When Teresa (my beloved spouse) and I finally had the opportunity to visit New Zealand in 2023, we wanted to make the absolute most of it. A NZ tourist visa lasts 90 days, so we decided to rent an electric car and travel up and down the country for the whole three months. Most people take just a week or two to see the country. But Teresa and I believe in slow travel. This means exploring the highways and the byways at a leisurely pace. This gives us time to enjoy the textures, the flavors of a place, instead of rushing from one viewpoint to another.

When writing Mature Flâneur in New Zealand: Slow Travels in the Land of the Kiwi, I had two goals: First, to share our adventures in New Zealand with “kiwi-curious” armchair travelers. Second, for those who feel the urge to make the long trip themselves, to encourage them to try the slow-travel approach of a flâneur (a delightful French word for one who wanders without a definite destination).

What astounded us most about our trip was the sheer variety New Zealand had to offer. There is so much more to it than Milford Sound (the famous fiord) and Hobbiton (The Lord of the Rings movie-set-turned-theme-park). 

Although composed of two main islands, travellers would be wise to think of New Zealand as an archipelago of contrasting landscapes and cultures that exist cheek-by-jowl with one another. A glacier right next to a rainforest? A Scottish castle near a beach full of penguins? A historically French village next door to the oh-so-British city of Christchurch? 

New Zealand is also a land of geological and biological oddities. Moeraki Beach is littered with dozens of mysterious, massive, and perfectly spherical boulders — like giant bowling balls. Pancake Rocks is a cliff that looks like stacks of hundreds of, well, pancakes. And all over the country there are dark, dank caves full of stars twinkling on the inside roofs like the night sky— a bizarre but beautiful effect created by thousands of bioluminescent glow-worms.

New Zealanders, too, are a quirky lot, capable of pursuing the strangest of passions. For example, Iain Darling created an annual Steam Punk festival in the little Victorian-era town of Oamura. The town which includes a Steam Punk museum where one can dress up in retro-Victorian futurist garb. 

For all its natural wonders, New Zealand also has complex problems, which I also write about. British colonists in the 1800s brought with them their pets and pests which devastated the wild birds, including the flightless kiwi. Defenceless against new predators like dogs and cats, stoats and rats, the iconic emblem of the nation is itself endangered. There are now fenced kiwi recovery zones and safe-haven islands, and in these places, the plucky birds with the furry feathers are making a comeback.

Overall, New Zealand’s gorgeous wilderness is but a fraction of what it once was. In the past 150 years, most of the natural forests were felled for timber and to make way for sheep farms. The price of wool and meat is now so low that these days many farmers are replanting their pastures as forest to earn carbon-credit payments. Meanwhile, almost everywhere we went we came across inspiring local organizations dedicated to some aspect of conservation. I was amazed not just at the environmental awareness of many New Zealanders, but by their actions.

I was also dismayed to learn the tragic history of the colonization and decimation of the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand by the “settlers” from Great Britain. But this story, too, proved unpredictable. Unlike other former British colonies — the US, Canada, and Australia — New Zealand is on a clear, if rocky, path to reconciliation. For example, the country now recognizes “two founding peoples” of New Zealand. English and Māori are the two official languages. There’s also a legal process in place for returning tribal lands to their rightful owners, and compensating Maori communities for past wrongs.

Many modern Māori communities have set up tourism enterprises, such as ritual welcome banquets (see photo above) around Lake Rotura where visitors get an opportunity to learn more about Māori culture. Less predictably, there is also a flourishing Māori-run whale-watching company in Kaikoura — a town with a bloody past: it was once the heart of New Zealand’s whale-killing industry. 

To sum up: New Zealand is much, much more than what you see on the pretty posters. I hope the pages of my new book will fill your imagination with the wondrous sights and sounds of this amazing land and its people, and make you long to meet them. But even if you never go, you’ll have a good idea what it’s like to crunch through the snowy trails around Mount Cook, take part in a traditional Māori ceremony, or waken to the blood curdling cry of a wild kiwi in the middle of the night. 

Tim Ward is the author of 12 books, including Mature Flâneur in New Zealand: Slow Travels in the Land of the Kiwi. He lives in France.