Choose Your Outdoor Pursuits

The farther north in New Zealand you live, the more temperate the climate. The 'Far North' (north of Auckland) enjoys a warm, tropical summer (similar to that of San Diego) and a mild, snowless winter (similar to that of San Francisco). The bottom half of the South Island receives snow, so winter sports are more prevalent there.

Over 1/3 of New Zealand is protected park land and marine reserves. These parks alone encompass a wide variety of scenery, vegetation and geography, and offer numerous opportunities to camp, mountain bike, fish, hike and so on.

Add the climate together with the easy and boundless accessibility, and you begin to see why New Zealander's treasure their environment. And enjoy it daily.

You'll find plenty of solo and team sports here - although baseball or American football are not widely played. From whitewater rafting to hiking, soccer to basketball, cricket to golf, fishing to skiing, you'll find it all here. And New Zealand’s professional athletes are well-represented on the world stage, from rugby to sailing to golf - giving all the country’s sports fans a thrill.
 

Kids Participate Too

Children are encouraged, through their schools and social groups, to learn and participate in a number of outdoor activities. In this sense, schooling in New Zealand is similar to that in the UK or US, offering a well-balanced daily set of in and outdoor activities to stimulate both mind and body.
 

A Multicultural Mix

Every person you’ll meet in New Zealand is either an immigrant or descended from one, which gives New Zealand a true multicultural feel. The first settlers were the Maori who arrived over 700 years ago, followed in the nineteenth century by large numbers of immigrants from the United Kingdom. The end of World War II saw a dramatic increase in European migrants as citizens fled war-weary countries for a new start.

From the 1960s, people from neighbouring Pacific Islands, including Samoa and Tonga began settling here, primarily in Auckland. Chinese and Korean migrants followed in the 1980s, many also making Auckland their new home. These migrants have given the city a very strong Pacific and Asian feel.

Most recently, New Zealand has welcomed new residents from a wide range of countries such as South Africa, Zimbabwe and India.
 

Just be Yourself

One of the things you’ll find in New Zealand, and something that is taken very seriously, is the acceptance of different views and ideas. New Zealand is a modern, secular, democratic society, with no ingrained class system. Freedom of speech, expression and religious beliefs are guaranteed by law. In short, New Zealanders are a diverse and tolerant lot.
 

Quality of Life

In many ways, it’s not what New Zealand has that’s important to quality of life here, it’s what we don’t have.

• We don’t have high crime rates.
• We don’t have abject poverty or hunger, largely because of a commitment to social welfare dating back to the 1930s.
• Corruption is virtually unheard of. New Zealand was ranked the 2nd least corrupt country in the world in the 2004 Corruption Perception Index by Transparency International.
• We don’t have the pollution, congestion, health issues and cramped city living that is often the case elsewhere.

What we do have is equal opportunity where people are not judged on their gender, how they sound, what colour they are, how they vote, or where – if -- they go to church.

It all adds up to a fresh, healthy lifestyle in one of the most beautiful countries in the world.