Kayaking The Tasman

Advantages: Fun, adventurous, amazing views
Disadvantages: Weather dependent

...Abel Tasman is a New Zealand National Park located just outside of Nelson on the North Coast of South Island. With its golden beaches and clear calm blue seas its the perfect place for sea kayaking so at Easter 2005 a group of four intrepid GAP year students set out with Abel Tasman Kayaks to explore the park. Fortunately the weather was good, because although the company run thorugh winter, I think good weather makes the whole experience a lot more enjoyable. Being short on time we undertook a guided day trip - Beaches and Islands - which cost $99 per person. This includes: A kayak trip, a water taxi from Marahau to Anchorage and back, a substantial lunch and a guided bush walk should you so desire. The groups are relatively small - about 12 people, or 6 double kayaks and the first part of the morning is meeting your group...

Gevaudan 15.09.2005 · Read review
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Review of Abel Tasman Kayaks

New Zealand's majestic national park

Advantages: Pristine scenery, stunningly clear air,
Disadvantages: None really

...Pukaki you have about an hour of true bliss: looking towards Mount Cook in all its majesty. Make sure you stop along the way to really appreciate the scene before you: the highest mountain and the second highest, Mount Tasman - memorable beauty , a tantalising hint of what is to come. Where to start when describing the Aoraki Mount Cook National Park is a problem so lets ``climb in'' in with the history. It was first recognised as a national park in October 1953 from a long history dating back to 1887 when reserves were created to protect the area's most significant, and I am sure some of it is unique, landscape and vegetation. It's not for a Sunday afternoon stroll this great alpine park where you will find New Zealand's highest mountains and large, stunningly beautiful but oh so dangerous glaciers. It's ice and rock with 40...

Writing321 23.02.2006 · Read review
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Review of Mt Cook National Park (New Zealand)

Wine, cheese, convicts, blue sea

Advantages: Perfect if you are looking for outdoor activities
Disadvantages: Not as perfect if you are looking for night life

...in Europe but at the end nobody goes to Tasmania to see the architecture. Another highlight there was the prison build by the convicts again..... On the way to Port Arthur we stopped and see the rock formations of "The tassellated Pavement", "The Blowhole", "Devil's Kitchen" and "Tasman Arch". If you ever go there they are worth having a look at and there are signs that guide you to them ( no need to walk). At Porth Arthur we went and saw the ruins of the prisonthat was build in 1830 as a convict timber station. It is very impressive and you get a strange vibe, because of all the sufferings. At night we went and did the ghost tour that costed us the beauty of 14 $. I did not enjoy the tour at all because was all about stories of people that saw ghosts there and not about the ghost themselves. If I was you I would go to the pub and have...

giovannacossali 01.12.2006 · Read review
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Review of General: Tasmania (Australia)

God defend New Zealand

Advantages: Feels more homely than home
Disadvantages: Really tight on speed limits

...the weather in Auckland or Northland, wait ten minutes and it will have changed. Further north, I stayed in a small town called Ruakaka with a white sandy beach. Although the seawater was not warm it was still pleasant to surf in with a relatively thin wetsuit. Further north still, I had a pleasant trip to Kaitaia (the northern-most town) where I visited a Kauri museum explaining how the Kauri wood was prepared to make furniture and other items. Less than an hour by bus from Kaitaia is 90-Mile Beach where it is possible to toboggan down sand dunes and see where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean, a sight not to be missed. I would highly reccommend northern New Zealand to anyone! My trip was enjoyable and extremely cheap at around NZ$2.50 to £1. It's like a home away from home with 4 million new friends to meet....

slogan 05.07.2005 (10.09.2005) · Read review
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Review of Auckland & Northland (New Zealand)

Why do so few people live here?

Advantages: It is the perfect outdoor destination.
Disadvantages: It sure is one long way!

.... Itinery: From Wellington we took the ferry across to the South Island and then the bus down the West Coast, stopping first in Nelson to visit Abel Tasman National Park. From here we continued the trip by bus to Franz joseph (glaciers!!!) and then we decided to hitch for most of the rest of the way as we didn't have any money (being young and naive about the cost of the trip). I know that many people have strong opinions about hitch hiking and I know it doesn't come without risk but I would like to say that we met some very interesting and kind people while hitching, it was an experience I wouldn't forgo and it saved us alot of money. So, we hitched to Queenstown (party town, skiing, extreme sports) and stayed there for the longest duration of our trip about a week I think. From Queestown back up the East coast stopping in Christchurch...

nickyturnill 18.01.2005 · Read review
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Review of General: New Zealand

100th REVIEW - And more than ten places

Advantages: Travel is good for the mind, body and soul
Disadvantages: Expensive

...: Zion, Yosemite, Great Smokey Mountains in US; Tikal (Guatemala); Palenque (Mexico); Plitvice Lakes, (Croatia); Dartmoor; South Luangwa (Zambia); Chitwan (Nepal); Abel Tasman (New Zealand) are some of the contenders. 3 Top Hotel About five and a half years ago I went to Prague and we stayed in a fabulous boutique hotel. Only had about a dozen rooms or so, all unique, and not at boutique hotel prices either. We stayed in August, peak time, and I think we only paid about £55-60 bed and breakfast per night. My friends had a room on the top floor with a mezzanine level. The chap kept hitting his head on one of the old beams going down to their private bathroom on the lower floor. Location wise it was spitting distance (probably literally, although I never actually tried it) from the astrological clock and Old Town Square...

Essexgirl2006 19.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of Top 10 Vacation Spots

  The Wilder West

Advantages: Unspoiled wilderness, fascinating sights and sites
Disadvantages: Persistent rainfall, persistent sandflies

...rocky hillsides and parallels surf-swept beaches where the Tasman Sea pounds the shore. The main purpose of the diversion, though, is to reach Punakaiki and the Pancake Rocks. There are wonderful things to see all the way down the west coast of New Zealand's South Island, but the odd thing about them is that few are actually on the coast. Punakaiki is an exception, the Pancake Rocks being located on a headland jutting out into the sea. A geological freak, these limestone rocks were formed in layers from the skeletons of molluscs and other sea creatures interspersed with layers of compacted mud. Millennia ago earthquakes forced the layers to the surface, since when they have been sculpted by waves and weather into weird designs. The sea has also burrowed blowholes through the rocks, and water spouts shoot skywards through...

torr 21.04.2005 (29.09.2008) · Read review
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Review of West Coast & Glaciers (New Zealand)

Seeing New Zealand by rail

Advantages: A good way to travel
Disadvantages: But could be better still

...'s Pass, we join the wide valley of the Grey River and run along it to meet the Tasman Sea at Greymouth, a rather unattractive little town amid what, as I am later to discover, is a wonderful coastline - but the subject of another review. Our bags are chaotically unloaded from the luggage van onto an overcrowded platform, the porters jostling and tripping over the awaiting scrum of passengers. Like the TranzCoastal, it's been a good journey. But it could have been better. oo Both the TranzCoastal and the TranzAlpine run daily, out from Christchurch in the morning, back from Picton and Greymouth in the afternoon. Fares are very reasonable. The standard one-way fare on the TranzCoastal is NZ$74 (£27 approx); that on the TranzAlpine NZ$91 (£33 approx). Returns are...

torr 08.04.2005 (29.09.2008) · Read review
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Review of Tranz Scenic

Cool as Ice!!!

Advantages: Brilliant experience
Disadvantages: Sore if you fall

...Fox Glacier Guiding While in New Zealand on the tour I took with Connections (See my New Zealand review), I got the option of taking a tour on the Fox Glacier with Fox Glacier Guiding. **WHAT IS IT** Fox Glacier Guiding is a company, which will take you onto Fox Glacier in New Zealand and show you around a bit. You can experience some fantastic sights and see things you have never seen before. This company is privately owned and they are passionate about offering the best glacier experience. They guide fewer people on the glacier to give you a better experience. It is the only West Coast Glacier with views of Aoraki (Mt Cook) and Mt Tasman (from the heli-hike). Personally I didn't see these mountains as it was snowing while I was on the glacier so visibility wasn't great. The glacier is up to 350m in depth and has 35-45 metres...

DeniseKelly40 09.07.2008 · Read review
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Review of Fox Glacier Guiding

South Pacific Paradise? Bruny Island, Tasmania

Advantages: Stunningly Beautiful, Unspoilt, Unique
Disadvantages: Located at the very end of the world...

...BRUNY ISLAND? Despite a somewhat disturbing and unsettled past, Bruny really is a place of extraordinary, unspoilt natural beauty. Its eastern coastline boasts spectacular, panoramic views, and a long stretch of wide and sandy beaches. Most of these are absolutely beautiful, and so astonishingly empty that one almost feels taken aback to discover a set of footprints in the sand. The Island is home to a stunning array of plants and wildlife, with wallabies and small kangaroos, for example, hopping about freely, as well as numerous species of rare birds. There is little in the way of development and infrastructure, and you really do get a sense of visiting an ancient Island in a completely natural state. HISTORY: Bruny Island's original inhabitants, the aborigines, referred to it as Lunawanna-Alonnah. It was sighted by Abel Tasman in 1642...

snowbunni 29.11.2005 · Read review
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Review of Tasmania (Australia)