Renowned for jaw-dropping scenery and extreme adventure activities, New Zealand is also known for luxurious wilderness retreats, delightful cuisine, rich Māori culture and the down-to-earth friendliness of so many of its people.

It’s hard to sum up everything New Zealand has to offer in brief, but we can try! The New Zealand Snapshot section is designed to bring you up to speed with essential New Zealand basics.

New Zealand’s cities and regions offer a huge amount of variety for a relatively small island nation. There’s so much to explore, from the major urban centres with their buzzing after-dark scenes, cultural variety and killer shopping to jumping resort towns, peaceful, picturesque rural villages and a countryside that offers everything from farmland to wild rainforests, rugged and dramatic coastal landscapes, and majestic alpine scenery. And it’s all conveniently packaged in the one country! If you need the A-Z lowdown on New Zealand from accommodation to weather, you can jump straight into our index of handy essential information to find the answers to all those little frequently asked travel questions. With so much to see and do it can all be a little bit overwhelming up front! Don’t worry, though – Destination-NZ.com is on hand to help with our starting-point list of New Zealand’s absolute must-dos. You might also want to learn a little bit more about the character of the special place the Māori named “Land of the Long White Cloud“.

There’s many ways to approach your time in New Zealand – make your way down the country at your own pace, join an organised tour, hop around major centres, travel in luxury or enjoy the freedom of backpacking, or concentrate your trip around your interests – scenic highlights, adventure activities, food and wine, or much more. Take a look at our guide for suggestions on how to tackle your trip! Finally, you’ll find a quick and handy guide to what you can expect from the weather in the country of “four seasons in one day.”