Tourist guide gets rough on NZ

Auckland is small-town, Christchurch strait-laced and New Zealand's green image a geographical accident, an internationally renowned tourist guide says.

Despite an overwhelming thumbs up for amazing scenery, friendly inhabitants and wild tourist attractions, the latest edition of the Rough Guide to New Zealand has some warnings for visitors.

The country's clean, green image is "more an accident of geography than the result of past government policy".

Maori and European New Zealanders live an uneasy co-existence, and though Presbyterian and Anglican values have proved hard to "shake off", the Kiwi psyche has become infused with Maori generosity and hospitality, mixed with colonial "mateyness".

But beware: "an underlying inferiority complex seems to linger" and travellers are warned they may face interrogation about their views on the country "almost before you leave the airport".

The country's biggest city cops the most flak.

"Go-ahead" Auckland fans may rank the city of sails alongside Sydney, the authors say, but it "fails to live up to the claim, struggling to match Wellington... for exciting culture and vibrant night-life".

Beyond Auckland's glitzy shops, the city has a "modest small-town feel", which can seem frenetic compared with rural New Zealand.

Large Polynesian and Asian populations make the city "an intriguing, sometimes uneasy, tri-cultural melting pot".

Many tourists regard Auckland merely as a transit stop, and readers are told "you could be forgiven for doing the same".

The 4th edition of the guide, to be published in December, also advises visitors the public transport system is in a "sorry state".

By contrast, the North Island "finishes with a flourish" in Wellington, arguably the country's most attractive large city, with its most sophisticated cafe scene.

However, Wellingtonians may be surprised to learn they can thank politicians and bureaucrats for giving their city "well-scrubbed and urbane sophistication".

Dunedin is "darkly attractive" and Christchurch is "strait-laced", although the new art gallery is high on the list of must-sees.

Rotorua may be the North Island tourist destination par excellence, but there is no escaping the pong.

"You don't smell Rotorua long before you see it but it's hard to convince yourself otherwise after arrival."

There are few reasons to stop in Porirua, the best reason to be in Whangarei ("a bit of a disappointment") is to explore the surrounding area, and "workaday" Masterton offers the "dubious pleasures" of the Golden Shears.

Heading south, Ashburton is "long, thin and stubbornly suburban", and Timaru has little to tempt travellers from their cash.

As for Queenstown, the tourist mecca appears to be a victim of its own popularity.

Kiwis and overseas tourists alike can "often be overheard complaining that the country's main centre for adventure sports is getting overcrowded and too big for its boots".

- NZPA