Just Where Are The Victoria Falls? - Some-Where Near Tauranga Perhaps? Or Why Do Kiwis Often Ignore Their Own Beautiful And Diverse Country?

While the headline above may seem peculiar and somewhat irrelevant, it is taken from an advertisement shown on NZ television several years ago. It relates to the tendency of travelers from NZ to ignore the bountiful destinations available within the confines of their own beautiful and diverse country.

Extending from the wonderful stone architecture of south Canterbury and Southland to the Unique and fragile Beech forests of the West Coast; to the vast sandy beaches of Northland, the secure sandy coves of the East Coast; to the grandeur of the looming, often snow covered slopes, of the active volcano that is Ruapehu. The night life of the largest cities contrast with the comparatively placid rural existences lived by people within half a day easy drive from the centre of these bubbling metropolis.

Roads are almost entirely sealed now, but unsealed and less frequented options with evocative titles still exist. The 'forgotten highway' which travels from Taranaki into the Ruapehu District is just one such example. The 'Bridge to nowhere' is NZ's monument to the rugged and difficult terrain of the central North Island. Even this small land nestled in the South Pacific, after almost 400 years of human habitation, there are still largely untraveled tracts of land in existence.

Wooden churches and stone stores from our colonial past still exist. With history textbooks in hand, one is able to still see the carved wooden markers to the graves of those participants within those same pages. Having studied NZ's heritage in my years at university, such tangible markers give substance to the languid process of time in provinces of this land, my homeland, New Zealand.

Referring again, to the essence intended in the title, I will tell you, the visitor, that as a teenager, myself and my friend cycled many of the roads and byways of this beautiful and diverse country. I am confident that I have at least a cursory appreciation of this landscape. In earlier years, my experiences as a boy scout saw me hiking about the old tram tracks and logging skids of mining and forestry operations around Wairongomai. Now, as then, bush covered and less than 'easy going' country. The people that moulded a state from this wilderness that was pre-colonial NZ were indeed of hardy stock. Often the settlers were military veterans of the Victorian Empire's conquests covering the globe. They were not unaccustomed to discipline and physical labour.

It can therefore, be seen, that NZ has vast scope of interest for the adventure seeking and those wishing to experience a vigorous, and not too distant, history. You can be having eggs on toast in a cafe near the shores of the great Lake Taupo in the morning, then be skiing the slopes of Ruapehu soon after lunch. You can be searching historical documents in a provincial museum in one of many small towns around the country, then, that night be dancing the night away in a trendy night club in one of the main city centres.

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