Ecotourism in New Zealand

I started my second day in Auckland by joining a free walking tour of the city. We saw the Auckland Skytower (and a person bungee jump off of it), strolled through Auckland University campus, and climbed through some branches that had become so overgrown that they almost completely covered the path. The tree is a protected species, so it is allowed to grow over walking paths. I also met a guy my age from Germany who had hitch-hiked all over the South Island. That was such a foreign concept to me because hitch-hiking is considered incredibly dangerous in the States. Apparently, it is fairly common for backpackers to do in New Zealand. On the walking tour, we were able to see a kauri tree. These trees were used by the indigenous Maori people to build canoes and other things, but not they are threatened by kauri dieback disease. The Waitakere Regional Park, a popular place for hiking by tourists and kiwis alike, is heavily affected by this disease that spreads through the dirt. To...

After traveling for 30 hours, I finally arrived in Auckland after racing the sun to the other side of the world. We won, and got to watch the sun rise as a reward. A friend of a friend, Viv, and her son, picked me up from the airport, and before I knew it, I was off on my first adventure. Auckland is a port city surrounded by many islands in the harbor, one of which is a bird sanctuary called Tiritiri Matanagi. I arrived at Tiritiri after a relaxing ferry ride with the view of many volcanoes (none of which are still active, I think). Once arriving on the nature reserve, we all had a bio-safety talk before getting free range of the island. The people that work to preserve the land and indigenous species told us several times to check our belongings for any insects or rodents that may have hitch-hiked on our bags. We were also warned not to throw anything away on the island and to wipe our shoes of dirt before and after our time on the island. Overall, the staff did an excellent job edu...