FF:NZ Tourist information please! :P

Hi all, I'm actually NOT from New zealand, but I live in the Netherlands, and I'm saving my money to go and travel through New zealand someday... When i'm old enough...

Can you guys tell me something about your country? since I only know I wanna go there... But I don't know anything else, so can you give a me taste of what it's like, what are your hobbies, were do you live and go to school, How many people does New zealand count, were should i go, and were not and that sort of stuff.

Your future tourist

 

Firstly, welcome to our board, grievous.

Good tourist activities here depend on what you're into ... there's lots of adventure sport activites, like white water rafting, bunji jumping, snow boarding, zorbing, caving. If you like nature, there's whale watching, dolphin swimming, an albatross colony down south, and guided walks and hikes. If you're into experiencing culture, Rotorua caters to tourists in that area.

Here's a good site to check out:

http://www.tourism.net.nz/

I read a survey a few years back that said the number one hobby in New Zealand is gardening, but that's more the older generation, I think.

e: btw, Miana Kenobi should be able to give you some good advice ... she did the tourist thing here last year. Here's her thread:

http://boards.theforce.net/new_zealand/b10035/18195557/p1

 

Thank you kitt

I also have family in New Zealnd, that I never ever met, but the´ve been in holland a while ago, and my parents know who they are, so maybe I be able to stay there for a while! that atleast saves me the Hotel costs... oh man, I have a long road ahead before I can go... first of all, I´m only 16, so I have to wait till my 18th anyway

 

What city / town do these relatives live in?

 

They live in Auckland, so that's propably teh area were I want to go, but i don't know if there's anything to do, for example, were are the fountains, and Middle earth and those places, coz I'm not planning to spent my holiday at my relatives house playing PS2 games or something

So I ve already seen a lot of golve courses on google earth But what are the other attractions?

 

Auckland's the biggest city with plenty to do and see, and would act as a good base to trip to the rest of the North Island from . The geysers (fountains) in Rotorua are 3 or 4 hours drive south, and there's some amazing beaches 2-4 hours drive north of Auckalnd.

But really, the South Island is where it's at as far as tourism. West Coast, fiordland, Queenstown, Kaikoura. Brilliant the lot.

What sort of stuff are you into? Excitement (bungee jumps, speedboat rides), Nature (whale watching, bush walks), shopping, diving / fishing, skiing? There's certainly something here for everybody, the trick is knowing where to go...

Also, have a browse through http://www.newzealand.com/

 

Well, I just want to see and do everything what I can't do in this stupit country, so everything interests me, the Whales, nature, Kiwi birds, musea... rafting... But, i'm afraid I don't have enough time and money to see bough the north and south, so I'm trying to sort things out, and what everything's going to cost me I'm still just a poor student you know, making my money by filling the shell's in my local supermarket

 

In that case you should save up for a guided tour, full of other budget conscious young travellers / backpackers. Do both islands though! Or at worst fly into Auckland, meet the relatives and then fly to Sth Island and do the trip around there.

This is probably the company who you want to go with, though there are probably lesser know competitors too who offer much the same;

http://www.kiwiexperience.com/

 

wow... it's quite expensive

 

Have you taken the exchange rate into account?

 

Backpacking is always fun and cheap if you're up for it. You can see nature and scenery for free (or very cheap) if you know where to go.

Or just go to Christchurch. At Orana Park you can see some tuataras and kiwis (maybe wetas?) Then take a trip to the Christchurch museum and see some Moa skeletons, then travel up to Castle Hill and see where parts of Narnia were filmed. The local port is Lyttleton, where The Frighteners was filmed, and also a nice place to visit. A few hours up north is Kaikoura, where you can see whales and lots of smelly seals and eat lots of lobster...

Well that's Christchurch... then there's Wellington, a fun and cheapish city.. I could go on all night.

 

I'd second the recomendations of Rotorua (North Island) and Queenstown (South Island).

Rotorua is incredibly fun, and they have Rainbow Springs if you're interested in seeing some of the native animals (especially the kiwis and tuataras!) They also have zorbing, luging, and other kinds of fun activities.

If you really want to be brave (and meet wetas up close and personal), travel to Waitomo and go Black Water Rafting.

Queenstown is the best place for bungy jumping, boating, Lord of the Rings Tours (I went on a bunch while I was in NZ ), any kind of snow related activity, and so much more.

If it turns out you can only stay on the North Island, then I'd say Rotorua is your best chance. The only LotR thing I can remember up there is seeing Hobbiton, which is in the town of Matamata and on the way to Hamilton. The only part of Auckland I saw was the airport, so sorry to say, I'm no use when it comes to that area.

If you venture out of Auckland, I REALLY reccomend the youth/traveler's hostels to stay at if you want to save money. They were incredibly nice and very cozy, and relatively cheap as well. Granted, if you want a nice hotel, then that will be more.

I didn't go with Kiwi Experience, but my group and a group with KE travelled together for a few days. The kids with KE really enjoyed themselves and said that KE was great.

 

Hmmmm.... It's so hard to choose, It all sound so great. I would love to see everything, but I really don't know what to choose from... Christchurch sounds great, ( although I have no idea what "Weta's" are) But I have really no idea yet, I think I wanna go there when I'm about 19 or something, and i'm still 16 years old, and I'm going to need a lot of money (and a honey)... It's just that New zealand sounds like a very nice place to go to...

 

It is an incredibly beautiful (and fun!) place.

Wetas: Well, I guess the simplist way to describe them is "big insects."

[image=http://www.waitakeretramline.org.nz/images/images/cave-weta.jpg]

This is a cave Weta. There's nothing like crawling through a cave and looking up to see one of those a few centimters from your face. (Harmless though, I believe.)

 

wow! How big are they?! Looks like an acklay!!

 

Here's a medium sized cave weta from my garden.

[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/cw1.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/cw2.jpg]

And here's the much scarier Tree Weta that the kids found in their playhouse.

[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/treeweta1.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/jaepee/treeweta2.jpg]

 

Wetas definitely aren't winning any insect beauty contests. Apparently they like to crawl into gumboots, so it's a good idea to shake them out before putting them on.

 

Oh gumboots... I miss those too.

 

I may be slightly wrong, but it's a personal gripe.

Sheep, plural sheep.

Weta, plural weta.

I saw a couple of sheeps.

I saw a couple of wetas.

I cringe, my personal worst is deer / deers, if someone ever says "deers" around me I HAVE to correct them.

http://www.doc.govt.nz/Conservation/001~Plants-and-Animals/001~Native-Animals/Invertebrates/Giant-Weta.asp

I believe this image shows a good scale on a man's hand.
[image=http://www.nzedge.com/newzedge/images/weta.jpg]

anyhoo, it's 23:30 and I'm off to horrible Wellington tomorrow bright and early. Beer, girls... oh and rugby, back on Tuesday.

 

Horrible Wellington?

Look do you want to crash at my place or not?

 

Having been born in Christchurch, and living in and around it most of my life, and having spent just under two years in Wellington, I can easily say Wellington > Christchurch.

 

Yeah i lived in Chch for about 4.5 years and been in Welly coming up 18 months.

I am still undecided on which is best, they are just so much different

 

Oh yeah, grievious, I hope you're not allergic to sheep.

 

No, there are plenty of sheeps around here to , athough, no Weta's... so those Acklay things just crawl around in your guarden? They look quite big! And what do they do, are the gonna eat me or not? I've also seen something on Discovery Chnl, about frogs... But I might be mistaken, it was on Australia I think... But anyway, there was a guarden full of frogs, very cool . I really want to see those weta's!!!

 

I saw one in the road in Wellington once. It was about as big as a finger and crawling around totally oblivious to the traffic. I walked away and waited for the "crunch" but didn't hear it.

They're not harmful, and you don't see them everywhere. Infact the only time I saw one in the wild was what I mentioned above. You can read more here.