June 2014

One of the best ways to truly explore New Zealand’s most isolated and beautiful environments is with a rafting adventure. Pristine waterways – often complete with high-energy rapids and canyons – wind through temperate rainforests, past sky scraping mountain peaks and alongside valleys dotted with wildflowers. At First Light Travel, we love down-to-earth adventures in the New Zealand wilderness, and rafting in New Zealand through isolated backcountry is about as good as it can get...  

When humans first arrived in New Zealand, no more than 900 years ago, birdsong and surf would have been the first noise they heard as they approached the lush forested islands - the land was almost exclusively populated by birds that make up the bulk of New Zealand wildlife. New Zealand's 80 million years of isolation, since breaking away from the super-continent of Gondwanaland, has allowed the evolution of nearly 200 species of birds and due to the absence of mammalian predators a high proportion of them were flightless – some of them grew into Giants - but what birds they are!