[๐ ๐ฎ๐ฐ'๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ - ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐ซ] After hiking the Continental Divide Trail, I headed to New Zealand on a working holiday visa (which allows work and travel in the country for up to one year). This was my second trip to the country; I briefly stopped over in on my way back to Australia from Brazil. During my first trip (which lasted two weeks) I hiked the Routeburn Track and hitchhiked all over the South Island. It was a nice introduction to what I could expect this time.โฃ โฃ I spent my first bit of time hitting up the country's "Great Walks", but I quickly discovered that the real adventure comes from heading out on and connecting all the routes less prominently featured on the Department of Conservation's (DOC's) website. I bounced all around the country - hitchhiking and relocating cars all over both the north and south islands. I even spent some time in the mountainless Bay of Islands in the far north of the country for my first overnight kayaking trip (need to do more of this).โฃ โฃ If you want to have some real fun in Middle Earth, I suggest heading to DOC's website, selecting "Expert" under the "Difficulty" dropdown and then looking for what tracks look most interesting (preferably those ending in "Route" or "Traverse"). If nobody has heard of a track - you should probably investigate.โฃ โฃ Pros of New Zealand? The incredible and varied landscape, never encountered any thunderstorms, no dangerous animals or insects or murder you in the night, tons of resources and relatively easy access to most of the country, hobbits. Cons? Sandflies. They're truly awful.โฃ โฃ Exploring New Zealand was like peeling back layers. Whenever I felt like I had found the next awesome thing, I realized there was something even awesomer out there waiting to be explored. Needless to say, I need to go back.