One of Britain’s newspapers, the Daily Telegraph, voted NZ as the winning country for the Travel Awards. 75,000 readers voted. This is the 4th time in a row that NZ has won. The newspaper listed 26 reasons why NZ was so popular. Although the beautiful scenery in Fjordland around Milford Sound was the first reason, in fact the third reason was maybe the main one. It was the strong ties which NZ has to Britain. We speak the same language, we still have the Union Jack on our flag, we are an island country like Britain and many houses have gardens just like Britain. Some think Britain was like NZ 50 years ago.
Here are some of the other reasons which people gave. They liked Maori culture, the haka and the All Blacks, 90 mile beach (although it is only 55 miles), the 2,500km of Cycle Trails, the Milford Track, and the geysers in Rotorua. Some of our kauri trees in Northland are very old. In fact, one may be 4,000 years old. They loved the kakapo, the world’s largest parrot. Like many of our native birds, it does not fly and this means it is now endangered. There are not many kakapo left in NZ. And of course many tourists connect NZ with Middle Earth, the home of the Lord of the Rings movies.
You can view these 26 reasons here. Click on View All near the top.
Probably another reason which was not given was that many British people are familiar with NZ. Some have visited our country, others have friends or family who have visited, and many know of British immigrants living in NZ.
Vocabulary
• in a row (idiom) – 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 (the 4th consecutive year)
• strong ties (n) – close links
• geyser (n) – steam and hot water come from the ground like a fountain
• endangered (adj) – very few still alive, may disappear one day