For years this region was regarded as little more than a gateway from the North Island to the South. But spend several days there and you’ll ache to tear yourself away
T
he visitor to New Zealand’s South Island knows what they have to see. There’s a well-trodden circuit. Lake Tekapo and Mount Cook, to gaze at the stars. Queenstown, for a spot of daredevil adventure. The glaciers, Fox and Franz Josef. And then down to Milford Sound, for the fjord, cliffs and waterfalls. Each stop stunning, each one worthy of its place in a tourist trail so long-established they call it the southern loop.
But for those searching for something new, bent less on ticking off the New Zealand icons than on experiencing a region as brimming with natural beauty as it’s been relatively, and mysteriously, overlooked, there is another destination. Head to the place they’re calling Nelson Tasman.
For years, Nelson was somewhere you passed through, regarded as little more than a gateway from the North Island to the South. Travellers might hop on a plane from Auckland, land in Nelson and then set off in earnest. But in their dash southward they’d been missing out on an area that locals believe offers the best of both worlds: the stunning landscapes of the South Island combined with the gentler climate of the North. Nelson Tasman vies with Hawke’s Bay for the title of New Zealand’s sunniest spot and is nicely sheltered by the Richmond and Arthur mountains. I can testify that every day of the February week I spent in the area was blessed with blue skies and warm sunshine.
