New Zealand beyond any travel books

If I was a child visiting New Zealand and would draw a picture of my trip I will paint green rolling hills dotted here and there with white and brown spots, a crystal turquoise river, a rainbow in the blue ski crossed by a falcon and iced peaks on the background, that’s pretty much the amazing Kiwi’s land.

We soon found out that New Zealand is in fact all about great landscapes. This time we didn’t equip ourselves with the usual Lonely Planet. It wasn’t that complicated to drive around the empty spaces especially in the south island. Even when we got “lost” the panorama was so great that we would it considered only a detour to another pretty place and, even in the worst scenario, we couldn’t get much far away from the classic itineraries as there are barely few alternative roads or any road at all!



So, our travel guru? Armed with the holiday parks campground directory 09, the conservation campsites booklet and some route planner’s maps for both the South and North Islands (all for free) we went off discovering first the South Island on a 4500km roadtrip through immense flat landscape, curvy coastline, steep and twisty mountain roads.

Untouched nature reigned supreme along our journey: the green Canterbury plains, through the Mackenzie country with its imposing Mount Cook, going back to the gold mining age in Central Otago, passing by tranquil lakes like the much photographed Lake Tekapo, rushing rivers, tiny peaceful seaside villages and rugged coastline along the Catlins Coast, followed by dramatic landscapes of water and ice from the Fiordland to the blue-white glaciers up to pristine golden beaches, crystal clear sea and luxuriance subtropical rainforests in the Nelson region all this without leaving the Island, can you believe it? Not to mention our many thrilling wildlife encounters from the Kea in the fiords, lively and curious weka that stole our bbq chicken at the Abel Tasman National Park , sleepy seals lying on the rocks along the Otago cost, funny blue penguins’colony in Omaru, pukeko birds, falcons and many more birds speciees to huge stingray and sea stars living carpets.



We did occasionally crossed along some civilizations: the bustling city of Christchurch, the university town of Dunedin, also known as the best preserved Victorian and Edwardian heritage city, the vibrant city of Nelson within the premier wine producing region of Marlborough, the pretty lake city of Queenstown but what’s all the fuss about it? It’s definitely more about great bars and crazy activities but our style was more laidback...will like to say something more about the myth of an immense romantic drive so we didn’t hang around there for long.



And who said that Autumn (April-May) is a bad time to visit NZ?

Beautiful clear days, calm sea, dust of snow on the peaks but still sunny day, the magical colours of the autumn and, the best of all, it was all to ourselves, none around, and the big cold yet to strike. Well, the weather still managed to ruin some of our plans: the great Kepler tracks (maybe cause we were not prepare for it, not at all), kayaking through the Abel Tasman National Park due to a 4 days storm and the walk to the Fox Glacier tongue due to an avalanche few days before..phew better that way and still can not complain it has been a fantastic time!

That’s was pretty much our south island trip, an endless detouring through picturesque uncrowned roads.