Feast on Maori culture

Nearest host city: Auckland
No New Zealand holiday is complete without sampling a delicious hangi at least once. This traditional Maori cooking method uses heated rocks buried in a pit oven. Been itching to see a live haka in the flesh? Apart from heading along to a rugby game, you can also witness this spectacle at various places around the country. Rotorua is a hotbed of Maori culture. Here you can catch performances at Te Puia or Tamaki Maori Village and learn about traditional arts and crafts, weaponry and weaving, history and customs. While you’re in the area, make time to visit some of the geothermal attractions, such as the famous Whakarewarewa Thermal Reserve, Hells Gate Park and Mud Spa, Wai-O-Tapu or Polynesian Spa. In the South Island, enroute to Glenorchy near Queenstown, you’ll pass the fortress of ‘Isengard’; nearby you’ll also discover the beech forest of Lothlorien. And the extraordinary Southern Alps are unmistakably the misty mountains come to life.