A mere hour and half southeast from Auckland, there is the paradise for people who love nature and the place which is, according to me, one of the most beautiful of norhtern island's – the Coromandel Peninsula. The peninsula is largely covered with tropical rain forest and beautiful mountains. Let's see it for ourselves.
Humid forests of New Zealand are mostly covered by huge fern trees which grew in the age of the dinosaurs. You can see it only on New Zealand and in Australia. However, New Zealand se ale od původního propojeného kontinentu Gotswana oddělil ještě dřív než Austrálie, přežilo na něm i spoustu zvláštních zvířat. Asi jste už slyšeli o ptáku kivi, který neumí létat a žije právě jen na Novém Zélandu. Protože je aktivní hlavně v noci, máte jen velmi malou šanci ho vidět ve volné přírodě, ale pokud se vám to povede, dost pravděpodobně to bude právě v lesích poloostrova Coromandel.
There is the largest quantity of Kauri tree (Agathis australis), spared by lumberjacks. In the past, many more of these big trees covered New Zealand. Unfortunately, the arrival of the Europeans meant near end of this precious wood as it became a valuable export commodity. Hence, you may see only solitery trees. The oldest kauri are close to 2000 years old and grow as high as to 50 meters above the ground. Seeing such a giant with your nakde eye is a worthy experience.
Apart from forests, there is many beautiful beaches and natural sights on the Coromandel Peninsula such as Hot Water Beach. During low tide, you can even dig your own therma mini lake. Catheral Cove is a well known sandstone arch. You can reach it either by boat or on foot.
Deep fjords, beautiful mountain vallesy, waterfalls, glacier lakes, and wild nature. Fiordland could be shortly described by that. You can find it in the south of New Zealand. There, two popular tourist destinations are situated there – Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound.
At the heart of the Southern Alps, on the shore of Wakatipu lake, there is the town Queenstown. It is home to summer and winter sports, an ideal base to set out to treks.
Nelson town is one of the oldest in New Zealand. It was the very first town on New Zealand's southern island. Sights, however, are not what is interesting the most about this town. It is the place with most sunny days on the Southern Island. Moreover, it is surrounded by amazing nature. Among the most popular activities are trips to the Abel Tasman national park.
The largest city of New Zealand's southern island was badly damaged during heavy earthquakes between 2010 and 2012. Still, it has been developing quite fast since. It is worth visiting to see, how a restoration of such a place might look like.
In the last parts of our series we saw several places in the northern island of New Zealand. Now we start exploring the southern one which is larger, wilder, and there are more mountains. It is dominated by the summits of the South Alps especially Mt. Cook, the highest mountain in the country – 3 754 m.
On New Zealand's northern islend, there is a narrow land projection adorned by beautiful cliffs, sand dunes, and the longest beach in the country. It is also one of the most sought after points of interest for tourists. Let's go there and spend there a while.
Are you traveling to the north of New Zealand? Be sure to stop behind Whangarei town with 16 kilometer wide Bay of Island. Nature there is great as well as waterfalls and trips to see dolphins, whales and amazing beaches.
In the very heart of New Zealand's norhter island there is the most active volcanic area in the country. There is high geothermal activity around hte town of Rotorua. You may smell sulphur all around and sulphur steam springs out of the ground on many places. Also you may see bubbling mud lakes, hot springs, and other interesting natural phenomena.
New Zealand is fascinating for its diversity and extremes. Tongariro national park is no exception. Beautiful, pleasant landscape surrounding Taupo lake changes to volcanic desert. Tongariro Alpine Crossing is a 20 kilometer trail which is one of the most popular in the country. Infoglobe brings you closer to this amazing experience.
If you are from Europe, New Zealand is one of the most remote places in the world. In the very distant past New Zealand separated from other continents. Today it is situated alone 2000 kilometers from the closest continent – Australia. In the following weeks we are going to discover and explore many beautiful places in Zealand. Let's start by introducing you to the lesser and more "civilized" part of the country. The Northern Island.
Both the Hobbit and the Lord of the Ring trilogies were shot on New Zealand. The movies inspired many tourists to come to the country. Many fly in solely to see the film sets. The most famous one is Hobbiton. Today, we make a short trip to introduce it to you.
Have you ever heard of gannets? These blue-eyed sea birds who come unbelievably fast head down right into the ocean to catch their food. I have been always fascinated by them when I saw them in nature documentaries. I managed to get a close look at them on Cape Kidnappers, New Zealand.
Each of us has a dream that you either meet, or is life just a dream. My dream has always been seen at least once a paradise on Earth, which is almost untouched by human activity - and this paradise is called New Zealand. I am glad that I belong to that group of people who have their dream fulfilled, even at the price that had to touch you deeper into the wallet.
After a five hour bus ride we arrived at Vienna's Schwechat airport, where we have about another 5 hours to departure. The flight from Vienna to Zurich, Switzerland was relatively quick and calm compared to the other two.