The most British of all New Zealand cities, the heart of Christchurch is Cathedral Square, the center of tourist activity and a must see for all visitors.

Hagley Park is an enormous open space just off the center of the city. It provides a central repository for joggers, picnickers, walkers and those looking for some solitude. The Avon River meanders through the park offering punters the ability to act out scenes from a Jane Austen novel.

We arrived late the previous evening, so we settled into the Quality Hotel on the aforementioned park across the road from the renowned Botanic Gardens. As the morning broke, we set out to look for coffee and to visit the city center before the crowds arrive. Christchurch is a major destination for the Japanese tourist buses and they disembark like Narita Airport at noon. When you arrive at Cathedral Square you get the idea that it caters for foreigners by the swath of Duty Free stores selling everything from stuffed Kiwi toys to Burberry, Chanel and Louis Vuitton.

We arrived New Years eve to the sounds and sights of council workers busy setting up for the evenings festivities. To the southern end of the square rose a concert stage circled by a wagon trail of mobile food trailers: fish and chips, hot dogs, popcorn you name it.

A permanent fixture in the square is Escarto Espresso Coffee. We quickly ordered soy latte and a flat white (For those who don’t know a flat white refers to a drink drawn over a single shot. The milk is taken from the bottom of the jug which has a smaller denser bubble designed to draw out the flavor of the coffee. It is unique to down under) and settled into people watching under an old pohutakawa tree.

Still early in the morning, we had a mix of locals taking in their regular as well as a mix of tourists, mostly Western European.

Across from Escarto was the information center, which oddly enough housed a local Starbucks (which I call coffee you have when you are not having a coffee). New Zealand has a tourist information network called iSites and this one is called the Christchurch Isite. These information centers provide detailed information and concierge services for anyone who asks. They should be your first port of call in any town or city in New Zealand.

After an enjoyable sojourn in Christchurch, we made our way out through Riccarton, Sockburn and Hornsby to the main highway south and on to Geraldine on our way to Queenstown. The spectacular drive took us through Farlie and onto the twin lakes, Tekapo and Pukaki. New Zealand gets about 70% of it’s power from Hydro Electricity, these two lakes are part of what is know as the Upper Waitaki project.

Lake Tekapo
photo credit: Neerav Bhatt

We stopped at Lake Pukaki (at picnic grounds of course) to make lunch and promptly ran into a Dutch Anthropologist making a documentary about New Zealand and it’s people. An hour later the conversation had run its course and we exchanged details and headed on our way.

Queenstown is known as the outdoor experience capital of the world, and nothing exemplifies that experience more than AJ Hackett Bungy, the father of bungy jumping. Inspired by the Vanuatu ritual, Hackett developed a super-stretchy elastic bungee cord in the mid 1980s and demonstrated its use by throwing himself off the Eiffel Tower in Paris in 1987. So a trip to Queenstown usually starts with visiting the Kawarau Bridge approximately 10km to the east of the city near Arrowtown.

The first time I had bungy jumped was right here in 1996. Back then the operation was a simple building and a small viewing platform. Not so today, AJ Hackett Bungy is a huge tourist operation with a bar and cafe, gift shop, a movie theatre and tiered viewing facilities. It’s car park is full of campervans, tour buses and sundry who come to watch as the young and not so young throw themselves off the historical bridge.

Queenstown’s attraction is that it is a year round destination. In the winter time it is close to three commercial ski fields, Coronet Peak, the Remarkables and Cardrona. In the summer time, it hosts numerous outdoor activities including my favorite hiking (known as tramping here).

We arrived in Queenstown in the midst of an international cricket match, India was playing New Zealand. This of course made for chaos with the traffic and Queenstown’s narrow streets are crowded at the best of times. We ended up have to back track around to the north side of Queenstown through Speargrass Flats to Arthurs Point where we were staying. Arthurs Point sits as the bottom of the Coronet Peak Ski Resort.

Downtown has no shortage of restaurants and cafes soafter shedding our luggage, we headed there to check out the lake front. It was overcast and the wind came directly off the Lake Wakatipu cooling down the visitors. The town however did not disappoint. Playing on a stage in a local park was the legendary New Zealand rock/roots reggae band dDub. After enjoying the music for a while we headed over to the Bombay Palace feast on some reasonably priced Indian food.

In the city center you need to start at the local information center on the corner of Camp and Shotover Sts right in the heart of the city. If you are going hiking you need to check into the Department of Conservation (DOC) center which is located on Shotover St above the Outside Sports.

The more advanced walks require permits and require that you log your trip with them. The Queenstown region has many levels of track from easy day walks to the advanced 3 day Motatapu Track made famous because it crosses over Shania Twain’s Queenstown retreat. We chose a track north of Arrowtown called the Big Hill Trail. A medium-high level track that climbs steeply into the back country over into Macetown.

Arrowtown, a former gold rush town, retains all the charm of a bygone era. The original town center has been maintained in its (largely) original feel (you won’t find MacDonalds here). We spend the day here wandering around the beautiful streets, the river and numerous parks then settled down to have lunch in the main town park with numerous families sitting in the mid afternoon sun.

In Queenstown it is difficult to even scratch the surface of what is possible in the middle of Middle Earth. We wandered up to the Coronet Ski field for the view of the Shotover Valley and drove down to watch the jet boat tours. But we are here to see the country, so taking the scenic route, we drove through the Cardrona Valley into Wanaka, another beautiful lake side town, then on into Haast Pass, the gateway to the West Coast, and where true to legend, the weather made a dramatic change for the worst.

Haast is a small settlement on the bottom of the West Coast of the South Island. This place is definitely not Kaikoura. It is named for Julius von Haast, a 19th century explorer who was also geologist for local government. It consists of a general store, a petrol station and the home of Otoko Mobile Espresso Trailer. Being hauled by a Series One Landrover, they have cornered the market for Whitebait and Coffee in the lower West Coast.

The West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island and Nelson are a whole other story. The West Coast is perhaps the most raw New Zealand experience, being geologically separate from the rest of New Zealand, and the fabled Nelson Region, the area with the largest number of sunshine hours in Kiwiland. But that is another story.

All pictures are Copyright 2009 Greg Royal (except where specifically credited to other people) and reproduced with permission.

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New Zealand is a small country of 4 Million people deep in the South Pacific, 12 hours flying time from the West Coast of North America and 3 hours East of Australia’s largest city Sydney.

New Zealand’s landscape is formed by the southern most aspect of the pacific Ring-of-Fire or more correctly The Circum Pacific Seismic Belt. What this means is that New Zealand is blessed with some of the most spectacularly rugged landscape in the world formed from millions of years of earth movement which explains why it was chosen as the location for Middle Earth when the Lord of the Rings Trilogy was being filmed.

New Zealand is made up of two major islands, the North and the South as well as numerous other islands and territories. The two islands are linked by a car ferry system run by the appropriately named InterIslander. This is where our journey began, in the loading bay at the Wellington wharf at 4-30am just after Christmas Day.

I had been to the South Island several times before, always on holiday. Having grown up in Wellington, the ferry was a major impediment for Northerners to travel to the mainland (as the South Islanders call their home). Unfortunately I spend less time in the south than I would have liked. Now living predominately in the Northern Hemisphere, it was time to reacquaint ourselves with the home of Bilbo Baggins.

Because we were traveling in the heart of the summer rush we ended up having to take on the 6am ferry sailing, a sailing filled with bleary eyed travelers downing copious amounts of coffee and toast in a vain attempt to brush off the 3am wakeup call. Indeed some of the more budget conscious travelers (read backpackers) had slept at the ferry terminal which gets quite chilly with the southerly wind off the harbor.

We had set of from our home north of Wellington at 4am, our small BMW laden with one weeks supply of picnic and hiking supplies. A tip for traveling through New Zealand, you cannot go 100 meters without coming across a picnic table and park so pack provisions to have a picnic in the park on each day of your travels.

The 3 1/2 hour sailing was uneventful, we watched as the sun broke over Wellington harbour and out into the Cook Strait, named after the explorer James Cook. We arrived into Picton Wharf to be greeted with a warm sunny day, about 9-30am in the morning.

Picton is the reception, the first impression of the South Island that a tourist would see and it has risen to that challenge. As a youngster I remember Picton consisting of a Fish and Chip shop and a Pub, a place to relieve oneself then move on.

Picton has most certainly shed that image. It is now a trendy downtown tourist destination in it’s own right. Picton showed off the warm summer day by fabulous cafes, live music, scores of restaurants and an extremely robust tourist trade. To me it looked like a mix of foreign and local kiwi tourists enjoying the start of the summer holidays.

From Picton there are numerous activities on and off the water you can choose from, there is no reason to head straight out of town to Nelson or Christchurch.

We visited Waikawa Bay and took a stunning drive along Queen Charlotte Drive to Havelock North, the home of Lord Rutherford, Nobel prize winner and father of modern nuclear science. Havelock is also known as the green shell mussel capital of the world.

The goal of the first couple days however was to explore the famous Marlborough region, the home of medal winning wines from Montana, Oyster Bay, Cloudy Bay, and Kim Crawford among many others. New Zealand is well known for it’s whites from the Wairau Valley.

The Marlborough wine region stretches from just south of Picton all the way to Kaikoura at the southern end. For our base we chose The Copthorne Hotel in Blenheim, a boutique hotel in the city center.

After settling into the hotel, we scoped out the city. Just like Picton, Blenheim has turned into real upscale feel, not as upscale as Niagara on the Lake (Ontario) or St Helena (California), more like Buellton, (California), fun but not presumptuous. It’s roots still lay in it’s farming community but it has made way for the younger wine-seeking crowds with bar, restaurants and cafes.

Blenheim’s vineyards are set out in a box pattern throughout the floor of the valley. A quick trip to the info center or asking the hotelier will produce a number of wine trail maps you can follow. We had in mind a number of the more famous vineyards available (see above) and we created an itinerary for the next day. We found a great spot for dinner and then retreated to the comfort of the hotel pool to watch the sun go down, of course sampling the native grape.

We made a beeline in the morning to Annie’s Cafe. One of the most popular food establishment, it is open early for some free-trade Java. What people don’t realize is that New Zealand has some of the finest coffee establishments anywhere.

You can be in the middle of nowhere but be certain that a world class latte or espresso is just around the corner (there is no such thing as Tim Hortons or Krispee Kremes here). With an abundant supply of fresh ingredients, you can find all sorts of home-made pies, cakes and biscuits to sample including a huge range of organic produce.

We spend an enjoyable day or two sampling the wine, treats and senses in the center of the Marlborough district. Included in our trip was Hunter Wines, the Boutique Chocolate Factory and the huge Montana Brancott Winery to the south of the city.

State Highway One continues to the south of the city and winds its way down to Kiakoura, the whale watch capital of New Zealand. Because of unusual underwater trenches off the coast of this small coastal town, Kaikoura is home to numerous seal colonies, the occasion penguin, dusky dolphins and giant sperm whales.

Kaikoura is a small town growing up fast. The tourism industry has arrived to turn this town into a smaller semblance of its bigger brother Lake Taupo. The main street is crawling with restaurants and bars with numerous campervans (RVs) and rental cars complete with tourists from all round the world.

We took the obligatory coffee and shopping session, stopping in to chat with some new sights including a brand new Kia Kaha store, a chain of clothing stores part owned by US PGA champion Michael Campbell.

Our prime directive was to spend some time with the seal colonies to the north and south of the city where we able to shoot some stunning photos. These are now proudly part of my flickr collection.

Although DOC (Department of Conservation) rules require that you maintain a distance of 10 meters (30ft) from wildlife, I was able to get close in to photograph them in the afternoon sunning themselves on the rocks and generally making mischief of them all. I shot with both a Sony DSC-W55 hand held and my trusty Canon Digital Rebel (Its not how many pixels you have it is what you do with it).

Whale Watch Kaikoura is an extremely professional and busy operation. Housed in the former Railway terminal, it is owned by the local iwi (Maori Tribe) Kati Kuri. They operate tours by busing 30 odd strong groups to the South Bay terminal where they house purpose-built whale watching vessels.

We headed out into the South Pacific for about 45 minutes to look for the whales surfacing. They have a boat stationed out there each day to look for whales to minimize time on the water. Whales surface typically for 15 minutes then dive for 45 minutes. The crew understands the cycle well and, with the aid of sonar equipment, find the whales quickly. Once a whale is sighted, the boat maneuvers into position and the crowd can go outside and up top the vessel to watch and take pictures.

Once you see the whale for the first time, it is a heart stopping experience. The majesty of the world’s largest mammal is hard to describe. To the Maori, the whale holds deep spiritual significance and it is not hard to understand why.

I have seen a lot of animals in the wild on my travels, Leopard, Lynx, Black Bear and Cheetah. These animals rank very high on the list of must see. We were able to see two whales surface, rehabilitate themselves and return to the ocean with a flourish of the tail.

The above picture was the result of a fast lenses and a very strong arm. We had 10 meter swells which made the boat lurch from side to side. On the way back we were met by a school of dusky dolphins who seems to take pleasure in performing in front of a crowd.

We cheered at they performed 360 jumps, twisted and synchronized swam around the boat. We left the boat understanding why thousands of people come here each year to grab a glimpse of these creatures.

On my travels throughout the world, one of the common discussion points of those that knew or experienced New Zealand, was the shear variety of experiences you can have traveling in Kiwiland. This is especially true for those that have traveled to Queenstown, the world’s outdoor extreme capital where bungy jumping was invented. But that is for another day.

Originally Published in Roadlesstravelled.com.au

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Five years ago, Roz Savage quit her high-powered London job to become an ocean rower. She’s crossed the Atlantic solo, and just started the third leg of a Pacific solo row, the first for a woman. Why does she do it? Hear her reasons, both deeply personal and urgently activist.

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Country Brand Index

FutureBrand has release their annual Country Brand Index, and once again New Zealand scores big including the most desirable place to visit in the world.

CBI, now in its fourth year, is a comprehensive study of approximately 2,700 international business and leisure travelers from nine countries conducted by FutureBrand, a leading global brand consultancy, in conjunction with public relations firm Weber Shandwick’s Global Travel & Lifestyle Practice. This year’s index includes rankings and trends as well as travel motivations, challenges and opportunities within the worlds of travel, tourism and country branding.

New Zealand also ranked number one in Authenticity, Natural Beauty and Friendly Locals . New Zealand ranked very highly in the key travel items including safety, most likely to extend a business trip and rest and relaxation.

Of the 30 individual rankings NZ ranked in the top 10 for 12 of them (ranking):

• Authenticity (1)
• Natural Beauty (1)
• Outdoor Activities (2)
• Extend a Business Trip (2)
• Political Freedom (2)
• Most Like to Live (2)
• Environmentalism (2)
• Safety (3)
• Rest and Relaxation (3)
• Most Impressive in last 12 Months (4)
• Families (5)
• Standard of Living (9)

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn-fGS-WwsA

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Parry Sound #2, originally uploaded by deletia.

Whilst travelling this long weekend we ended up at Parry Sound Ontario, which is about 2 1/2 hours North of Toronto.

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