Nya Zeeland

Boasting New Zealand’s highest concentration of yoga pants, dreadlocks and bare feet in the high street, Takaka is a lovable little town and the last ‘big’ centre before the road west ends at Farewell Spit. You’ll find most things you need here, and a few things you don’t, but we all have an unworn tie-dyed tank top in our wardrobe, don’t we?

So long described as Queenstown's smaller and more demure sibling, Wanaka now feels grown up enough to have moved out of home and asserted its own identity.

The Bay of Plenty stretches along the pohutukawa tree-studded coast from Waihi Beach to Opotiki and inland as far as the Kaimai Range. This is where New Zealanders have come on holiday for generations, lapping up salt-tinged activities and lashings of sunshine.

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.

Gorgeous Banks Peninsula (Horomaka) was formed by two giant volcanic eruptions about eight million years ago. Harbours and bays radiate out from the peninsula’s centre, giving it an unusual cogwheel shape. The historic town of Akaroa, 80km from Christchurch, is a highlight, as is the absurdly beautiful drive along Summit Rd around the edge of one of the original craters. It's also worth exploring the little bays that dot the peninsula's perimeter.

Otago has attractions both urban and rural, from quirky towns to world-class wineries and some of the country’s most accessible wildlife. Its historic heart is Dunedin, home to a vibrant student culture and arts scene. From the town’s stately Edwardian train station it's possible to catch the famous Taieri Gorge Railway inland, and continue on two wheels along the craggily scenic Otago Central Rail Trail.

'Gizzy' to her friends, Gisborne (pronounced Gis-born, not Gis-bun) is a pretty place, squeezed between surf beaches and a sea of chardonnay, and it proudly claims to be the first city on Earth to see the sun each day. It’s a good place to put your feet up for a few days, hit the beach and sip some wine.

Take SH1 129km southeast from Blenheim (or 180km north from Christchurch) and you’ll encounter Kaikoura, a pretty peninsula town backed by the snow-capped Seaward Kaikoura Range. Few places in the world are home to such a variety of easily spottable wildlife: whales, dolphins, NZ fur seals, penguins, shearwaters, petrels and several species of albatross live in or pass by the area.