Lonely Planet: the South Island beats the North hand down for the best in outdoors fun - Wellington included in the guide!

Top world guide book publisher Lonely Planet has come up with its first South Island guide book – with a difference: It includes 32 pages about the Wellington area.

This is about as novel and sincere as producing a travel book all about New Zealand, with a section on Sydney or Melbourne. The South Island alone lives up to its name as being lonely with less than a quarter of the population spread over 56 percent of its land mass – not including Wellington!

But despite the bizarre inclusion, the Lonely Planet is right on the button with all its tips and comments about the South Island – and Wellington!

The guide says the South Island wins ‘hand down’ when it comes to the great outdoors. The South Island delivers more than its share of ‘’eye-popping panorama and heart-pumping outdoor activities, not to mention festivals, Maori culture and stellar food and (spectacular) wine’’.

``Truly wild places are rare in today’s world but the South Island delivers them in droves: ‘’fiords, sounds, glaciers, cloud-topping mountain ranges, remote islands, raggedy peninsulas and wide river plains.

``And when you come in from the wild you’ll find the table is laid: Kaikoura crayfish, Marlborough sauvignon blanc, Motueka kiwifruit, Oamaru kumara and Greymouth ale.’’

Unusually Lonely Planet has made a comment on politics; though rather timely after the November elections. It says Kiwis recently opted for the ebullient right wing Prime minister John Key.

``Under Helen Clark’s no-nonsense guidance, NZ continued with its pacifist anti-nuclear policy while retaining troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Unemployment plummeted, the arts bloomed and the domestic economy was kicking goals though the world’s economic crisis cast a shadow over the Labour government’s final year.

``The challenge for John Key will be to maintain NZ’s prosperity during a period where the country is being impacted by an economic recession.’’

The South Island guide said the tourism juggernaut is rolling on – but at what cost? All the wilderness frenzy is having an impact: campers shampoo in Catlins’ creeks, the skies above Franz Josef (and Queenstown) drone with aeroplanes and locals avoid large chunks of the South Island simply because of the hordes of tourists.

``There are wild few places on this not-so lonely planet as pristine diverse and staggeringly good-looking.’’