New Zealand Adventure Tours – New Zealand Bike Tours – Hiking New Zealand Vacations

NELSON LAKES, New Zealand - Just before lunch, my backpack starts to feel like I've stuffed a circus tent inside it, and my boots and socks are soaked from slogging through calf-deep streams.

That last swing bridge over a raging river, the one with a sign warning that it could support just one person at a time? It made my knees quake. And, our guides have warned, the steepest part is yet to come. So I am happy when we break for lunch.

Tramping, the New Zealand term for hiking, is challenging but rewarding. It's one of the main reasons tourists come to this country, known for outdoorsy pursuits and adventure travel. And it's why I'm here with my husband - to hike along some of the world's most beautiful mountains and lakes.

It also burns a ton of calories, so I eat a couple of sandwiches, some cheese and a pile of chocolate cookies, then flop on the grass, arms tucked behind my head. I inhale the mountain air. Listen to the water spilling over smooth oval rocks in a nearby stream. Swivel my head in all directions to take in the panorama of snow-capped peaks.

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Where: Milford Sound

Best meal: Rotherhams, Christchurch, a small, welcoming restaurant run with gourmet continental choices as well as New Zealand specialties. Wonderful desserts. Be hungry; New Zealand menus include appetizers, mains (a small main course), entrees (a regular main course) and dessert. If you ask for salad or vegetables, you will get them; if you don't, they are not likely to be served.

Best deal: Tour with ACTIVE NEW ZEALAND. Well planned, no more than 15 in a group, excellent guides, efficiently showcases special places by hiking, biking and sea kayaking that on your own you couldn't organize. Reasonably priced. Spartan but scrupulously clean accommodations. Healthy, family-style meals. Beer and lattes under $3 everywhere.

Best time to go: November and early December - late spring, early summer "down under" - just before Kiwis travel for the holidays and best weather.

Best travel tip: Take rain gear - it is supposed to rain quite a bit, although we had only one day of intermittent drizzle on our last day. Take deet for sand flies, and don't scratch if they bite you. An old Maori myth suggests that when New Zealand was created, it was paradise. The gods sent the sand flies to remind humans how easily paradise can be spoiled.

Here's why people fly so far to hike in New Zealand: A third of the island nation is parkland, and it has just 3.8 million residents. Consequently, hundreds of miles of lightly used trails weave through rugged ranges and untrammeled rain forests. Active New Zealand's 14-day loop is billed as multisport, but most clients opt for tramping around the canyons of Punakaiki, Franz Josef Glacier, the Mount Cook Region, and other South Island beauty spots. Nights are spent in lodges, B&Bs, and a sheep shearer's cabin on a 63,000-acre farm.
WHY THIS TRIP: It dodges the predictable Milford Track in favor of trails loved by locals, and it offers two levels of hiking-moderate and challenging-on every outing.

Attitude is everything.
It could not have been clearer after seven years of marriage. Her body language said it all. "Just what on Earth am I doing at 6,000 feet with a 30-pound pack on my back, boulder-hopping on this ridge?" Her trekking pole slapped some of the small rocks out of the way. She stopped to pick one up. Must be a souvenir, as if the blisters on her feet weren't enough. I watched all this from a distance and did what all good husbands should do. Nothing.

I knew Jeannette well enough to know that she would eventually adjust her attitude. Sure enough, after falling on her backside in the grass, she did. With more-focused determination, she was one of the first from our group of 12 down the mountain that day.

We had just concluded a three-day hike into Nelson Lakes National Park on the South Island, part of our two-week ACTIVE NEW ZEALAND tour. New Zealand is made up of North and South Islands. Our tour time was spent on the South Island.

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