10 adventure activities to do in New Zealand

Blogueraviajera y Mike abrazándose delante de lago glaciar después de haber hecho kayak, una de las actividades de aventura de Nueva Zelanda.

I´ve been a travel bug forever, so when Mike proposed to me the first thing I did, well before thinking about venues and dresses, was to think about the honeymoon.

We decided to far, as far as possible … to the other side of the world. Knowing it’s not exactly a cheap destination we readily used the honeymoon excuse to go for it, on the understanding that, with a little luck, we´d only get married once!

views of Auckland
Panoramic views in Auckland

At first, I wanted to do the campervan tour of both Islands, but Mike reminded me that it was a honeymoon … and perhaps campervanning wasn´t the way to go. So, in the end we settle on a posh bed and breakfast route as the way to go. This allowed us the creature comforts in some spectacular B&Bs whilst also getting to spend time with the Kiwis … quite simply some top folk.

Although we might have surprised a few… we got some funny faces when we told them that “yes” we´re on our honeymoon and “yes” we really want to wake up at 0500 because we´re going kayaking in an iceberg filled lake, diving, or rafting.

So, without further ado these are some of adventure activities we did:

1- Kayaking between icebergs, Mt. Cook.

Never before had I been kayaking between these huge blocks of ice. The countryside was breath taking and thankfully, the day we went, the weather was too. A quick tot of whiskey on glacial rocks at the end rounded the experience off nicely.

2- Swimming with sea lions in the Antarctic ocean.

Ok I´ll admit to this one, even though we both went down to «Tunnel Beach» the only one who did any swimming was Mike, I didn´t even dip a toe in.

Acantilado de "Tunnel beach" con el mar abajo.

3- Tekking and picnic with seals and sea lions in Dunedin.

Not the most relaxing picnic in my life, the sea lion in the picture, even with his 500KG bulk, was more than capable of covering short distances very quickly. We kept a respectful distance never getting between them and the sea (as not to block their percieved exit to safety). It was a quick lunch and I never took the rucksack off.

4- Hiking around Milford Sound.

After the typical and spectacular cruise around Milford Sound we headed out to Key Summit for a beautiful hike.

5- Helicopter and rafting Queenstown.

With the excuse of “honeymoon baby…” we shunned the sweaty 3 hour off road bus ride in favour of quick dash over the mountains in helicopter. The pilot thoroughly enjoyed himself with low level flying banking through canyons to reach our start point on Skyppers Canyon where we joined a group of Australian rowers to power ourselves down the Canyon, with only a little oar slapping by us amateurs.»Honeymoon baby, honeymoon».

6- Luge in Queenstown.

This one brought out the big kids in us as we pelted down the purpose-built course on the mountain side. OK, it’s not the most adrenaline junkie activity on offer (in Queenstown literally everywhere you look there´s a new way to terrify/enjoy yourself on offer), but each time we got faster, more competitive, and closer to the limit.

7- Fox glacier trekking.

It’s a typical bucketlist item on a New Zealand trip and it lived up to expectations. We donned our crampons to see the glacier from above, below and from within was an incredible experience. It was something I couldn´t afford when I visited Perito Moreno in Argentina, but here… “honeymoon baby, honeymoon” 😉

8- Kayaking with penguins and seals in Kaiteritera.

Great day trip in the Abel Tasman national park. We paddled from dawn to dusk stopping at beaches for picnic and swims with penguin and seals. At the end of the day we could barely raise our glasses.

9- Volcano trek in Tongariro (or Mordor for the Lord of the Rings followers)

As a result of a massive volcanic explosion some months before our trip we were unable to do the full 20km, although as it turned out no bad thing, it was a stinker of a day with wind driven rain and near permanent fog. However, there were brief moments when the volcano reviled itself. I think you can imagine who felt more at home in this weather, the Englishman or the Madrileña?…

10- Scuba diving at Poor Knights Islands

If Jacques Cousteau said it was in the top 10 of the best global dive sites, then we had to try it out. Between you and me, I can think of a few better places, maybe we were unlucky that day….

Bloguera viajera tomando una sopa en una taza en un barco después de bucear.
Tomando una sopa caliente después de bucear porque aunque en la zona hay muchos peces subtropicales, el agua cuando fuimos estaba bastante fría.

Note Lucía: Even though I´d done it before in Madrid I was left wanting to do bridging or bungee jumping in Queenstown, a very popular activity there, but Mike was too chicken and didn´t fancy it. So, I´ll save that one as an excuse to go back… as if one was needed.


Bloguera viajera conduciendo un coche en la derecha.

Note Mike: Without wanting to sound sexist or anything the most adrenaline filled moment was when Lucía drove. To be fair I always do the driving, it was her first time driving on the left and it was a mountain road with a sheer unprotected drop on her blind side, so maybe I didn´t choose the best spot. We lasted 500metres during which time she nearly drove of the edge twice. Thankfully our Mitsubishi Colt hire car didn´t become our coffin.


If you have enjoyed our post and want t oread more
about our adventures watch out for coming posts about our road trip and how to prepare your NZ trip.

Follow us in RRSS so not to miss anything
See you at the next destination!

(Don´t ask me what happened to my shoe in that pic… neither
of us can remember)

Bloguera viajera señalando una señal de carreteras que advierte que hay Kiwis, para no atropellarlos.

Comentarios

Este sitio usa Akismet para reducir el spam. Aprende cómo se procesan los datos de tus comentarios.