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You don’t need me to tell you that New Zealand is beautiful. Everyone from Prince Charles to Bear Grylls can tell you as much. But just because you grew up here and you occasionally holiday in the Coromandel doesn’t mean you’ve truly appreciated New Zealand’s crazy-good nature bits. So, during your scarfiedom, I encourage you to make the most of your relative proximity to the wet and wild wonderland of Fiordland and head out tramping. Shake out those attractive rainbow-striped thermals, find a Sir Edmund Hillary-style legionnaire cap, borrow your dad’s metal-framed pack from the early 1980s, load it up with cask wine, a pack of cards and some One Square Meal bars, then hit the wilderness.



Your tramping options down South are many and varied, and basically start from either Milford or Queenstown – both pretty accessible by car or bus (just join the tourist hordes). For example, over towards Te Anau there’s the Milford Track (the self-proclaimed “finest walk in the world”), the Hollyford, which heads upriver all the way to the wild West Coast, and the Kepler (also home to the Luxmore Grunt, a running race for crazy types). Heading off from Queenstown (opportunity for Fergburger pre-loading: tick) you have the Routeburn – a quickie but a goodie, and the star of Air NZ’s latest safety video offering.



Fiordland is cold and rainy most of the time. Well, at least life in Dunedin has got you used to a bit of that.



Other than some guaranteed dampness, your tramping experience can vary greatly along various spectrums: basic <-> luxury, freeze-dried meals <-> actual food, sleeping in a wet tent <-> snoring hut companions, rain <-> not too much rain, state-of-the-art-equipment<-> forgot the gas cooker. But with Fiordland’s natural beauty thrown into the mix, you can’t go wrong. And Unipol or the Tramping Club can hook you up with tramping gear for hire. Enjoy.

Get there: by bus or car.
Do: be a tourist in your own country.
Don’t: forget to take insect repellent.
Eat: Marmite, cheese, and crackers.