Natural New Zealand

New Zealand’s landscape is so remarkable it has stood in for fantasy settings such as Middle Earth, and helped inspire the biggest movie of all times, Avatar. And the unique NZ native wildlife is pretty amazing too!

Mountains and glaciers, white-sand beaches and golden bays, geothermal features and lush rainforests – the New Zealand landscape is so diverse that there’s no other place on Earth quite like it. For visitors to NZ, this means you can stroll along New Zealand’s beaches in the morning, stop at a NZ winery for lunch and be hiking an alpine trail by the afternoon. Geothermal features like volcanoes, hot springs, geysers and mud pools, and natural phenomena such as tidal blowholes and temperate-zone glaciers all contribute to the ideal natural New Zealand holiday package.

New Zealand highlights

Straddling the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean, the waters surrounding New Zealand are home to a wealth of marine species including seals, dolphins and whales. Walkers flock to Abel Tasman National Park to hike through forest and along sandy beaches, and to Fiordland National Park, home to Milford Sound, to tramp through a rugged landscape of waterfalls, rainforest-clad cliffs and deep fiords, a landscape so precious it is protected as a UNESCO World Heritage Area. Further to the north are two accessible temperate-zone glaciers, Fox Glacier and Franz Josef Glacier – rivers of ice fringed by rainforest. There are more New Zealand glaciers in Mt Cook National Park, lorded over by New Zealand’s highest mountain – Mt Cook – and the Southern Alps.

Geothermal New Zealand

In the central North Island the ‘Desert Road’ crosses a bleak landscape overlooked by a forbidding triad of NZ volcanoes. Two of these, Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngauruhoe, stood in as Mt Doom in The Lord of the Rings. North of Ruapehu is further evidence of the powerful geothermal forces that shaped the NZ landscape. Lake Taupo, New Zealand’s largest lake, owes its existence to a volcanic eruption. The region from Lake Taupo north to Rotorua is renowned for geothermal features from bubbling mud pools to steam vents and thermal hot pools. From the North Island to the South Island and beyond, to the more than 700 offshore islands, New Zealand offers a diversity of geology, climate, flora and fauna that is, quite simply, astonishing.

New Zealand Wildlife

Ancient reptiles, unique bird species, a coastline teeming with marine wildlife and a passionate commitment to conservation mean that New Zealand is an amazing destination for those in search of wildlife encounters.

Sustainable New Zealand

In New Zealand, the environment has always been regarded as important and NZ conservation efforts are world-class. Clean, green New Zealand – it’s a cliché for a reason!

New Zealand’s Great Walks

What better than to explore the stunning and diverse New Zealand landscapes on a hiking trip? Trails range from 15-minute scenic walks to multi-day hiking tours and river journeys.