Hiking & Outdoor Adventure

In New Zealand you will find yourself in an outdoors playground; a mecca for hiking, kayaking, biking, sailing, climbing, and, in winter, skiing. Some of the best things you can do in New Zealand are the great walks and wilderness day hikes, gorgeous coastal kayaks or satisfying variety of vineyard, national park and alpine bike trails.

Hiking

New Zealand is the Switzerland of the Pacific, but without the pressure of population. Combine the range of trails from gentle lakeside strolls to remote and dramatic wilderness hikes with superb facilities, no predators and few people and you have one of the best places to go hiking in the world.

Favourite Day Walks and Hikes

• The Pinnacles, Coromandel
• The Tongariro Crossing
• The Abel Tasman National Park Coastal Walk
• The Queen Charlotte Track
• The Siberia Experience
• The Rob Roy Glacier Track
• Routeburn Flats or Routeburn Falls
• Key Summit or Lake Marian in Fiordland
• Masons Bay, Stewart Island
• Mt Somers, Canterbury

Biking

New Zealand is becoming more and more of an off-road biking mecca. From trails through the vineyards to breathtaking lakeside track to helibiking high in the Southern Alps; it seems to have it all! Some of the fastest growing bike-friendly hubs are Rotorua, Golden Bay in Nelson, Queenstown, Wanaka and Central Otago. Then there are the long multi-day bike trails, such as the famous Central Otago Rail Trail and the less well known but increasingly popular Alps to Ocean ride from Mt Cook via Lake Tekapo to the east coast ending at Oamaru.

Favourite Rides

Rotorua - Whakarewarewa - The Redwoods
Taupo - Lake Taupo Trail
Ohakune -  Old Coach Roach Cycle Trail
Nelson - Great Taste Trail
Mt Cook & Oamaru - Alps to Ocean
Central Otago - The Otago Rail Trail
Wanaka - Lake Outlet and Clutha River Trails, Mt Pisa Heli-Biking
Queenstown - Gibbston Valley, Jacks Point and Mavora Lakes Trails

Kayaking & Rafting

New Zealand has a varied shoreline for kayaking. Three areas stand-out for keen sea kayakers; the Coromandel Peninsula just south of Auckland, the top of the South Island with Abel Tasman National Park in Nelson and the Marlborough Sounds just a few hours to the east, and magnificent Fiordland in the far south west of the country.

Turangi, on the southern-most edge of Lake Taupo, is an outdoorsy little town, with access to great hiking, some good mountain biking and also one of the best rafting trips in the country. 

Favourite Sea Kayak areas

Abel Tasman
Cathederal Cove
Fiordland

Useful Links

• newzealand.com
• Department of Conservation