Uniquely New Zealand

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Uniquely New Zealand

Overview

Uniquely New Zealand is a Touring, Camping and Sailing Guide enabling one to get to the places in New Zealand that "Packages" can thankfully still not reach. It concentrates on the things that make New Zealand special and what has shaped the country, its people and their leisure activities. We are convinced that the simpler the lifestyle one is prepared to adopt the closer you will get to the real New Zealand and the better you will experience it's scenery, wildlife and sports. So what are the special and unique things that bring us back year after year that you should not miss.

Climate and Scenery - Mountains, lakes, forests and a spectacular coastline with deserted beaches, maritime parks and islands. New Zealand has them all and most of it is protected in National Parks and Reserves.
Active Thermal Areas - New Zealand is also an area which is very active geologically and has a number of fascinating thermal areas, predominantly North Island.
The Wines - The climate is ideal and there are many excellent wine areas in both North and South Island which we have visited.
Goldmining was important at the turn of the century and there are many goldfields with structures still standing some of which have been restored.
Kauri, both logging and the gathering and use of it's gum forms another unique part of New Zealand history worthy of investigation.
Maori Culture and Heritage - One can not fully understand and appreciate New Zealand without gaining some understanding of the Maori Culture and Heritage and the interactions with the first settlers and their way of life.
Sailing - New Zealand has some of the best sailing in the world from Auckland - the City of Sails - and the Bay of Islands. We have chartered from both.
The Peace and Quiet - In the UK you can never get away from people and noise - in New Zealand we have found areas whilst touring, camping and walking where even aircraft do not pass over for days and people are so rare, friendly and helpful you want to stop and talk.

We cover our own experiences of activities such as sailing, fishing and camping which are fundamental to the Kiwi way of life. The content draws extensively on our "Letters from the Antipodes" Emailed to friends the last 15 years with pictures added on our return to form a comprehensive touring guide. There is a lot of information but much of it is still organised chronologically. If you want specific information on, for example, a place you are thinking of visiting or an activity please try the Search Engine which has a complete index of every word on our sites and is updated weekly.

We have tried to extract information from the chronological organisation into specific pages which are accessible from the bottom of this page. We however have not been good at keeping these updated as often as we should.

Touring

These pages form a record of our travels in New Zealand over the last 24 years. We usually try to make the pages self contained so their is a certain amount of duplication when we return to favourite places. All the pages are generously provided with pictures, in the early days from film cameras and digital images taken from our video cameras which had still facilities. From the begriming the text had small thumbnail images which could be clicked to give an enlarged 'popup' image in a new window. By 2005 we were only using our new digital cameras and the new 'popup' images were provided in two sizes to cover different screen sizes and also to allow bandwidth reduction when mobile or on slow connections.

During the 24 years both the Internet and hardware has not stood still and there are now some new factors to consider, in particular many people including ourselves are now accessing our pages from Smart Phones and Tablets which are unable to handle popup images well, in most cases they open them in a new tab. We are now offering an option (the default) of using an Overlay technique most often called a Lightbox Effect. This is now available on all the NZ touring pages from 2004 onwards although the automatic scaling works best on pages written in the latest web standard HTML5. The final stage of changing the pages on the web site to a fully Responsive and Mobile Friendly design is well advanced and pages satisfying that criteria have a green Mobile Friendly icon after the link. Touring and Sailing pages prior to 2004 are best viewed on a standard computer or laptop as they use popup images and do not use the latest web standard HTML5. The display settings can be changed on pages with images on the bottom right corner.

Most recently, we have started to increase the size of new 'Lightbox' images from 600 x 450 pixels to 800 x 600 pixels. We have working back to 2004 increasing the size of most of the older images but you may still find a mix of sizes when they have been reused.

New - Touring in New Zealand 2019 - 3 months mostly spent in South Island. A comprehensive write up, in particular of South Island, with 400 new pictures overall. Currently some pages are long and hence slower to load so they may be split with a resultant change in page numbering.
- Part 1 - North Island: Waiheke, Ohaeawai, Athenree, Napier and Hawke's Bay Wineries and Wellington
- Part 2 - South Island: Blenheim and the Marlborough Wineries, Waipara Sleepers, New Brighton & Lyttelton, Akaroa & Banks Peninsula and Christchurch
- Part 3 - Mount Somers, Tekapo, Pukaki and Ruataniwha, Wanaka and Cromwell
- Part 4 - Alexandra and Naseby
- Part 5 - Otago Peninsula, Portobello, Catlins and Lake Manapouri
- Part 6 - Mandeville, Lakes and Mountains to Mount Somers, Arthur's Pass, Greymouth and West Coast, Waiuta and Reefton, Motueka and Abel Tasman and Te Mahia
- Part 7 - North Island: Summary

Touring in New Zealand 2017 - 6 weeks in North Island
- Part 1 - Auckland, Waiheke, Rotorua
- Part 2 - Napier and Hawkes Bay Wineries
- Part 3 - Napier-Taihape Road, Ohakune, The Forgotten World Highway to Stratford and Taranaki
- Part 4 - Coromandel, Sandspit, Warkworth and Bay of Islands
- Part 5 - Hokianga, Kauri Coast, Dargaville Museum, Matakohe and the Kauri Museum and Auckland/Waiheke
Touring in New Zealand 2016 - A mixture of South and North Island with the highlight being the Warbirds over Wanaka Airshow over Easter. Our most comprehensive guide ever to South Island with over 500 extra pictures.
- Part 1 - North Island: Auckland, Waiheke, Dargaville and Kauri Country
- Part 2 - Rawene and the Koutu Boulders, Russell and the Bay of Islands, Kawakawa, Thames, Paeroa
- Part 3 - Mills Reef Winery, Rotorua and the Thermal Areas
- Part 4 - Napier and the Hawkes Bay Wineries, the Inland Patea, the Tokomaru Steam Museum and Wellington
- Part 5 - South Island: Marlborough and the Wineries, Te Mahia, Nelson Wineries and Kaiteriteri
- Part 6 - Reefton, Waiuta, Blackball, the Kanieri Dredge and the Buller Coal Mine
- Part 7 - Greymouth, Ross, Hokitika, Goldfield Walks, Arthurs Pass, Ashley Gorge and Lyttelton
- Part 8 - Akaroa and the Eastern Bays, Christchurch
- Part 9 - Mt Somers and the Road to Erewon, Geraldine, Fairlie and Lakes Pukaki, Tekapo and Benmore
- Part 10 - Wanaka, Cromwell, Cairnmuir and Otago Goldfields
- Part 11 - Thomson Valley Gorge Road and more Otago Goldfields
- Part 12 - Chard Farm, Manapouri and Croyden Aviation Heritage Centre
- Part 13 - Otago Peninsular, the Elsie Evans, Dunedin and Lawrence
- Part 14 - Tuapeka Mouth Punt and Alexandra
- Part 15 - Naseby, Arrowtown, Queenstown and Luggate
- Part 16 - Warbirds over Wanaka Airshow - I
- Part 17 - Warbirds over Wanaka Airshow - II
- Part 18 - The Journey North: Ashley Gorge, Marlborough and North Island summary
Touring in New Zealand 2015 - Our travels in North Island.
- Introduction and Summary
- Part 1 - The journey from the UK, Auckland, Waiheke, Rotorua, and and Taumaranui
- Part 2 - The Forgotten World Highway (SH43) , Stratford, Wanganui Town, a trip on the Wairua Whanganui Riverboat and Himotangi Beach
- Part 3 - The Tokomaru Steam Museum and Wellington
- Part 4 - Martinborough (Vineyards), the Carnival Park Domain at Pahiatua, Eskdale and Wairoa
- Part 5 - Napier and Art Deco Weekend
- Part 6 - Athenree Hot Springs, Paranui and Broken Hills Goldfields Goldfields
- Part 7 - Coromandel Peninsular, Kauri Forests, Bay of Islands, Sandspit and Cyclone Pam
Touring and Sailing in New Zealand 2014 - A mixture of South and North Island. .
- Introduction and Summary
- Part 1 - Auckland, Waiheke, Rotorua, Napier, and down to Wellington
- Part 2 - South Island: Marlborough and the Vineyards, Waipara, Christchurch and the Banks Peninsular
- Part 3 - Mountains, Lakes, Wineries and Goldfield: Mt Somers, Cromwell and Frankton
- Part 4 - Walks and the Central Otago Goldfields: Lake Manapouri, Alexandra and Omakau
- Part 5 - More Walks and Central Otago Goldfields: Naseby, Middlemarch, Dunedin and Lawrence
- Part 6 - Waikouaiti, The Vanishing World Trail, Oamaru, Arthur's Pass and Hokitika
- Part 7 - Greymouth, Buller, Blackbull and the Dredge, Murchison, Collingwood and Golden Bay, Nelson and Te Mahia in the Sounds
- Part 8 - North Island: Wellington, Stratford and Taranaki, The Forgotten World Highway, Taumarunui, Athenree and the Coromandel
- Part 9 - The Bay of Islands and the Wairiki Peninsular Reforestation, Waiheke, Tounson and Kauri Coast, Kerikeri and Sandspit
Touring and Sailing in New Zealand 2013 - Three months mostly spent in South Island.
- Sailing in 2013 - Only the weeks sailing in the Hauraki Gulf got written up before we returned to the UK on the Cunand Queen Mary 2 and got distracted.
Touring and Sailing in New Zealand 2012 - Three months mostly spent in South Island. .
- Introduction and Summary
- Part 1 - Auckland, Waiheke, Rotorua, Napier and Wellington
- Part 2 - South Island: Marlborough and the Vineyards, Moulsworth Station, Waipara and Christchurch
- Part 3 - Mountains, Lakes and Backroads: Mt Somers, Tekapo and Cromwell
- Part 4 - Central Otago, the Goldfields and the Snow: Omakau and Lawrence
- Part 5 - Dunedin, the Otago Peninsula, Catlins, Invercargill and Lake Manapouri
- Part 6 - Lake Wanaka, Haast Pass, Glaciers and Ross and Hokitika
- Part 7 - Hokitika and the Pounamu Story - some layout changes are planned
- Part 8 - Greymouth, Buller, Blackbull and the Dredge, Waiuta, Reefton, Murchison and Kaiteriteri in Tasman Bay
- Part 9 - Golden Bay: Takaka, Collingwood, Nelson and Te Mahia in the Sounds
- Part 10 - North island - the last couple of weeks
Touring and Sailing in New Zealand 2011 - Seven weeks in North Island after coming out on the New Cunard Queen Elizabeth.
- Part 1 - A brief summary of our travels and sailing - more notes and pictures than our usual travelogue and more for our own records.
Touring and Sailing in New Zealand 2010 - Five weeks in North Island after 57 days on the Cunard Queen Mary 2.
- Introduction and Summary
- Part 1 - Sailing from Waiheke Island to Great Barrier Island and on to the Bay of Islands via Tutukaka. A brief summary of the trip and a huge picture gallery
- Part 2 - A journey round North Island - Rotorua, Napier, Wanganui, Mount Egmont and Taranaki, Taumarunui and Thames. This year we have restricted the detailed coverage largely to “First Time” visits plus a good number of pictures
Touring and Sailing in New Zealand 2009 - Three Months in North Island
- Introduction and Summary
- Part 1 - Auckland, Sailing round Waiheke Island and the Coromandel
- Part 2 - Rotorua, Tokomaru, Wellington and the Wairarapa
- Part 3 - Wanganui, the River Road, Taumarunui, the Main Trunk and the Raurimu Spiral, Forgotten World Highway and the Tawhiti Museum
- Part 4 - Taranaki with an update on Mountain House and The Anderson's Alpine Lodge, a walk to Dawson Falls from Mountain House, a visit to the Republic of Whangamomona, Napier and the Harvest Hawke's Bay Wine Festival.
- Part 5 - Wairoa, Gisborne and the East Cape, Whakatane and White Island
- Part 6 - Lake Tutira and the Napier Art Deco Festival
- Part 7 - Wairoa, Waikaremoana, Rotorua and Auckland
- Part 8 Sailing 2009 - Sailing in the Hauraki Gulf and Great Barrier Island
- Part 9 - The Bay of Islands and Northland
Touring and Sailing in New Zealand 2008 - Two months split between the Islands.
- Introduction and Summary
- Part 1 - Auckland, Sailing round Waiheke Island, the Catalina to Napier and the Art Deco Festival.
- Part 2 - Backroads from Napier - the Inland Patea and the Forgotten World Highway, Mountain House and walks round Mt Egmont, Wanganui and Wellington
- Sailing 2008 - Sailing in the Marlborough Sounds
- Part 3 - Marlborough, Omaka, Denniston, West Coast Goldfields and the Haast Pass
- Part 4 - The Otago Gold Fields, the Burt Munro museum in Invercargill, Tapanui and Manapouri
- Warbirds over Wanaka 2008 - One of the bigest airshows in the world
- Part 5 - The Journey North
Touring and Sailing in New Zealand 2007 - Six weeks in North Island.
- Introduction and Summary
- Part 1 - Auckland, Waiheke Island, Wanganui, Mountain House and the Forgotten World Highway
- Part 2 - Taumaunui, Rotorua, East Cape and Hawkes Bay
- Part 3 - Napier and the Art Deco Festival
- Part 4 - The Inland Patea, Tokomaru Steam Museum, Wellington, Rotorua, Waihi, Coromandel and Auckland
- Part 5 - Sailing in the Hauraki Gulf and Great Barrier Island
Touring and Sailing in New Zealand 2006 - three months split between the islands.
- Introduction and Summary
- Part 1 - Auckland, Waiheke Island, Tokomaru and Wellington
- Part 2 - South Island: Marlborough, Christchurch and Dunedin
- Part 3 - Otago Goldfields and Trails - Naseby and Cromwell
- Part 4 - Lakes and Mountains - Wanaka, Lake Aviemore and Mount Somers and Arthur's Pass
- Part 5 - West Coast, Tasman Bay, Golden Bay and Marlborough Sounds
- Part 6 - North Island: Wellington, Taranaki and Inland Patea
- Part 7 - Napier Art Deco Festival and Lake Tutira
- Part 8 - Sailing from the Hauraki Gulf to the Bay of Islands and back
- Part 9 - Northland, Coromandel and Rotorua
Touring and Sailing in New Zealand 2005 - three months in North Island.
- Introduction and Summary
- Part 1 - Kauri Coast and Northland
- Part 2 - Northland and Bay of Islands
- Part 3 - Auckland, Waihi, Rotorua
- Part 4 - SH43 Forgotten Highway, Mountain House and Egmont NP
- Part 5 - Wellington and Tokomaru Steam Museum
- Part 6 - Whanganui Riverboats, The River Road and Inland Patea
- Part 7 - Napier - Art Deco Festival and Catalina
- Part 8 - Waikaremoana, Gisborne, Tauranga and Auckland
- Part 9 - Sailing in the Hauraki Gulf and Mercury Islands
- Part 10 - Whangarei and Bay of Islands
Touring and Sailing in New Zealand 2004 - three months split between the islands.
- Introduction and Summary to the 10 parts
- Part 1 - Auckland, Waiheke Island and the Soren Larsen Tallship
- Part 2 - Rotorua, Wanganui and Wellington
- Part 3 - Marlborough, Golden Bay, West Coast Goldfields, Glaciers and the Haast Pass
- Part 4 - Hawia, Queenstown, Glenorchy, Cromwell, Naseby and the IDA valley
- Part 5 - Wanaka, Central Otago Goldfields and Wineries
- Part 6 - Dunedin, Catlins, Mavora, Manapouri, Te Anau
- Part 7 - Mt Cook, Benmore, Tekapo, Mt Somers, Marlborough, The Sounds
- Part 8 - Napier Art Deco Festival, Wineries and The Martha Mine at Waihi
- Part 9 - Sailing in the Hauraki Gulf and out to Great Barrier Island
- Part 10 - Northland, Kauri Coast, Russell and Auckland

Pages prior to 2004 are best viewed on a Computer or Laptop

Touring and Sailing in New Zealand 2003 - three months split between the islands.
- Introduction and index to the 8 parts
- Part 1 - Auckland, Waiheke, Rotorua and Ohakune
- Part 2 - Inland Patea, Napier and Wineries, Gisborne and the East Cape, Palmerston North and Wellington
- Part 3 - Blenheim and the Marlborough Wineries, Abel Tasman, Reefton and Gold Fields, Lewis Pass
- Part 4 - Christchurch - Wineries and Museums, Mt Somers/Erewhon, Tekapo, Naseby and Goldfields
- Part 5 - Queenstown, Wanaka, Christchurch, Hokitika and Goldfields, Marlborough Sounds
- Part 6 - Wellington, Whanganui and the Riverboats, SH43, Mt Egmont and Mountain House, Taupo, Coromandel, Auckland
- Part 7 - Sailing in the Gulf and up the Coast to The Bay of Islands and Whangaroa harbour
- Part 8 - Auckland, Waiheke, Sandspit, Kauri Coast, Northland, Russell, Auckland
Touring and Sailing in New Zealand 2002 - three months split between the islands.
- Introduction and index to the 8 parts
- part 1 - Waiheke, Tokomaru, Whanganui, Wellington
- part 2 - Marlborough, Christchurch, The Lakes
- part 3 - Haast Pass, Cromwell, Alexandra and Otago Goldfields
- part 4 - Dunedin, Naseby, Arthur's Pass, Golden Bay
- part 5 - Abel Tasman, The Sounds, Marlborough
- part 6 - Wellington, Rotorua, Coromandel, Bay of Islands
- part 7 - Sailing in Hauraki Gulf and Great Barrier Island
- part 8 - Northland
Touring and Sailing in New Zealand 2001 - three months in North Island.
- Introduction and index to the 5 parts
- part 1 - Coromandel, Rotorua.
- part 2 - Napier, Gisborne, Lake Tutira, Inland Patea Heritage Trail, Tokomaru and Wellington.
- part 3 - Egmont, SH43 Heritage Trail and the Whanganui River
- part 4 - Rotorua, Auckland, Northland and Kauri Forests
- Sailing 2001 - The Coastal Passage from the Hauraki Gulf to the Bay of Islands and on to Whangoroa Harbour.
Touring New Zealand 2000 - Two months split between the Islands
- Introduction and index to the parts
- Part 1 - Auckland and South to Wellington
- Part 2 - South Island - Vineyards Christchurch, Banks Peninsular and Lakes
- Part 3 - Queenstown, Fiordland, Catlins and Dunedin
- Part 4 - Oamaru, Arthur's Pass and Golden Bay
- Part 5 - Wellington, Mount Egmont and the Taranaki National Park.
- Part 6 - Sailing in the Bay of Islands
- Part 7 - Northland and a return to the Thermal Areas
Touring New Zealand 1999 - Three months in North Island
- Introduction and index to the four parts
- Part 1 - Auckland and the local Wineries, Napier and the Hawkes Bay Wineries, the Central Mountains, and a week in Wellington including the Martinborough Wineries.
- Part 2 - The Mahia Peninsular, The Pacific Coast Highway round the East Cape, Rotorua and the surrounding Thermal Areas, and the Coromandel including its Goldfields and scenery.
- Part 3 - Sailing in the Hauraki Gulf
- Part 4 - Northland - Kauri forests, National Parks and dazzling white beaches
- Illustrated Highlights - A selection of the best 40 photographs
Touring New Zealand 1998
- Summary
- Illustrated Highlights - A selection of 32 photographs, mostly South Island with some Sailing, Bay of Islands and Coromandel .
Touring New Zealand 1997
- Narrative - mainly covering South Island
- South Island Picture Gallery
- North Island Picture Gallery
Touring New Zealand 1996
- North Island

Background and Reference Information

All these pages have now been updated to HTML5 (with Lightbox Style Overlay pictures where appropriate) and are mostly fully Responsive and Mobile Friendly and display a icon.

New Zealand Wines, Wineries and Vineyard Restaurants - brings together our favourite vineyards to visit. Selection is not solely the on the quality of the wine but is biased towards those with good vineyard restaurants, magnificent scenery and a friendly and helpful approach.
Goldmining was important at the turn of the century and there are many goldfields with structures still standing. In five parts bringing together our information on New Zealand Gold, Goldmining Techniques and Goldfields gathered whilst touring, mostly in Otago, The West Coast and the Coromandel. New content in part 2 in January 2015.
Active Thermal Areas - New Zealand is also an area which is very active geologically and has a number of fascinating thermal areas which we have visited.
The Whanganui River Story The story of the River and the river boats that served it.
Taranaki, Walks in the Mountain House & Stratford Area, and the Forgotten World Highway - This covers our stays at Mountain House and the Stratford area, walks on Mount Egmont/Taranaki from the Mountain House area, Dawson falls and scenic drives on the SH43 from Taranaki to Taumarunui, known as the Forgotten World Highway which passes through the independent Republic of Whagamomina. Best viewed on a desktop or laptop. Additional content in January 2015
The Tokomaru Steam Engine Museum A comprehensive appreciation of the museum drawing on material supplied by the owners. Additional content in January 2015
Sailing in New Zealand - An Introduction to Sailing in New Zealand with an index to our own sailing in the Hauraki Gulf, The Bay of Islands and the Coastal Passage between them and on up to Whangaroa Harbour. 14 parts in all.
New Zealand Book List: We have built up a library of books on New Zealand during our visits and have initiated a catalogue which will be extended in due course. Our books cover many topics from Sailing and Fishing through the Goldfields and Art Deco to Maori Culture.
Interesting Web Sites: We have found a number of useful Web sites on New Zealand that you may want to have a look at. They range from sources of maps to follow our travels to details of the treaty of Waitangi. They are the sites on our "favourites" lists and the ones we go back to and those used by the locals for everything from finding a telephone number to booking a train. There are brief comments on each site.
Kauri, both logging and the gathering and use of it's gum were important and form another unique part of New Zealand history worthy of investigation. We document our visits to some of the remaining forests, historic areas and museums.
Maori History and Culture in 5 parts. The Maori were the first settlers in New Zealand and first came from Polynesia about 1000 years ago. The occupied almost every area of New Zealand long before the Pakeha (European) missionaries, traders and settlers arrived and there were over 6000 Pa, fortified villages, by that time. They still have a very strong culture of their own with many traditions which flourish today. The numbers are now rising after a long period of decline and there are currently over 500,000 Maori, about 16% of the population.
Camping in New Zealand - What you need to know to start camping based on our own experiences - contains a useful table of the kit we took and bought in the first few years. Still interesting 15 years on.
GPS waypoints - Latitude and Longitudes of many useful places in New Zealand including many of the Department Of Conservation (DOC) and other campsites, downloaded directly from our GPS. The page describes a Freeware GPS Utility to handle GPS coordinates and map them and has files to upload to your GPS. Legacy Page - technology has passed this by!
Planning Guide - an early index to the information on our favourite places and activities with 15 categories ordered to loosely match our reasons for returning. In need of serious updating but the catagories are still useful.
Privacy and Cookies Statement- almost manditory these days.

Before You Leave

I would be very pleased if visitors could spare a little time to give us some feedback - it is the only way we know who has visited the site, if it is useful and how we should develop it's content and the techniques used. I would be delighted if you could send comments or just let me know you have visited by sending a quick Message.

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