Town, City & Area information

We've got some great information to tell you about the towns, cities and areas that we help you discover - what to see and do, the history, interesting facts, the geography, the unique flora and fauna, Maori influence and culture and much more.  Below you will find some examples of what to expect from Tourism Radio as you approach these towns, cities and areas.

Auckland	Welcome to Auckland or Tamaki Makaurau, New Zealand’s largest city, and home to more than 1.3 million people. Auckland is often called the City of Sails as its residents are renowned boaties and reputedly own the highest number of recreational vessels per capita in the world!

Arrowtown	Welcome to Arrowtown, the best-preserved gold-mining settlement in Central Otago, where, if you take a leisurely stroll down the town’s main street you will spot relics and architecture galore.

Tekapo	Welcome to Lake Tekapo, a turquoise-blue oasis, located right in the heart of the Mackenzie country’s vast bronzed plains. This great tussocked basin was named after a Scottish shepherd.

Nelson	Welcome to Nelson, first known as Whakatu, a peaceful seaside city renowned for its wealth of talented artisans – painters, potters, sculptors and the like - who make their home here by the sea, forming and becoming part of the creative landscape.

  

Queenstown	For here at the western flank of Central Otago where the Southern Alps tower above deep glacier-gouged lakes, the pure atmosphere aids the play of light, evoking nuances few other landscapes permit, providing a spectacular backdrop for a range of pursuits

Christchurch	Welcome to Christchurch or O-tautahi, New Zealand’s second largest city and the South Island’s largest. Christchurch is often called the garden city for its residents take enormous pride not only in their own backyards, but in the city’s wealth of established parks and gardens.

      

Lake Taupo	Formed thousands of years ago by a series of violent eruptions, Taupo was given its name by early Maori. Oral traditions tell the story of the great Arawa canoe explorers, the tohunga or priest Ngatoro-i-rangi, and a chief, Tia, who discovered the lake.

Kaikoura	Kaikoura has a long whaling history and this can be discovered at Fyffe House on the peninsula. It’s the town’s oldest surviving building and is located close to where a guy by the name of Robert Fyffe, established the area’s first shore-based whaling station back in 1842.

Lake Wanaka	Wanaka’s history can be traced back to well prior to European settlement. Early Maori once used the lake and nearby Lake Hawea as campsites en route to the West Coast, where they gathered precious pounamu, otherwise known as greenstone or jade.

Wellington	Not only is Wellington home to the country’s seat of government, it’s also renowned as New Zealand’s cultural capital as it’s a centre for the arts, providing a base for the Opera, the Ballet, and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra to name a few!

Franz Josef	Welcome to Franz Josef, a buzzy little town tucked away amongst rampant rainforest, beneath the mighty glacier of the same name; a region of untamed rivers, rugged mountains, spectacular surf, crystal-clear lakes, and freezing glacier ice.

Dunedin	I’m no gambler, but even I’d be willing to wager that Dunedin is the only city on earth where you can fish for salmon from the city wharves, view a Monet at the Public Art Gallery, take tea at a 19th century castle, drive up the world’s steepest street, watch albatross soaring in the skies above, and see frolicking penguins and seals – all within the city limits!

Bay of Islands	While the great Polynesian explorer, Kupe, arrived here during the 10th century, followed by Toi around 200 years later, the first European in the Bay was Captain Cook, in 1769. Impressed by the topography and the sheltered anchorage it provided, he named the region the Bay of Islands.

Rotorua	Welcome to Rotorua, an effervescent thermal wonderland of spouting geysers, bubbling mud pools, and natural springs and spas, that’s attracted tourists and rejuvenation seekers since Victorian times. Set beside Lake Rotorua, a sparkling blue jewel of a lake literally teeming with rainbow trout, the city’s tranquility is punctuated by its hot and steamy thermal activity, which lies just beneath the surface

Waitomo Caves	The Waitomo Glow-worm Caves – the ones which first put Waitomo on the map – are located right in the heart of the village. They were discovered and explored in 1887 by a local Maori, Tane Tinorau, and an English surveyor, Fred Mace.