9 Extraordinary Nature Places in the Southern Hemisphere

Are you feeling the blues and missing excitment and adventure in your life? are you longing for nature and exploring the wilderness that this gorgeous world has to offer? Why not go to one of these places and be bedazzled with the rough beauty that Mother Nature has to offer you.

9. Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand

Rotorua has magnificent nature. It is famous for its volcanic activity and for how its landscape has been shaped and colored by it.

Check out the parks and make time to visit one of the area’s many hot springs. New Zealand is never really hot so it is always the perfect weather to enjoy and relax in one of the naturally occurring hot springs. Whether you prefer the luxury of the man-made versions or the simplicity of the naturally occurring pools, they are not hard to find, and worth a visit. And while you’re in town, Rotorua is famous for its Maori villages and cultural performances which is a fun experience if you do not mind the artificiality of being a tourist attraction. Let yourself be entertained for a few hours with visits to traditionally built houses, play the games that the Maori children played pre-Cook-invasion, and have a traditional meal while enjoying Haka performances.

Rotorua, North Island, New Zealand

8 . Litchfield National Park, NT, Australia.

As part of the woodlands, this national park stretches over 1500 square kilometers. The park holds spectacular waterfalls, cold-water pools, and huge termite mounds three time your own size. Did you think termite mounds all looked the same? Stand to be corrected. When just entering the Litchfield Park surreal, a tombstone-like field of giant termite mounds feels the green fields. These castles are built on a north-south axis to protect the interiors from the intense sun. Next stop is the thundering falls and cool plunge pools where you can cool off and lay back and relax while the world runs its course. On the way south stop by Umbrawarra Gorge. This park protects a beautiful and isolated gorge with steep red cliffs. Take your time to wander through the gallery of nature. Umbrawarra should be visited if you like walking, rock hopping, swimming and exploring hidden and secret places few have gone before.

Litchfield, Northern Territory, Australia

7. The Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia

These are an absolute favorite of mine. A breathtaking piece of nature, and quaint small cities surrounding the entry points. The mountain range is a dissected plateau carved in sandstone bedrock.
It is a beautiful place, and definitely worth at least one weekend-camping trip. The most popular place in the Blue Mountains is called the Three Sisters and is where most tours will take you. It is right next to the Katoomba Scenic Railway, which should be the steepest railway in the world. I do not consider myself afraid of heights, but I was terrified on my way up through the gorge.
The adverts claim a maximum gradient of 52 degrees, but it felt like free fall. At this location, you will also find the Scenic Skyway, a glass-bottom aerial cable car, and the Scenic Cableway. Both part of The Giant Stairway, a walking track that runs down a cliff into the Jamison Valley, providing access to nature walks throughout the valley. The Blue Mountains has some of the country’s most dazzling natural attractions. With dramatic views over the deep valley, troughs gouged out over millions of years.

The Three Sisters, The Blue Mountain, New South Wales, Australia

6. Ngorongoro Crater & Lake Manyara, Tanzania

The Ngorongoro Crater is filled with spectacular scenery and game viewing. It is fertile and green as the volcanic soil gives excellent nutrition for the plants to grow. Ngorongoro Crater has been called the eighth natural wonder of the world. Here you can catch a glimpse of the celebrity - the black rhino. Many of Tanzania’s last remaining black rhino call the Ngorongoro Crater home, and they can be seen grazing on the open grassland of the crater floor along with the 20.000 other large animals that occupy the crater. Other big mammals to be searched for here are lions, cheetahs, elands, and elephants.
Lake Manyara is founds set against the steep escarpment of the Rift Valley. With its variety of ecosystems including it holds a huge variety of animals. Here I was very amazed by the number of birds. Millions of flamingos chill on the water of Lake Manyara. Both be bigger and the lesser flamingos (yes that is their names). These pink creatures are adorable to look at and you can stand on the shore of this lake and just stare into the pink vast of birds for hours.
Of bigger animals, the park is some to huge families of monkeys that roam around the ground and trees. The park is home to blue monkeys, vervet monkeys, and Olive baboon troops. In terms of game-viewing, we mostly experience the grass eaters here. The buffalo, impala, giraffe, bushbuck, waterbuck, and families of hippos, all crammed together in the water. Standing as close as possible and touching on as big an area on the body as they could.

The Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania, Africa

 

5. Te Anau, Lake Wanaka & Milford Sounds, South Island, New Zealand

Here on the South Island, you can explore some of New Zealand’s most beautiful natural landscapes: the Fiordland Te Anau and Milford Sounds, or Piopiotahi, as the Mãoris call it and Lake Wanaka. Located in the South West of New Zealand’s South Island. It has been said to be the world’s top travel destination in an international survey in TripAdvisor, and it is breathtakingly beautiful.
Milford Sounds are located in  Fiordland National Park, and while you are exploring this national park get yourself on one of the many boat cruises and enjoy the surroundings, get a picture of a seal colony, a dolphin or maybe even a penguin if you are lucky. Lake Wanaka is the gateway to Mount Aspiring National Park. If you like hiking, stunning scenery and pristine nature, Wanaka ought to be a stop on your travels around New Zealand. This city’s surroundings are great for hiking and adventures.
Lake Wanaka offers some of the best hiking in New Zealand, ranging from 30 minutes to 5 days, but hiking to the majestic Rob Roy Glacier is what the vast majority of tourists visit when going there. This is an area of spectacular alpine scenery, snowfields, glaciers, sheer rock cliffs, and waterfalls.

Mirror Lake, The Fiordland National Park, South Island, New Zealand

4. Addo Elephant Park, South Africa

If it is elephants you want to see then head to Addo Elephant Park. Addo Elephant National Park is the third largest national park in South Africa (after Kruger National Park and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park). Here you can discover, experience and explore a world of diversity. As the name gives away Addo Elephant Park is famous and the home of Elephants.
They once roamed the entire continent. By 1979 there were only 1.3 million African elephants left, and in 1989 they were added to the international list of the most endangered species, with only sixteen left in the Greater Addo area.
Now more than 600 elephants live here alongside with 400 Cape buffaloes and 48 endangered black rhinos. The park, of course, has a huge variety of antelope species, birds, and other animals as well. But it is the elephants that are most important. The Elephants play a key role in the environment, when you drive around you’ll see why. They are pulling down trees, breaking up bushes, and digging waterholes and trails. Even their droppings are important to maintain the circle of life in the park.  Baboons and birds pick them over for undigested seeds and nuts, and the dung beetles use them in which to reproduce. It was here I had my first experience watching ostriches doing mating dances. Looking like a show-girl doing a fan-dance these glorified creatures were graciously dancing around each other in a perfectly coordinated performance, where we just had to stop the car to see if they could keep up the perfect performance.
The Park stretches from the semi-arid karoo of the north, over the Zuurberg Mountains and down through the Sundays River valley to the coast, to between the mouths of the Sundays and Bushman's rivers.

Addo Elephant Park, South Africa

3. Nilmuluk, NT, Australia

Nitmuluk, or Katherine Gorge as it used to be called by the English, is located 29 km from Katherine and possibly the most beautiful place in the world. It consists of 13 majestic natural gorges carved through sandstone, with huge rocks and boulders separating each gorge.
At dawn, be aware that most Australian animals are most active at dusk and dawn, so drive carefully or you will have half a dozen dead wallabies on your consciousness. Furthermore, Car insurance does not cover hitting wild animals, and if you do not have a bumper on your car, hitting an animal might cost you a great deal from your car leasing company, so drive carefully. If not for the sake of the animals, for the sake of your wallet. When the temperature hits 40 C at the bottom it is generally around 50 C at the top and the sun is unforgivably burning, making it extremely hot as soon as it rises. That being said do not miss out on this spectacular place.
If climbing is not for you Nitmiluk offers means to enjoy this enchanting scenery for every fitness level. Pick a 6 days trek all the way to Leliyn or do a few hours trek around the first Gorge. Canoe up the river or jump on a cruise, where you can just enjoy the view without all the hard work.
While visiting Nitmiluk National Park do not forget Leliyn (Edith Falls). They offer nice cooling-off in natural pools with beautiful waterfalls providing each pool with flowing fresh water. Trekking from the bottom pool to the top gives you amazing views and plenty of options to stop and catch your breath while pretending to just stop for a Kodak-moment.

Nitmuluk, Northern Territory, Australia

2. Serengeti, Tanzania

Explore the king of national parks in Africa the Serengeti National Park. The word “Serengeti” is derived from the Maasai language, meaning “endless plain.”
Be amazed by this enormous size. As said properly in the Lion King: Look, Simba. Everything the light touches is our kingdom.Young Simba: Whoa…!
Its kingdom is far greater than what we can see with our human eye. You can drive for weeks and not even see it all. But you can see enough to fall utterly in love with Africa.
Serengeti is unequaled for its beauty and home to the Great Wildebeest Migration. The huge herds of plains game such as wildebeest, zebra, and antelope dominate the park and are easy to spot and hear when driving around the savanna. If you are lucky you will meet their predators as well. Such as lion, leopard, cheetah, and hyenas. These can be found amongst the many kopjes scattered across the plain or hidden from the heat under shades of green.
This is one of your chances to see the cubs of lions playing in the grass or a Pumba being chased down by jackals and experience for yourself the circle of life.
We loved the baby cubs of the lions and almost fainted with excitement when our guide found us baby cheetahs’. They were literary the most adorable sight we made. We spent the nights in Serengeti in tents and the night by the fire watching hyaenas roaming around the camp and buffalos quietly sneaking closer and closer to our campfire. When we wanted to leave the fire to go to our tent we were escorted by a Masai-bodyguard with weapons … just in case of course. And during the night we were woken up multiple times by calling zebras and lot of other unidentified animals.
Spending a few days here is a must. The landscape of the Serengeti varies from open grass plains in the south to savanna with scattered acacia trees in the center, to hilly, wooded grassland in the north. And the wildlife is as different as the landscape.

Serengeti, Tanzania, Africa

 

1. Center of Australia, NT, Australia

The most iconic part of Australia is probably the center with its ancient surroundings which should definitely not to be missed. Uluru, which is even more spectacular op close, Kings Canyon, and Kata Tjuta. Uluru: While you walk the flat surrounding around it take some time to ponder, like so many others, how a rock like this appeared in the middle of the flat landscape. Could the dream-time stories be true, or do you have a different idea? Watch how it appear to glow as the sun sets behind it. Or perhaps get the first glimpse of sunlight cascading over Uluru, a sunrise you will never forget.
Kings Canyon: The walls of Kings Canyon rises more than 100 meters high, with Kings Creek at the bottom. This scenery is worthy of a King. If you want to fully explore it there is only one way… put on your runners, sunscreen, and cap and start trekking.
The walk is breathtaking in more ways than one. It takes blood sweat and tears to reach the top which begins with a steep climb. The locals call it ‘heart attack hill’ but once you reach the top, I promise you it is worth the climb. The view of the gorge and the surrounding landscape is just indescribable. You will get plenty of kodak-moments on this trek with Garden of Eden and mazes of weathered sandstone domes which just never seize to amaze you.
Kata Tjuta: Kata Tjuta is a group of large domed rock formations located around 25 km from Uluru. Kata Tjuta counts 36 domes. However, in the aboriginal languages, you do not count to more than three. Are there more than three, you just have many. Simple as that.
Like Uluru there are many Pitjantjatjara dream-time legends associated with this place. A large number of legends surrounds the great snake King Wanambi who is said to dwell in the summit of Mount Olga, the highest of the domes, and only emerges during the dry season.

Kings Canyon, Nothern Territory, Australia

* All photos are private and taken by me