SOUTHERN NORTH ISLAND
Southern North Island features volcanos, jetboating, riverboating, gardens, green pastures, and vineyards. The main tourist centers are New Plymouth, Wanganui, Palmerston North, Masterson, Wellington, Nelson and Blenheim.
WELLINGTON
WELLINGTON (southern tip of the North Island) is the capital of New Zealand. A relatively small seaside city with about only about 200,000 people, it is known for its ocean views, deep harbor, stunning waterfront, steep hills, Art Deco buildings, modern office buildings, and colorful wooden houses. Like Canberra in Australia and Ottawa, it has reputation of being well-planned and pleasant yet uninteresting. But that was before the incredible new Te Papa Museum opened.
Wellington is the world's southernmost capital (41̊ 17'N). It is also known for its fierce winds. "You can always tell a Wellington man," goes an old joke, "by the way he grabs his hat coming around a corner." But the wind also has its bright side: Wellington is one of the most pollution-free capitals in the world, carrying what little air pollution there is away.
Colorful "painted lady" homes line the narrow streets, which switch back and forth from the coast to clusters of homes that cling precariously to the hillsides. To get to the top of one of these hills you can ride an antique cable car which begins it journey inside a tunnel under a corporate tower complex.
Wellington Tourist Office: Wellington City Information Centre, Corner of Wakefeild & Victoria Streets, ☎ (04)-801-4000, Fax: (04)-802-4863, E-mail: wgtnvisitors@hotmail.com. Website http://tourism.wellington.net.nz. Accommodation: Wellington has a wide choice of accommodation. It has five ★★★★★ hotels; 23 ★★★★ hotels; 10 ★★★ hotels and motels; 4 ★★ hotels and motels; several ★ hotels and guest houses; four backpacker hotels and hostels; and two motor camps and campgrounds. How to Get There: Wellington is a nine hour drive and 11 hour train ride south of Auckland. It can also be reached by bus from Auckland and several other towns. There is an international airport nearby. Also remember that the three-hour Inter-Island ferry to South Island is caught from Wellington.
Sights and Entertainment in Wellington
The Royal New Zealand Ballet, the New Zealand Opera Company and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra are all based here. There is a lively theater scene and a full calendar of festivals and events. Make sure to check out the Fabric Art Company, famous for full-size knitted figures and wool cupcakes and tea cups. Flea Markets are held at Wellington's Wakefield Market.
The National Art Museum contains works by European and New Zealand artists as well as exhibits of Maori and South Pacific history. Also worth a visit are the Southward Vintage Car Museum, the Wellington Zoological Gardens, the Parliament Building (with a Maori Affairs room filled with stunning wood carvings and weaving of ancient legends), the "Beehive" (home of the New Zealand cabinet) and Oriental Bay.
Te Papa Museum
Te Papa Museum (on the Wellington waterfront) is a stunning new museum that opened in February, 1998. Housed in a US$300 million air-foil-shaped building, it is a combined art gallery, culture museum, history museum, hands-on natural history museum and a high-tech arcade. Devoted mostly to Maori culture (Te Papa means "Box of Treasure" in Maori), it is intended as a national “marae” (traditional Maori meeting houses) that welcomes Maori, New Zealander and people from all over the world.
The displays and exhibits are fascinating. The Maori exhibit contains a 15th century house, greenstone (jade) weapons and axes, wonderful carved genealogical sticks, traditional feather cloaks, shell-eyed Maori gods carved into lintels, and beams and pillars from the Te Hua Ki Turunga meeting house, created by the master craftsman Raharuhi in 1842. Many of the items are on loan from various Maori tribes around the country.
To symbolize the sharing of New Zealand, skilled Maori carvers have fashioned Chinese dragons, a Samoan tapa design, an English rose, an Irish shamrock and a Southern European acanthus leaf
There are also interactive exhibits that illustrate how the Maori were mislead by the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi and how immigrants took over their land and gave them diseases that reduced the Maori's numbers from 200,000 to less than 40,000.
Te Papa is built on reclaimed land and rests on 150 rubber and steel bearings intended to protect the building from earthquakes. It also contains non-Maori items such as virtual reality hikes, beer drinking, bungy jumps, and sheep shearing. The virtual reality bungy jump even has ropes that pull at your legs.
Visitors can also enter a room that simulates a 6.9 Richter-scale earthquake, pretend they are the captain of a European ship heading to New Zealand, or pretend to navigate across the Pacific on a outrigger using the Southern cross constellation as a navigation tool.
The museum is not without controversy though. Among the works of art that have been displayed here are a statue that shows the Virgin Mary hanging from a condom and a topless women posing as Christ at the Last Supper. Catholics and members of other religious groups staged protests when the controversial art works were unveiled.
Near Wellington
Near Wellington is lovely countryside with rocky headlands indented with sandy bays and rolling green hills. To the northeast past the steep Tararuia Mountains is the rich Wairarapa farming district. There is good trout fishing here as well as thermal air currents popular with paragliders and hanggliders. Martinborough (20 miles northeast of Wellington) is an area with several wineries.
Wairarapa-Masterton (53 miles northeast of Wellington) lies at the heart of sheep country. Contestants come from all over the world to Masterton to participate in the Golden Shears Sheep Shearing Championships held here every year. Accommodation: Masterton is a fairly small town with one resort hotel, 5 ★★★★ hotels; two ★★★ hotels and motels; some ★★ and ★ hotels and guest houses; one backpacker hotel and hostel; and one motor camp. How to Get There: a one hour drive or bus ride from Wellington.
Mount Bruce National Wildlife Center (near Masterton) is where exotic New Zealand animal species are studied and bred. It is a good place to see kiwis, which are provided with burrows to care for their eggs and raise their young. You can also see takahe, a species of bird thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered in the 1950s; and wetas, the world's largest insects.
New Plymouth
New Plymouth (200 miles south of Auckland on the east side of the North Island) is a pleasant town best known for its gardens and parks which come to life with azaleas and rhododendrons in October and November. Attractions include historic homes, parks and gardens. Nearby in Hawera is the Elvis Presley Memorial Record Room, which has the most extensive collection of Elvis Presley memorabilia in New Zealand and Australian.
New Plymouth Tourist Office: New Plymouth Information Centre, Cnr. Liardet & Leach Streets, ☎ (06)-758-6086, Fax: (06)-759-6073, E-mail: nplvin@nzhost.co.nz. Accommodation: New Plymouth is a fairly large town with a wide choice of accommodation options. It has two ★★★★★ hotels and resorts; 7 ★★★★ hotels; 22 ★★★ hotels and motels; 8 ★★ hotels and motels; several ★ hotels and guest houses; two backpacker hotels and hostels; and 7 motor camps and campgrounds. How to Get There: New Plymouth is a five hour drive southwest of Auckland and four hours north of Wellington. It can also be reached by bus from Auckland and several other towns. There is a small airport nearby.
Mt. Taranki
Mt. Taranki (18 miles from New Plymouth) is a towering volcano with an almost perfect conical shape. Standing about 8,000 feet high, it rises out of an area of dairy farms and pastures and is surrounded by Egmont National Park. The upper elevations of Mt. Raranki attracts skiers in July and August and hikers the rest of the year.
Taranki (around Mt. Taranki) is a region of dairy pastures, limestone caves and forests. If you are into caving or rock climbing there are some amazing vegetation-covered sink holes here. There are also nice walks through alpine herb fields and ice fields. On the coast near Taranki is the spectacular Whitecliffs Walkway. Website http://tipnet.taranaki.ac.nz/tourism.
Wanganui
Wanganui (100 miles south of New Plymouth) lies at the center of a sheep-raising area. The most interesting thing here is the Wanganui River, which can be explored by canoe, jetboat or paddle boat. You can also bungy jump from an unused viaduct.
Wanganui Tourist Office: Wanganui Information Centre, 101 Guyton Street, ☎ (06)-443-1233, Fax: (06)-349-0509, E-mail: info@wanganui.govt.nz. Accommodation: Wanganui is a medium size town. It has 7 ★★★★ hotels; 13 ★★★ hotels and motels; 3 ★★ hotels and motels; several ★ hotels and guest houses; two backpacker hotels and hostels; and four motor camps and campgrounds. How to Get There: Wanganui is a seven hour drive south of Auckland and a two hour drive north of Wellington. It can also be reached by bus from Auckland, Wellington and several other towns. There is a small airport nearby.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New Zealand Tourism Board, National Geographic, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The Conversation, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Wikipedia, The Guardian, and various books and other publications.
Last updated September 2025