New Zealands North Island

The Tongariro Alpine Crossing is a 19.4-kilometre one-way trail across the central plateau’s active volcanic landscape: emerald lakes, lava fields, steam vents, and the silhouette of Ngauruhoe (used as Mount Doom in the Lord of the Rings films) in the distance. It takes six to eight hours and is the most walked one-day tramp in New Zealand. In summer, the car parks at either end are booked out weeks ahead and the trail is genuinely crowded. Go in March or April when the crowds thin and the volcanic colours are at their most vivid. Book the shuttle transport from Whakapapa or Turangi before anything else.

Auckland

1.6 million people, built across a narrow isthmus between two harbours with about 50 volcanic cones scattered across the city landscape. Rangitoto Island in the harbour is uninhabited, ferry-accessible (25 minutes, $30 NZD return), and has a well-graded track to its summit with views across the Hauraki Gulf. The waterfront Viaduct area has good restaurants; Ponsonby and Grey Lynn to the west are the better neighbourhoods for food and independent cafes.

Rotorua

Rotorua smells of sulphur. The hydrothermal activity that produces the geysers and boiling mud pools also saturates the air; visitors adjust within an hour. Te Puia has the Pohutu geyser (erupting frequently, up to 30 metres) and a working Maori carving school. Entry $65 NZD. Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, 30 kilometres south, has more dramatically coloured pools and the Lady Knox Geyser (triggered daily at 10:15am with soap, which sounds artificial because it is, but the geyser is real). Entry $47 NZD.

The Wai-O-Tapu Champagne Pool, a 65-metre-wide geothermal lake coloured by arsenic and antimony deposits, is one of the more alien-looking natural features in the country.

Wellington

Wellington is compact, frequently windy, and has the best coffee-per-capita of any New Zealand city. The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa on the waterfront is free and covers Maori culture, natural history, and colonial history across six floors. The cable car from the CBD to Kelburn gives views over the harbour. Cuba Street and the surrounding neighbourhood has the city’s independent restaurant and bar culture. Wellington is three hours by train or Interislander ferry from the South Island.