Book Description
Find out what all the fuss is about. Experience the natural and human wonders of New Zealand: green national parks and towering mountain backdrops plus a vibrant cultural scene with wining and dining to write home about. Be inspired with this bestselling, independent guidebook in hand. • DISCOVER the best of wild-and-wonderful New Zealand with the help of our new colour highlights and outdoors sections and suggested itineraries • CONNECT with the Kiwis (and a kiwi), with history, culture and environment sections written by experts • GET AROUND the country with the help of over 120 detailed maps • TREAT YOURSELF to fine seafood, great wines and other gastronomic delights, following our expert foodie's advice on where and what to eat and drink • SEE THE SIGHTS along our city walking tours, with or without kiddies in tow


Excerpted from Lonely Planet New Zealand (Lonely Planet New Zealand) by Paul Smitz, Martin Robinson, Nina Rousseau, Richard Watkins, James Belich, Julie Biuso, Russell Brown, Vaughan Yarwood, David Millar. Copyright © 2004. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Destination New Zealand You're winding your way along a valley etched into the earth by an ancient, industrious glacier, continually crisscrossing a broad, pebble-bottomed river that couldn't look fresher if it had just splashed its way out of a cloud, and drinking in views of variegated rock-hills, the knotted greenery of unkempt arboretums, and snow-dipped peaks crowding before an expansive blue backdrop...Such memory-filling vistas are commonplace in New Zealand, but truth be told, overblown descriptions don't do the country justice - this is one of those rare places where superlatives fight a losing battle to match the actual stature of the land, not the other way around. And it's not just the living landscapes of New Zealand that conquer the expectations of contemporary explorers. Desires are also fulfilled (and fuelled) by restaurant plates decorated with home-grown edibles, glasses spilling over with fine local wines, entrancing Maori stories, and an overwhelming choice of inventive activities ranging from the impossible-made-easy allure of bungy jumping to the panoramic excitement of a river-skimming jetboat ride. The wild, rough-cut beauty of this faraway country, where travelers tread paths of ice, lava, sand and rimu-sheltered dirt on their way around the pairing of main islands and across pristine satellite islets, has fittingly gained cult status as the celluloid setting for one of the most inspired stories ever told. But unlike Lord of the Rings, New Zealand is real - this is not Middle-earth, so forget the fictional comparisons and confront the country's magnificent geography, as well as its ever-evolving culture, on its own authentic terms.