New Zealand

Antoine's view

When the season of cyclones returns to the South Pacific, many a world cruiser wonders whether to stay put in the shelter of a harbour in one of the tropical islands that are so numerous and so beautiful on that ocean, or to look for a pleasant place, out of the reach of cyclonic phenomenons : many of them have found the solution in New Zealand; they just have to reach one of the numerous anchorage on the shores of North Island, and they are sure to spend a restful season, a temperate or subtropical summer.

Other travellers, on the contrary, prefer coming here in winter, for the sake of skiing just a few dozen kilometres away from the Pacific shores.

This year, for the first time, I've sailed the northern part of New Zealand on my sailboat, but I had before travelled thoroughly through it, using land transport, cars, trains, even a campervan : it's one of the best ways to visit these two very large islands, their volcanoes, their sheep, their inhabitants who will welcome you on their farms : the art of "Bed and Breakfast" is here superlative, and it is a real bliss, after an evening spent in the company of the family that welcomes you, and a restful night in a wonderfully decorated room, to take a hearty breakfast of home made bread and fruit from the farm's garden, before you start roaming the surrounding prairies, hills and beaches.