Demystifying the Myth - New Zealand's North Island

Hey all,

I am back after a 6 day tour, with Active Earth , of New Zealand's "Far North" - the very top of NZ's North Island. And I am determined to set the record straight about the North Island!

The common myth about NZ is that you should not bother with touring the North Island and spend all of your time on the south island. A few reasons for this include: 80% of NZ's population lives on the North Island, the South Island has most of the Parks and conserved land, the south island is more majestic, etc. These are all true (but remember NZ has only 4.5 mm people and it is practically the size of Italy which has 60 mm people!). The fact of the matter is that the North Island is an entirely different ecosystem and is a sub-tropical rain forest (the south is more like the Alps, etc). In the North there are fern trees that grow 20-30 feet tall! They look exactly like regular backyard ferns, just massively bigger. There also are kauri trees that grow for up to 2,000 years and are the size of our sequoia trees. Honestly, they could have filmed Jurrasic Park here!

We spent 6 days hiking/kayaking/touring the north island, all the way up to Cape Reinga (the northernmost point where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean)...sunset there was spectacular. Just to give you a taste, the picture above is the view from my tent during our first night. We camped on a cliff overlooking the ocean, nobody was around. We went for a swim in the crystal clear waters. Since we are much further south than Australia the water was cold...60 degrees to be exact. I have never felt like less of a man if you catch my drift. On the last night of the tour we actually got to see a Kiwi - the iconic NZ bird. This flightless bird is quite rare and requires much conservation work because introduced predators like to make them a meal. Seeing a Kiwi is a very rare sighting and most NZers have never actually seen one in the wild. It was very exciting, especially for your very own bird man!

Although I have not yet been to the South Island, I hereby declare the North vs South Island myth bogus. There is beautiful scenery in this country wherever you go and the landscape is very diverse; differing from North to South. The next stop is fishing near Lake Taupo (also North Island) for a few days...then heading down to Christchurch for a tour of the South Island.

Hope things are well and that Thanksgiving was good for everyone. I spent Turkey day kayaking on the east coast of the north island, eating PB&J and chocolate covered banana cake. The scenery is better than being stuck in NJ but the food certainly doesn't hold a candle to mom's cooking!

later

dave