A guide to New Zealand

New Zealand is an amazing place to visit. The scenery is like something from Lord of the Rings. In fact, the scenery can be exactly that from Lord of the Rings. The country itself is a bit of a contradiction. You can either spend your days hiking through the mountains and staying sleepy towns, or you can keep your adrenaline pumping by throwing yourself off a variety of different high-up objects. It’s one extreme or the other.

Each town I visited in New Zealand always seemed to have one or two must-dos, so with that in mind I thought I would put together my guide to New Zealand, what to do and where.

I have to admit, I can’t really think of too much to recommend specifically in the city. I did some shopping on the quirky Karangahape Road and then at Victoria Park Market, before embarking on a fantastic bar crawl with Nomads Hostel. Getting out of the city and going to somewhere like Mt. Eden, where you can get views of the city from a distance, is worth doing but, ultimately, Auckland is the place to start a tour of New Zealand. It was here I flew into and where I caught my bus with the Kiwi Experience, before making my way south.

Arriving in Waitomo, I wasn’t really sure why we were there. There didn’t seem much to do, and indeed there wasn’t. We were told to go to the local cave and so we did, somewhat skeptically. Sadly, we weren’t allowed to take photos, so I can’t illustrate how cool it was to see hundred of glow-worms stuck to the ceiling, glittering away like stars in the dark. You’ll have to go to the glow-worm cave and see for yourself.