The 10 Best Travel Experiences in New Zealand

Aoraki/Mount Cook is New Zealand's highest peak at 3,724 metres, rising above the Mackenzie Basin surrounded by glaciers and turquoise lakes.

The Hooker Valley Track provides one of the most accessible and rewarding walks in the country, leading to views of the mountain across three swing bridges.

Fiordland National Park in the South Island of New Zealand contains some of the world's most dramatic fjord scenery, carved by glaciers over millions of years.

Milford Sound, the most famous fjord, features vertical granite walls rising 1,200 metres directly from the water's surface, with waterfalls cascading down their faces.

Bay of Islands is a sheltered stretch of Northland coastline scattered with around 144 subtropical islands, sandy coves and clear, sailable water.

Paihia and Russell serve as bases for game fishing, dolphin cruises and trips through the natural archway at Piercy Island, and the nearby Waitangi Treaty Grounds mark where New Zealand's founding document was signed in 1840.

It rewards a slower visit by boat rather than a quick stop on shore.

A single willow stands alone in the shallows of Lake Wanaka, backed by the Southern Alps - improbable, minimalist, and famous well beyond New Zealand.

The lake itself is a vast glacier-carved expanse ringed by mountains, with lakeside walks and the Roys Peak track nearby for anyone wanting more than a quick stop.

Still water at dawn doubles the tree in near-perfect reflection.

Rotorua is a North Island city built on an active geothermal field, where steaming vents, mud pools and geysers push up through public parks and backyards alike.

It is also the centre of Maori cultural tourism in New Zealand, with performances, carved meeting houses and hangi feasts at Te Puia and Whakarewarewa.

Beyond the thermal activity there is mountain biking, lake swimming and forest walks, worth more than a single day's stop.

New Zealand's best-known Great Walk runs 53.

5km through Fiordland from Lake Te Anau's Clinton Valley, over the alpine Mackinnon Pass, down to Milford Sound.

Along the way are hanging valleys, the country's tallest waterfall at Sutherland Falls, and dense temperate rainforest.

Only 40 independent walkers a day are allowed onto the one-way trail, and hut bookings for the season sell out within minutes.

A limestone cave system with an underground river, reachable only by boat across Lake Te Anau.

Deep inside, a grotto ceiling is studded with thousands of glowworms, their bioluminescent threads creating a silent, star-like constellation in total darkness.

A pair of small roadside lakes on the drive to Milford Sound that reflect the surrounding peaks and tussock grassland with near-perfect clarity on calm mornings.

A short boardwalk loop makes them one of the easiest stops on the whole Fiordland route.

A converted 19th-century railway line runs 150km through Central Otago's high-country landscape, crossing viaducts and old tunnels between Clyde and Middlemarch.

Riders pass abandoned stone stations, schist rock outcrops and wide tussock valleys with barely another soul in sight.

Most riders spread the flat, gravel trail over four or five days, staying in small towns like Ranfurly and Naseby along the way.

At the northern tip of New Zealand's South Island, Marlborough produces the majority of the country's wine and put New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc on the world map with its distinctively intense, herbaceous style.

Vineyards spread across the flat Wairau Valley floor, framed by forested hills separating the region from the Marlborough Sounds' waterways.