Travels4Yourself

Human civilization, originating somewhere in the heart of Africa, slowly spread over the Earth over several millennia, destroying the natural primordial nature of our planet. New Zealand is the last place Homo Sapiens got to and didn't manage to spoil anything! And now it’s not going to, because the 21st century is in the yard, and ecology rules the civilized world. In this article, we suggest that we go with us to a distant archipelago and explore all the most unusual and fascinating, which appeared before the eyes of researchers travelers only in the last couple of centuries.

Heat of the earth

After the catastrophic eruption that occurred 220 thousand years ago, the Rotorua caldera remained on the North Island of New Zealand. This is an almost round spot with a radius of 11 kilometers. The smell of sulfur is the first thing that will herald you of approaching the caldera. Inside it you can observe more than six dozen geysers and countless boiling puddles rich in minerals, as well as gurgling sources of bubbling mud and vaporizing cracks in the ground. Around all this, spa complexes are now rebuilt. By the way, the most powerful and tallest geyser on Earth, in the entire history of recorded observation, beat up only ten kilometers southeast of Rotorua, in the Waimangu region. In 1902, in one eruption, he raised up to 800 tons of water to a record 450 meters, but already in 1904 ceased operations.

Fjords of the southernmost seas

As if collecting the best from all over the planet, the nature of New Zealand will show its guests samples of the fjords, the most famous of which is Milford Sound, which regularly takes cruises. Overboard you can watch an unimaginable collage of white water cascades, green cliffs, tall peaks and dark cobalt waters, accompanied by flocks of dolphins and fur seals basking on the rocks. Even the rains here are a joy, because they transform everything around. The slopes protruding above the fjord at these moments are covered with hundreds of temporary waterfalls, and the surrounding peaks of one and a half kilometer height slowly open through the shimmering layers of rainfall. Having once visited Rudyard Kipling, it was not in vain that he dubbed the area the Eighth Wonder of the World. And by the way, this is where one of the most beautiful trekking, that is, hiking trails in the world takes place! The famous Milford track. However, you can’t just fly to New Zealand and immediately go to this track. All routes and shelters here are booked for six months in advance! It’s not possible to get in: environmental organizations strictly restrict access. However, a five-day itinerary is pre-booked for the Travel Club Expedition. And by the way, our group will spend the night not in ordinary huts, but in much more comfortable rooms with double occupancy, plus three meals a day on the entire route. Maximum comfort.

Magic dungeons

Is it possible to fly to New Zealand and end up in space? Easily! It is only necessary to go by boat to the underground kingdom - Waitomo cave complex on the North Island. The boat, quietly gliding along the surface of the water, appears under the ceiling, dotted with myriads of luminous points. This is Arachnocampa Luminosa - fireflies that try to attract insects in this way. The brighter the firefly star shines, the more hungry it is. Do you remember that in the open space of space, in a vacuum, there are no sounds, only absolute silence ?! It’s the same in Waitomo’s dungeons: if tourists start to sparkle with their lanterns, make noise and vigorously admire, the illusion of “travel between the stars” immediately disappears. The components of natural underground illumination are frightened by external stimuli and lose their luminescent properties.

Heart of mordor

The Tongariro National Park is located in the very center of the North Island, the tracking in which confidently holds the status of one of the best day-long walking trips in the world. The alien landscape of the highlands is diluted with three breathing and smoldering volcanoes. When the clouds scatter, glimmer of emerald lakes and the vast Central Plateau to the very limits of the horizon appear to the traveler. This place is frightening and mesmerizing at the same time, just like Mordor, in whose role Tongariro starred in the trilogy The Lord of the Rings.

Giant toys

A tiny fishing village and a former whaling station on the east coast of the South Island of New Zealand bears the name Moeraki, which means “place for daytime sleep” and gives a complete picture of the pace of life in the vicinity. But here one of the secrets of the universe lurks, attracting a variety of specialists from geologists to ufologists. It seems that on a beautiful sandy beach near the village, a giant kid was having fun and left his toys in the sand. For 300 meters, perfectly round stone balls are scattered, with a diameter from half a meter to two and a few meters. Many of them are covered with cracks and green algae like a bloom of antiquity. Some are even broken. Who, when and why created them? Or is it the result of natural processes? Unclear. It is only clear that a visit to this beach is best planned at low tide, and even better at sunrise.

Chronicles of Moving Cities

Glaciers always ran down the gorges from high mountains. And the closer the mountains to the poles, the lower the glaciation zone begins above sea level. New Zealand is one of the southernmost and closest countries to Antarctica, therefore, here, at an altitude of only 240 meters above sea level, you can touch, touch and take a walk on a real mountain glacier, framed by a humid forest. Bulky and sparkling ice bridges, arches, pedestals and entire miraculous palaces slowly crawling down, obeying the laws of gravity and thermodynamics. Slowly - it is up to 2 centimeters per day, which is actually very fast for glaciology, and by this indicator turns the New Zealand Franz Josef Glacier into a world record among glaciers. And, even if on the map you see the name of the Austrian emperor as a name, local Aborigines tell a touching legend about the girl Hinehukateré, who adored walks through forests and mountains. Once she called with her lover, but he died under a landslide, and the glacier is a girl’s tears frozen in boundless mountain.

Residents of the country of the Great White Cloud

It’s time to tell about the aborigines who live not in New Zealand, but in the country of the Big White Cloud, as they call it. For the first time (according to archaeologists), they landed here from their canoes somewhere in the 13-14 centuries. Europeans, however, arrived in such a way as to thoroughly, only at the end of the 18th-beginning of the 19th centuries. Moreover, to the extreme opposite of neighboring Australia, it is always noted that these were not convicts. A clash between the two worlds could ruin the natives, but in the 19th century the British already thought less in terms of slavery and profit. Yes, and not the one attacked, the true legends go about the militancy of the Maori. Two completely different cultures mutually enriched themselves, while the lifestyle, traditions, and the most spectacular - Maori dances and tattoos - have survived to this day. On our expedition, we will talk with the elders of the tribe, prepare traditional hangi in the land, and, of course, we will dance the hack. A ritual Maori martial dance designed to frighten all rivals before a fight. The planet’s strongest rugby team has contributed to the worldwide fame of this incredibly awesome dance, recitative and grimace composition.