Catherine wrote:
> In my ignorance, I always thought of NZ as a
> *tropical* country!
We're actually sub-tropical, which means we get everything! Seriously, we
do get all the extremes of weather. The temperatures in the South Island
have been below freezing over the last few weeks, and we've had some pretty
major avalanches in the Southern Alps, which basically run the length of the
South Island. The film Vertical Limits was filmed there because apparently
it's the closest resemblance to the Himalayas (and it's reasonably
accessible). The Tasman Glacier (which I've been to) is the largest in the
Southern Hemisphere outside Antarctica - pretty impressive up close.
Then you get the North Island in summer, which can get incredibly hot. The
Bay of Islands is a beautiful spot in summer, and gets loads of tourists
(tourism is our highest paying industry). We're pretty lucky that our
landscapes are so diverse. There's major geothermal activity in and around
Rotorua, in the central North Island - mud pools, geysers, hot pools, etc.
Not far from there at Waitomo are some amazing limestone caves, with huge
stalactite/stagmite formations, and glow-worm caves, which are toured in
complete darkness in a small boat - an amazing experience. Wild terrain on
the West Coast (Xena and Hercules were filmed just west of Auckland). And
Fiordland at the south-western most part of the South Island is pretty
spectacular too - which you would expect from the name!
All in all, it's a pretty cool place to live!
Hell
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