Tips for slow travel in New Zealand

This is your invitation to slow travel in New Zealand. In this post I’m going to describe what I mean by slow travel, and how it can apply to travel in New Zealand

Slow travel is about quality over quantity. It’s the kind of travel that lets you breathe and enjoy just being where you are. Eat delicious seasonal food, listen to birdsong, breathe fresh air, feel your feet on the ground.  And you arrive home refreshed and energized – and even changed in some way.

Maybe slow travel in New Zealand seems like a paradox. You spend up to two days travelling thousands of kilometres at very high speed, just to get here. And as soon as you arrive, you want to see as much as possible in a short time.

Because New Zealand is so far away, and it might be the only time you ever get to visit this beautiful country.

But I don’t think slow travel has to be either/or. The headspace (and heart space) of slow travel is always possible, no matter where you are. You can include windows of slow travel in any journey.

There are various approaches and principles that apply to slow travel. I’m offering a selection here, hoping to inspire you to plan your trip in a slow travel state of mind.

I have experienced both fast and slow travel. I made my first plane flight at nine months and spent what felt like long periods of my childhood getting over jetlag.

When my husband and I took our then-teenage sons to visit Britain and a small part of Europe, we tried to cram far too much into four weeks. We visited family places, had memorable experiences, and ate some great food. But we also got pretty stressed, spending days travelling from one place to the next. And when you’re stressed, it takes time to wind down… which uses up precious days of your holiday…

So my hope, from the other side of the planet to many of my readers, is to inspire you to visit New Zealand in a more spacious, less rushed headspace.

Some of the slow travel related topics I’ll cover include how to get around without driving – is it possible to see New Zealand without driving a car? How to plan your trip, while leaving space for serendipity. How to deal with jet lag. How to regain a state of peace, while you’re travelling in an unfamiliar country, far from home. The possibility of travelling off grid, for at least some of your visit. Ways to connect with Maori culture as a visitor, in a respectful way.

And, taking the road less travelled, and what that could mean when visiting New Zealand.

What is slow travel?

Slow travel isn’t any single thing. It’s the intention, the state of mind, the way you approach it.

Slow travel is about values, connection, awareness, respect for the place you’re visiting and the people who live there. It’s meaningful travel, mindful travel.

I think slow travel also means respect for the value of what you’re getting; recognizing that your tourist dollars make a big difference to the economy of a small country.

In foreground long dark brown sculptural branches and bunches of dull green leaves, and green grass. Through the branches is a harbour at low tide with wide stretches of mudflat and pale blue water. On the far side of the water is the other side of the harbour with dark green bush down to the water’s edge. Above the bush is blue sky with white clouds.
Watching the tide ebb and flow: Low tide at Raglan, on the Whaingaroa Harbour, seen through the sculptural branches of a pohutukawa tree.

Principles and values of slow travel

Connection, and relationships, are important slow travel values.

This could mean personal connection to other people. Slow travellers may stay in smaller accommodation, eat local food, spend time talking to shop owners.

It could also mean spending time in nature, experiencing the trees and the often elusive New Zealand wildlife.

Slow travel and Māori culture

I can’t write about slow travel in Aotearoa-New Zealand without acknowledging the importance of Maori culture. There is so much that Māori culture contributes to the unique features of this country.

Māori are the indigenous people of Aotearoa-New Zealand, the tangata whenua, “people of the land”. Some of the most famous images of New Zealand worldwide are connected to Māori culture: Māori artists and film makers; New Zealand sports teams performing a haka (ceremonial dance) before an event or game.

Many people internationally (including me) find it exciting and inspiring that some natural features of this country have been granted legal personhood, including the Whanganui River, Mt Taranaki and Te Urewera ecosystem. This is due to the efforts of Māori people, and it’s setting international legal precedents.

Ways to connect with Māori culture

Slow travel ways to connect with Māori culture could include learning about the Maori history of the places you visit, or going to one of the famous Māori cultural performances at Rotorua. It could also mean finding out how to pronounce place names, and seeking out Māori-run tourism businesses.

To read more, here’s my post with some information about Māori culture that’s useful for visitors to know about.

The road less travelled

A slow travel principle is taking the road less travelled – choosing destinations off the beaten path.

But maybe you think New Zealand is already way off the beaten path!

However, most of the people who visit this country spend their time in just a few very popular destinations. If you’re thinking “must see places” – that’s what I mean.

This is one of the big reasons behind this blog – giving ideas for places to visit that aren’t always on the tour bus routes.

In the Waikato, where I live, one particular walkway has found its way onto the “must see” itineraries. Every day, the carpark overflows with tour buses and campervans, and the trail gets worn down with thousands of visitors. Meanwhile, half an hour’s drive away there are beautiful peaceful nature reserves with hardly any people.

Slow travel and slow food

Slow travel has some of its roots in Slow Food. This is a worldwide movement highlighting local food producers and traditional cooking. It was founded by Italian chef Carlo Petrini in 1986, to celebrate the regional food cultures of Italy. And, in resistance to plans to build McDonald’s restaurants in Rome, to feed international tourists.

Local and seasonal food

New Zealand is famous for food production, but our local food culture is relatively recent – most of the food grown here is exported.

Seeking out delicious local seasonal food is an important aspect of slow travel. And there’s plenty of this in New Zealand – but not so much in supermarkets.

The best places to find local food are farmers’ markets, and directly from growers. Here’s how to find local farmers’ markets in various parts of New Zealand.

And here’s my post with more about where to find local food in the Waikato.

In Praise of Slow

Another inspiration for slow travel is Carl Honore’s book In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of Speed. Since the beginning of the 20th century everything about life in western culture has been getting faster. Even the speed at which orchestras play classical music.

Carl makes a good case for the benefits of deliberately slowing down, when we can. Here’s a link to his Ted Talk about In Praise of Slow.

In foreground is a wide bed of flowers, pink, white, purple, red and range, with green foliage. Behind the flower bed at the back two smll figures of women standing, one wearing a brown hat and one with long red hair, wearing a white dress. Behind the women at the right is a high green hedge and in centre and to the left is a row of bushy trees. Blue sky with a few white clouds at top right.
A delightful slow summer evening flower picking at Tomtit Farm in Matangi, near Hamilton. Rows and rows of gorgeous blooms!

Getting around without a car

If you want to travel more slowly, getting out of your car is an obvious way to do this.

However, New Zealand doesn’t have abundant easy public transport everywhere in the countryside. So most folk (including many New Zealanders) think driving is the only option. But buses and trains do exist!

Check out my post about how to travel in New Zealand without a car.

Other car-free travel options are cycling and walking.

New Zealand on a bicycle

I’ll be honest with you and say that for most people, cycling is not a relaxing way to travel long distances in New Zealand – the road edges mostly don’t have space for bicycles and drivers are impatient and sometimes downright aggressive with cyclists.

But, there are beautiful off-road cycle trails throughout the country, which are great news for slow travellers.

Here’s my post about my adventures riding an e-bike alongside the Waikato River.

In foreground centre is a bicycle with yellow and blue body and black handlebars and wheels, and the words Clio in large letters on the cycle frame. Behind the bicycle is a row of green and white weed flowers. At left is a glimpse of a river behind bushy plants, and more green bushes on the far side of the river. At right is a bridge across the river with a curved semicircle green frame above the grey-blue bridge. Sky is cloudy blue-grey.
Riding alongside the river: The Perry Cycle Bridge is one of several river crossings on the Waikato River Ride between Hamilton and Ngaruawahia.

Seeing New Zealand on foot

Walking is an important aspect of slow travel, whether it’s day walks, longer hikes, wandering around a city, or a pilgrimage. NB in New Zealand, hiking is often called “tramping”.

The Great Walks are world-famous – but all over the country there are plenty of lesser known walkways.

For serious walkers, there’s the epic Te Araroa long distance walking trail, which stretches 3,000 km from the far north of the North Island to the south of the South Island. Many folk walk shorter sections of the trail.

Local arts, crafts, music

In New Zealand this could mean visiting local art galleries, music events and craft markets, and/or investing in quality pieces by local artists.

When you’re a slow traveller, you’ll have time to find out what’s happening.

Environmental values

Caring about the environment, and being aware of the impact you have as a traveller, is an important part of a slow travel mindset.

When you fly to New Zealand, you’ll already have a fairly high carbon footprint before you walk out of the airport. But, that doesn’t mean you have to abandon all of your environmental values.

Some slow travel options are to use public transport when possible; stay in accommodation where the owners have environmental values; visit eco-sanctuaries and nature reserves; volunteer at local environment events; donate to local activist organisations, for example the group raising awareness about the impact of seabed mining, or an organization supporting a wildlife reserve.

Or, get involved in local environment initiatives when you return home.

How to plan slow travel

Slow travel starts at the planning stage. A balanced itinerary means you get to visit some of your “must-see” places, while also leaving space for unplanned discoveries.

Leave space in your schedule

A slow travel itinerary allows you time to stop and see what happens next. In a blog post about slow travel in Finland, Ananna Das observes that modern tourism often feels more like a scavenger hunt than a journey, ticking off as many destinations as possible.

She recommends leaving 50% of your time unscheduled. This may not feel do-able. But it’s an interesting target to aim for.

Quality over quantity

Visit fewer destinations, and when you arrive, move around less. Accept that you can’t visit everywhere and do everything in one lifetime.

Take a journal, a watercolour set, your knitting project, a paperback book to read.

Stay for longer

Another slow travel principle is “stay for longer in one place”, according to a great piece by Natalie Gale in The Good Trade. Plan your travels to stay in one place for a few days, so you have time to relax and look around.

Slow travel and wellbeing

Slow travel is a much calmer experience than the stress that often accompanies a vacation.

The intention is that you’ll feel genuinely refreshed and connected.

Forest bathing

One way to promote wellbeing is to make sure you spend plenty of time in nature. The Japanese practice of forest bathing, shinrin-yoku, is about immersing oneself in nature to improve health and reduce stress.

New Zealand is a wonderful place for forest bathing. There are so many bush reserves with trees and huge tree ferns. And as soon as you’re off the main tourist routes it’s easy to find natural spaces with very few people.

Yoga and meditation

Another way to create calm travel is to seek out yoga studios and retreat accommodation that offers yoga classes and/ or meditation.

Dealing with jetlag

When you travel across several time zones, jetlag is inevitable. Taking time to recover your circadian rhythms is a slow travel practice. Forest bathing will be very helpful for this.

For more tips on dealing with jetlag, check out my post Welcome to jetlag.

Off grid travel tips

Consider planning your journey to include time away from your phone and other digital devices. It’s a blessing to the body and mind to be free of news updates and doom scrolling and social media beeps, even for short periods.

Maps not apps

Navigation apps are useful – but they can take some of the mystery out of travelling. On a journey, things reveal themselves along the way. This can only happen when there is space for uncertainty.

When you use a paper map, you have to pay much closer attention to your surroundings than when you’re whizzing through the countryside following instructions from an app.

Here’s a NZ Herald article about one writer’s experience using paper maps.

However, if you’re taking public transport, having access to apps makes your bus travel much easier. Think of it as a trade-off: you’re not having to navigate traffic in a car.

Staying off-grid

Instead of rigorously checking that a bed and breakfast has unlimited internet, stay at a place that’s off-line! For example, at Mana Retreat Centre on the Coromandel Peninsula, internet is only available in the main building, not in the accommodation rooms.

For another kind of off-grid: some back-country accommodation is entirely powered by solar energy – it’s not connected up to the national electricity grid.

Journals and sketch pads

A journal is a perfect slow travel art form. Rather than taking photos of everything you see (and posting to social media), write about your experiences in a journal, and sketch the scenery.

Stock up on watercolours at an art supply store, like Gordon Harris – they have branches in the main cities.

In foreground centre, tree fern with bright green fronds, at left and right are bushy darker green trees with grey branches. In centre of image is a wide blue-green river, flowing to the top of the photo. A small amount of blue sky and white clouds visible in background.
The Waikato River, seen through tree ferns and other bush on the bank at Hammond Park south of Hamilton Gardens.

10 New Zealand slow travel experiences

  • Star gazing on a clear night – you can do this almost anywhere!
  • An evening visit to a glow worm grotto
  • Staying on a tidal harbour and watching the tide coming in and out
  • Forest bathing
  • Cicada sound bath in the bush in late summer
  • Birdsong at dawn
  • Watching the sunset on a West Coast beach, e.g. Ruapuke
  • Meeting some of New Zealand’s improbable flightless birds: takahe, kakapo, kiwi
  • Blueberry picking
  • Spend a night in a campground beside a surf beach, listening to the sound of the waves

More tips for slow travel in New Zealand

I hope I’ve given you plenty of inspiration for ways to include slow travel in your New Zealand travel plans.

If you enjoyed this post, sign up to my email list to stay in touch. I’ll let you know whenever I publish new ideas for slow day trips around New Zealand’s green heartland.

To find out more about gardens and nature to explore in the Waikato, check out my post about gardens and nature experiences.

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