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12 Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in New Zealand

May 7, 2019
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New Zealand is a sovereign island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean consisting of 2 main islands, both marked by volcanoes and glaciation. These islands are one of Earth’s most peculiar bioregions, inhabited by flightless birds seen nowhere else such as a nocturnal, burrowing parrot called the kakapo and kiwi. New Zealand is one of the most difficult countries in the world in which to forecast the weather.

New Zealand has been called “God’s own country” and the “Paradise of the Pacific” since the early 1800s.

New Zealand is a long way from anywhere else in the world, so for most visitors, the only practical way to enter New Zealand is by air. Even the shortest flights between Australia and New Zealand take over 3 hours. The capital Queenstown is a resort town in Otago in the south-west of New Zealand’s South Island with a population of 15,850

Top 12 Things to do in New Zealand

Exploring New Zealand’s magnificent landscapes and coastline tops the list for many. We put together the top 12 most popular attractions.

Bungy Jump
Photo credit: CameliaTWU / Flickr

Bungy Jump

Queenstown is the home of the world’s first commercial bungy. In 1987 A. J. Hackett made a bungy jump from the Eiffel Tower and founded the first commercial bungy site in 1988. Today you can choose from either the original Kawarau bridge bungy where water touches are a must, the Ledge bungy located high above Queenstown, or the 134 metre Nevis Bungy, Queenstown’s highest bungy jump.

Milford Sound
Photo credit: Bernard Spragg / Flickr

Visit Milford Sound

It’s New Zealand’s “Most Popular Tourist Destination” and offen called the “8th Wonder of the World”. Milford Sound is a fiord in the southwest of New Zealand’s South Island. It’s known for towering Mitre Peak, plus rainforests and waterfalls like Stirling and Bowen falls.

It is a fusion of spectacular natural features with amazing visual cues around every corner.

Fox Glacier
Photo credit: Evan Fusco / Flickr

Fox Glacier

Fox Glacier is a 13-kilometre-long temperate maritime glacier located in Westland Tai Poutini National Park on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island. It was named in 1872 after a visit by then Prime Minister of New Zealand Sir William Fox.
You can join some of the variety of tours, heli-hikes, ice climbing and glacier walks amidst the spectacular scenery of Fox Glacier.

Lake Matheson
Photo credit: Mariano Mantel / Flickr

Lake Matheson

Lake Matheson, one of the most photographed lakes in New Zealand. The lake, formed by glaciation 14,000 years ago, is located near the Fox Glacier in South Westland. It is famous for its reflected views of Aoraki/Mount Cook and Mount Tasman.

The waters of Lake Matheson are dark brown, so on a calm day, they create the ideal reflective surface. The only way to approach Lake Matheson on the south island of New Zealand is on foot.

Tai Poutini National Park
Photo credit: Tony Lin / Flickr

Tai Poutini National Park

Established in 1960, the park covers 1,320 km² and extends from the highest peaks of the Southern Alps to the rugged and remote beaches of the wild West Coast. It is home to magnificent primeval vistas – snow-capped mountains, glaciers, forests, tussock grasslands, rivers, wetlands, beaches, scenic lakes, and dense temperate rainforest, as well as remains of old gold mining towns along the coast.

Moeraki Boulders
Photo credit: Bernard Spragg / Flickr

Moeraki Boulders

The Moeraki Boulders are unusually large and spherical boulders lying along a stretch of Koekohe Beach, between Moeraki and Hampden. The boulders are grey-coloured septarian concretions, which have been eroded out by wave action from the cliffs of soft, black mudstone that back the beach.

They originally formed on the seafloor when the mudstone was accumulating during the early Tertiary period some 60 million years ago. The largest concretions are traversed by cracks, filled by yellow calcite.

Lake Tekapo
Photo credit: Krzysztof Golik / wikipedia

Lake Tekapo

Lake Tekapo is part of a UNESCO Dark Sky Reserve, making it the perfect spot for stargazing. Lake Tekapo is about three hours drive south-west of Christchurch in the Mackenzie Basin. Lake Tekapo is the second-largest of three roughly parallel lakes running north–south.

Finely ground rock in the glacial melted waters give Lake Tekapo a beautifully unique turquoise color. The highland location of the lake enjoy some of New Zealand’s highest sunshine hours, and the lowest average wind speeds.

Pancake Rocks
Photo credit: StarCitizen / Flickr

The Pancake Rocks

The pancake rocks in Punakaiki are the most visited natural attraction on the West Coast. The foundations of the Pancake Rocks were formed 30 million years ago when minute fragments of dead marine creatures and plants landed on the seabed about 2 km below the surface. Along the way, there are some impressive blowholes that are best viewed at high tide.

The Pancake Rocks are presently explorable by a number of walkways winding through the rock formations

Mount Cook
Photo credit: Tatters / Flickr

Mount Cook

Mount Cook is the highest mountain in New Zealand with 3,724 metres. The mountain is in the Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park. Some people regard the area to be the best climbing region in Australasia. The mountain walks lead to alpine tarns, herb fields and spectacular glacier views. Its level of difficulty is often underestimated and can change dramatically depending on weather, snow and ice conditions.

Wanaka
Photo credit: photolupi / Flickr

Wanaka

Wanaka is a popular ski and summer resort town in the Otago region. Visitors from around the world are drawn to the Wanaka region by its outstanding natural beauty. Arts and music festivals, international sporting and aviation events are just a few of the activities, each as unique as the season it is staged.

Lord of the Rings tour
Photo credit: trevorklatko / Flickr

Take a Lord of the Rings tour

Take a once-in-a-lifetime journey to Middle-earth, traveling from Auckland to Queenstown joining as group tours or self-drive tours to Lord of the Rings filming locations.
New Zealand’s stunning landscapes captivated movie fans around the world as the unbilled star of the hugely successful The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. Over 150 real New Zealand locations were used from the rolling green hills of Matamata on the North Island.

Tongariro Crossing
Photo credit: Harry Lund / Flickr

Tongariro Crossing

This is among the most popular day hikes in the country and often described as New Zealand’s greatest day walk, the Tongariro Alpine Crossing is a challenging journey across a remarkable volcanic landscape. The Tongariro National Park is a World Heritage site which has the distinction of dual status, as it has been acknowledged for both its natural and cultural significance.

Feature photo credit: HK.Colin / Flickr

Want to learn more about other sustainable destination? Check out section sustainable travel destinations.

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Sustainability in Singapore

Sustainable Travel in Singapore

February 19, 2019
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Singapore, an island city-state off southern Malaysia, is a global financial center with a tropical climate and multicultural population. It is among the most favored tourist places in the world. The tourism industry in Singapore is a major contributor to the economy of the country. The total number of tourists in Singapore per year continues to grow and in 2010 was more than 11 million, which is more than the population of the country.

According to a report, the average stay per visitor in Singapore is 3.86 days.
Singapore in Sanskrit means “Lion City”. According to the monks, the city gets its power from the lions that once supposedly roamed here.

Singapore, declared its independence in 1965, an island with over 5 million inhabitants and only 700 square km, has one the prize Asia’s greenest city in 2016.
In this post, you’ll learn more about Singapore’s unique approach to environmental sustainability.

Sustainable Living in Singapore

The Marina Barrage, the world’s largest urban hydro dam reservoir, is transforming Singapore’s downtown city core.

Sustainable Living Singapore
With well water resource and waste management, the Singapore government has focused also on stimulating land developers to incorporate green technology into the design and construction of all new buildings or renovate older buildings to the new standards. The government puts efforts to make green buildings mandatory in the near future.

The tourism industry involves the hospitality sector in it and hospitality has a great impact on the environment and natural resources of the country. Hotels, food, and beverage companies should take great care of the natural environment around them.

The country attracts the world’s top eco architects and uses the latest and innovative technologies in developing eco-construction large-scale projects for green zones and sustainable architecture. A great example of this are the skyscrapers built as sustainable ecosystems – Fusionopolis, Solaris Tower or the EDITT Tower integrate vegetation for cooling, generate solar power and transform wastewater into biogas.

Leveraging tourism to promote sustainable development will require a tough balancing act between development and sustainability.

sustainable ecosystems
The government of Singapore has provided funds for tourism development in the country and its goal is to triple the incomes from tourism. Such an example is the state-funded project, where a vast eco-tourism zone is creating in a bid to bring in more visitors with a jungle for a bird park, a rainforest park and a 400-room resort to create a green tourism hub.
The new bird park – which will replace an existing one elsewhere in Singapore – will feature nine aviaries, while the rainforest park will have walkways among treetop canopies.

Singapore has already established itself as a global leader in sustainability, with hosting international events such as the World Cities Summit, Singapore International Water Week, Singapore International Energy Week and Green UrbanScape Asia to gather together world leaders and share best practices water issues and urban environment.

Companies have focused on creating immersive and meaningful experiences for travelers and sustainable tourism, or eco-tourism is quickly becoming a big part of it.

“Travellers these days are more affluent and largely looking for never before experiences. They are well educated and conscious about not leaving carbon foot-prints behind as they travel. Sustainable tourism is, hence, getting more popular as it comes with this feel-good factor of giving back.” – said Alicia Seah, Dynasty Travel’s director of marketing and communications.

eco-friendly hotel business
Singapore’s eco-friendly hotel business is booming and some examples for that are the tri-tower Marina Bay Sands Hotel or the organic terraced ParkRoyal.

One major characteristic for the country is the little to no corruption, and this combined with a liberal government, the higher percentage millionaires and a hugely successful economy, is a model of urban environmental sustainability. The country scored near-perfect Yale EPI ratings in health impacts, air quality, water resources, sanitation, agriculture and climate, and energy.

“By being clean and green, our aim has been to show that our country is well-run,” says Mr. Khoo Teng Chye, executive director at the Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC)

Other popular eco-tourism destinations include the Maldives, Australia, Thailand, Bali, as well as Guilin and Lijiang in China

Want to learn more about Greenland? Check our other sustainable travel posts.

Patagonia Chile

8 Stunning Sights in Patagonia, Chile

February 6, 2019
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Patagonia is a region encompassing the vast southernmost tip of South America, shared by Argentina and Chile, with the Andes Mountains as its dividing line.

Patagonia is divided into three regions — Aysén, Magallanes and Chilean Antarctica, and Los Lagos plus the province of Palena. Every year thousands of travelers visit the area for its exciting outdoor activities and seasonal wildlife spotting.

It’s a truly unique and unforgettable experience with its mountains, incredible glaciers, aquamarine lakes, and wild plains.

Chile and Santiago have been ranked by Lonely Planet and National Geographic as the world’s top country “Best in Travel 2018” list and one the “places you need to visit in 2018.”

When to Go to Chilean Patagonia?

Summer is peak season in Patagonia and you can expect there to be a bigger crowd and you might have to book a hotel in advance.
The best time to visit Patagonia also depends on the region since this is a huge area with great weather variations. Coastal regions are wetter and milder, while the inland is chillier.

Ventisquero Colgante Fall
Photo credit: betoscopio / Flickr 

Waterfalls

Some of the most impressive falls in South America is the comparatively little known Ventisquero Colgante Fall. Recently Ventisquero Colgante was selected as one of the 25 “most incredible” waterfalls in the world. Ventisquero Colgante is more of a challenge to get to but offers in exchange a truly powerful experience with nature

Get up close to glaciers

Chile hosts many of the glaciers in South America, and a majority of these lie in the region of Patagonia. Southern Patagonian Ice Field is the second largest ice field in the world with an area of 16,800 km² and it is part of the Patagonian ice sheet.
Grey glacier and Dickson glacier are smaller in size with 270 km² and 71 km² in size and located in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field.
Tyndall (Geike) – In the Southern Patagonian Ice Field 331 km² in size.

Lakes

There are many large lakes lining the park, reaching up to 90km² in the surface area. Many are an intense turquoise color as a result of rock flour particles left from glacial erosion, making the water look milky.

Torres del Paine National Park
Photo credit: cordyph / Flickr

Trek in Parque Nacional Torres del Paine National Park

Torres del Paine National Park, in southern Chile, is a remote refuge, with roughly 500,000 acres, where you can see wildlife like relaxed and inquisitive guanacos, condors, huemuls, foxes, pumas and other animals at a close encounter. The region is known for its soaring mountains, bright blue icebergs that cleave from glaciers and golden pampas and wildlife.

This park also happens to have one of the area’s most famous panoramic views, so don’t forget your camera gear.

National Festival for the Longest Night of the Year

Every year, the longest night in the world is celebrated in Ushuaia on June 21 and the winter takes place in the southern hemisphere.

There is a cultural agenda to celebrate the longest night in the year, containing various activities in which the most outstanding national and local artists are joining in with the denizens of the City of Ushuaia. Every year thousands of tourists invade the city and became part of the celebrations.

Kayaking with whales

The most common species of whale found in the waters of Patagonia is the humpback whale. This is a unique opportunity in a lifetime you will never forget where you’ll get a close encounter with humpback whales and other wildlife from a kayak. With experienced guides, you will have the opportunity to get up close with some famous glaciers, spot whales, and navigate the historic Strait of Magellan. While some glaciers are better reached by trekking on foot, kayaking allows you to see the greatest variety of these icy landmarks.

Besides whale, you may see also orcas, a different species of dolphins.

Pumas PatagoniaPhoto credit: Murray Foubister / Flickr

The Pumas

One of the most exciting things that Patagonia can offer you is an encounter with pumas in Torres del Paine National Park found in Chile. Torres del Paine National Park provides a large area where pumas are not persecuted. This has led to about fifteen individual animals not being afraid of people and you can have the privilege of seeing different pumas, some as close as ten yards away from you.

You can join a trip where you can go to Patagonia specifically to see the sleek, majestic pumas in their natural habitat. You can combine a boat trip to a spectacular glacier or kayaking with an opportunity for spotting pumas and the most stunning flora.

If you love adventure, the outdoors and photography, you’ll love this trip!

Parque del Estrecho de Magallanes

Take a look back at Chile’s history at Parque del Estrecho de Magallanes, built-in 1843. 6km trail network leads to the top of the small hill, you can enjoy the views of the rocky beach and sea below and Tierra del Fuego. This is the best museum in Patagonia. You’ll find a restored wooden fort, where a fence of sharpened stakes surrounds the blockhouse, barracks, and chapel.

Want to learn more about other destinations? Check our other posts about sustainable travel.

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