There’s always a shift when you enter New Zealand’s Southern Alps. It begins in the mind and melts down through the entire body, enlivening every last nerve ending. The lush green forest, sparkling turquoise rivers and giant gleaming mountains displace the clutter of daily worries and replace it with jaw-dropping wonder. And what better way to experience all this than riding the rush and roar of a pristine glacial river down the Landsborough Valley on the South Island’s west coast, in a raft.

A full moon on snow is like stepping into a world of pure shadow and light. It’s as bright as day but all the colours are leached away by the moonlight vividly reflected by the snow below a midnight sky pierced by glittering stars. One of the best ways to soak up this otherworldly landscape is to head out into the white beyond on cross country skis and stay in a back country hut for the night such as the Bob Lee hut on the Pisa Range.

“I’m going to count to three and then you jump, O.K. One…… two……..”

I took a terrified leap off the rock ledge into a dark pool. The cold water snapped my eyes open. I kicked madly to break the surface and took a heaving breath before yipping wildly.

“Yes! Did it!”

Two days in a sea kayak on Doubtful Sound is only just long enough to get a sense of the place. Coming from our modern world of jet-stream efficiency, instantaneous communication, high-pressure jobs and messy minds, it’s a culture shock to be suddenly left on the beach in one of the world’s most pristine national parks – Fiordland National Park, a green jewel in the far south of New Zealand’s South Island.