner (20 desserts!)
It can get pretty choppy out there so bring a jumper, a hip flask and
your sea-legs! Totally worth it though.
3. Small towns - so many places visited, so few spots in the top 10!
So, this one is a bundle of cute little towns we visited across the
island.
- Arrowtown - picture perfect beautifully preserved gold rush town.
Pristine weatherboard buildings which house shops, bars, restuarants
and even a little boutique cinema. A great day out.
- Oamaru - a small town with an historic quarter with beautifully
preserved Victorian limestone buildings. A step back in time and also
a great day trip place.
- Wanaka - some people chose to stay here instead of Queenstown and
you can see why. It lacks the buzz and nightlife of Queenstown
(although it is not devoid of it) but it has a lot of small town chic,
a beautiful lake (although so does Q'town!) and is home to the
excellent Puzzling World, which is a museum basically dedicated to
optical illusions. Sounds lame but some of the exhibits are really
impressive and totally mess with your head!
- Nelson - apparently this is the town that most New Zealanders want
to live in. Doesn't have much in the way of sights but has a cool new
age vibe which made it worth an overnight stay. Good weekend market,
shops and curry too!
4. Glaciers - the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers were enormous and very
impressive despite the driving rain! The little town of Franz Josef is
a very hospitable place to stay the night and the hot pools in the
town are great (sitting in an outdoor pool at a temperature of 40
degrees while rain falls on your head is pretty special).
5. Historic pubs - NZ is full of tiny towns with fantastic historical
(19th C) weatherboard pubs. My personal favourites were The Blackball
Hilton and the Cardrona Hotel. The BH has interesting socialist
history attached and a lot of associated knick knacks and the Cardrona
is a picture postcard perfect building in a beautiful location. They
both do accommodation too, if you fancy a night somewhere off the
beaten track. Glenorchy outside Queenstown is another sleepy place
with some nice watering holes and a stunning lake.
There are also some decent breweries which double up as pubs on the S
Island including Founder's (organic) in Nelson, Montheith's in
Greymouth (best brewery tour) and Speight's in Dunedin.
6. Lake District - the area surrounding Queenstown contains lots of
enormous blue lakes surrounded by stunning mountainous countryside
which put the English Lake District to shame. The proximity of
Queenstown to the Wakaitapu lake is one of the things which make it
such a pleasant place to be (you can also do a pleasant enough cruise
on it in an old steam boat).They are all warm enough to swim in too so
it is advisable to carry your swimming costume on you on all times!
Make sure you stop off on the road around here to take in the views.
7. Swimming with dolphins - a fantastic opportunity to swim with the
world's smallest wild (they are a protected species) dolphins (Hector)
in the world's largest sea (Pacific) off the bay at picturesque Akaroa
(which should really feature in 3 above). That is if you can find
them! Having donned a wetsuit and snorkel you head out of the harbour
into the open sea and try to spot dolphins who are willing to stay
around long enough for you to swim with them. We did pretty well
actually - probably saw about 20 in total and had our chance to take a
dip (in the very choppy waters - we had a couple of seasickness
sufferers on the boat!) with some. At one point I had 4 dolphins swim
right up to and past me. It was an absolutely amazing experience and
totally recommended as long as you have decent sea legs! If you do go
to Akaroa to do this, don't forget to take in the view of the town and
valley from the Hilltop Cafe on the way.
8. Scenic drives - the driving in NZ is brilliant (once you get used
to the roadkill which is *everywhere*). As you can imagine in a
country the size of the UK but with only 4mil people the roads are
pretty clear and most of the time you will find yourself driving past
sea, lakes or mountains - very little flat stuff in NZ! There are also
a lot of interesting little stop offs. The Pancake Rocks and the
Moeraki boulders are both worth stopping for and are the kind of
beautiful geography/geology in action which NZ does so well.
9. Whitewater rafting - there are so many adventure activities to pick
from in Queenstown but this being one of the few that doesn't involve
heights and does involve water it appealed to me. It started off with
a terrifying minibus ride along a gravel road (really only suitable
for a 4WD) carved out of a cliff face overlooking a Lord of the Rings
style gorge which was probably more scary than the rafting itself! The
rafting was great fun - we got to do some level 4 rapids (level 6 is
deemed to be unnavigable) but with plenty of calmer bits in between
which was a good chance for us beginners to catch our breath. We only
managed to capsize/beach our boat once with Paul coming off the worst
as he has already explained! I would love to do it again - solo
kayaking with a few more rapids. Awesome!!
10. Twenty20 cricket - we took in a stunning Twenty20 match between NZ
and Oz at Lancaster Park in Christchurch. The weather was beautiful,
the drinks flowing and the NZ batting (McCullum) and bowling (Southee)
on form but it still took a thrilling super over finish to defeat the
previously undefeated Oz side. You can imagine the cheers!
There are a few other things (as usual) I haven't managed to crowbar
into my Top 10 but are worth a mention:
Wine - the Marlborough Savs are great as are the Otago Pinot Grises
(not sure on the plural of Gris!). Wasn't so sure about the Pinot
Noirs but maybe that's just me. Did a fun half day tour of some
vineyards from our base in Picton, Marlborough and went to a great
Wine Tasting Concept Store in Queenstown. It is similar to the concept
at the Kensington Wine Rooms and works through the use of a smart card
which you put into what is basically a fancy wine fridge, pick your
wine and measure size and it will pour you a glass. You won't stay
rich or sober for long though!
Dunedin Public Art Gallery - you won't often see me mention a NZ
museum on here (apart from the previously mentioned Te Papa) but the
DPAG is beautifully laid out for art viewing and had a couple of great
contemporary art exhibitions on already mentioned by Paul.
Frisbee golf - an infuriatingly difficult game which is taken very
seriously in Queenstown and in the NZFGA (work it out!) The pretty
Q'town gardens have the first purpose built course in the world and it
is worth a go, although it took us forever to get round and we were
substantially over par!
Fergburger - a Q'town institution and rightly so. Excellent and
enormous burgers with a great selection of fillings. The queues will
be out of the door and you will have to wait but it is worth it.
Cadbury World (Dunedin) - much as you would expect; a decent tour of
the working factory and LOTS of free chocolate :-p
Finally, a big thank you to Matthew & Olivia for being such great
hosts in Christchurch (which should also get a mention for the
excellent bar scene around Sol Sq and Lichfield Lanes and the fabulous
Art Centre - see Paul's blog for details!) The perfect way to finish
our time in NZ. Sweet as!
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