Story and Photos by Lynley Capon
(First of Three Parts)

Editor's Note: Originally from New Zealand, the writer is a frequent traveller who admires beauty in her surroundings. Recently, she returned for a fresh look at her homeland.

NEW ZEALAND – Native Maori people call this country Aotearoa, meaning “Land of the Long White Cloud”. Floating in the southern Pacific Ocean, it's a beautiful nation, one of the first places to catch each day's rising sun. In this sense, New Zealanders always lead the world.

Maps reveal New Zealand's big exposure. The next stop south is Antarctica, the vast Pacific Ocean lies to the north and east, and Australia (New Zealanders call it “the West Island”) lies 1,000 miles west.

Exposure to all types of weather can deliver four seasons within a day. In summer or winter, the mornings can dawn bright and sunny, but then a wind may blow from any direction, menacing clouds may gather and rain may descend until the storm passes and the sun shines again before setting. For daily high temperatures, we can have 10 degrees Celsius in mid-summer or 20 degrees in mid-winter. Sometimes the only way to tell the season is by the number of daylight hours. The weather isn't an accurate guide.

Despite such confusion, New Zealand has four distinct seasons: temperate summers, cool and misty autumns, wet winters and blossomy springs. Winter snow blankets the mountains. If such white precipitation reaches the cities, then normality ends as the schools close and people build snowmen, hurl snowballs or huddle near fires.

New Zealand consists of three main islands: the North Island, the South Island and Stewart Island. Small islands dot the coast, which has diverse, even odd, rock formations.

The South Island stretches long and narrow. Even inland, no one's more than 100 miles from the sea.

The North Island offers volcanic mountains and plateaus, rolling hills and pastoral farmland. The South Island has granite peaks, the Southern Alps, extending spine-like along its length. At the highest point, the 3,754-metre Mount Cook stands in snow-clad splendour. The Maori call it Aoraki (Cloud Piercer).

On the South Island, glaciers have carved many valleys that hold lakes. Surrounded by bush-clad, often snow-capped mountains, the lakes shimmer in stunning beauty.

Water flows from the mountains along vast river beds, of which many may go nearly dry. But when the mountain-snow melts or rain falls in the Alps, the rivers become raging torrents.

Blessed with rivers, lakes and seas, New Zealanders enjoy most water sports. Ambitious fishermen arrive from everywhere.

Yet despite such bold features, New Zealand remains a small country of just four million people, three-quarters of them on the North Island. There, a big northern city, Auckland, exceeds one million people.

The capital city, Wellington, at the North Island's southern tip, has only half a million residents. It's a breezy spot on the strait between islands where fierce winds howl through the gap.

Probably the second-windiest place is Invercargill (population 50,000) to the south on the South Island where the Foveaux Strait separates Stewart Island. Wild storms pummel there.

The South Island's biggest place is a beautiful “garden city", Christchurch (population 350,000). That's also the “most English” city outside of England.

Forests fill less than a quarter of the land. In the late 19th century, English and Scottish settlers cleared the bush to farm. Eventually, New Zealand sent food to Britain. Cattle and sheep graze on the lush pastures. The dairy industry alone accounts for seven per cent of the GDP.

For 20 years, sheep, farming has become less lucrative. The sheep population has dipped by a third to 40 million (still 10 times the number of people). Farmers diversify with the likes of deer, llamas, ostriches and goats.

A burgeoning wine industry supports 16,500 jobs. Grapevines cover miles of once unproductive hillsides. Other farms produce lots of apples, pears and kiwi fruit, plus apricots, peaches, cherries and strawberries. New Zealand acts as the world's market garden and winery.

Mines along the South Island's west coast have high-grade coal in such abundance that it may last 200 years. The coal industry, with China as its big buyer, tops dairy cattle by contributing eight per cent of the GDP, but global-warming threatens its long-term viability.

Despite some iron sands and natural-gas fields, New Zealand lacks many minerals and imports fuel. In the 1860s, prospectors hit gold, attracting a rush of frenzied newcomers (including Chinese). But the gold fields later emptied. Former boom towns remain only as remnants. Yet many Chinese stayed. Their descendents make up three per cent of the population.

Actually, New Zealand has become very cosmopolitan. Many Pacific Islanders live here, as do immigrants or refugees from Asia, Africa and Europe. The restaurants and stores sell food from everywhere.

How can anyone live to the full without visiting New Zealand at least once? Everyone should experience the thrill of rising early to help lead the world into a new day.

Coming Next: Thrills, Spills, Chills: Try New Zealand (Second of Three Parts)


Sheep outnumber the people tenfold.


An inter-island ferry carries its
passengers to see more sights.


Autumn in Christchurch, the beautiful 'garden city'.


Dunedin Gardens: one more scenic setting.

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