2007 Part 4: Kiwi Outdoors
In and around New Zealand
Our 2007 travels around the world find us in New Zealand, a country with a unique and amazing landscape directly on the other side of the world from the United Kingdom, if you were to travel straight through the earth. During our time in New Zealand, we will be exploring both the North Island and South Island in a large campervan equipped with a kitchen, shower and toilet. It should be a great way to get close to nature and see all of the incredible outdoor landscape and scenery that we are meant to see. Keep reading as we post the stories and maybe, just maybe, you will be encouraged to travel there yourselves one day.
Route taken and entries by Real Traveler Kyle & Dan
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1
New Zealand, Auckland: Kicking Off Our Campervan Tour of Aotearoa
The penultimate country on our 2007 trip around the world was Aotearoa, better known to most people as New Zealand, home of Maoris, the kiwi bird a... Continue reading »
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2
New Zealand, Coromandel Peninsula: Scary Coastal Roads to Find Hot Water Beach
During our first campervan drive across New Zealand countryside, we decided to follow the Pacific Coast Highway as soon as we could after leaving A... Continue reading »
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3
New Zealand, Matamata: Two Hobbits from London Dancing in The Shire
Matamata was situated on New Zealand's North Island, and was our first brush with something "Lord of the Rings" in the country. For those of you wh... Continue reading »
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4
New Zealand, Rotorua: Sheep and Smelly Thermal Wonders
The infamous hydrothermal area of Rotorua was the next destination on our campervan trip around New Zealand. The town was situated near the centre... Continue reading »
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5
New Zealand, Waitomo: Glow-in-the-Dark Cave Worms
The only reason we added Waitomo to our itinerary in New Zealand was to see some glowworms. The worms we saw were unique to New Zealand, of the Ara... Continue reading »
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6
New Zealand, Tongariro: Snow-Capped Mount Doom and Crater Lakes
Since we arrived late in the evening at the mountain village of Whakapapa, we stayed at the first place we came across that night, a holiday park j... Continue reading »
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7
New Zealand, Mokai Canyon & Hunterville: Flying Fox Thrills and Shepherd's Shemozzle
After a gruelling day of hiking in Tongariro National Park in New Zealand's North Island, we drove towards Mokai Canyon to complete a journey on th... Continue reading »
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8
New Zealand, Wellington: Government Beehive for Capital City on the Water
The last city we visited in the North Island of New Zealand before hopping on the Interislander Ferry to make our way to the South Island for a cou... Continue reading »
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9
New Zealand, Kaikoura: Fur Seals on the East Coast
To get to Kaikoura, we first had to take the ferry across from Wellington to Picton, crossing from New Zealand's North Island to its South Island d... Continue reading »
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10
New Zealand, Arthur's Pass: Coast-to-Coast Train Journey over the Southern Alps
The TranzAlpine day return trip that we had booked at the Kaikoura I-Site (information centre) started at the Christchurch railway station and fini... Continue reading »
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11
New Zealand, Christchurch: Taking Advantage of Excellent Arts Centre
The first thing we want to let you know about is the dodgy holiday park we stayed in during our time in Christchurch, a city on the eastern coast o... Continue reading »
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12
New Zealand, Mount Cook: Aoraki, the Cloud-Piercing Mountain
After having arrived at the Lake Pukaki I-Site (information centre) at midnight the night before, we were surprised when we woke up in the morning... Continue reading »
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13
New Zealand, Dunedin: Yellow-Eyed Penguins and Circling the Octagon
To travel from Mount Cook National Park to Dunedin, we had to drive over three hours, but most of the drive was during daylight, when it was good t... Continue reading »
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14
New Zealand, Milford Sound: Boat Journey Through an Incredible Fiord
In the morning, after spending an evening in a picnic area outside the small New Zealand town of Milton, we both woke up freezing. An extreme cold... Continue reading »
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15
New Zealand, Queenstown: Watching Kiwis Playing Miniature Golf from a Luge
One of the more anticipated destinations during our month in New Zealand, travelling around in a campervan, was definitely the small town of Queens... Continue reading »
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16
New Zealand, Wanaka: A Puzzling Pit Stop
After checking out of the Top 10 Queenstown Holiday Park, we left the quaint town of Queenstown heading for Wanaka, a small town situated on a larg... Continue reading »
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17
New Zealand, Fox & Franz Josef: Hiking up High on a Enormous Glacier
Our month-long road trip in New Zealand was over halfway complete by the time we made it to the west coast of the South Island. Our aim and first a... Continue reading »
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18
New Zealand, Punakaiki: Stubborn Pancake Rocks Refused to Show Off
The main attraction in Punakaiki that we were interested in seeing was Pancake Rocks, a section of limestone rocks that had undergone stylobedding,... Continue reading »
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19
New Zealand, Richmond: A Couple of Days Off as Tourists
It was difficult finding the motivation to do any more hiking or walking in the Punakaiki area of New Zealand's South Island, because we were dejec... Continue reading »
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20
New Zealand, Wellington: Our Second Time in the Capital City
To get back to New Zealand's North Island from the South Island, we had booked ourselves onto a return ferry journey from the town of Picton to Wel... Continue reading »
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21
New Zealand, Taupo: Making a Stepped Waterfall the Focus Instead of an Art Deco City
Taupo was about halfway between Wellington, New Zealand's capital city in the southern part of the North Island, and Auckland, the largest city in... Continue reading »
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22
New Zealand, Auckland: Farewell to the Kiwi Outdoors
Our month in New Zealand was coming to a close, but we had to get to back to Auckland so we could complete our trip around the two main islands. Au... Continue reading »
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