New Zealand is one of the few developed nations in the world where you can get back to the true wilderness; a place of natural beauty, lush trees and snow-capped mountains make for majestic vistas that allow mighty tales to be conjured up by someone’s mind. It is little wonder then that the epic Lord of the Rings movie sagas and later The Hobbit Trilogy filming locations were based entirely in the Archipelago nation. The superlative quality of the scenery evokes instant breath-taking inspiration. New Zealand is the perfect landscape for tales of fantasy – as is the fact that the Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit director, Peter Jackson, is a Kiwi too!
Your Own Epic Adventure?
New Zealand is the youngest landmass in the world, it is has also been inhabited by humans for the shortest amount of time, so it retains a little bit of an unspoilt quality. The country that has the UK’s queen as Head of State is a little larger than Britain but far less populated, with only roughly 4.7 million New Zealanders and Maori living there. So there is space in spades to explore this unique and wonderful corner of the world. Explore the isolation, the mountains, the beaches, the modern cities and the varying weather in awe!
A World of Difference on Small Islands
There are an estimated 30 million sheep on New Zealand, so if they were to revolt and overthrow their human and Border Collie overlords chaos would reign! Dodging that unlikely outcome, one can certainly spot many of the animals dotted through New Zealand on Campervan Holidays making them an epic way to travel and holiday on these islands in their own right. The country is positioned in a unique way that allows it to benefit from a truly temperate climate, although that does not stop extremes from existing in the nation. In the far north of North Island, summers can get subtropical while the winter can result in temperatures as low as -10 Celsius in some of the more mountainous regions of the south.
Freedom of the Open Road
Driving around the deserted roads and wild open spaces across the nation is a liberating experience, the beauty and magnificence is only further amplified by the remoteness of New Zealand’s location. Lying about 1,400 miles from the eastern coast of Australia, the southern tip of the archipelago rests at a nexus between three of the world’s great oceans: the Indian Ocean, the Southern Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, the last bastion of nature before a wilderness of sea leads to swathes of ice on Antarctica. Any traveller to this vibrant country that also has a rich, diverse history, a blend of European and Maori history (just take a look at the All Blacks perform The Haka for example).
As different from Australia as Australia was to Captain Cook who landed there, New Zealand is really a place that driving around lets you truly soak up as a remarkable place.
