New Zealand Is the Ultimate Nature Adventure

The main experience you are left awestruck with after a trip to New Zealand, according to the Huffington Post, is “the nature – the overwhelming force of the landscapes.”

“New Zealand is one of the world’s youngest countries, the last major land mass to be settled by humans. It’s incredibly isolated – the closest neighbor is Australia, 900 miles away – and slumbered undisturbed for some 100 million years. In part, the drama of its vistas is shaped by its volatile location, straddling the Pacific and Indo-Australian tectonic plates and right on the ‘Ring of Fire.’

“Upon first arriving, you are constantly searching for comparisons: a mountain range that reminds of Colorado; a luscious fern forest that recalls Hawaii; stretches of farmland that bring to mind southern Germany; a road lined by poplar trees the spitting image of southern France. But the truth is, your mind is just straining to make sense of something that doesn’t compute: the fact that all these different landscapes are converging in a single place – and one that’s smaller than Japan to boot.

“Whether you’re experiencing the grandeur in an over-the top way (lunch on a glacier; heli fly fishing) or in smaller moments (kayaking in Fjordland; hiking in the wilds of Glenorchy), you cannot help but feel the intense power of nature wherever you go in New Zealand. There are lots of beautiful outdoorsy places that I love in the world: expansive Utah; evocative Iceland; lush Kauai. But nowhere else have I ever been so utterly dumbstruck by nature, so enamoured with the wonder of this Earth, so conscious of my own insignificance in the face of it.”

The Post recommends: staying at Matakauri superlodge in Queenstown, “pampering”at Nelson’s Edenhouse and an island excursion from Waiheke’s BoatShed Boutique Hotel.

Original article by Simone Girner, The Huffington Post, November 5, 2015.


Tags: Edenhouse  Glenorchy  Huffington Post (The)  Matakauri Lodge  The BoatShed Boutique Hotel  

  • Veronika Vermeulen - 8:27 am on November 11th, 2015
    I am a guide in this stunning country and often try to explain to our private clients what it is that make New Zealand so special. You have managed to put my thoughts and feelings into the right words. Thank you!
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