Oceania
Get a Personal Pick →New Zealand
73 destinations
Water Abel Tasman National Park
"Golden bays between forested headlands, reached only on foot, by kayak or water taxi."
City Akaroa
"French street names and a crater harbour where the world's smallest dolphins feed."
Mountain Aoraki / Mount Cook
"New Zealand's highest peak rising from glacial lakes into permanent snow and silence."
City Arrowtown
"A gold-rush town where autumn turns every tree amber above Chinese miners' cottages."
Mountain Arthur's Pass
"An alpine village where the world's only mountain parrot audits every arriving car."
Water Bay of Islands
"Some 144 islands scattered across the waters where modern New Zealand was founded."
Water Cape Kidnappers
"Thousands of gannets crowd crumbling sandstone above a coast Cook named in anger."
Water Cape Palliser
"Fishing boats launched by bulldozer into wild surf beneath a striped lighthouse."
Water Cape Reinga
"Two oceans meet in churning water where Māori spirits begin their final journey."
Mountain Castle Hill / Kura Tawhiti
"Limestone monoliths scattered like giants' dice across a sacred alpine basin."
Water Castlepoint
"A lighthouse on a razor-thin reef where fossils crumble from the cliffs into surf."
Water Cathedral Cove
"A cathedral-scale rock arch framing turquoise water, earned by coast path or kayak."
Mountain Denniston
"A coal plateau reached by an incline so steep that miners rode the wagons down."
Water Doubtful Sound
"Three times Milford's size and ten times the silence — a fiord reached only by boat."
City Dunedin
"A Scottish-built city with the world's steepest street and albatrosses on the headland."
Water Farewell Spit
"A twenty-six-kilometre blade of sand curving into the sea, guided-access only beyond its base."
Mountain Franz Josef Glacier
"A glacier named for frozen tears, its ice now reached only by helicopter."
Water French Pass
"A tidal race so fierce that whirlpools churn the gap on every running tide."
Mountain Glenorchy
"The road stops here — a glacial lake against trackless mountains at Fiordland's edge."
Water Hokitika Gorge
"Glacial flour turns the river a turquoise that photographs get accused of faking."
Wilderness Hollyford Valley
"A valley so remote that a bush airstrip is the alternative to days on foot."
Water Hot Water Beach
"Dig knee-deep at low tide and volcanic water fills the hole beneath you."
Water Kaikōura
"Sperm whales sound beneath snow-capped mountains in a town named for eating crayfish."
Water Kapiti Island
"A predator-free forest fortress where the dawn chorus feels physically dense."
Mountain Lake Marian
"An alpine lake cradled in a granite amphitheatre, earned by roots, mud and climb."
Mountain Lake Matheson
"Tannic black water that mirrors Aoraki so sharply the reflection outdoes the peak."
Water Lake Taupō
"An inland sea filling the caldera of one of Earth's most violent eruptions."
Water Lake Tekapo
"A turquoise lake beneath some of the darkest, clearest night skies on Earth."
Water Lake Waikaremoana
"A mist-wrapped lake in Te Urewera, walked under the stewardship of Tūhoe."
Water Māhia Peninsula
"A remote Māori peninsula where surf beaches share the horizon with an orbital launch site."
Water Marlborough Sounds
"Drowned valleys folding whole seas of coastline into forested, road-shy waterways."
Water Milford Sound
"Waterfalls plunge from cliffs a kilometre high into a fiord that doubles the sky."
Mountain Milford Track
"Four days through rainforest and over a pass Victorians called the world's finest walk."
Water Moeraki Boulders
"Spherical boulders the size of cars on the tide line, cracked open like ancient eggs."
Mountain Mount Hikurangi
"The mainland's first sunrise falls on sacred ground where Māui's canoe came to rest."
Mountain Mount Sunday
"A solitary hill guarding a braided river plain — Tolkien's Rohan made real, set removed."
Mountain Mount Tarawera
"A volcano torn open in one night, its crimson rift still raw after 140 years."
City Napier
"Rebuilt entirely in Art Deco after a 1931 earthquake levelled the city in minutes."
Water Ninety Mile Beach
"Called Ninety Mile Beach and fifty-five miles long — still vast beyond argument."
City Oamaru
"Victorian limestone streets host a steampunk imagination while penguins parade at dusk."
Water Okarito Lagoon
"A tea-dark lagoon that mirrors the Southern Alps beside a village of thirty."
Wilderness Ōpārara Basin
"Limestone arches spanning a tea-black river in forest that swallows the light."
Water Piha
"Black iron-sand beneath a lion-shaped monolith where the Tasman pounds relentlessly."
Water Pōhatu
"The world's only white-flippered penguins come ashore at dusk in a volcanic bay."
Water Poor Knights Islands
"Volcanic sea stacks ranked among the world's finest dives, kept human-free by rāhui."
Water Punakaiki
"Limestone stacked like a giant's pancakes, with blowholes that roar on the right tide."
Mountain Queenstown
"The town where bungee jumping was born, cradled between a glacial lake and jagged peaks."
Water Raglan
"One of the world's longest left-hand breaks rolling toward a black-sand harbour town."
Mountain Rob Roy Glacier
"A hanging glacier calving in real time above a valley of waterfalls."
City Rotorua
"A city built on geothermal fury, where steam rises through suburban streets."
City Russell
"New Zealand's first capital — once damned by missionaries as the Pacific's hell-hole."
Mountain Skippers Canyon
"A gold miners' road carved into sheer cliff, best driven by someone else."
City St Bathans
"A gold-rush village of mud brick beside a flooded mine pit turned sapphire lake."
Wilderness Stewart Island / Rakiura
"An island where kiwi vastly outnumber people beneath glowing southern skies."
Mountain Taranaki Maunga
"A volcanic cone so symmetrical that satellite photos look digitally rendered."
Water The Catlins
"Jurassic petrified trees on a beach where sea lions sleep in the dunes."
Water Tiritiri Matangi Island
"Birds once thought extinct stroll past your boots on a predator-free island."
Mountain Tongariro Alpine Crossing
"Emerald lakes glow in active volcanic craters on a moonscape ridge traverse."
Water Tunnel Beach
"A hand-carved tunnel through a sea cliff opens onto a beach the tide lends out."
Wilderness Wai-O-Tapu
"Champagne-fizzing pools and sulphur-green water in a landscape that smells of hell."
Wilderness Waipoua Forest
"A kauri wider than a house has stood here since before living memory began."
Wilderness Waitomo Caves
"Thousands of glowworms turn subterranean limestone into a ceiling of cold blue stars."
Water Wanaka
"A glacial lake ringed by peaks, where a lone willow in the shallows became iconic."
Mountain Welcome Flat Hot Springs
"Hot pools steaming beside a glacial river, earned by a full day's walking."
Water Wharariki Beach
"Archway islands rise from the surf behind dunes where seal pups play the pools."
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Legendary Destinations
Little-known places, unlike anywhere else, that leave you awestruck and full of stories.
8 destinations
Legendary Destination
Follow a remote road to a pub that stamps its own passports.
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Legendary Destination
No street lights. The island leaves the night to the stars.
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Legendary Destination
Count the river crossings. Twenty-three stand before the empty gold town.
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Legendary Destination
A lake holds an island. The island holds a lake.
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Legendary Destination
The water is clear enough to seem absent, and sacred enough to leave untouched.
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Legendary Destination
A volcano made black glass that people once traded as treasure.
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Legendary Destination
A night of destruction gave birth to a valley of rising steam.
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Legendary Destination
This river has a legal voice. Its current leads towards a bridge to nowhere.
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