My top 10... err... 11 list of reasons to visit New Zealand!

In light of Blog4NZ I decided to come up with a list of my top 10 reasons to visit New Zealand. I wanted to show off the best of this country I have totally fallen in love with and I had a little trouble limiting it to 10! Forgive the additional one, I didn't want to eliminate anything else. Cheers!


#10: Stunning beaches

Beach near Anchorage, Abel Tasman National Park, South Island

Being a rather small country, there are beaches everywhere! You can't travel far without running into the coastline and it’s fun to explore the various types of beaches. Some are rocky, some are sandy smooth, some are perfect for surfing, and others make you just want to sit back and take it all in!

#9: Gorgeous mountains

Castle Hill, South Island

South Island Road Trip with Louise: Castle Hill Bouldering!

The next two days we had set aside for some bouldering at Castle Hill. The morning after our Cave Stream adventure, we set off for the hills and hoped for a bit more motivation (and perhaps orientation) toward the available climbing!

We still didn't really know our way around (it's hard to follow guidebooks when all you can see is just a huge field of boulders) so we found some of our own problems to try.

We worked at them...

South Island Road Trip with Louise: Caving and Other Adventures!

After skydiving we headed north to Hokitika to fix dinner by the beach and watch the sunset behind their sand & driftwood sculptures. It was definitely a nice foreground for a beautiful ocean sunset – stunning!

After dark we visited a glow-worm dell where I got to see the starry night sky in an enclosed area inside a thick patch of bush! The glow-worms are one of the many distinct creatures found in NZ and can be found in caves, rainforests, and other damp areas. They are best seen at night as they glow to attract food and mates. Although I’d heard a lot of talk about them, it was my first time actually seeing any glow-worms in person; it was pretty neat to see how many of them there were in such a tiny area!