For my 13th birthday my dad took me to New Zealand. It was June and school had just let out for the summer. On the last day of  7^th grade classes I ran off the bus and packed my suitcase. From the St. Louis airport we flew to LAX and boarded a plane to Auckland. It was a 23 hour plane ride, the longest and worst of my life, but I forgot all about the smelly perfume worn by the old lady next to me once we touched down in Auckland.  While backpacking around the South Island we took around 200 pictures (on real film, no digital back then) and spent a month staying in hostels and exploring the countryside. Looking back, here are the top 8 things I would recommend if you ever get the chance to visit the most beautiful country in the world…

1. Bungee Jumping – Kawarau Bridge, AJ Hacket, Queenstown - I did a total of 3 jumps that day, the last one was a reverse elevator where basically you jump off backwards. “The Kawarau Bridge is home to the original 43m Bungee. If you’ve heard of Bungee, you’ve heard of the Kawarau. The world’s first and most infamous of leaps is still going strong, with tens of thousands jumping each year. At the world’s best-loved Bungee site, you can choose from a number of options; topple over backwards, forwards, with another person, spin or somersault. Kawarau Bridge is also the only Bungee in Queenstown where you can choose to bob above the water, touch it, or be fully immersed.”

2. Skyline Gondola, Parapent & Luge, Queenstown – At Skyline, a gondola transports you to a spectacular view of Queenstown, but that’s just the beginning. They have a luge ride setup where you can steer and swerve yourself to the bottom. For the more adventurous, they have Parapenting: an extreme sport where you parachute off a mountain. After the gondola, you can hike up to the very top of the peak, strap on a parachute (and guide), then basically run off the mountain, gliding down to a cricket pitch below. It’s probably the most unique way to see Queenstown.

3. Walter Peak Sheep Farm, Queenstown – Accessible only by boat, this tour gives you a detailed view into life on a working sheep ranch. The herding dogs were amazingly well trained and the tour was complete with sheep-shearing for the adults and ox-chasing for the kids (shown below).

4. Larnach Castle, Dunedin – The only Castle in the Southern Hemisphere. The grounds are immaculate and the stables from this 19^th century castle were converted into guest rooms. We stayed for 2 days and had dinner in the main chamber with a couple from England.

5. Moeraki Boulders – These boulders are extremely fascinating, they rise out of the ocean and wash up onto the shore due to coastal erosion. They are half sunk into the sand and almost perfectly spherical.

6. Franz Joseph Glacier, West Coast – After a short helicopter ride, my dad and I found ourselves basically alone at the top of a Glacier. With crampons, a pick-axe and guide we hiked the icey landscape of this magnificent frozen mountain.

7. Hiking the TranzAlpine Pass – Take the TranzAlpine Train from Christchurch to Greymouth and right in the middle you will find a train station. Here you will find a hiking trail which leads up to a massive waterfall. The only day it rained during our month long excursion was on the day of our hike through the rainforest, which made the trek that much more perfect.

8. Akaroa – An inlet 75k east of Christchurch. The rolling green countryside and beautiful bays make this one of the prettiest towns on the South Island.

For summer pictures of NZ, check out my buddies album here. He is from the Czech Republic and went to NZ in the summer with his family. His photos were taken with a digital camera so they are way better.