Recreation & Sport

New Zealanders first started building boats out of necessity, as they lived in a country totally surrounded by sea.

Rugby is an integral part of being a Kiwi and Rugby World Cup 2011 is destined to turn New Zealand into a non-stop party zone called the REAL New Zealand Festival.

For the uninitiated, rugby must seem a game of contradictions. The ball, which isn’t round, can only be thrown backwards, but players run forwards, and you earn points for a good try.

Prolific Westerns writer Zane Grey (1872-1939) visited New Zealand’s Bay of Islands in 1926 where he introduced sport fishing for marlin and shark.

Sailing veteran Tony Rae could claim to know the Hauraki Gulf like the back of his hand. But, even though the 47-year-old has been sailing the waters of Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf since he was a boy, he says there are still sheltered bays and hidden coves that surprise him.

Since New Zealander AJ Hackett dived off the Eiffel Tower 20 years ago, his bungy-jumping craze has continued to scale new heights of daring.

The small rural town of Cambridge, a wealthy English look-alike village, hub of the New Zealand equine industry and home to the national rowing team, will welcome thousands of visitors for the 2010 World Rowing Championships.

Listing and background information on the ‘club fields’ for skiing and snowboarding in the Canterbury region, New Zealand.

Canterbury – New Zealand’s largest region – rises from the Pacific Ocean, sweeps across vast plains, through braided river valleys, and climbs into the magnificent Southern Alps that divide the length of the South Island.

The Otago Central Railway line was once the link that opened up the rural highland of Central Otago.