West Coast
At the foot of the Southern Alps’ western slopes, the thin strip that is the West Coast is one of New Zealand’s wildest untouched natural areas. The coast gets about 4m (13ft) of rain a year, and is a sparsely populated region with a dramatic mountain and native forest landscape, with pristine bush-fringed lakes, which provides a home to the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers. It is possible to take guided ‘ice walks’ on the glaciers or enjoy the myriad wilderness walking tracks that snake in and out of the forests, round the river valleys and gorges, and into the foothills of the Alps. It is also worth visiting the small communities of Greymouth and Hokitika where you can purchase carved greenstone, called pounamu by the Maori, who use it for decoration and to make weapons. This beautiful, green, hard nephrite jade carved in a traditional shape (each shape carries its own meaning and story) provides the perfect souvenir of a trip to the ‘Land of the Long White Cloud’.
The Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers cut through dramatic glacial valleys to flow into temperate rainforest. While many glaciers world-wide have been retreating, these glaciers still flow almost to sea level, making them unique relics of the last Ice Age. South-Westland lies in the path of a band of wind known as the 'roaring forties'. The weather that flows on to the West Coast is forced to rise over the Southern Alps, thereby cooling and dropping most of its moisture as rain and snow. This process causes approximately 30 metres of snow to fall on the neve, or catchment area of the glacier every year. Snow that is compacted on the neve forms blue glacier ice that is funnelled down the valleys of the Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. This flows under its own momentum, forming these 'rivers of ice' which are easily accessible from the Waiho (Franz Josef) and Cook (Fox) river beds.
Fiordland
To the southwest of the South Island is Fiordland, listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Area, which offers a huge range of walking tracks in the wilderness consisting of numerous lakes, mountains, native forest and a pristine coast. Many scenes from the blockbuster film trilogy The Lord of the Rings were filmed in different areas of Fiordland. Nestling beside Lake Wakatipu at the foot of the Remarkables Range, Queenstown is known as New Zealand’s ‘adventure capital’ where tourists can bungy, paraglide, parachute and jet boat (in narrow gorges) until weak at the knees. There are also several world-class walking tracks running out from Glenorchy just along the lake shore, including the Caples, Greenston Tracks and Routeburn (all four to five days). Only 100km (60 miles) or so away is Te Anau, on the shores of the gorgeous Lake Manapouri, where many more walking trails (from one to six days) wind into the bush, over the saddles and around the fjords, mountains and forests including the famous Milford Walking Track (four to five days). From Te Anau traveling north, a beautiful scenic road leads to Milford Sound (wrongly named a sound when in fact it is a fjord). Tourist boats carry people out to the sea along the narrow, high-walled, glacially-scooped fjord where Fiordland crested penguins, seals and sometimes whales and dolphins take advantage of the abundance of fish due to the unusual conditions. In the fjord, a layer of freshwater, from the mountains, lays on top of the salt water from the ocean refracting light and creating a mini ecosystem teeming with marine life. For those interested in an even more deserted wilderness experience, there are kayak and boat trips into the adjoining Doubtful Sound.
Southland
The green and fertile province of Southland at the bottom of the South Island is home to the cities of Invercargill and Dunedin (which is Gaelic for Edinburgh), both of which have strong Scottish roots and retain a distinctive Celtic flavor. In Dunedin, this is perhaps best reflected by the city’s streets bearing the same names as those of Edinburgh, and the presence of Wilson’s Whisky Distillery (reputedly the world’s southernmost distillery) and the Emmerson’s and Speights breweries. Unlike Edinburgh, Dunedin also has the Otago Peninsula, a glorious natural thumb poking out into the Pacific, where it is possible to see rare yellow-eyed penguins (Maori name hoihoi, meaning noise maker), enormous yet graceful royal albatross, and basking on the rocks around the peninsula – fur seals. Invercargill’s Sub-Antarctic Audio Visual and Gallery is a wonderful museum containing, among other interesting exhibits, a number of live tuatara, New Zealand’s very rare and prehistoric lizard, while nearby is Bluff, home of the famous ‘Bluff oysters’, a delicacy that should not be missed. Between Invercargill and Dunedin is the Catlins Forest Park, with its wild beaches, pods of Hector’s Dolphins and the only mainland colony of Hooker sea lions.
Stewart Island
Across the Foveaux Strait, New Zealand’s third-largest island, Stewart Island, has few inhabitants and can be reached by plane (travel time – 20 minutes), helicopter, or boat ride aboard a motor catamaran from Bluff. The island has various attractions, including a rare chance to see the endangered kiwi (New Zealand’s national symbol) in the wild. The birds feed in the evenings around Mason’s Beach, accessible by plane, or by water taxi to Patterson’s Inlet, followed by a delightful four-hour walk. Another draw card is Ulva Island, a predator-free, offshore expanse of bush and beautiful beaches where curious native birds come down to the foreshore to watch tourists clambering off the water taxi.
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