travel report - New Zealand (south island*)

New Zealand we are surprised. There are still landscapes which seem to be forgotten to cut away the trees and there are still some rivers which make their way to the sea not brown colored.  Glaciers above scenic coasts, amazing waves breaking to the rough coast or to the mile long sand beach.  More than enough material for the shiny travel catalogue. But the mass tourism and the though farming (55 million sheep) are leaving deep traces behind. So far as possible we try to escape the well gated tourism stream in the south-west and enjoy the sun, wind, spring and our journey through the picturesque country. What we really got impressed from, is the amount of nice freecamp's, so we did not see a Holiday Park from the inside in these two weeks. Sorry, but we can nothing tell about the locals here, we are not even sure if there are some beside all the tourists.  

*the north island got explored by bike in 2002 already