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Victorian England and Traditional Maori dally with fusion in the new world.

The BugForce took a backpacker bus from North Island's Auckland, wiggling its way down south through all the sights and cities to South Island's Queenstown, doing the customary activities such as blackwater rafting in the Waitomo caves - which, by the way, means sitting on a rubber ring in freezing river water, way, way underground - jet boating and bungee jumping.
A little publicised fact regarding bungee jumping: if you're not particularly fit and/or young, you may have some trouble with your ankle tendons afterwards. You do, after all, throw your entire body weight onto your ankles, and the rope is not the only thing that stretches...

We saw most of this new world's attractions during this three week backpack bus trip, from a Maori culture show to boiling our dinner potatoes in natural geothermal waters to panning for gold to gumboot throwing. But later the BugForce realised we Had missed New Zealand's raison d'être in this high speed flurry of wacky experiences - hiking.

This is a country of exceptional and varied splendour, and the only way to appreciate it properly is to travel on foot, taking time to let the tranquility and grandeur sink in. This is a land really made for walking in quiet contemplation, not for nutty adrenalinesports, though whatever gets you off... But if you take the trouble to go there, hike the trails, between bungee jumps.
And if you can't walk easily, hire a car and drive ever so slowly!

Pictures © Julian Loader with some photos © New Zealand Tourism Board.

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