Home » New Zealand » Christchurch, Arthur's Pass, The glaciers, Milford Sound, Mount Cook, Abel Tasman National Park, Wellington, Tongariro National Park, Bay of Islands, Auckland

South Pacific - part II

Christchurch, Arthur's Pass, The glaciers, Milford Sound, Mount Cook, Abel Tasman National Park, Wellington, Tongariro National Park, Bay of Islands, Auckland

Hector Yague
2005-10-09 15:46:17

Displayed times (last time: )

as one of the world's top 5 beaches, whatever their criteria might have been.

Other than walking, the most popular way of exploring the park's coastline and beaches is sea kayaking. I'm sure you guys know what a kayak is: one of those slim, fiber-glass-made tandem canoes. Call of duty-conscious, Corporal Felix and Lieutenant Hector promptly jumped in one of these things and paddled up and down the shore for a whole morning. The day before we had stopped by a golfing facility and played some, which added to the kayaking exercise proved way too much for my muffins-fed muscles, so the body-ache was due -and confirmed- the day after.

We stopped for a couple of hours at one of the reserve's beaches and goofed around with a group of peeps there playing freebie and stuff. It was a nice beach day. Funny to be having a beach day in mid-November; back home in Europe, we'd be having a hard time avoiding getting our balls frozen oven.

And so concluded our tour around New Zealand's south island, definitely the most strikingly beautiful of the two. I am glad that we spent two weeks out of three in total there. Apparently the north island is more densely populated with large cities like Auckland and Wellington, but I feel that it's in the countryside where the country's most precious treasures are to be found.

Anyway, after the Abel Tasman National Park, we reserved an early morning and over-priced ferry ticket (having spent the night in the uninteresting town of Nelson) to cross over towards Wellington, capital of New Zealand.

Wellington

Wellington is a small city (pop. 300,000) that feels much bigger. Featuring a large harbor frontside, wide fly-over highways an international-corporate branches left, right and center, this is a bustling urban center emanating tons of life from every pore. No wonder ...