Travel Guide to New Zealand
New Zealand is a beautiful country and more and more tourists are discovering its beauty is worth visiting. Many people, New Zealanders among them, that backpacking is the ideal way to travel around New Zealand. With so many changes in scenery and plentiful accommodations and activities, why not backpack around New Zealand. It seems the perfect way to travel the beautiful landscape.
While backpacking is the ideal mode of transport, even backpackers need some vehicular help. Traveling in New Zealand by car is fairly easy. The roads are open and well maintained and it is very difficult to get lost traveling in New Zealand. Travelers can rent campervans for one-way travel – renting in one area of the country and returning it in another. And, of course, there is always the bus – the official mode of travel for most backpackers in the world. New Zealand has a vast busing system and passes are available to travelers to help ease the complications of traveling in New Zealand. There are even buses available that take travelers off the beaten path or door to door.
Accommodations for travelers are equally sufficient and varied. New Zealand has many hostels for backpacking travelers. Hostels range in type from single rooms with shared bathrooms to family style accommodations. Hostels range from the typical rustic idea of hostel travel to modern, vibrant accommodations with Internet hook-up and kitchen access. Staying in a hostel is a great way to meet new friends and pick up traveling companions during your trek across New Zealand.
Just as there are ample accommodations and means of transportation in New Zealand, there is no shortage of sights to see. For the adventurous traveler, New Zealand offers some activities not to be enjoyed anywhere else. For example, travelers can take a helicopter ride over the rainforest and land on a glacier. From there, travelers can take the unique hike on the glacier, exploring ice pyramids and ice caves.
There is also the option of the 80-mile-per-hour water tour of the area. The speedboat ride takes travelers past beautiful cliffs and waterfalls while satisfying the need to speed and adventure. The trip comes complete with a 360-degree turn in the boat!
Other adventurous activities in New Zealand include sky diving, bungee jumping, cave tubing and white water rafting.
For the more refined traveler, maybe backpacking is not the way to go. Domestic flights within New Zealand are inexpensive and ongoing – a great way to hop around the country and savor the tastes of New Zealand’s food and wine.
Travelers can enjoy a full-day tour of wine country in the complete comfort of an air-conditioned vehicle. Learn the history of the country’s wine when European settlers first brought their grapevines to New Zealand. Tours come complete with wine tastings and lunch. Another similar tour in Queenstown offers a combination of tours of several wineries in the area known especially for their Pinot Noir. Travel to each and meet professional representatives from each site as you taste their wine.
Dining in New Zealand is an experience unto itself. With the nearby ocean, plentiful rivers, natural game and hearty vegetables, New Zealand has all there is to offer when it comes to the culinary delights. New Zealand native dishes are not to be missed when traveling in New Zealand. Dishes include lamb, salmon, green-lipped mussels and oysters. Cafes dot the towns and cities and a natural atmosphere is enhanced by the surrounding landscape.
While the more refined traveler wines and dines differently from the backpacker in New Zealand, the accommodations are just as different. New Zealand offers travelers all the comforts of home and then some! Stay at Maungatautari Lodge and enjoy the view of the 16-acre working farm it sits on. Or, try Aoturoa, where guests enjoy beautiful suite accommodations and an indoor-outdoor dining area set among the beautiful landscape of New Zealand.
No matter how you decide to travel, where you decide to stay during your visit or what beautiful sights you take in during your stay, a trip to New Zealand is sure to satisfy every travelers’ wants and needs.
Backpackers can feel comfortable to hike around the natural world taking in the beauty that is the earth beneath their feet. They can stay in minimal yet comfortable hostel accommodations and enjoy the adventurous side of New Zealand’s activities. At the same time, the food and wine lovers of the world can visit New Zealand and have a taste of the country’s unique cuisine and award-winning wines. All the while, travelers can be spoiled in accommodations befitting royalty. Travelers can enjoy air-conditioned tours of the wine country and taste the fruits of the natives labor, returning to hotels and villas to pair the wine with savory native dishes from across the regions. New Zealand has something to offer every traveler.
