If you are you still have one day left to publish a post about New Zealand to help promote tourism in the aftermath of the earthquake.
Here’s a blurb from the website about the cause:
Blog4NZ is a grassroots blogging and social media effort to support New Zealand travel in the wake of the Canterbury earthquake.
It is a worldwide blogging event happening on March 21-23, 2011 and you can be a part of it.
I’m on a tight schedule this week so I’ll certainly try to give it a whirl, but in the meantime I thought perhaps it could be good to promote some of the other blog posts that I found with the hashtag #blog4nz on Twitter.
“Photo Gallery: 22 Natural Destinations in New Zealand”
The first line on this Matador Network post reads, “Photography that makes me want to pack some camping gear and get lost.” Couldn’t agree more. This first image in the gallery of Mt Taranaki (Photo: dcysurfer / Dave Young) should certainly entice you.
Pic: Matador Network
“The Best of New Zealand: From Paradise to Mt. Doom”
The blogger on Travelogged.com hasn’t actually been to New Zealand but that didn’t stop them from writing a #blog4NZ post. Instead they asked five other bloggers to share their favourite places in NZ. The responses were noted on this blog.
Here’s the first photo on the blog post which helps sum it up:
Photo by Zanthia.
“My 5 Favorite Views in New Zealand”
Another series of postcard-perfect images from New Zealand by Dangerous-Business. Here’s one from Lake Wakatipu.
“One Extreme Adventure in the Sky, Abel Tasman, NZ”
This post from theplanetd.com spices up the adrenalin themed action in NZ with an account of piloting a stunt plane over the beautiful region of Abel Tasman.
Here’s a photo and an excerpt:
I didn’t exactly believe them when the Flying Kiwi told me I would be piloting my own stunt plane in Abel Tasman, New Zealand. “You mean I am going to be a passenger and the pilot is going to fly right?” “No, you are actually going to pilot your own plane turning yourself upside down and all around doing aerial acrobats 4000 feet above the ground.”
From: theplanetd.com
“11 Awesome (but Really Remote) Places to Visit in New Zealand #blog4NZ”
Andy Haye’s lists some truly superb travel experiences in NZ on sharingtravelexperiences.com. Here’s his colourful description of Fox Glacier:
You know when you see pictures of something, and then you see it in real life, and you go WOAH! Well, that’s what it is like when you see a glacier. They look huge, but only when you see them in real life do you realise that they are actually the side of skyscrapers, as big around as mountains; most of them are so big they create their own weather microclimate.
Fox Glacier. Pic: Sharingtravelexperiences.com
“Middle Earth in New Zealand”
Gary Cargill from Solo Friendly was blown away by the breathtaking landscapes that were transformed so easily into Midddle Earth in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. If you’re an LOTR fan and love NZ you may want to check out some of the locations he visited including the gorgeous Hobbiton in Matamata and Edoras at Mount Sunday.
See if you can guess where this image was taken or what scenes in the movie were filmed here? If you can’t click through to the post.
Pic: Solo Friendly.
“New Zealand’s South Island – Open to View”
From What’s Dave Doing, comes this post from the blogger’s father who lives on the South Island. Who better to promote the region than a local.
He lists all the places on the South Island still open for business. Here’s a brief extract:
It has been a very localized event and has had little effect on the rest of the South Island. I live in the country town of Ashburton. It is 80k south of Christchurch and even though we have felt the earthquakes the damage has been minimal.
Tourism is an essential part of New Zealand’s economy. Last year over two and a half million visitors came to our country and left amazed at the beauty of this small land. I am pleased to report that post earthquake, apart from central Christchurch, and its eastern suburbs and hill areas, little has changed. It may be that visitors may now choose to fly into the undamaged Christchurch Airport and leave for other places rather than stay in the city itself.
For those that are keen to read more about New Zealand, I’ve posted a lot of pieces on the land of the great white cloud to Asian Correspondent over the last 12 months or so.
Please see some of these links:
Otago Central Rail Trail
Otago Peninsula
Hiking the Remarkables and visiting Arrowtown
You will also notice links to other NZ blogs on those pages.
However as the deadline is tomorrow I’ll try to get back with another post before then.
This post is part of the #Blog4NZ effort that asks travel bloggers around the world to unite in support of New Zealand tourism and help it get back on its feet after the Christchurch earthquake.
