The Fiordland National Park in New Zealand


Photo: James Frankham / NY Times

I've always wanted to visit New Zealand ever since I saw The Lord of the Rings movies, and this feature at the New York Times by Robert D. Hershey Jr. just added a lot of fuel to my wanderlust fire:

IN 1908, The Spectator magazine called the 33.5-mile Milford Track through Fiordland National Park in New Zealand “the finest walk in the world,” an honorific still credible to knowledgeable hikers — one fan was Sir Edmund Hillary — a full century later.

The park, part of the Te Wahipounamu Unesco World Heritage Site, is of jaw-dropping beauty, a rare combination of rain forest, rushing rivers and glacially carved alpine heights that yields vistas that make you think you’ve stepped into a picture postcard. What’s more, novices as well as hardened trekkers can fully enjoy the delights of the Milford, which offers as much solitude as you could want and ambient water so pure you’re actually encouraged to drink whatever you can reach.

Wow. Just Wow. Has anyone ever been there? What's your experience? Link


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I've wanted to go down to New Zealand since Willow came out. =) I hear the landing in Wellington is fun with the wind causing the plane to come in slightly sideways.
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don't forget new zealand came out of the water (instead of separating from Gondwanaland) so there are no poisonous animal or insects or spiders of any sort, and only very seldom in the water (normally drifters from Australia) but on land it might be the safest place in the world... so safe alot of animals that arrived by flight (pre humans) have de-evolved in the absence of predators.
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