Food, Film & Far-Out Fun
Eight Ways to See New Zealand
by Helena Zukowski

After a morning driving down Coramandel’s east coast, my Kiwi friend, Liz, her husband JT and I pulled up to a small mom-and-pop restaurant they knew near Thames for a nice alfresco lunch. We’d just had an off-season weekend getaway to the Coramandel Peninsula, one of the North Island’s most popular holiday spots, but even though the temperatures had been as balmy as a summer day in Vancouver, the beaches were deserted and the beachside B&Bs empty. The owner came out, embraced Liz and ushered us to a table at the edge of an empty grapevine-draped terrace.

On my first trip to New Zealand in 1985, lunch at a restaurant like this would have offered fish and chips, BLTs and some sort of meat pie. Sheep outnumbered New Zealanders by three-to-one and high culture was having a good repertoire of the latest Aussie jokes. In most restaurants, haute cuisine was mutton, roast potatoes or some variation of ye olde England pub food.

When “mom” handed Liz the chalkboard listing the day’s specials, our choice of delicacies included starters like green-lipped mussels in saffron broth and goat’s feta filo tarts and mains like rack of lamb or home-cured tuna with sesame ginger rice—all at reasonable prices. By this point in the trip, I was no longer amazed at the cataclysmic food, wine and cultural revolution in New Zealand. A country that had once just been a delight for the eyes, now also brought enrichment for the mind and ecstasy to the taste buds. For sports-minded people, New Zealand had morphed into “the adventure capital of the world.” For sybarites, ultra-modern spas were ensconced in numerous natural hot springs, and hotels (such as Blanket Bay in Queenstown or Huka Lodge near Taupo) were rated at the top of the “world’s best” lists. New Zealand had become, in a nutshell, a country with a slice of perfection for everyone.

Despite its small size, any itinerary that tries to fit in everything is a little like trying to squeeze an octopus into a sherry glass. Based on many trips the last couple of decades, here are a few suggestions on how to enjoy “the other Down Under.”

1. A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread and…
Foodies appreciate New Zealand’s embarrassment of riches. And first-time visitors find a wide range of food tours in every region led by experienced local guides such as the pros who conduct Zest Food Tours in Wellington. On a “Taste Wellington” tour, visitors go to gourmet food shops and markets where they can find all sorts of culinary treasures not found at home to take back (try the tamarillo chutney). You also go behind the scenes to places normal visitors don’t see (a session with the city’s best coffee roaster) and end the tour with a three-course lunch (www.zestfoodtours.co.nz). Wine lovers can check out tasting rooms at both large and boutique wineries along the relatively new “wine trail” tour from Napier to Blenheim. New Zealand Tourism has driving maps that take visitors through three of the country’s top wine regions—Hawke’s Bay, Martinborough and Marlborough (www.classicwinetrail.co.nz). For cooks itchy to experiment with local products, classes such as those led by Jenny Stewart at the Punatapu Lodge take the best of NZ products and present them in fusion recipes that are distinctly Kiwi. Classes all over the country can be found at www.nzs.com/recreation/cooking-classes.

2. My Way is the Highway
New Zealand always makes good on one promise—its scenery will never disappoint. From the most northerly tip of the North Island with its rolling sand dunes and 90-Mile Beach, along the jagged coast of the Bay of Islands, through the drop-dead magnificence of volcano country, rolling wine districts and down to the south island with its dense rain forest, Southern Alps, cliffs and lakes—name it and it’s here. For anyone who has the time, the best way to see the best is by driving from the top of the North Island to the bottom of the South.
The #1 choice for visitors who want to see it all is via RV and campervan rental. Campervans usually rent for around NZ $190 (currently $142) during high season for a five-to-20 day rental. Rates are reduced for longer periods of time and for the shoulder months and NZ winter when they drop to as low as NZ $65 ($48).

3. The Reel New Zealand
Not long after the first of the Lord of the Rings films was released, Tolkien fans were hitting the turf in droves and there were enough Lord of the Rings tours to spin the head of any publicity-seeking orc. In Matamata, the set of Hobbiton where Frodo Baggins had a “hole” became a post-production tourism smash hit and in Queensland in the south, a host of four-wheel drive tours and horseback trips visit the major film sites tucked into the mountainous terrain.

Since then there have been numerous other films—Whale Rider, The Last Samurai, King Kong, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and The World’s Fastest Indian. More Narnia films are on the way and who knows what else Peter Jackson has up his sleeve? One of the tours tied to these films is the Burt Munro Tour of the South Island—Bert Munro was the Kiwi motorcycle whiz who broke all records on the Salt Creek Flats in Nevada with “the world’s fastest Indian motorcycle.” The tours revolve around a 12-day motorcycle and luxury coach tour and include the Bur Munro Memorial Classic weekend with beach racing at Oreti Beach in Invercargill (www.tourism.net.nz/tours/film-and-theme-tours/). The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe tours (new this year) start out in Christchurch and take you via road and helicopter to the sites where the climatic battle scenes at the end of the movie take place.

4. Thrills, Chills and Rolling?
Who knows why but New Zealand has become, per capita, the adventure capital of the world with a cult of innovation that is impressive. The list of thrills covers just about every high adventure sport you can think of—skiing, snowboarding, motorcycling, hand gliding, scuba, cave rafting, canyoning, white-water kayaking, sky diving, mountaineering, jet boating and more. Then there are the adventures Kiwis think up to add to the world’s roster of ways to scare yourself to death—sports like zorbing, an off-the-wall activity that looks like it was imported from an alien planet. “Zorbonauts” are strapped inside an enormous clear plastic, air-cushioned ball and spin around in a kind of weightlessness as the ball rolls down a grassy slope. Then of course, there’s bungy jumping, a high-adrenaline sport that originated in the South Pacific but became a made popular sport in New Zealand. Or what about “Fly by Wire,” a kind of glider in which you are strapped into a flying contraption tied to a 100-metre wire.

5. Be a Tramp
“Tramping” is what Kiwis call hiking and on both North and South Islands there are tramps everywhere varying in degrees of difficulty. These can be done individually or on complete packages with guide and the works (for an extensive list check www.enzed.com/tramp). Perhaps the most famous of these is the South Island’s Milford Track, right in the heart of the spectacular Fiordland National Park. Best time for this 53.5-kilometre tramp is from late October until late April. The Tongariro Crossing on the North Island’s Mt. Ruapehu and crater area is even more famous and often called “the best one-day walk in New Zealand.” The walk takes you over stunning volcanic landscapes with an 800-metre altitude gain which means weather conditions can change fast. Most reasonably fit people can do the walk and talk endlessly about it afterwards.

6. The Best of the Best
Once upon a time, Huka Lodge just above Huka Falls in Taupo was the only place you’d book the Queen and for good reason. Beside the beauty of its setting and its haute cuisine, it had a superb wine cellar. In the last couple of decades however small luxury hotels have been popping up all over the country to give Huka Lodge some competition. Eichardt’s Private Hotel is also in the very expensive category but this intimate little gem right in the heart of Queenstown does everything right. It was dubbed the best hotel in the world in 2003 by Harper’s Hideaway Report.

People looking for privacy and luxury (like honeymooners) might just select one hotel and then hunker down to take advantage of all its pampering facilities. For more restless souls, there are companies such as Luxury Vacations New Zealand that will design an itinerary of activities, accommodation and dining with supreme comfort in mind. Typical of these resorts is historical Greenhill Lodge in Hawkes Bay, Treetops in Rotorua and Delamore Lodge on Waiheke Island.

7. For Culture Vultures
The most distinctive cultural experiences are those that allow visitors a glimpse into the resurgent Maori culture. Among the best is the Tamaki Maori Village in Rotorua that displays daily Maori life before Europeans arrived. At the Whakarewarewa Thermal Resort you also tour a replica Maori Village and learn about life, arts and crafts along with a song-and-dance performance. Hotels like the Novotel I Rotorua have a hangi (pit cooked dinner) for guests along with dance, songs and games and there are special tours where visitors can experience authentic Maori food and learn to prepare it like classes by Maori chef extraordinaire Charles Royal. Culture North on the North Island Waitangi Estate tells the thousand-year-old history of the Maori people from the discovery of New Zealand to the present day through a sound and light show.

8. Wacky Wonders
Among odd experiences I have had was a day on the Coramandel when Liz, JT and I took our shovels on a nippy late fall day to Hot Water Beach where we worked up a lather digging holes in the sand. Very quickly steaming hot water percolated up through the sand creating little amateur-built swimming holes. We quickly stripped down to our bathing suits and sat there alone on the beach for some time in our budget-priced hot tubs. Among other offbeat things in New Zealand are riding around in giant artificial kiwi fruit carriage to visit a kiwi farm, swimming with sharks, tracking kiwis (birds, not the natives) at night and eating beetles and worms and bugs at a Wild Food Festival.