Mackay Falls, Milford Track by Harald Selke

One place you will want to be absolutely sure not to miss is Fiordland National Park. This is the largest national park that New Zealand has to offer and it’s rainforests, waterfalls and fiords all combine to make this park exquisitely beautiful. This is a wonderful place to walking while soaking in all the wondrous natural beauty around you. You can even have the pleasure of seeing dolphins and seals if you choose to go diving in the fiords there! Also, Fiordland National Park is so beautiful that quite a bit of the scenes from the Lord of the Rings movie was filmed there.

Have you always wanted been interested in thrill seeking adventures such as bungee jumping or white water rafting? If so, then you will definitely want to check out Queenstown. Perhaps you would prefer something a bit more relaxing. Fortunately, it is also an ideal place to go shopping or out to eat as they offer an excellent selection of great shops and restaurants. Queenstown is also a wonderful place to go skiing. As a matter of fact, people from all over the world come here to ski!

You will also want to be sure to check out the Bay of Islands during your stay in New Zealand. This could easily provide several hours of entertainment as there are approximately 150 islands available for you to explore! The stunning beaches, secluded bays and sub-tropical climate make these islands popular places for both sun bathing and swimming. If you love to either fish or golf then you’ll find yourself in good company here. This is because this particular locale has a tendency to attract a lot of fishermen and golfers to it. The Bay of Islands is also a great place to spot penguins as well as many other types of animals!

Kaikoura is a seaside town that is an excellent place to go whale watching. The reason for this is that whales can be spotted all year round here rather than just seasonally like in many other places. A wide variety of other marine animals can also be seen in Kaikoura. Also, the mountains that overlook this town are incredibly beautiful.

Last but not least, Rotorua is definitely a place that you will want to put on your must see list! Rotorua is located in the Bay of Plenty region, and it’s most well known for its volcanic activity. Here you can see hot springs, geysers, boiling mud, craters and much more! Rotorua also offers many lakes that are ideal for both fishing and swimming. Rotorua is also said to be the number one place to go if you want to learn more about Maori Culture.

Lifecruiser Love New Zealand
 

Sometimes spelled as Agia Napa and called the Cypriot Riviera by others – not surprising at all since it has gorgeous sandy beaches with crystal clear water. A perfect beach travel or snorkeling destination.

Photo by Claire Taylor

As so many other travel destinations around the Mediterranean even this place was from the beginning a small fishing village – with a few monasteries and fishermen families. Later on it has developed to a big tourist destination.

When traveling to Ayia Napa, we will land at the Larnaca airport, so I would like to spend at least a couple of days exploring Larnaca too before heading to Ayia Napa, the part of the island which is suitable for the younger generation (uhum!).

Most often the tourist office’s has a kiosk in the baggage reclaim area at the airport, where we use to get free maps of the destination and other attraction information worth having. Often as good as the tourist guide books!

Nissi Beach (blue flag awarded) is perhaps the most popular beach in Ayia Napa and has restaurant & shop and offers a lively nightlife – when there in high season I presume. Beach parties are mostly there or at the Makronisos Beach.

Grecian Bay seem to be claimed to be closest beach to the city center, a quiet beach ideal for families with young kids, but Nissi beach seem to be equally close to me.

Another beach I want to visit is Agia Thekla Beach – another blue flag beach which is located about 3 kilometers west of Agia Napa. It is a small beach, only 300 meters long and about 25 meters wide, but it has fine golden sand and calm sea with crystal clear water.

We will probably even visit Fig Tree Bay (also blue flag awarded) in Protoras too, which is claimed to be more calm, perhaps for others than the youngest party-animals.

The main cultural attraction would be the monastery of Ayia Napa which dates back to the Venetian era – for us architecture admirers for sure. At least it will be a big contrast to all the clubs and bars…

We want to make excursions to the walled city of Famagusta, go hillwalking to the Kaledonia Falls in Troodos mountain range and to see The Neolithic settlement of Choirokoitia – a World Heritage Site. There are also a lot of churches which is Unesco world heritage list monument’s.

Also check our other post about another World Heritage Site: In Aphrodites footsteps – Paphos Holidays.

May-October is the warmest weather periods to go there, so we will aim for May or September-October when going there I think, since we don’t want it to be too hot and crowded. Perhaps heading to one of the golf courses too.

Lifecruiser ♥ Beaches

Cataratas del Iguazu in Iguazu National Park, from the Brazil side, South America. Photo taken in the middle of November 2005.

It is really difficult to describe that overwhelming feeling when you watch all that water falling! So enormously powerful and so beautiful that there is absolutely no word for it!

What a sound! Everywhere is the powerful sound of the pounding water cascades! Incredible! No wonder that the most powerful fall is called Gargata del Diablo – The Devil’s Throat.

The waterfalls are situated on the border of Brazil and Argentina and has 275 waterfalls (!) in an 3 km long half moon. At one point a person can stand and be surrounded by 260 degrees of waterfalls! All the waterfalls are in Argentine territory and reach an average height of 40 and 80 meters.

Iguazu falls were discovered by the Spaniards in 1541. I wish I had been with them, what a discovery – it must be the worlds most beautiful waterfalls and certainly beats the Niagara falls thousands times!!!

We were so impressed of the arrangements around the falls, very well done. Everywhere there were bridges and walking paths so that we could come extremely close to the falls.

At some places we were standing on the very edge of the fall looking down, almost with a bit of vertigo from the stunning heights. Even though we both are afraid of heights, we found this very exciting and totally forgot about our fear.

Our blogger friend Tor did enjoy Iguazu falls just as much as we did, but I tell you: no one can help falling in love with Iguazu falls!

Oh, and do NOT miss the fabulous opportunity to get showered by the three musketeers (falls name) by going there with the speedboats with 2×100 horse power engines!

We did and I remember my clothes getting soaking wet – and transparent! Ooops… We also have a wet kiss memory from one of the vantage points!

Besides the falls there are also a lot of animals to discover around the area. The most colorful might be the free Toucan birds around the falls. There are also a special bird park, Parque des Aves, to visit if wanting to learn about the different species.

Plus there is a special dance show in the evening, so do stay in the area for several days and see the falls from both the Brazil and the Argentina side!

Make sure though that you get the right stamps in your passport when going over the borders – we did not and got a very suspicious penalty later on in Paraguay, but that is another story…

Here you can watch Lifecruiser Flickr photo slidehow of Iguazu Falls, since they are best seen in bigger format!

Lifecruiser ♥ Iguazu Falls

I admit, six years is a bit too long, but it was worth waiting for, was it not? *giggles*

We did not plan that trip ourselves, we got a bus-trip arranged for us. At the bus there were a lot of older people playing bingo all the way to the casinos in Niagara Falls and suddenly we felt very young…

We did play just a little when arriving there, including eating lunch and then headed down to the falls. We had some problem taking photos because it was a bit windy that day and the mist were all over the place, us and the camera.

If we ever go there again we will plan to stay for several days, see the old Fort Niagara, go on the world-famous scenic boat tour Maid of the mist, a helicopter ride above the falls and to see the falls from the Canadian side in the evening.

No Jet boats tours though, we did that at another famous waterfalls which we will tell you about in another post later on….

Lifecruiser ♥ Waterfalls