“Ki Ora! Welcome to New Zealand!” This is often the comment you will get when you step off the plane into one of our international airports at Christchurch, Hamilton or Auckland.

New Zealand is an amazing place to live and a fantastic place to visit. We have lush, green rolling hills surrounding us in many parts of the country but then we also have acres and acres of lush, green flats with flowing rivers all leading out to the Pacific Ocean.

There is so much to do here and no matter what your age, there is something for everyone. Having lived in New Zealand all my life and having traveled around most of the North and South Islands, I can tell you there is no other place in the world I would rather live.

So, what can you do in New Zealand? Well, if you are into hiking and camping, this is going to be like heaven for you. We have some fantastic mountain ranges. The best places to go for hiking and camping are Taupo, which is in the middle of the North Island, Wellington, Christchurch and the west coast of the South Island, where there are some amazing hiking tramps down there.

Not into hiking or camping? Prefer shopping? I have just the place for you! Auckland, our largest city, has got one of the best places for shopping ever! There are so many factory shops and bargains to be had, you will most certainly find something and being a bargain shopper myself, I would recommend checking out “Dressmart” at Onehunga, it is huge and has some of the best shopping to be had! Another fantastic place to shop is the main street of Wellington; catch a cable car to get around. Christchurch has some fantastic shopping malls also.

Ok, so you are over shopping? Want to see all the different attractions New Zealand has to offer? Well, where do I start?! Here is a list of my favourites spots throughout New Zealand, there are many more but these are the ones I love:

- Swimming at 90 mile beach at the top of the North Island. This is just past Kaitia which is about 6 hours drive from central Auckland.

- Fishing off Great Barrier Island. There are some great charters and this is some of the best deep sea fishing you can find.

- Enjoying a good coffee on the waterfront at Mission Bay in Auckland. This is a fantastic place to be during summer.

- Visiting the Auckland Museum for some history about our beautiful country. Learn about the Maori culture and how our country has evolved through the ages.

- Head on down to the Waitomo district and go to the Waitomo caves where you can go white and black water rafting and see the amazing glow worms in the caves. This is a truly surreal experience.

- Visit our national bird, the Kiwi at the Kiwi house in Otorohanga. Get up close and personal with this two legged flight less birds. They are gorgeous.

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Alaska, with its immense tracts of pristine wilderness, is quite possibly the most beautiful state in the USA. The name itself is based on the Eskimo word meaning “great lands,” which only begins to describe its near limitless coasts, countless inland waterways and great snow-capped mountain ranges.

Alaska has diverse features and extreme climates
The most impressive aspect of Alaska is its size. It covers nearly 600,000 square miles (1,500,000 sq. km.) with over 33,000 miles (55,000 km) of shoreline and 1,800 islands. The interior has over 50,000 glaciers, 3,000 rivers and three million lakes. It contains 17 of the 20 highest mountain peaks in the USA including the 20,320 feet (6,194 meter) Denali.

Alaska’s two “panhandles” reach southward to embrace the warm Pacific Ocean currents which bless them with surprisingly moderate climates for such northern lands. On the western handle, the volcanically active Aleutian Islands extend over 1,000 miles into the northwestern Pacific where they enjoy cool summers and only moderately cold winters. The eastern handle extending down along the coast of northern Canada enjoys cool summers, mild winters and the most rainfall in North America.

The Interior plateau of Alaska suffers an extreme continental climate with surprisingly warm summers and fiercely cold winters. Temperatures can reach 100 F (+38 C) in the summer and drop below -55 F (-48 C) in the winter. The North Slope along the Arctic Coast is classic arctic tundra, a treeless semi-desert climate with extremely cold winters.

Summer days and winter nights become very long at these high latitudes. As you travel further north in Alaska, the summer days can stretch up to 22 hours. Alaskan natives call this “the land of the midnight sun.” Equally long winter nights often bring spectacular displays of dancing celestial lights known as the Aurora Borealis.

Alaska has lots of attractions and few people
Alaska is very thinly populated with less than one person per square mile. Most of the population is concentrated in a few cities and towns along the coast. The native population includes the Inuit living primarily along the coast of the arctic Bering Sea, the Aleuts living on the islands of the western panhandle, and Native Americans (Indians) living mostly along the eastern panhandle. The current population also includes many migrants from the “lower 48″ states plus European and Asian immigrants.

The scenic attractions of Alaska can be divided into several distinct areas with the city of Anchorage roughly at the center. Copper Valley, Mat-Su Valley, the Kenai Peninsula and Chena River State Recreation Area are all located near Anchorage, and are readily accessible by car or ferryboat. Many excursion cruises and charter boats depart from Anchorage, Seward or the nearby port of Homer to visit the beautiful Kenai fjords, Kodiak Island with its large population of wildlife, and Prince William Sound. It is also possible to visit the Aleutian Islands of the southwest panhandle from there, but that requires a much longer boat ride or a commuter flight.

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