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Miles of wild open spaces. High desert plateaus extending from the horizons. Virgin
forests of giant prehistoric trees. Grassy plains. Jagged granite rising almost 2.5 miles
above the ocean. Glaciers descending into the jungle. Parrots and penguins in the same
rain forest. A wild ocean crashing into footprint-free beaches. Boom towns. Ghost towns.
No towns. Clapboard false fronts. Dusty main streets at high noon. Cowboys and sheepmen
trading stories at the general store and the post office. Country fairs where lumberjacks
saw and chop, shearers slice wool, and horsewomen debate Western vs. English, while all
covet the prize-winning pies. Wyoming? Montana? Alaska? Mexico? Argentina? Australia? Nope, pardner, it's New
Zealand: last frontier of the West and first frontier of the East, so far down under we
Yanks stage there before departing for Antarctica. Do you think the pioneer spirit of the
Wild West has gone the way of the moa? Nope—it's alive and well exactly where the moa
used to live.
In
Part One we gallop through the North Island,
stopping to gawk at prehistoric trees, Maori fishing villages, clapboard towns, artist
colonies, geothermal playgrounds, until we reached the San Francisco of the South Pacific,
Wellington, and the end of the island.
In
Part Two we fly
to the South Island and explore the water wonders and wine lands of Nelson and Marlborough
country, then head for bloomin’ Christchurch with a short stop to spot the whales off
the Kaikoura Coast. We take a great rail journey from coast to coast, crossing the
Southern Alps and arriving in wild Westland, where we see glaciers, go fishing, and visit
frontier towns along the Tasman Sea. Finally, we cross New Zealand’s highest road
pass, driving from the coast through the rain forest to the alpine heights and down into
the arid rain shadow of Wanaka in Central Otago on the eastern slope.
In
Part
Three we explore some of
New Zealand’s most famous, most majestic, most remote, and most touristed country,
home of the bungy, the kea, the jet boat, and the great treks. We go back a century in
Arrowtown, go extreme in Queenstown, and can't believe our eyes in Fiordland.
Finally,
Part Four
takes us in either of two directions back to civilization at Christchurch. One direction
leads to Scotland on the Pacific Coast. The other crosses the great New Zealand Outback by
way of the highest point in Australasia. Along the way we see penguins and albatross, lots
of rabbits and a few sheep. Come with us as our Wild Frontier itinerary leads back to
Christchurch by way of Dunedin and Mackenzie Country.
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PART THREE
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ARROWTOWN |
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| (including Millbrook, a championship course designed by New Zealands pride, Sir Bob Charles), which lend Arrowtown a slower, less frenetic pace than the frenzied Queenstown. But Arrowtown is small, and, presumably, boring to those who are looking for an adrenalin fix. Queenstown is for the tourism masses; Arrowtown is for those mass tourism misses. | |
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QUEENSTOWN |
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adventure travel, heli-skiing, and jet boating, it certainly takes pride in being credited with their successful commercial development. Local legends like A. J. Hackett—who first conceived that tourists would pay real money to jump off a bridge with a rubber band attached to their ankles at Queenstown’s Kawarau Bridge on November 12, 1988—is credited with starting New Zealand’s adventure tourism craze. His company now offers three different bungy sites and two great arcing swing sites in the Queenstown region, each newer site promising a bigger squirt of adrenalin. |
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Queenstown’s ambition to become a combination of Aspen, Orlando, and Vegas has brought the area a colorful mixture of kitsch, glitz, glamour, youthfulness, beautiful people, counter-culture athletes, groupies and wannabe’s. Predictably, legions of mainstream tourists have followed, most more interested in people-watching than in bungy-jumping. And Queenstown has welcomed the mainstream with two of New Zealands best golf courses (Jack's Point, and Kelvin Heights), a burgeoning wine district, a growing number of traditional non-adventure tours (sightseeing) and soft-adventure activities |
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(horseback riding,
day-hiking, fly-fishing, skiing), and a wide range of non-trendy
mainstream restaurants including many of the international chains. |
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FIORDLAND |
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plush with dense temperate rain forest, thick with mossy trees and giant fern fronds—that
very symbol of New Zealand. The great black forests climb the precipitous heights of the
snowcapped Southern Alps, almost to the edges of the permanent snowline. The habitat of
penguins overlaps that of mountain parrots in this part of paradise. |
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organized encounters in the pristine sounds of Fiordland were the first
great successes of what has become that major growth genre
"eco-tourism". And the Milford Sound eco-tourism experience, like
Coca-Cola, has inspired many envious imitations, but none have quite the
cachet of the original. |
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TRAVEL ADVISORY:
LOOK FOR SPECIAL LOCAL EVENTS. |
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At each of your
Home At First
New Zealand Lodgings
ask your hosts if there are happenings of local interest ongoing during your visit. Look
for "A & P Shows" — local New Zealand summer festivals that are
combinations of country fairs, lumberjack meets and equestrian events. Look for plays,
auctions, regattas, parades, and sporting events, events that will let you see the Kiwis
at play. You may be the only strange faces in the crowd, and you will feel privileged to
be there. |
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