Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/12/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Frank, Standard tourism stuff you can find in the various guides so I'll won't get into that. Some pseudo-random thoughts and suggestions. Photographically, I found the most interesting areas are the wet areas. The west (wet) coast of South Island is fascinating due to the flora - lots different variety of ferns. Very different texture to the forest. Milford Sound is wonderful especially in the rain (though my wife may not agree :). We saw it in a down pour when countless waterfalls appears out of the mist. I stood out in the downpour with my M4P (no housing or even bags) for about an hour to take pictures By the way, it can rain a *lot* on the wet coast. Be prepared. Geologically, NZ is quite interesting. It is like if you squeeze Canada into a strip of land about 300 KM wide. In that 300 KM, there is temperate rain forest, alpine, semi-desert, and plains. A retired geologist told me once that it is one of the very few places (perhaps the only) in the world where you will see glaciers at almost sea level and so close to the ocean. It is also probably the only place in the world where one can cycle from rain forest through alpine to semi-desert in one day. On the Cantebury plains, you may encounter the north westerly winds. Can be extremely strong (100KPH) and last for a few days. The cities are just cities. Christchurch has an interesting botanical garden. Queenstown is focussed on activities - bungee jumping, jetboat rides,... Christchurch is great for (relatively cheap) Japanese food. Queenstown is not bad also but not up to CC standard. Auckland has good Asian hawker style food (Food Alley?) There is a very nice museum in Wellington, Te Papa(?). It is NZ's national museum. Wonderful place for cycling though away from the Canterbury Plains, it can be very hilly. Lots of nice hiking in the mountains. No poisonous insects or snakes or toads. The national pest is sandflies which is found most commonly near water. In North America, they are known as blackflies. Take insect repellent. If you see a possum on the road, please run them over. They are an unwelcomed visitor from Australia and was denuding the forest when we were there. They are endangered in Australia but a serious threat to the native flora and fauna in NZ. It's been about 10 years since we've been there. Would like to go back someday. If you have more specific questions, contact me via email. Regards, Spencer On Dec 23, 2009, at 9:45, Frank Filippone wrote: > We are heading off for a vacation in New Zealand right after Christmas. It > has been 9 years since we have traveled abroad.... and it has been a tough > 9 > years. > > We have done some preparation ( books, reading, online stuff) but if anyone > has ideas of things to see, we would appreciate the input.....