Welcome to New Zealand

	New Zealand North & South Islands & Great Barrier Island

Welcome to New Zealand / Aotearoa, Land of the long white cloud. Haere mai!
New Zealand is situated between latitude 34'S and 47'S, the country runs north & south with mountain ranges on most of its length. The North and South Islands which are separated by the Cook Strait, are the two main islands and are about the same size as California. The South Island is the largest land mass of New Zealand, and is divided along its length by the Southern Alps, the highest peak of which is Aoraki/Mount Cook at 12,320 ft.

	The Maori people were the first settlers about 1000 years ago and make up about 14% of the four million multi cultural population. We were welcomed to New Zealand in the traditional Maori welcome where Kip was chosen to receive the welcome gift along with a wonderful Maori performance.

New Zealand's beautiful landscape is made up of a great variety of landforms such as beautiful beaches, lush green valleys, spectacular mountain peaks and glaciers. Giant tree ferns, evergreen rain forest, vines and the large Kauri trees give the appearance of a jungle.

	The North Island is less mountainous than the South, but is marked by volcanism. There is no other place in the world where you can stand on active volcanoes, watch mud boil and geysers erupt.

Agriculture has been and continues to be the main export industry in New Zealand. Both the North & South Islands have an abundance of cattle, sheep and deer. Livestock are rarely housed, but feeding of small quantities of supplements such as hay and silage can occur, particularly in winter. Stock are grazed in paddocks, often with moveable electric fencing around the farm. Lambing and calving are carefully managed to take full advantage of spring grass growth.

The flightless kiwi bird is the national symbol of New Zealand and can only be viewed in Kiwi Houses where they are protected and cared for. King salmon and kiwi fruit, originally known as the Chinese Gooseberry, are also some of the interesting things to discover while touring New Zealand.

Our tour of the South Island was one of the highlights of our stay in New Zealand, the camper van we rented was great. While we visited many different places and saw a lot of interesting things, our favorite was seeing the different species of penguins, the small blue which are the cutest, the yellow eyed and the king penguins. See video

More than 6000 miles of carefully marked and maintained trails can be found on both the South and North Island with 400 miles of these tracks located on Great Barrier Island. Boarded sidewalks beneath canopies of native trees, suspension bridges over rivers and across canyons, stairs climbing up steep ridges, unimproved trails winding across streams make up this unique track system.

	We had a great day sail to Great Barrier Island located 50 miles SE of Whangarei where we enjoyed the Port FitzRoy anchorage and the beautiful hikes on the island.

New Zealand's North Island has become a welcome relief for cruisers. We spent a week in Opua in the Bay of Islands which is the logical first stop, with a well organized Customs Dock easily accessible at night. Well rested we headed south passing the famous Bay of Islands Hole in the Rock and headed south to Whangarei where Adelia would spend the tropical cyclone season in the Riverside Drive Marina.

See more photos