One cloud could be forgiven for thinking that Mother Nature decided to take her best features and exhibit them all in this South Pacific island nation. All the classics are there; the awe-inspiring Alps, plunging fjords, expanses of pristine beaches, dense rain forests shaded by majestic glaciers and fuming volcanoes accompanied by powerful geysers, sulphur springs and mud pools. But what makes this such a stellar performance is the sheer concentration of it all in such a small area. Top it up with the indigenous culture, cosmopolitan cities and some of the world`s friendliest people, with a distinctly Kiwi lust for life, and you know that you are in one special country – New Zealand.

New Zealand is a land of superlatives. Surely, many travellers would say that it is ‘the most beautiful country in the world’ without any hesitation. There have been too many epithets and nicknames created to describe the country, and still, it is so hard to fit the unique character of New Zealand into one sentence. Nevertheless, for the Maori, the native people of New Zealand, their homeland will always be Aotearoa – “the Land of the Long White Cloud”.

The splendour of Aotearoa was not easy to find though. Not only the position of the islands, literally at the end of the world, but also the shield-like guards protecting their precious Terra. When the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sailed into the Golden Bay in 1642 he quickly got to know the uncompromising Maori culture and after the bloody encounter, he left without stepping onshore. It took long until the indigenous New Zealanders let the outsiders enter their kingdom and it was a great success when the English Captain James Cook first set foot on New Zealand soil in 1769 in Poverty Bay. Since then, the course of New Zealand history changed forever though..

Despite the British colonisation, the Maori heritage remained a significant part of the New Zealand culture. Unlike the neighbouring Australian Aboriginal people, who sadly got suppressed centuries ago, the Maori tradition proudly continues to grow and its priceless motherland is still very much appreciated, preserved and well-looked after. It is one of the very few places on Earth which has not become much different from what it once was.

“The cries echo across sheltered bay, reverberating steep cliff sides. It is not hard to imagine Captain Cook on his sailing vessel, moored silently in this same cove, with the same sounds haunting the ship`s crew or for that matter the Maori on their quest for pounamu, greenstone which they value so much. Little has changed since forests re-colonised the carved-out glacial valleys after the ice age ten thousand years ago..” Andrew Stevenson, Kiwi Tracks 1999

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NEW ZEALAND

new_zealand-1

Political system: Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy

Capital: Wellington

Population: 4,700,650

Land area: 268,021 km2

Religion: Christian, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam

Currency: New Zealand dollar (NZD)

Official language: English, Maori

Drives on: Left side

Climate: Temperate

Plug type: I

Voltage: 230V

Feijoa juice: a special tropical fruit

Kiwi fruit smoothie

L&P: an iconic New Zealand lemonade

Speights, Monteiths, DB, Lion: local beers

Mulled cider: locally made hot cider

Wines: Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir

Hangi: traditionally a Maori dish, a whole animal or a large part of it together with kumara sweet potato slowly cooked in the ground using heated rocks, covered with leaves

Tua Tua: shellfish cooked in white wine and parsley

New Zealand green-lipped mussels: cooked in butter, lemon and fresh herbs

Bluff Oysters: famous succulent oysters considered to be the best in the world

Whitebait  fritters: whitebait omelette

Pavlova: a big meringue cake topped with fresh fruit and cream

Tim Tam: a biscuit in chocolate filled with cream, dipped in milk

BOOK YOUR ACCOMODATION

TOP ATTRACTIONS IN NEW ZEALAND

90 Mile Beach

NORTHLAND

Matamata Hobbiton

HAMILTON

Cathedral Cove

COROMANDEL

Mount Egmont (Taranaki)

NEW PLYMOUTH

Tongariro National Park

TAUPO

Abel Tasman National Park

NELSON

Mount Cook

TEKAPO

Adrenaline Sports

QUEENSTOWN

Milford Sound

FIORDLAND