(19/05/09) Knowing our antipodes would not be a dream, but it is. It is so because New Zealand becomes a dreamy memory even for all of us that have been fortunately enough to visit it. Although it is a reality that we lived, we still think it doesn’t exist.

   If it wasn’t because our imagination cannot create such incredible natural landscapes, we would still be thinking we dreamed of it. Such is the beauty in New Zealand that it invades our dreams. New Zealand gives place, colour, strength and life to them because gods dreamed it was so.

   It is not a very big country, but it has everything. It is one of the lowest recorded population densities, but, judging by the friendly people, it would be an added pleasure if they were more. It does not have a very long history. They have passed only a few thousand of years since the first Maori settlers named it as “Aotearoa, the country with the long white cloud.” Today, New Zealand is a destination with so potential and vast natural resources that neither the man nor the action of tourism have been able to spoil all their beauty.

   One may wonder what can be expected after 24 hours flying. The answer is simple: our antipodes, the land others thought upside down and we see as a reward to the senses. The landing is in Auckland airport, the biggest industrial and business centre in New Zealand.

    The city of Auckland, maybe the only point in the country with a cosmopolitan appearance, is traversed by wide streets where colours have taken the liberty of creating a rainbow of buildings with different heights, shapes and styles that, however, pass the feeling of being in a city orderly like few are, and civilized as any: in New Zealand there are no cigarette butts, paper napkins, nor empty cans littering the roadways. And the extreme cleanliness in the streets never minds. It is just part of the environmentalist spirit that hundred percent of the inhabitants of New Zealand have.

    Auckland is also the first place in New Zealand to transmit the feeling of open space that we will discover later as we continuous the trip. Besides the beauty of the Bay of Auckland, whose port has named the city as "the city of sails" by the large number of boats that adorns its banks sails to the wind. Auckland is surrounded by huge gardens, forests and beaches to forget in just half an hour driving, that we are in a city.

AUCKLAND the ideal point of departure

    Although in general for tourists travelling to New Zealand Auckland is the gateway and hub for departures by train, car or bus to other places in the North Island as well as air links to visit South Island, the truth is that this beautiful city it is well worth spending at least a couple of days to ride in a boat on the bays of Waitemata and Manukau, or visit one of its museums, like the War Memorial Museum, a first look to the Maori culture and the History of New Zealand.

    This first contact with the Maori culture can be continued in Rotorua, one of the most important cities in the area and certainly one of the most visited. Going by bus from Auckland to Rotorua is a good idea, although it is also possible to travel by train or plane.

    Rotorua region is an area of good spirits. This is what the Maori tell during the ceremonies that they celebrate in the evening. Attending one of these is a unique experience but many insist on branded as mere tourist spectacles. Maori welcome their guests sticking their tongues out, with hands on hips and the eyes popping out of their heads.

    If the visitors have come in peace, then they don’t need to feel panic, they will be allowed to enter the ceremony. There Maori change: they know that there are no bad vibes and they can go about their dances and songs, which are a prayer to the true Nature and the good spirits. The Maori dancing and music is the perfect soundtrack for a great land.

    The Rotorua region is perfect for shopping enthusiasts and friends of the exotic cuisine. Few can resist the beautiful wood figures that Maori carve in maraes -centres for the study of Maori culture-, or the Hangi cooking that they cook in holes dug in the ground.

    In the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute in Rotorua, an old woman tells with the wisdom of her years, how Maori people, believing that God created human beings, did not dare to offend him by creating human figures in the same way that God created them. Therefore, their sculptures have always deformed faces and positions. The sculptures are a sign of the spirit of the Maori people that bind all their greatness to the humility of their beliefs. Respect, love and beliefs: these have been the only weapons of the Maori people, who might well be known as "the keepers of Paradise".

Land of volcanoes and natural wonders

    Only Maori culture could have been preserved the natural wonders that can be seen in Rotorua. Hence that the surprise with which the rest of the world look at the pictures of the last eruption of Ruapehu volcano is not shown in the faces of New Zealanders.

    Rotorua residents live with the core of the earth coming to the surface as geysers, boiling mud pools, bubbles that cannot fly by its density, and hot water pools that delight with her beauty and invite to the warm bath.

    The prominence of volcanoes in New Zealand is so great that it has led to the development of multiple organizations that have specialized in volcanic tourism. In the southeast of Rotorua, on the volcano Mount Tarawera, the consequences of the eruption that took place in 1886 are very obvious and have covered the area with a fascinating magic that comes only from the strength of the Nature.

    Trips to volcanoes can be made by helicopter or 4x4. These volcanoes tours end with a funny picnic soaked in champagne and feeling the full strength of the craters. Nothing is more exotic.

    The volcanic area in New Zealand starts in White Island, an island with a volcanic origin located on the map in front of Bay of Plenty, and that is about 200 kilometres wide to Lake Taupo and the volcanoes in the Tongariro National Park.

    This one and any of the other 12 national parks that are spread over New Zealand can be accessed by hiring some Eco-tour: eco tours with guide. Tongariro National Park is one of the clearest examples of the beauty in the central area in North Island. Over 40 different species of birds and other animal species make of the area an ideal place for nature lovers.

    We shoudn’t forget that only in New Zealand the old “tuataras” (a living dinosaur), the “hoiho” (a penguin that prefers to live in the forest) and the famous “kiwi” (the bird  that cannot fly and after which New Zealand population has been named) have been able to survive.

    In addition to his nickname, a common feature defines the New Zealanders: their love for open spaces. The climate of the two islands accompanies this feeling. The North Island has a mild climate because it is closer to the tropics and more distant from the Antarctica than the South Island. This is much less populated (only the 26% of the New Zealand population) and there are no extreme temperatures at any time of the year.

the wild spirit of the south

    The leap from one island to another can be done in the interisland ferry across Cook Strait in three hours and a half from Wellington, a city that got its status as capital of New Zealand due to its central location between the two islands.

    One says goodbye to the North of New Zealand thinking that any other landscape may surprise most, and is welcomed by a much more wild spirit in the South Island.

    The South Island is a range of possibilities to practice sports. Perhaps Queenstown is the birthplace sports in New Zealand. In this city of the south was born the "jumping", known in New Zealand as “bungy jumping”, which is practiced from the historic bridge over the Kawaru River (43 meters) or from the bridge Skippers (70 meters). In the rest of the cities of the South Island, the bungy jumping is practiced from cranes, roofs and even water trampolines.

    Christchurch city, known as the "City of Gardens", is ideal for cycling because it is one of the plainest cities in the South Island. In the mountains, Queenstown offers mountain bike tours. In these two cities it is also possible to practice one of the most important sports of New Zealand: the jet boating. On the banks of the river Karaway, near Queenstown, or the Waimakariri River, near Christchurch, this sport fulfils with big and safe emotions those who practice it.

    So is the land of the Kiwis, one of the most welcoming people in the world despite this sober British air that many use to refer to our antipodes. New Zealanders are surrounden by the magic of their warmth and by a strange way to show to the tourists that they really are welcome and are invited not only to visit the country, but to be a part, for a few days, of his extraordinary everyday this is New Zealand. Gods should have dreamed it this way.

More information:
For more information about New Zealand, phone to New Zealand embassy in Spain (91 523 02 26). If you need more specific information, you can contact with New Zealand Tourism Office in Frankfurt (Friedrichstrasse 1012, D-60323 Frankfurt am Main; Tel. (49 69) 97 12 11 0 Fax: (49 69) 97 12 11 13) or consult in the website: http:// www.nztb.govt.nz