This article, New Zealand 20 Years Later, looks back over the past two decades, and our various trips to this wonderful country. My wife and I just returned from an extended photography tour of New Zealand, spending 4 weeks on the ground. We have been very fortunate to have been able to travel to New Zealand six times over the past twenty years.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

We’ve travelled from Cape Reinga at the top of the North Island, all the way down to Slope Point at the furthest reaches of the South Island.

Our journeys were illustrated in our eBook, New Zealand Tip-to-Tip.

We’ve never planned any of our photography tours with the specific intent to photograph wildlife as a primary goal.

Having said that, during our journeys we’ve seen and photographed an interesting mix of wildlife.

Some of which brought a smile to our faces.

New Zealand is a fairly compact country with a plethora of wonderful natural sights to absorb. After six visits we’ve experienced much of what the country has to offer. No doubt we’ve still missed some of its natural beauty.

We typically took several months to plan each of our trips to New Zealand, often spending time researching locations that are off the beaten path. Google Maps and Google Images are good tools to use when doing this type of trip research..

Over the past 20 years we’ve spent a total of about five and a half months on the ground, touring the North and South Islands by car. With more time spent on the South Island which is our favourite of the two.

We find that the South Island is less congested and offers a somewhat wider range of natural beauty to consume visually, and to photograph.

Our favourite time of year to travel to New Zealand is from mid-November to mid-December when the wildflowers can add colour to the hills and roadsides… and lambs cavort in the fields. The weather is generally pleasant.

During our first two visits we spent some time in larger cities like Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin, experiencing a range of museums, attractions, and a few events like an Auckland concert by Brian Wilson.

During our last four visits we generally avoided the larger cities whenever possible, and spent our time in more rural, out-of-way locations.

Our second visit was in 2013, during which we were able to see some of the destruction in Christchurch caused by the devastating 2011 earthquake. We visited Christchurch again in 2024 to see the rebuilding progress that has occurred.

We went to the Quake City museum and would highly recommend this to anyone visiting Christchurch. Be sure to watch the films on view in their entirety. The documentary interviews with survivors of the earthquake runs for over an hour is one of the most emotional films I’ve ever seen. Allow about 1.5 to 2 hours to fully experience the Quake City museum.

We were on the ground in New Zealand when the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake struck, and caused massive damage on the South Island. It impacted parts of the North Island as well. We had to change some of our travel plans as a result. The state highway in the Kaikoura area took a number of years to rebuild.

GeoNet locates about 50-80 earthquakes per day in and around New Zealand, or about 20,000 per year. Only a small number (i.e. ~250 per year) are large enough to be felt.

A number of slips (mud/rock slides) in the Takaka Hill area in 2018, caused by very heavy rains, brought major disruptions and severely restricted traffic. We cancelled our planned visit to Collingwood and adjusted our itinerary for a portion of that specific trip. After six trips to New Zealand we never did make it to Collingwood. One of our few regrets.

Ongoing road erosion and slips in New Zealand are fairly common. We often check road and weather conditions so we can adjust our route as required. During our most recent trip we changed our itinerary to avoid the risks associated with very heavy rains that were forecasted for the west coast of the South Island.

The scenery in New Zealand still captures our imagination. Wonderful mountain views. Some one lane bridges. Rolling farmlands. Beaches. Lakes. Cliffs. Thermal areas. Forests. Wildflowers in bloom in the late spring.

For folks who enjoy hiking, New Zealand has an extensive network of trails of varying levels of difficulty and time commitment. From a hour or two on ‘easy’ trails… to multiple days on challenging ‘expert’ routes. These are definitely not for the faint-of-heart.. or those lacking the necessary skills and fitness level.

If you don’t enjoy dedicated hiking trails, there are numerous forest walks that lead to waterfalls and other scenery, that are quite enjoyable unto themselves. We did a fair amount of destination-related ‘easy’ hiking during our last trip. Not only were these enjoyable, peaceful walking experiences… I lost a few pounds during our most recent trip.

These are the photographic experiences that kept drawing us back to New Zealand over the past 20 years.

Fortunately these photographic opportunities haven’t changed much, and await other people who have not yet travelled to this beautiful country.

As is the case in other countries around the world, some things have changed over time.  There is more traffic and road congestion.

If one is not accustomed to driving a right-hand drive vehicle additional care and caution are required.

A significant majority of New Zealanders are still very open, approachable, and helpful. This is especially true in the smaller towns and villages.

During our most recent trip, we noticed a hint of coolness when approaching some residents in somewhat larger urban areas, when we were looking for assistance. In a few cases we were totally ignored. This was not the case back in 2004 during our first trip to New Zealand.

This year was also the first time that we saw a notice posted in a rural, public washroom, stating that the solar panel that powered the lights in the washroom had been stolen and would not be replaced.

This suggested to us that a number of previous solar panel thefts had likely occurred at this same rural location.

During our most recent visit was also the first time that we were specifically advised by a local resident, not to go to one of our planned, out-of-the-way, photographic stops because of a high risk of theft.

We were surprised… but heeded the advice. New Zealand still remains as one of the safest travel destinations in the world, although the local news has reported an increase in gangs and related crime and violence in recent years.

While the crime rate in New Zealand is relatively low compared to many other countries in the world, one does need to remain vigilant when travelling.

Back in 2004 New Zealand had an interesting cafe culture. There was a large number of independent eateries providing beautifully presented salads, quiches, meat pies, soups, specialty baked goods, deserts, and a host of other tasty offerings.

Those independent cafes are now somewhat harder to find, and have been dominated in some urban areas by a range of ‘big brand’ fast food restaurants.

Fuel for the car had always been comparatively expensive in New Zealand, and has become even more so. Depending on octane rating and location, the price for a litre of gasoline is now in the $2.50 to $3.00 NZ range, which is close to double what we pay in Canada in our local currency. During our most recent trip we drove a total of 4,543 kilometers at a cost of $625. This works out to about 14.6 cents per kilometer.

We rented a Ford Puma Hybrid which used 95 octane fuel. We had a few occasions where this specific octane gasoline was not available at local stations. When renting our car we had to sign a form confirming that we would only use 95 octane fuel, or risk potential penalties. When travelling in the more remote areas it is wise to top up the fuel tank daily if possible, especially if the rental car uses a fuel grade higher than 91 octane.

Costs in New Zealand have been rising for all kinds of products and services, as they have in other countries of the world. It can be expensive to eat in restaurants throughout one’s trip.

In some of the more remote areas of the country that we’ve explored, restaurant meals are simply not available. If one does a self-catering tour like my wife and I have done for our past four visits, the overall cost for a trip to New Zealand can be reduced to some degree. This also expands the areas that can be explored.

So… New Zealand 20 years later has changed in a few ways… while still retaining much of its original intrigue and charm.

We have some very special memories. Like discovering mural tiles in a village public toilet that were hand painted by local school children in the Catlins. This area of the South Island is one of our favourites.

Experiencing the warmth of New Zealand hospitality while having dinner with locals at the Tairua Bowling Club on a Friday night.

Flying through the Southern Alps into Milford Sound from Queenstown, aboard a small 5 seater aircraft. Photographing some aerobatic surfers on the west coast of the North Island.

Watching baby dolphins swimming around our boat in the waters around the Bay of Islands. Enjoying the accommodations and dinner at Lanarch Castle. Visiting Cosy Nook and Long Drop Lodge.

Unfortunately Long Drop Lodge has been replaced by something quite boring and utilitarian. It made us wonder if legendary New Zealand creativity and humor are beginning to wane.

The photographic tour of New Zealand that we just completed will be our last visit to this magnificent country. Fortunately our bagful of memories is almost endless.

As the years march on it has become more physically demanding to handle the rigors of long distance travel. For example, this year our return flight times, combined with airport wait times, from Christchurch New Zealand to Toronto Canada took over 30 hours. New Zealand is 18 hours ahead of Toronto… so some physical adjustment with sleep cycles is required. In addition, the cost of travel health insurance has risen dramatically for those of us in our senior years.

We will always look back fondly on the wonderful experiences we have had during our visits to New Zealand, and the many thousands of kilometers we have explored.

We hope that you have enjoyed looking back with us in this New Zealand 20 Years Later article. It will be interesting to experience what the next 20 years holds for each of us.

We’ll be sharing some of our photos from our recent trip to New Zealand in the weeks and months ahead.

Technical Note

Photographs were captured handheld using camera equipment  noted in the EXIF data. All images were created from RAW files using my standard process in post. This is the 1,426 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.

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