Loading ...Wellington Region New Zealand
If your New Zealand travels thus far have been all about wilderness and lonesome, one-horse towns, rock into Wellington for a big-city hit. Art-house cinema, hip bars, designer boutiques, live music rooms and late-night coffee shops – it’s all in ‘Windy Welly’. Wellingtonians are geographically isolated and look inwards for inspiration, a habit that fosters a red-hot arts scene. Everyone here seems to be in a band and looks a tad depleted, like they smoke and drink too much and spend their time molesting canvasses and scribbling poetry….except for the politicians of course. NZ’s capital city manages to strike a balance between creative exuberance and an institutional mindset crucial to the day-to-day running of the country. The city is neither altogether bohemian, nor overloaded with bureaucratic stuffed shirts.
Read more for detail and Video tours from others. Read the rest of this entry »
Hemmed in by hillsides around a magnificent harbour, Wellington is NZ’s capital. Locked in an age-old struggle for hip supremacy with Auckland, ‘Welly’ prides itself in its cultural and artistic wealth. Given the relatively small population, there’s an astounding number of quality restaurants, cafés, bars, galleries, shops and theatres here. And it’s certainly better-looking than Auckland: timber Victorian houses terrace up steep valleys from the waterfront in an almost San Franciscan manner.
River-hugging Warkworth makes for a pleasant pit stop, its dinky main street retaining a village atmosphere. Grab a free Heritage Trail brochure from the Warkworth i-SITE (09-425 9081; www.warkworthnz.com; 1 Baxter St; 8.30am-5pm Mon-Fri, 8.30am-3pm Sat, 8.30am-noon Sun) if you’ve got some time to kill.
The Wanganui region’s lifeblood is the Whanganui River running through the Whanganui National Park. Despite the fact that there’s more sitting down than walking involved, canoeing or kayaking the ‘Whanganui Journey’ is classed as one of NZ’s Great Walks. Early Maoris named the river’s estuary (over 30km long) Whanganui, meaning ‘Great Harbour’ or ‘Great Wait’.
The Wanganui and Manawatu districts comprise a sizable chunk of the North Island’s south, running from Tongariro National Park in the north down towards Wellington. This is mellow, pastoral country, draped with rounded green hills, gently bent roads, socially significant cities and magical national parks, rivers and gorges.
With rafts of casual Huck Finn sensibility, Wanganui is a raggedy historic town on the banks of the wide Whanganui River. Despite the recent NZ housing boom, local real estate remains relatively cheap, much to the satisfaction of the thriving arts community. Old port buildings are being turned into glass-art studios and the town centre has been rejuvenated – there are few more appealing places to while away a sunny afternoon than beneath Victoria Ave’s leafy canopy.
With overgrown valleys, unspoiled rivers and tumbling glaciers, the Wanaka region is crowned with the colossal Mt Aspiring (Tititea), the highest peak outside the Mt Cook region. Enter this area from the north via Haast Pass, and you encounter the region’s beautiful twin lakes, Wanaka and Hawea, two expansive freshwater siblings wedged between awesome hills and cliffs. From the south via Cardrona, stunning valley views and mountain vistas are on tap. The Wanaka region, and especially the activity-filled town of Wanaka itself, is seeing more and more travellers, but it’s still a quieter alternative to pumpin’ Queenstown. And once you’ve sampled a few closer-to-Wanaka action activities and told tall stories in the town’s pubs and bars, get off the tourist trail by exploring the Mt Aspiring National Park, or the forested wilderness around Makarora.
Beautiful scenery, tramping and skiing opportunities, and an expanding roster of adrenaline-inducing activities have transformed the lakeside town of Wanaka into a year-round tourist destination. Travellers come here as an alternative to Queenstown, and while some locals worry their home is starting to resemble its hyped-up Central Otago sibling across the Crown Range, Wanaka’s lakefront area retains a laid-back, small-town feel. It’s definitely not a sleepy hamlet anymore though, and new restaurants and bars are adding a veneer of sophistication. Note that Wanaka wakes up in a big way for New Year’s Eve.
Even if damp, dark tunnels sound like your idea of hell, take a chill pill and head to Waitomo anyway. These limestone caves with accompanying geological formations and glowing bugs are deservedly one of the premier attractions of the North Island.
The flat-bottomed pastoral Waitaki Valley is a little-travelled route but includes some unique sights and scenery between the turn-off at SH1 and Omarama. Predominantly farmland, bordered by increasingly impressive hills as you near the Alps, the valley is also a blokes’ paradise, known to all red-blooded Kiwi males as a place to shoot ducks, catch trout and salmon, water ski on the strikingly blue hydrolakes, and marvel at their associated hydroelectric engineering wonders. All that and some great Pinot Noirs too. Woof! This is a possible route to Wanaka/Queenstown if you’re heading south, or to Twizel and Mt Cook if you’re heading north.