Urban Napflin - Travel New Zealand: Preparation for travellers to Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud

Travel New Zealand

An introduction for travellers to Aotearoa, the land of the long white cloud

Urban Napflin

Copyright

Smashwords Edition Version 2.2

Copyright 2019 Urban Napflin, Whangarei Tours Ltd, Tourleader New Zealand

All rights reserved. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people.

Also published by the same author:

Maori Language - An Introduction for Travellers and Newcomers

Introduction to New Zealand animals - A short introduction to the unique wildlife of New Zealand

Table of contents

Unique New Zealand

The essence of travelling is to find out what makes a place and its people unique and connect with it. New Zealand is certainly unique in many ways:

1. The youngest country on earth, it was the last to become populated

2. Not only a westernised country but a real Polynesian nation with its exciting Maori culture

3. It is always lush and green, even the trees keep their leaves in winter

4. Welcoming, friendly and humorous locals with pioneer spirit and a can do attitude

5. Landscapes from the dinosaur age, a fairyland from fantasy dreams

6. A huge range of climates, from harsh alpine to subtropical, from glaciers to rainforests

7. 80 million years of independent evolution with 80% of the plants not found anywhere else in the world, and fascinating animal species, sadly many of them endangered

8. Gorgeous beaches that match any in the world

9. Some of the worlds best walks (and no dangerous creepy crawlies)

10. The world capital for adrenaline activities

11. Countless attractions like geysers and hot springs, fiords, the best subtropical diving, swimming with dolphins, whale watching, active volcanoes, glowworm caves, penguin, seal and albatross colonies, modern museums, alpine climbing, heritage villages, over 400 golf courses, around 400 wineries, quiet offshore islands, helicopter skiing etc.

12. An innovative place with a great quality of life

13. Most people live in the big centres, youll have almost all of it to yourself!

14. New Zealand is peaceful, it consistently enjoys top ranks in the overall Global Peace Index and is one of the least corrupt countries

Landscape

Majestic Mount Taranaki

You may have heard of the many natural wonders of New Zealand: the active volcanoes, deep fiords, high snowy mountains, ancient native forests, glaciers close to the beach, smelly geothermal areas, deep glowworm caves and spectacular beaches. In fact, there is nearly no other country on earth with such diverse and contrasting geological and ecological features, all within a relatively small area. No wonder its a great place for stunning film locations.

New Zealand itself has been on a long journey. Since its landmass parted from the ancient Gondwana continent 80 million years ago, many climate changes and tectonic movements have created todays scenery. New Zealand lies not only above a collision zone of the Pacific and Australian tectonic plates, these plates also subdue each other in opposite ways under the North and South Islands (the Pacific plate climbs over the Australian one in the south and gets pushed under in the north). These dynamics created dozens of volcanoes in the north and a high alpine range in the south, a generally hilly landscape with only a few plains created from rivers. The movement of fiords made by glaciers and the sinking of whole mountain regions generated sounds and coasts dotted with peninsulas and offshore islands. Actually the sunken landmass of New Zealand is so big that experts declared it to be its own 'drowned continent', naming it Zealandia.

You will be able to see the resulting beauty up close, there are hundreds of well maintained walks which take you into the heart of the landscape.

Key Summit in Fiordland

Facts:

The Department of Conservation alone manages 12,500 km of walking tracks (especially famous are New Zealands '9 Great Walks through the most striking scenery, they need advance booking because they are so popular), and then there are many more regional council tracks.

One third of New Zealand's land area is protected by the Department of Conservation (DOC), in 14 National Parks (the first one, Tongariro, having been established in 1887 - the last one, Rakiura on Stewart Island, dates from 2002), 20 Forest Parks (13 in the North Island and 7 in the South Island), 3 World Heritage sites (Tongariro National Park, 'Te Wahipounamu - South West New Zealand and the Sub-Antarctic Islands of New Zealand), over 30 marine reserves (7.6% of New Zealands territorial sea) and over 3,500 other scenic, scientific, recreational, historic or cultural reserves.

New Zealand has the 9th longest coastline in the world, with a total length of over 15,000 kilometres. The Marlborough Sounds alone constitute 15% of this total length.

There are also over 1000 rivers and around 40 lakes with a surface over 10 km2.

Punakaiki - Porari River

Due to the mountains and rivers being comparably young also waterfalls are very common (the highest at 580 m being the Sutherland Falls near Milford Sound), as well as exciting rapids.

Also many caves are accessible to visitors, 30 cave systems are longer than 3.5 km (the longest with over 50 km is Bulmer Cavern in Mt Owen) and 30 are deeper than 200 metres!

Do you want to know why the beaches and walking tracks are so empty? 203 countries have a higher population density than New Zealand. There are only 15 people per km2, compared with over 240 in the UK, and over 60% of the population lives in the 10 biggest cities!

And where the landscape is not spectacular there is always lush and green rolling farmland, with sheep and cows as far as the eye can see!

Stone Store in Kerikeri

Regional overview

World class beaches, hidden bays and cruises to gorgeous islands

Subtropical climate and vegetation

Maori and settler history

New Zealands largest city with a top ranked lifestyle

Volcanic summits, beaches and countless activities

Multicultural diversity

Detour to Waiheke Island

Incredible limestone cave systems