New Zealand

Home | Up | Publications | Expeditions | Themes | Feature

Christchurch • Akaroa • Arrowtown • Invercargill

 

Believe it or not, New Zealand did exist before they made Lord of the Rings.  Never ones to miss a commercial trick, the locals have really cottoned on the tourist dollars of showing you where it was filmed, though the landscape does not really need the added kudos of movie immortality.

It feels rather like England when I was a child, unhurried, peaceful, cold and wet.  The main distinction is that, whilst England just got more crowded, aggressive and acquisitive, the distance from New Zealand to anywhere somewhat limited the opportunities for commercial development.  Instead of bemoaning their lot and staying at home getting bored, they dreamt up ever more exciting and dangerous pastimes.  

Skiing was far too tame, so they indulge in off-piste extreme snowboarding and when the Americans caught up with that they thought...how about jumping off tall things without skis?  So now their hobbies include jumping off bridges, jumping over the edge of cliffs, jumping out of helicopters, all with only an elastic band around your ankles.  And they charge good money for it!

Water sports include driving power boats through narrow ravines within 10cm of the sheer rock face, when the river is in flood at anything up to 100kph.

Christchurch.JPG (58794 bytes) Arrowtown (1).JPG (163629 bytes) NZ aerial (14).JPG (61622 bytes) Invercargill (2).JPG (73717 bytes)
Christchurch Arrowtown Akaroa Invercargill

 

 

All images and text are copyright.  If you wish to use any of this material contact the author: jeremy@nomadintent.com

© Jeremy Harrison 2005-2020