New Zealand | Outside Online

You Are Here:

Home >> Travel >> Godzone Quest (cont.)

Today's Question
Where should I camp in Switzerland with my kids? answer

What's the best volcano to hike up in North America? answer

How can I plan a trip around riding the biggest, fastest roller coasters? answer

Online Favorites

Special Issues

Photo Galleries

Outside Magazine September 2004

Page:

Destinations: New Zealand
Godzone Quest (cont.)

NEW ZEALAND'S WIDE-OPEN SPACES are the ultimate places to get release. Everywhere you look is Mother Nature's rendition of the Perfect 10. As I drove over Haast Pass and toward the west coast of the South Island, I saw grass so green that it looked like the fake stuff you put in Easter baskets. Imagining that California, with its ten-lane highways and strip malls, might have looked this way 40 years ago only increased my envy. While eating scrambled eggs one morning on top of 3,000-foot Lindis Pass, I was mesmerized by the way the golden poplars in the valley blended with the yellow tufts of grass in the

"We use a lot of helicopters, sunrises, and sunsets," said Brent Wallace, an adventure outfitter on the South Island. "We also take people out of their comfort zone, but not so much so that they leave with a nervous disorder."

highlands, which matched the reedy toi toi swaying in the breeze. One day I woke up to frost on the RV windows, and scraped it away to find the entire toothy range of the Southern Alps drenched in brilliant white snow. On a farm road outside Murchison, along the banks of the Matakitaki River, I rode my bike through a beech forest and onto a foot-wide swinging bridge suspended 30 feet above the water. I looked down at the rushing river that had eroded the mudstone into stunning, glassy curlicues and wondered if New Zealanders had somehow won a karmic lottery.

Shrewd Kiwis are quite aware of just how pristine their wonderland is—and they plan to keep it that way. They're also busy developing high-end alternatives to merely roughing it. "It's about quality rather than quantity," says Ron Peacock, proprietor of Te Anau's Fiordland Lodge. "We should have half as many tourists and charge them twice as much."

At Bellbird Lodge, a luxury resort near Christchurch, owner Brent Wallace told me that one American family of four had spent US$28,000 on a custom ten-day trip, taking Range Rover tours all over the South Island and helicopter flights over locations for The Lord of the Rings. "We use a lot of helicopters, sunrises, and sunsets," he said. "We also take people out of their comfort zone, but not so much so that they leave with a nervous disorder."

I plunged deeply into my own comfort zone at New Zealand's oldest and most renowned adventure resort—the North Island's Huka Lodge, just east of Taupo. Founded in 1928, Huka got its start as a four-hut fishing camp on a bend in the Waikato River. Today, the huts have been replaced by an elegant main lodge—overlooking a sloping emerald lawn that looks as if each individual blade has had a manicure—and 20 private cottages tricked out in Zen tones of cream. Along the lush path to the cottages is a wall full of fly rods, a nearly hidden pool surrounded by two hot tubs, and a court for the boccelike pétanque. The privacy and unpretentiousness appeal to guests like Britain's Queen Elizabeth, who stays here when she visits New Zealand. The mere commoners—like Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, and Barbra Streisand—come for the horseback riding, hiking, and fly-fishing, not to mention the daily pedicures. The lodge's motto is "You don't have to do anything, but you can do everything."

While dinners at Huka are exhilarating candlelit affairs where guests can choose an intimate table in the wine cellar or mingle with other diners at festive tables of ten, breakfasts are gastronomy gone wild. After downing a fruit plate, an assortment of meats and cheeses, a bowl of muesli, buttermilk pancakes topped with pan-seared plantains, plus two lattes and a glass of carrot juice, I decide that it might make more sense if the lodge's motto was "Eat everything, but don't expect to move anything afterwards."

Luxury resorts like the Huka Lodge, Blanket Bay on Lake Wakatipu, and Treetops Lodge near Rotorua, are the ultimate in Kiwi cush, but you don't need to take out a second mortgage to find your release in Godzone. I found mine while wading across the turquoise Fox River near Hokitika. I found it in Abel Tasman National Park, slicing in a kayak through the rolling Tasman Sea in search of the perfect campsite. I found it while drinking HEMP ("Highly Enjoyable Magic Potion"), New Zealand's answer to Red Bull, which tastes like liquid Sweet Tarts. I found it while listening to Wayne Firth, a sheep farmer and rugby player from Murchison, reel off a 22-line poem on hunting with his dog, while we got sloshed on Monteith's beer. I found it while sipping my way through the chardonnay, pinot gris, and sauvignon blanc of Grove Mill winery. I found it hovering in that helicopter above the Hawkdun Range. I felt like a spirit, detached from my body, floating above a world of endless possibility.

Page:

•	Subscribe to Outside and get a FREE Gift!

•	Give the gift of Outside Magazine!

•	Subscribe to Outside Online's free weekly e-mail newsletter featuring gear reviews, fitness advice, galleries, podcasts, and more.