In search of dramatic scenery and adventure Tim Ware headed for New Zealand’s beautiful South Island

It is approaching midnight. A biting wind is blowing up from Antarctica. and under a sky fairly brimming with stars Philip, a local fisherman and naturalist, is leading a group of intrepid, nocturnal travellers along Ocean Beach on Stewart Island.


Ferns on Stewart Island

I am about as far from home as I can get. Stewart Island is off the tip of New Zealand’s South Island, with Antarctica only about 1,000 miles to the south, and we are in search of the nation’s most elusive bird - the brown kiwi.

The kiwi is New Zealand’s most recognisable symbol – its image emblazoned on every All Black rugby jersey and cricket cap. But unlike some of the nation’s sportsmen, this is an extremely shy creature, venturing out usually only under the cover of darkness. After a few minutes the beam of Phil’s powerful torch picks out the bird, the size of a hen, foraging around the beach in search of sandhoppers. He raises the beam, for conservation etiquette demands that the bird should be treated with respect, not startled by something as banal as human-manufactured light.


A Kiwi

Seeing the bird was, for the dozen or so semi-frozen voyeurs on that beach, a magical moment and, as there are restrictions on the number of kiwi-spotting safaris that can be made on Stewart Island, something of a privilege.

A holiday in New Zealand is all about outdoor living. The country is one of the last unspoilt places in the developed world. New Zealand was ‘green’ long before it was fashionable and today about a tenth of the country comprises protected national park.

Little surprise, then, that most New Zealanders you meet are convinced they live in God’s Own Country. And as you drive through the wind-cleansed scenery, all contained in a land area not much larger than the UK, you might be tempted to agree. The country is an amazing amalgam of extinct volcanoes and bubbling geysers, plump pastures skirted by evergreen forests and, of course, plains on which the country’s 60 million sheep (who counted them?) graze.


A few Arrowtown sheep

Driving around is a bit like watching a soft focus film and then discovering you’re part of it. Scenically this is one of the few countries in the world that really does live up to the brochure writers’ hyperbole. You get the impression it was all created yesterday – and of course in the aeon of the world’s lifespan, it was.

For this trip I restricted myself to South Island which, with its 20,000ft high Southern Alps backdrop, is the most scenically dramatic part of the country. My point of entry was *Christchurch.

Driving into the city centre in my hire car I was quickly aware of how, in New Zealand, a distinctive feel of the motherland hangs in the air. With its neo-Gothic architecture, weeping willows and punting students on the river Avon, South Island’s largest city seems to have been lifted straight from a traditional English university town. In fact the name comes from the Oxford college where one of the earliest settlers was educated.


Christchurch Cathedral prior to the earthquakes

Straddling the main road down the east coast, it’s also used by many travellers as a gateway for exploring South Island. On the city’s doorstep are the fjord-like country of the Banks peninsula and the vineyards of Canterbury Plain.

I made my way to Queenstown, dramatically situated between Lake Wakatipu and the mountains, where I tried my hand at one of New Zealand’s most macho activities – white water rafting. The setting for the ride was the Kawarau river, where we were hung on for dear life as the boat rode a number of Grade III-IV rapids. It was an exciting rather than frightening experience. As the river’s flow is fed from a lake, it is steadier than it would have been had the water source originating in the mountains.

Another heady experience awaited me in Queenstown when I took a dizzying flight over the Alps in a light aircraft. Darren, the pilot, turned out to be a fresh-faced youth who seemed scarcely old enough to drive a car, let alone be the owner of a pilot’s licence – but he handled the plane with the competence of one who had spent a lifetime at the controls.


A pilot's eye view of the Southern Alpes

The flight turned out to be as much a geography lesson as an awe-inspiring excursion. On a crystal clear day, we flew over the spine of the Southern Alps, skimming so close to the jagged pinnacles of rock that I felt I could almost touch them. I was looking down on lost lakes and waterfalls, some probably as little explored now as they were on the day they were created.

The destination was Milford Sound, the most famous of the 15 fjords that indent the west coast of South Island and so well hidden from the sea by towering peaks that even an explorer of Captain Cook’s calibre failed to locate it.

Before a road was pushed through the mountains in 1952 from the lakeside resort of Te Anau, travellers had to arrive here by boat or trek along the Milford Track. Now tourism has taken over. With the iconic Mitre Peak soaring over the sound in a picture postcard setting, this is arguably the most photographed view in the whole country and is best seen from the deck of a pleasure cruiser.


The main street in Arrowtown

Back in Queenstown, there was also time to drive north along near-empty roads to Arrowtown, the most visited of the Otago gold towns. It owes its fame to an American William Fox, who was the first to discover gold in the Arrow river in 1862 and managed to mine 100kg of the precious metal, starting a Gold Rush and making the area the richest for its size in the world.

Arrowtown is historically rich, but now it attracts tourists rather than prospectors. It’s a place of hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts and homestays, and a fair smattering of souvenir shops. There is still gold in them thar hills – but these days it is tourist gold rather than the yellow stuff that was the lure for those early settlers.

*Tim Ware visited South Island before the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes which damaged so much of Christchurch, for up-to-date information on the city, and generally for New Zealand visit www.newzealand.com