Perhaps the best way to experience the great wilderness of New Zealand - otherwise known as the "bush" to Kiwis - is to put on your hiking boots and sunscreen. Hiking - or tramping or bush walking as it is variously called - is virtually an national pastime for the people of New Zealand.

One of the most famous bush walks in the world is the four-day Milford Track, located in Fiordland National Park within the South Island. Often called "The Greatest Walk in the World", the Milford Track stretches through breathtaking scenery to eventually reach the edge of Milford Sound. The only drawback to the popularity of this particular trail is that it is the only path on which the number of hikers are controlled to ensure that overnight huts alongside the track don't become overcrowded.

There are plenty of other walks all throughout New Zealand that can be just as satisfying, only with less traffic. The Routeburn Track, also in the South Island, is a three-day walk through lowland native forest, in which you traverse a high pass, and then descend through a glacial valley. On the North Island, in the Waipoua National Forest in Northland, you can hike amidst enormous 1,000-year-old kauri (the second largest tree in the world, which grows up to 165 feet) and 80-foot tree ferns that can make you feel as though you have entered the Jurassic Period.

To find out more about planning your trip to the New Zealand countryside, give Wilcox Travel a call Toll-Free @ (800) 2-WILCOX or (828) 254-0746.