6 New Zealand Adventures That Anyone Can Do

Mapua Magic Day Tour along the Great Taste Trail

You don't need to be an expert cyclist to experience Tasman's Great Taste Trail—you just need to know how to ride a bike. Don't be put off by the fact that a loop of the whole route is more than 100 miles. You can easily do a portion of it in a half day or full day, and virtually the entire way is ranked as "easiest" or "easy" (except for the Wakefield to Woodstock portion, which is "intermediate"). You'll ride through green farmland and cozy neighborhoods, and alongside beaches, often pedaling for miles without seeing anyone except the occasional sheep.

My favorite section starts in Mapua, a cute waterfront town, where you can take a bike ferry over to nearby Rabbit Island for beaches, forest … and not a lot of people. The best way to experience the trail is by booking the Mapua Magic Day Tour with Wheelie Fantastic. You'll be kitted out with a bike, pannier day bag, helmet, maps, coupons for a local cafe, and lunch. Most importantly for a day tour, you'll be driven out to a starting point, so you don't have to do a loop and ride through the same scenery to get back.

Kayak and Walk in Abel Tasman

At 86 square miles, Abel Tasman National Park may be New Zealand's smallest national park, but it’s also one of the country's most diverse.

As New Zealand's only coastal national park, it's got sheltered bays with beach access, as well as an interior that's full of thick native forest and tons of walking paths. If you're visiting here, you should explore both land and sea (and you'll need to arrive either by boat or by foot, since there are no roads within the park).

To do both, book a Kayak and Walk tour with Abel Tasman Kayaks. You'll take a water taxi out to a remote beach, where you'll board your sea kayak and paddle over some of the clearest water in the world. You're likely to encounter seals, birds, and other native wildlife. Afterwards, a delicious lunch awaits you on gorgeous golden sand beach.

When you're finished eating and swimming, you'll leave your kayak behind and head out to explore the bush. I recommend combining this with a stay at Peppers Awaroa Lodge—you'll send your luggage ahead on the water taxi in the morning, and your hike will end at the hotel. There's no cooler way to arrive at your room for the night than by walking out of the forest and finding it.

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Hooker Valley Track

If you're not a hiker, the thought of an eight-mile trail might put you off. But the Hooker Valley Track is one of the most popular walks in Aoraki/Mt. Cook National Park for a reason—it's almost entirely flat and very well-maintained (wooden pathways and steps take over where the terrain gets dicey; otherwise, it's a flat gravel path). Plus, the views of the Hooker Valley, Mount Cook, and the river will keep you going even if you get tired. You'll be rewarded at the end with a glacier lake, where you'll see chunks of ice floating in the shadow of the mountain.

Explore a Glacier

Get up close and personal with a piece of 500-year-old ice on a Glacier Explorers tour of the Tasman Glacier, home to New Zealand's longest glacier. As the glacier melts, icebergs break away and float in the lake. The small custom-built Glacier Explorers boats get right up next to these ancient pieces of ice, and you can reach down and touch (or even taste) them.

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Christchurch Gondola

This adventure involves heights, but at least you don't have to hurl yourself off at the top (unlike a bungy jump). And, you'll actually get to enjoy the scenery instead of watching it rush by as you hurtle towards the earth, upside-down.

The Christchurch Gondola whisks you up over 2,800 horizontal feet in around 10 minutes. Through clear windows, you'll get panoramic views of the city sprawled out beneath you, as well as the Canterbury Plains, the Southern Alps, and the Banks Peninsula. At the top, you can take as much time as you like to soak in the scenery, or check out the Time Tunnel ride, which takes you through the history of the area.

Alps 2 Ocean Trail

The name (Alps 2 Ocean Trail) may sound intimidating, but don't worry: You don't have to scale a mountain and then swim an ocean. It's just the name for the entire 187-mile path that winds from the Southern Alps down to the Pacific Ocean. It's divided into nine sections, so you can easily just do part of it on a short ride or day trip. The trail ranges from grades 2-3 (easy to intermediate), so make sure you pick one of the easier parts to tackle if you're more about the scenery than the pedaling.

I checked out the Tekapo section of the trail on a day tour with The Jollie Biker, which designed a scenic route for me. They also drove to a section of the trail that changes from an off-road to on-highway path, and then ferried me to the next off-road part so I wouldn't have to contend with traffic. Hey, I was on vacation—I didn't want sharing the "wrong side" of the road to distract me from views of the epic scenery!

More from SmarterTravel:

• 7 Things No One Ever Tells You About New Zealand
• How to Do New Zealand's North and South Islands in Two Weeks
• 10 Best Places to Go in New Zealand

Caroline Morse recently traveled to New Zealand courtesy of Tourism New Zealand. Catch up on all her South Island photos and videos on Instagram @TravelWithCaroline and on Twitter @CarolineMorse1.