{"id":8921,"date":"2025-08-21T06:07:56","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T06:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naturetraveling.com\/?p=8921"},"modified":"2025-08-21T06:07:57","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T06:07:57","slug":"must-you-go-to-australia-or-new-zealand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/naturetraveling.com\/?p=8921","title":{"rendered":"Must you go to Australia or New Zealand?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you happen to\u2019re planning an excellent Antipodean journey, Australia and New Zealand tempt in equal measure.<\/p>\n

But since that year-long sabbatical that may will let you journey slowly throughout each international locations could also be a very long time coming, you\u2019ll seemingly need to make the powerful resolution to go to one over the opposite.<\/p>\n

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How do you deal with such a selection? Let two of our journey consultants assist.<\/p>\n

Why Australia is awe-inspiring<\/h2>\n

Australian journey author and Lonely Planet contributor Sarah Reid<\/a> has collected greater than 130 passport stamps. However she has but to go to one other nation that ticks as many containers as her homeland.<\/i><\/p>\n

So our mountains won’t be as dramatic, our airline security not as humorous, and our rugby groups aren’t as well-known internationally because the All Blacks.\u00a0However whereas I’ve a deep affection for our neighbor throughout the Tasman Sea, there\u2019s actually no beating what Australia has to supply guests.<\/p>\n

\"Uluru,
Websites of religious significance like Uluru let guests get near the world\u2019s oldest dwelling cultures. Chapman W\/Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cultural cachet<\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s begin with the world\u2019s oldest dwelling cultures. Each nook of the nation kinds a part of the normal lands of an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander group with its personal language, customs, traditions and tales. And there have by no means been extra alternatives to expertise this wealthy cultural legacy, from being dazzled by Wintjiri Wiru<\/a>, a\u00a0state-of-the-art cultural storytelling expertise at Uluru, to climbing the Sydney Harbour Bridge with an Indigenous storyteller information<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Talking of\u00a0Sydney: what a showstopper! I lived within the New South Wales capital for practically a decade, and I nonetheless get misty-eyed on the sight of the Sydney Opera Home protruding into the glowing Sydney Harbor.<\/p>\n

With regard to new meals frontiers, do you know the flat white was invented in Sydney? (We understand that may be onerous for Kiwis\u00a0\u2013 who suppose it was invented in Wellington\u00a0\u2013 to just accept.) And whereas New Zealand might need made the primary pavlova (one other contentious meals merchandise that each international locations declare to have invented), its culinary scene doesn\u2019t maintain a candle to Australia\u2019s, notably in Sydney and Melbourne, which each lie inside straightforward hanging distance of high wine areas. And let\u2019s not neglect our different cool capital cities: Canberra and Hobart, to call two, can get a lot colder than Auckland or Wellington, however hardly ever as windy.<\/p>\n

\"Koala
Solely-found-in-Australia creatures like koalas by no means fail to thrill guests. KAMONRAT\/Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A world of wildlife<\/h3>\n

The magical island of Tasmania is residence to 5 of Australia\u2019s 12 Nice Walks<\/a>. And whereas we received\u2019t deny the Lord of the Rings landscapes skilled on New Zealand\u2019s 11 Nice Walks are fairly particular, they\u2019re usually missing one factor Australia has no scarcity of: wildlife. (Sheep don\u2019t rely.) It by no means will get previous recognizing a koala dozing in a gum tree, an echidna waddling throughout your path or a kangaroo bounding by the bush. And the way wonderful are Australia\u2019s birds? There are few sounds as joyous as a household of kookaburras erupting into laughter.<\/p>\n

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I’ll say that New Zealand\u2019s small measurement makes for simpler and fewer carbon-intensive journeys inside the nation. But throughout its nice girth, Australia is blessed with astounding and unmatched variety, greatest skilled on a street journey to locations like Cairns and Far North Queensland, the place the world\u2019s oldest dwelling tropical rainforest meets the world\u2019s largest coral reef (the Nice Barrier Reef remains to be unimaginable, by the way in which). Or the wild and rugged Prime Finish of the Northern Territory, the place red-dirt trails result in Aboriginal rock artwork and serene swimming holes.<\/p>\n

You could possibly spend a lifetime exploring the highlights of mainland Australia. However our territory additionally encompasses greater than 8000 islands. From the colonial heritage of Norfolk Island to the otherworldly pure fantastic thing about Lord Howe Island, many of those spots are bucket-list locations unto themselves.<\/p>\n

It helps, in fact, that Australia has a really perfect local weather for exploring outside. What good is a beautiful seaside that\u2019s often too chilly for a dip? At any given time of the 12 months, it\u2019s the right time to be someplace Down Beneath. Simply ask the 15 % of New Zealand\u2019s inhabitants who name Australia residence.<\/p>\n

Expertise the zing of New Zealand<\/h2>\n

As a Lonely Planet author and editor, Tasmin Waby<\/a> has explored virtually each nook of New Zealand \u2013 from Cape Reinga within the north to\u00a0Stewart Island\/Rakiura\u00a0off the tip of the South Island (and he or she loves each little bit of it).<\/i><\/p>\n

Whereas a few of the world\u2019s wealthiest doomsday preppers<\/a> could have chosen New Zealand because the place to maneuver within the face of a world apocalypse, New Zealanders are busy making the world a greater place<\/a> so these billionaire bunkers received\u2019t be wanted in any case.<\/p>\n

New Zealand is the house of my prolonged household \u2013 my wh?nau \u2013 and I actually can\u2019t perceive why I do not reside there myself. I’ve vivid childhood recollections of the South Island: consuming my first ripe peach straight from an Otago orchard, smelling lanolin on my fingers after petting a lamb, following a cousin into the frigid ocean at St Clair\u2019s seaside in Dunedin in winter.<\/p>\n

\"Aerial
Inside its comparatively small borders, New Zealand accommodates a unprecedented vary of landscapes and ecosystems. krug_100\/Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Small however mighty<\/h3>\n

Among the best issues about going to New Zealand is which you can simply tour its highlights in per week or two. (Truthfully, if you happen to\u2019re going to go all that means, take your time and do it correctly.) You may\u2019t say the identical for Australia \u2013 which is mostly a continent of countries<\/a>. Regardless of what your maps may recommend, you could slender a go to to 1 area (and cope with your FOMO later).<\/p>\n

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Whereas New Zealand is small, it doesn\u2019t really feel it while you\u2019ve pitched your tent in a campground by an almost-empty seaside that fades right into a distant mist of sea spray. Nor while you\u2019re mountaineering otherworldly volcanic landscapes at Tongariro Nationwide Park, or rainforested valleys with solely the decision of the native wildlife for firm.<\/p>\n

And what of New Zealand\u2019s native animals? Effectively, for a begin, they\u2019re not attempting to kill you!<\/p>\n

When crusing the azure waters of the Bay of Islands within the tropical \u201cwinterless north,\u201d New Zealand may be very a lot a Pacific paradise the place bottlenose dolphins frolic. Down south, chiseled mountains plunge into an ocean of marine life, and moody Fiordland may double for Scandinavia.<\/p>\n

New Zealand is the nation for lovers of nature, who additionally worth a correct espresso (whether or not Australia or NZ invented the “flat white”\u00a0stays a degree of competition) or a high quality drop of wine<\/a> \u2013 ideally sampled at a\u00a0vineyard restaurant<\/a> with ocean views.<\/p>\n

If you wish to preserve energetic, on the North Island you may cycle from one coast to the opposite in simply in the future. Down south, take a look at your individual limits snowboarding, bungee-jumping, mountain-biking, jet boating and tackling a through ferrata in Queenstown and W?naka.<\/p>\n

\"Light
New Zealand cities like Auckland have all of the luxuries of city life \u2013 with nature by no means distant. Jose Antonio Maciel\/Getty Photographs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Subtle cities (plus penguins)<\/h3>\n

New Zealand\u2019s greatest metropolis, Auckland is a thriving metropolis with harborside eating places, open-air festivals and muggy summer season nights, akin to Sydney however with out the parking challenges. Pocket-sized Dunedin and Wellington tick all of the \u201cmetropolis\u201d containers with vacation spot motels<\/a>, cocktail bars<\/a> and positive eating<\/a>. But, quarter-hour from the middle, you may spot penguins \u2013 or migrating whales.<\/p>\n

However do not simply journey to New Zealand to solely immerse your self in its unimaginable landscapes. You\u2019re right here to expertise the world anew.<\/p>\n

Australia could also be making sturdy strides towards reconciliation with First Nations, however in New Zealand, the M?ori language and the normal values of guardianship<\/a> of the land, sea and sky are very a lot part of their worldview. Right here, the cultural and religious significance of a river is already enshrined in legislation. All of us have a lot to be taught from this diminutive island nation.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll additionally discover that New Zealanders are progressive, pleasant and good-natured. Although not all of them have been extras in Lord of the Rings, be happy to ask anyway: Kiwis have a really wry humorousness. Recover from and uncover it for your self.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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