Aw, I miss it already. I’ve spent the last half-year in one of the most beautiful countries in the world, and I’ve got thousands of photos to show for it. A few days ago I moved along to Australia, but New Zealand is still very much on my mind. I visited dozens of gorgeous and unique places there, but here are my ten favorites:

10. Napier

The first and only city on my list, Napier stands out among New Zealand communities. Much of its distinctive character came after a 1931 earthquake leveled the city. The rebuilding effort spurred the local economy out of its depression, and the facades were styled in progress-oriented Art Deco. It’s a city that values form and aesthetics, both natural and man-made. Exceptional weather doesn’t hurt either.

Beachfront greenspace

Clean lines are everywhere in Napier

Both evenings I spent there ended with a world-class sunset

More Napier pictures can be found here.

9. Punakaiki coast

South Island’s west coast feels a lot like the edge of the world. The beaches are violent and rocky, and the lush vegetation gives it a primal, wild sort of atmosphere. Punakaiki is a tiny settlement that exists for no purpose other than to service the hordes that come to see the area’s most striking feature: a unique coastal rock formation called Pancake rocks.

Beach walkway behind my accommodation

"The Pot" -- a tumultuous, football-field-sized basin in the Pancake Rocks

The beach behind Te Nikau, where I stayed

8. The Waikato River

As it spills out of Lake Taupo, the Waikato is an unreal blue color. It’s so vivid, it almost looked fake to me, like it was an elaborate, river-shaped swimming pool. I hiked a few kilometers alongside it until I reached the famous Huka falls. Taupo’s Bungee Jump is situated above a picturesque bend in the Waikato.

The exotic blue waters of the Waikato

Huka Falls

Taken from the footpath on the return from the falls

More Waikato River pictures (including the bungee jump site) can be found here.

7. Franz Josef Ranges

Franz Josef Glacier is a huge draw on the South Island’s West coast. I teamed up with an American girl I met in Punakaiki to tackle a 1300m mountain called Alex Knob to get a higher (and cheaper) vantage point of the glacier than we’d get from a guided tour. The mount was shrouded in mist the whole time, so we didn’t see much of the glacier, but we still got some incredible views of the surrounding rainforest and mountains.

The lowlands west of the glacier

The lower three-quarters of the mountain is covered in temperate rainforest

As we looked out into the whiteout, this mountain ridge materialized and then disappeared again

More Franz Josef (and Punakaiki coast) pictures are here.

6. Abel Tasman Coast Track

I spent the week of Christmas in the South Island’s Abel Tasman National Park. My original idea was to do a whole five-day coastal trek and spend Christmas Day in the backcountry, but I decided to cut it short when I realized I was the only solo hiker on the trail — among about a dozen vacationing families. I also had horrible blisters from wearing brand-new shoes. So I turned back after one night out there, to spend Christmas Day with my friends in nearby Marahau. Still, I saw a good 12 kilometers of the track and it didn’t disappoint.

One of the many beaches along the coastal track

A sandbar where I stopped for lunch

A cove at the end of the beach near Torrent Bay hut

5. Golden Bay

I made two visits to this laid-back area north of the Abel Tasman. On the second trip, some friends and I explored the bay’s northern edge — a 30-kilometer expanse of sand called Farewell Spit. We braved a sudden sandstorm on the way across, then hiked into 80-kph winds on the way back inland. I didn’t take many pictures of it because I was afraid to get sand in my camera, but I’ll never forget the experience.

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A decaying pier out near where we camped

One of Golden Bay's wide beaches

The sandstorm on Farewell Spit. If you look closely there are two wayward hikers in the distance.

4. Waitakere beaches

On my first full day in New Zealand, my Auckland host took me out to three incredible beaches in the Waitakere range, west of the city. I was dumbfounded by the effortless beauty of these places. It was the perfect introduction to New Zealand.

Muriwai Beach, home to a few thousand migratory birds called Ganets

My favorite beach in the whole world -- a lesser-known spot called Anawhata Beach. It takes a 20-minute hike to get to, and the two of us were the only ones around.

Karekare beach -- a dramatic, endless sheet of black sand. It's the beach where mysterious strangers wash up at the beginning of episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess

More Waitakere pictures are here.

3. Tongariro National Park

Mordor! A rugged, volcanic landscape that more closely resembles Mars than typical North Island New Zealand. It provided the perfect filming location for the evil realm of Mordor in The Lord of the Rings trilogy. There is a famous 19km hike through its center called the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. I lucked out with the weather and had an unforgettable day.

The "Gates of Hell" at Red Crater, near the high point of the crossing

The fantastic Emerald Lakes

The beginning of the descent

More Tongariro pictures are here.

2. The Coromandel

The Coromandel is a wild, green peninsula shaped vaguely like a hand giving the middle finger to nearby metropolis Auckland. I spent most of my last week in New Zealand cruising its winding coastal roads in a rental car. I loved it and wish I’d given myself more time. Supposedly it’s the region where the first human beings landed in New Zealand a thousand years ago. Understandably, they never went home.

An outcrop near the Peninsula's remote tip

A pohutukawa tree in silhouette

Looking out at Great Barrier island from a really high sea cliff

More Coromandel Pictures will be posted on David Goes Kiwi soon.

1. The Milford Track

I think the first thing I did to prepare for my New Zealand trip was to book a spot on the famous Milford Track. It’s New Zealand’s most well-known hiking trail, and only a limited number of spots are available every year. I booked in August and the first available spot was January 29th. That exclusivity set some pretty high expectations in me, but the “finest walk in the world” lived up to them, it really did. Fiordland is a magical place. Hikers are advised to prepare for heavy rains, as the Fiordland area gets pounded year round, but miraculously, we had four straight days of sunshine. The 300+ photos I took don’t really do it justice.

One of countless river crossings throughout the track

Everywhere you go on the track there are sheer mountain walls on either side, streaked with waterfalls

Looking down the valley from Lake Mintaro. On the mountain face you can see dozens of tiny waterfalls coming off the snow field.

The mossy basin at the bottom of the 600-meter Sutherland falls. We all took turns climbing on the rocks behind the falls. The falling water creates a powerful wind -- it's hard to catch a breath in the thick spray. In the foreground is a Swedish hiker, making her way to the base.

More Milford Track pictures can be found here.

***

The natural beauty of New Zealand blew my mind many times over. These are just ten of the places I visited in my six months, and there is so much I didn’t see. New Zealand has a piece of my heart forever. I will be back one day, no question about it.

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All photos by David Cain