New Zealand’s South Island

Natural, untouched beauty! That’s what New Zealand’s South Island is all about. The South Island is home to the Southern Alps and some great skiing and snow boarding opportunities.

Christchurch is the busiest city in the South Island and also offers an international airport, with flights connecting directly to a lot of overseas destinations. The Sumner Beach, Gondola, Avon river and Cashmere hills are the main attractions in Chistchurch. The city centre is always busy with trams running frequently making it a great place to hang out!

Dunedin with it’s Cadbury’s factory and Queenstown with it’s adventure attractions are the other two cities that can’t be missed in the South Island. Queenstown also has bungee jumping opportunities, jet boats and ski dive opportunities. Milford sound tours also leave from Queenstown, and are highly recommended. Stewart island can also be visited by ferries leaving Invercargill.

Most cities in the South Island are well connected by Trans Rail and that’s perhaps the most convenient way to travel. Alternately, rental cars can also be booked and a drive along the West Coast is highly recommended. Getting to the South Island from the North Island is possible by either catching the Interislander ferry from Wellington or a Sounds Air flight from Wellington airport. Domestic flights run by Air New Zealand and other airlines also connect most other cities in the South Island to Wellington.

About The Author

Ramnish Gupta is based in New Zealand and has a keen interest in travel and photography. His website http://www.newzealandphotography.co.nz has travel information and photographs from all over New Zealand.

ram@newzealandphotography.co.nz

Travel experiences: New Zealand – Part 3

My sister Michelle and I booked an impromptu 4 day holiday to Christchurch, New Zealand to see our aunt for her 60th birthday. We booked the flight and little else. Our Aunty Janet lived in Rangiora, north of Christchurch. She would pick us up from the airport and we would stay with her in her 3 bedroom unit. That was all we knew when we took seats 22A and 22B on that Air New Zealand flight from Melbourne.

Michelle’s fiance had decided the night before to take Michelle out to a restaurant in the city, which is a 2 hour drive from where they lived. As her fiance with eager to keep the night going, they squeezed in some roulette time at Crown Casino before Michelle begged him to take her home. She landed on top of her mattress a few minutes passed midnight.

As day hadn’t even broken yet that Thursday morning, Michelle picked me up at 5.45am to catch our 9am flight (as I live 45 minutes from the airport, and she 90 minutes from me). As expected, Michelle decided to catch some ‘z’s’ before we landed in Christchurch. However she still had enough cheekiness to suggest that we should have some sort of adventure while we are in New Zealand – after all, it is the adventure capital of the world! With a few ideas flying around, the possibility of sky-diving excited us both. So sky-diving, here we come!

As we approached Christchurch International Airport (international because only Australia seems to fly there!), we ogled at the beautiful snow cap mountains in the Southern Alps as they glisten in the sun, not thinking that this picturesque landscape may interfere with our one and only plan.

Enter Christchurch Airport. Hugs and kisses all round for Aunty Janet and she bought her adorable 10 year old grand-daughter, Courtnay. Adorable, but naughty, shall we say! We sat down in a cafe and toldAunty Janet about our plans as Courtnay made her way to the games arcade. Janet became practical on us and said, “Okay, we’ll need to hire you a car and we need to book the skydiving. I have to work tomorrow, so that will be the best day for you to do the skydiving.”

We drove 30 minute to Rangiora and wiped the dust off the trusty White Pages to find firstly the sky-diving place and secondly a place to hire a car. It was 4.30pm, places close at 5pm in New Zealand. So we called up the sky-diving place and they said to be there by 10am, but we couldn’t quite understand them with their thick Kiwi accent, except they said something about calling them about 9am when we were on our way.

Backpacking in Australia

A Budget Travelers’ Guide to Australia

Australia has become something of a backpacking establishment. But although it has become long in the tooth in terms of hosting budget travelers, its range of backpacking attractions are as fresh and exciting as ever.

Budgeting

One of the reasons it has managed to maintain its place at the top of the budget traveler itinerary is the ability for foreign nationals from selected countries to apply for a working holiday visa.

Lasting for up to 12 months, workers can try and find a job in a major city such as Melbourne or Sydney within easy reach of cheap hostels in Australia and explore their many sites. Conversely, travelers can opt for the plentiful fruit picking work in more remote regions so they can better explore the ‘outback’.

Free Stuff

Australia is rightly renowned for its natural beauty, with relatively cheap forays to stunning attractions, such as the Barossa Valley and Cradle Mountain inshore or the Great Barrier Reef offshore, as well as Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, all established must-sees.

Events such as the Sydney Festival in January and the Adelaide Festival of Arts in March offer plenty on a budget, including open air concerts and street theatre. However be warned: competition for budget accommodation is high around festival time, so be sure to book in advance.

Travel

But with Australia hostels often scarce in these remote destinations, transport around the country is a key budget traveler issue. There are cheap flights between major capitals offered by providers such as Virgin Blue Australia and Air New Zealand.

However, rail is a popular backpacking option, with trains servicing major cities such as Brisbane, Canberra and Sydney as well as making more remote locations such as Broken Hill more accessible.

Conversely, for travelers keen on staying in the country for an extended period of months, perhaps traveling between hostels in Australia’s many great destinations, hiring or buying a car is also a popular option.

There are dedicated websites and companies that deal specifically in the exchange, sale and purchase of vehicles for gap year travelers and long-term visitors, as well as plenty of cheap car hire options in major cities.