What to Do in New Zealand (Part II)

...continued from What to Do in New Zealand (Part I)

6. Bungy jump at Queenstown's Kawarau Bridge Bungy Jump Lookout or Lake Taupo. Or skydive at Nelson and Queenstown in the South Island or Auckland, Lake Taupo and Tauranga in the North. These can be combined with white water rafting or a jetboat thrill ride, which we tried at Queenstown and Lake Taupo's Huka Falls respectively. No, we did not skydive.

7. Try black water rafting or cave tubing at Waitomo where you jump into cascading underground waterfalls or abseil and zipline. If you prefer to stay dry, take a boat ride at Waitomo Glow Worm Caves. Marvel in silence and darkness at the milky way of glow worms radiating luminescent light (instead of stars) on the cavern roof.

8. Go on a whale watching cruise at Kaikoura in the South Island or Auckland. Skip this if you have motion sickness as the waters are so choppy that the small vessel rides up and down with the waves. Animal lovers can instead board the century-old coal-fired steamship – TSS Earnslaw, to Walter Peak High Country Farm. A leisure cruise across Lake Wakatipu to take in Queenstown's landscape.

9. Get up close to nature such as glacier and waterfalls, with walking tour or hike up Mount Cook.

10. Experience authentic, traditional Maori culture and geothermal wonders such as geysers and boiling mud pools at Te Puia in Rotorua or Whakarewarewa Thermal Village. Nothing beats being there in person after all that we learnt about the wonders of nature in books. Therapeutic too.

11. Join the Hobbiton tour and/or visit various Lord of the Ring (LOTR) filming locations if you are a movie or novel fan. More than 150 locations throughout the country were used to film LOTR and The Hobbit trilogies such as the Remarkables as various mountains including the Misty Mountains, and Deer Park Heights for the refugees of Rohan and the Battle of the Wargs scenes.

12. Discover Manuka honey and learn about kiwis, both a fruit and a flightless bird native to New Zealand. Do not go home without buying the honey, which is produced in New Zealand by bees that pollinate the native Manuka bush.