Southern Lakes What to See & Do

New Zealand Southern Lakes What to See & Do. If you are looking for comprehensive travel information for Southern Lakes What to See & Do including Activities, Natural Attractions, Food and Wine, Entertainment, Shopping and Information & Services, you will find it here on AA Travel.

Southern Lakes is full of wonderful things to see and do, with something for everyone. If it's not here, you won't have to travel far to find it. As this country is known as the 'Adventure Capital of the World', you can always find thrills of every kind nearby, from bungy jumping and skydiving to jet boating and white-water rafting. Our 14 national parks are perfect for tramping, where spectacular scenery abounds. Our geothermal hotspots provide natural thermal pools, shooting geysers and bubbling mud pools, while our incredible wildlife is a must-see for animal lovers. There are plenty of picturesque beaches for swimming, surfing or relaxing, mountain ranges for skiing and snowboarding, glassy lakes for fishing and water sports, and native forests for exploring. Try delicious gourmet delights, visit an art or craft studio, go shopping, check out a Maori cultural performance or take advantage of our exciting range of events. And that's just the beginning!

Southern Lakes: The region's main town, Queenstown, is known as the adventure capital of New Zealand. Visitors can take part in many exciting activities, all close to each other. There is bungy jumping, jet boating, white-water rafting, horse riding, Fly by Wire, mountain biking, rock climbing, water skiing, ice skating and Frisbee golf. Central Otago is home to stone fruit such as apricots and peaches. Wine growing in Central Otago is a fledgling industry and is already recognised for producing some of the world's best Pinot Noir. This part of New Zealand has some of the finest water and winter sport facilities in the country. Gold was the basis for the original growth of Central Otago with the rush to Arrowtown and Alexandra, Bannockburn, Clyde, Cromwell, Bendigo, Gabriel's Gully, Naseby, Queenstown and St Bathans. Many locations are now only names and ruins. The colourful history of these times is preserved in its many local museums. The gold rushes brought people from all over the world, including many Chinese settlers.
Mount Aspiring National Park and its glaciers feed the rivers that flow into the glacier Lakes Hawea, Wakatipu and Wanaka.
Maori, in their search for the very highly valued pounamu (greenstone), created a lot of tracks through this region, which are now walkways or hiking tracks. The Fiordland National Park takes in the whole southwest corner of New Zealand. It contains Lakes Te Anau and Manapouri as well as Milford Sound. Visitors can appreciate the National Park from aircraft, boats, the spectacular Milford Road, or the several fine walking tracks, which include the Routeburn and Milford Tracks.
Seals, penguins and dolphins can often be seen in Milford Sound. The region's thick forest has hardly been touched by humans and exploitation of the region has been mainly confined to the coast, with fishing, and in the past, sealing.
Southern Lakes District has three of New Zealand's Great Walks - the Routeburn, Milford and Kepler Tracks. There are also tracks within Mount Aspiring and Fiordland National Parks.