New Zealand is calling

Stewart Island is the one place in New Zealand where visitors may get a daytime glimpse of the country's elusive national icon, the kiwi, which elsewhere is a nocturnal bird. At night here, it is possible to see the aurora australis, a phenomenon otherwise reserved for much more southerly latitudes.

Wildlife viewing is a popular activity for New Zealand visitors, and one that doesn't necessarily require much effort. The Ohau Point seal colony is a roadside stop on the main east coast road north of Kaikoura; a five-minute walk to a hide in the early evening allows visitors to watch endangered yellow-eyed penguins coming in from the sea near Kaka Point, in the Catlins; and sea lions lounge on the beach at nearby Cannibal Bay.

Kaikoura, between Christchurch and Picton, was a quiet fishing village until Maori entrepreneurs set up a whale-watching tour there less than 20 years ago. It's now a mecca for viewing — or swimming with — a wide variety of marine life.

The Otago Peninsula, on the edge of Dunedin, also offers the chance to see royal albatrosses and many other forms of wildlife.

The city of Dunedin fancies itself Scottish, while Christchurch, the biggest city on the South Island, has a decidedly English feel, right down to the men in straw boaters navigating punts down the River Avon.

The beautiful Banks Peninsula, just outside Christchurch, is the day-trip of choice for residents of that city, with most heading for Akaroa, a town that plays heavily on its short-lived French colonial past.

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But undiluted Kiwi urban life, such as it is, well, that's best experienced in the laid-back, affluent town of Nelson, in the north of the island. What's more, from here, it's an hour's drive west to the wonders of the Abel Tasman park, or south to the peaceful Nelson Lakes National Park.

And if all those day walks make you think you could take on something a little more adventurous, two hours from Nelson gets you to Picton, at the northern tip of the island (the ferry leaves for the North Island from here), the start point for the most accessible of the multi-day tramps.

A water taxi takes walkers to the start of the Queen Charlotte Track, on the Marlborough Sounds, and then transfers their packs each day to their hotel, hostel or campsite, leaving them to walk the three- to four-day track unencumbered.

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Though hundreds of people walk the track every day, because they all go in the same direction, walkers rarely bump in to each other. Like almost everything else in New Zealand, I felt like someone had created this track just for me. I was alone in the world. And what a world!

Something keeps drawing me back to New Zealand, and I'm not over it yet. The North Island is calling ...

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