Video | Paco Nadal’s Five Recommendations: Wild Places in New Zealand | Paco Nadal’s travel blog

New Zealand It is a separate universe. Not just because of the distance from any other inhabited place or traveled route. If not, once you feel the nature flowing there, it’s different, special. Even its two islands, two opposite worlds separated by just three hours by boat, are unrelated. In fact, New Zealand has only one thing: it’s far from it all. Exactly 2,000 kilometers south-east of Australia and 2,500 kilometers from Antarctica. The closest for a weekend getaway is New Caledonia, Fiji or Tonga. This isolation, rather than a problem, is the reason New Zealand is the way it is.

A detail that gives an idea of ​​the Kiwi way of life: a piece of land or an isolated house in the mountains with difficult access is much more expensive than in the center of any city. Because a New Zealander values ​​solitude and privacy above all, living surrounded by nature. 20% of its territory is protected space and the network of trails in national parks is huge and generally well maintained. If urban living is your thing, maybe this isn’t your destiny. But if you are looking for lush nature and postcard landscapes, New Zealand will not disappoint you. These are very impressive places.

1. Milford Sound. A wild and spectacular trail left by glaciers in the South Island. Also known as Piopiotahi, it is a fjord located in the Fjords National Park in the southwest of the South Island of New Zealand and is one of the most iconic places. It is reached by the famous Milford Highway, with magnificent views stretching before the traveler after every curve. It is a magical, humble and secluded place where only the most daring explorers have come relatively recently.

2. Mount Cook. At 3,774 metres, it is New Zealand’s highest mountain, the cradle of great climbers and Carratras Peak. lord of the rings. Don’t forget that the famous adaptation of JRR Tolkien’s epic was filmed here. “This country has three industries: meat, dairy lord of the rings”, says a New Zealander. Because a large part of the nearly four million tourists who come a year are attracted by the landscapes of the trilogy.

3. Bukaki Lake. One of the largest lakes in the South Island. Its incredible turquoise color is due to suspended particles from nearby glaciers. It is the forerunner of Mount Cook, with beautiful views of the Southern Alps (reflected in its waters) and the trails that traverse them.

4. Vai or Tabu geothermal area. Sacred to the Maori, the North Island features craters, fumaroles, bubbling mud pools and lagoons of impossible colors. Its name, literally, means “holy water”. It is a geothermal area of ​​about 18 square kilometers with many exposures of the volcano, there are three routes of different difficulty so that anyone can travel, depending on the ability of the walker.

5. Moiraki Boulders. Some enigmatic half-buried balls on Cohen Beach, about 60 million years old. Each weighs several tons and can measure up to two meters in height. No one knows exactly how and why they were created. Scientists believe these are calcite concretions. According to Maori legend, the boulders were washed away by the great canoe Araiteuru hundreds of years ago when they were shipwrecked when they arrived in New Zealand.

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