New Zealand: The Two Islands of Green Light

descriptionDescription

This itinerary travels New Zealand from north to south over fourteen days, beginning in Auckland, the City of Sails, where the 1,076-ft Sky Tower dominates the skyline over the Waitemata Harbour. The trip continues to Hobbiton in Matamata, Peter Jackson's film set where the green hills shelter the burrows of the Shire. Rotorua is the country's geothermal heart: geysers like Pohutu erupting up to 100 ft, bubbling mud pools and Maori culture at Te Puia with haka and jade carving. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing, one of the world's best day hikes, crosses volcanic craters between Mount Ngauruhoe (Mount Doom of The Lord of the Rings) and the Emerald Lakes. Wellington, the cultural capital, hosts Te Papa Tongarewa, the most innovative national museum in the southern hemisphere. The ferry across the Cook Strait brings you to the South Island, where Kaikoura offers sperm whale watching, Christchurch is reborn after the 2011 earthquake, and Lake Tekapo shows the world's purest night sky as a Dark Sky Reserve. The climax is Queenstown, on Lake Wakatipu beneath The Remarkables, and the cruise through Milford Sound, the fjord Rudyard Kipling described as the eighth wonder of the world.