FF:NZ Help required

Hello

I'm an Aussie who has just booked himself a flight to NZ because his frequent flier points were about to run out.

I don't know a lot about NZ so i was wondering if you could help. I'm looking to do a lot of sightseeing while i'm there, but not a lot of the regular touristy things because i can do that anywhere...

The things i do know about NZ are as follows:

o You have a female PM. Good for you.

o You are a lot more humane than us, especially when it comes to refugees. Again, good for you.

o We beat you in the cricket a lot.

o We don't beat you in the rugby so much. However, being a Victorian, i don't really care as we play Aussie rules down here.

o You have a lot of beautiful scenery - however a lot of this comes from my experience of the CG enhanced LOTRs films.

o You were going to be incorporated in the Australian constitution but then you pulled out. Good for you again.

Urm. Yeah, that's about it. Any help would be good, as i'm coming in feb.

 

the CG enhanced LOTRs films

Umm, excuse me, pretty much ALL of the scenary "scenes" are not tampered with, with "cg". Hence why our country is so beautiful.

If you go to a country, you do the touristy things, because you are a tourist, and you do those things, because you can't do them anywhere.

Having said that, it depends on your interests. If you want to see remarkable country side and mountain visa's (splling?) travel the south island. Things like the bungy jump / jet boat etc in Queenstown will be adrenoline rush type activities. If you prefer to lax in the sun, go to the north of the north island to the Bay of Islands area and visit the beaches. Hiking, south island. Whales / Dolphin encounters - Kaikoura, East coast South Island...

But pretty much the only CG scenary in LOTR was mount doom, and that was a real mountain as well, but not black and exploding at the time (though it has been recently active (within several years).

 

You'll be wanting to visit the giant staues on the Waikato river and the beacons down the southern alps.

Here's a good starting point;

http://www.newzealand.com/travel/

And the new Lonely Planet is out.

As SFL says, it all depends what you're into.

In general;

South Island = Scenery.
North Island = Beaches.

Auckland's pretty average as a Tourist destination (thouhg the diversity in beaches between the west & East coasts (about 90 mins drive from coast to coast) is stunning, and the Islands on Auckland's the Hauraki Gulf are great.

But Auckland is more of a arrival/departure point. As far as cities go, Wellington & Christchurch probably offer more.

In the South Island, Queenstown is amazing, but quite 'commercial'. The Whalewatching in Kaikora is one of the best things I've ever done in NZ.

Basically, there's something for everyone, but it all depends what you consider a holiday, and what you like to do...

 

Well of course the statues and those sorts of things are not real, but the mountains and lakes / forests are all 100% NZ, which people think are fake.

(and it wasn't the filthy aikato river JP jeez)

 

Thanks very much for all your ideas.

I guess i should have mentioned that i'm probably going to be forced to centre activity around the north island. I'm flying into Wellington and then hoping to make my way up to Auckland in the course of the seven days i'm there.

Yes, i realise a lot of the scenery in LOTR wasn't CG. I was going to mention Mount Doom as an obvious example of CG-altered'ness but you beat me to it.

I guess i'm into all the 'natural' things rather than the main towns etc. That's what i meant by "touristy" things. I'm fairly well-travelled for a 17-year-old and have been to many interesting cities several times like London and New York and Paris so i was thinking that my main interest in New Zealand would lie in its natural beauty.

I'm hoping to make it up to Rotorua and the north-east parts on my way to Auckland. Anything you can think of on the way from Wellington-Rotorua-Auckland would be great. (I'm assuming it would be near impossible to work the south island into a week-long trip)

Thanks again.

 

Waitomo - it's touristy, but amazing. You can go Black Water Rafting, or go through the caves and check out the formations and Glow Worms (Black Water Rafting is pretty cool, I've done it twice.

Then, definitely Rotorua for the Geothermal Activity, again very touristy though.

The Desert Rd is stunning in it's bleakness, maybe you could go up the East Coast from Wellington instead. But if you're interested in going to the Mountains of Central Nth Is, you kinda need to go central, then maybe head West at Waiuru. Gisborne / East Cape would be nice and sunny and beachy, then cut through the Gorge (forget name) and over to Rotorua. Coromandel in there somewhere too for beaches, then up to Auckland.

It's tough, you need a road map and to sit down and find out how far you want to travel each day and where to stay each night...

 

Sky Tower Jump is a must. 20 seconds of pure adrenaline. Mmmmmmmmmm...

 

Thanks so much, SithForceLord. That is incredibly helpful! I'll decide between the two routes soon, once i can really sit down and figure out which is the better of the two.

And Althus, i assume that's a bungee jump, right? Umm, yeah. I'm not so good with hights so i'm not sure how i'd go with a jump...

 

Not a bungee, but more like abseiling, but basically a 'freefall' on wires.

I'm another who doesn't much care for jumping off high things.

 

And the bungee's down south are way better. I mean, free falling from a suspension bridge with craggy rocks and a river hurtling toward your head, while surrounded by the most pristeen(SP?) country-side. Or, just of a block of concrete and have the pavement hurtle towards you.

 

The Whalewatching in Kaikora
where was that again? north or south island???
wow there's really tons of things to do in NZ!
am looking forward to that myself!

-Mel

 

Kaikoura - South Island, between Blenheim & Christchurch.

http://www.whalewatch.co.nz/

It's the best thing I've done in NZ in the way of sightseeing. When we went out (about 4 years back) we saw seals, hundreds of dolphins, 4 or 5 sperm whales, and a Humpback and her calf, which swam right under our boat and popped its head out for a good gawk at us.

There's also whalewatching in Auckland on the Hauraki gulf.

 

And if you're quick, on Karikari beach. (west auckland)

A sperm whale beached itself and died. Kinda weird place for a sperm whale to be at this time of the year, quite far north.

You can see hundreds of smelly seals just driving between Blenhiem and Christchurch everyday.

I've 'seen' a whale from the coast of Kaikoura earlier this year. Saw a heap of boats and a plane in one area and so looked with spotting scope and saw a spout of water. that was my whale.

 

I find the general outcry of sadness whenever there's a whale beaching a little odd. Animals die naturally all the time. Most of us (myself included) eat them on a regular basis. (Although not whales, obviously ... although my Aunt's ex-partner, who was Norwegian, has eaten whale.)

 

No, the sadness erupts when one is sick and beaches itself and the other 70 odd follow it in and all die needlessly. Though, I agree, it is still nature.

The human emotion for this is, is only excentuated because it's not an everyday occurance, and because they are large animals. If they were some what smaller and it happened many times a year people would become immune to it.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm meat.

They use to make soap out of whale blubber, and perfume. mmmmmmmm pretty ladies covering themselves in whale.



But you must admit seeing a large mammal like whales or elephants dying needlessly is a bit heart-wrenching, nevermind the amount of lambs we slaughter and devour. mmmmmmm mint jelly on lamb.

I'm hungry now.

 

He he SFl said sperm

That's the most action you've had in ages aye mate!

 

But you must admit seeing a large mammal like whales or elephants dying needlessly is a bit heart-wrenching, nevermind
I agree. anything dying needlessly is a shame ... I hope I dont have to see one....

You guys really got me interested in all that stuff. and thanks for posting that link to that website

-Mel

 

Hey hey hey. Give me some credit. I've had an infected face for a while. Doesn't play any favours for the love life (Dr said that, so I went with it, not that there is one at the moment). But I am waiting till my face is all good, to catch up with a certain extremely hot blonde girl who was chasing after me a few sat nights ago... (I may be waiting some time)

 

> I agree. anything dying needlessly is a shame ... I hope I dont have to see one

Mel, are you a vegetarian? Because if you're not, I guess you could argue that you see something thatr died needlessly every time you eat a meal.

 

But if you're eating it, then the animal's death isn't exactly "needless".

 

no, it was a windup ...

Although humans have evolved past the point of "needing" meat.

I'm not a vegetarian, and am fairly ambivelant about the issue, but I just get annoyed with the "awwww ... aren't whales such amaaaaaazing creatues" attitude which seems to have been sparked by Greenpeace in the 80s. I think a whale dying of its own volition is less sad and "needless" than, say, a chicken with its beak melted off sitting in a cage the size of a shoebox waiting to become KFC,

 

You can't compare the needless death of dozens of large mammals, with human cruelty to chickens!

I'm appauled at the state in which those chickens are kept (though, I'm partially hypocritical in that I don't care what type of chicken I purchase). But seeing animals in mass quantities, dye, without just cause, is a terrible situation. If hunderds of Tui died, it would be a terrible situation. It's not just Greenpeace making whales noticed that causes us to say is a shame to see lots dye. Those chickens are bred to that life (unfortunately). The whales are free animals.

Big difference.

 

Mmmmmmmmm chicken

We used to have battery hens on our old farm in the 80's. Back then no one gave a crap, but that didn't stop my old man from having them generously spaced.

To be honest i couldn't give a flying **** how chickens are treated as long as you cook it well you ain't gonna get sick. I mean boo frickin hoo it's a chicken......it's their purpose.

Mmmmm chicken

 

I agree with Solo77 on this issue.

If God didin't want us to eat chickens he would not have invented KFC!

 

Cnl. Sanders is God?