Nya Zeeland

About 24km long and forming the seaward side of Tauranga Harbour, privately owned Matakana is laced with secluded white-sand surf beaches on its eastern shore (experienced surfers only). The community lifestyle here is laid-back and beachy, but the only way you can visit it is on a private boat from Tauranga or Mt Maunganui.

Tauranga (pronounced 'toe-run-gah') has been booming since the 1990s and in 2017 it leapfrogged Dunedin to become NZ's fifth-biggest city. It's especially popular with retirees cashing up from Auckland's hyperkinetic real-estate market, along with young families who can no longer afford to buy there.

New Zealand’s largest lake, Lake Taupo (also known as Taupo Moana), sits in the caldera of a volcano that began erupting about 300,000 years ago. It was formed by a collapse during the Oruanui super eruption about 26,500 years ago, which spurted 750 cu km of ash and pumice, making Krakatoa (8 cu km) look like a pimple.

Mitt i Söderhavet ligger en ögrupp utan trafikljus, snabbmatskedjor och ord för stress och punktlighet. Vi gjorde drömresan till Cooköarna för att ta oss an polynesisk kultur, turkosa laguner och total isolering.

It's hard to believe that the Otago Peninsula – a picturesque haven of rolling hills, secluded bays, sandy beaches and clifftop vistas – is only half an hour's drive from downtown Dunedin. As well as interesting historical sites and wild walking trails, this small sliver of land is home to the South Island’s most accessible diversity of wildlife, including albatross, penguins, fur seals and sea lions. The peninsula's only town is the petite Portobello and, despite a host of tours exploring the region, it maintains its quiet rural air.

Nya Zeeland är en favorit för såväl naturälskare som backpackers. Vandra mellan gyllene stränder i Golden Bay, landets hippie-tätaste område.

About 10km northeast of Takaka is pint-sized Pohara, a beachy village with a population that quadruples over summer. It has more flash holiday homes than other parts of Golden Bay, but an agreeable air persists nonetheless, aided by decent food and lodging, and a beach that at low tide is as big as Heathrow's runway.

Packing in cosmopolitan cities, authentic opportunities to experience Māori culture, and the country’s bubbling volcanic heart, the North Island is an exceedingly versatile destination.

Hawke Bay, the name given to the body of water that stretches from the Mahia Peninsula to Cape Kidnappers, looks like it’s been bitten out of the North Island’s eastern flank. Add an apostrophe and an ‘s’ and you’ve got a region that stretches south and inland to include fertile farmland, surf beaches, mountainous ranges and forests. With food, wine and architecture the prevailing obsessions, it’s smugly comfortable but thoroughly appealing, and is best viewed through a rosé-tinted wine glass.

Nowhere is solitude sweeter than on the West Coast. A few marvels pull big crowds – like Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers, and the magnificent Pancake Rocks – but you'll need jetboats, helicopter rides and tramping trails to explore its inner realms. Hemmed in by the Southern Alps and the savage Tasman Sea, the West Coast forms almost 9% of the land area of New Zealand (NZ) but contains less than 1% of its population.