One could be forgiven for thinking that Mother Nature decided to take her best features and exhibit them all in in this South Pacific island nation. All the classics are there-awe-inspiring Alps, plunging fjords, expanses of pristine beach, dense rainforests, active volcanoes-but what makes this such a stellar performance is the sheer concentration of it all. Top it off with lively indigenous culture, cosmopolitan cities and a people with a distinctly Kiwi lust for life, and you know this is one special country.

November to April, when the weather is warmest

Traversing the South lsland on the TranzAlpine train Throwing yourself off something high-bungee jumping is as compulsory here as seeing the Eiffel Tower Paris Enjoying a gourmet feash of fresh and chips on a deserted Northland beach Seeing the marine life off the coast of Kaikoura Spending a culture-filled weekend in one of the citis-the Polynesian bustle of Auckland, creative current of Wellington or European feel of Christchurch

Read Witi lhimaera’s The Rider-a moving insght into the spirituality, tradition, and culture of the Maori people

Listen to Salmonella Dub’s Killer Vision, which displays influences quintessential to the new wave of New Zealand music

Watch Peter Jackson;s Lord of the Rings trilogy-the stunning landscape dominates the films

Eat whitebait-a seasonal delicacy; hu hu grubs-slug-like and not for the faint-hearted, but delicious off the grill

Drink a ‘boutique beer’-independent breweries breweries are providing delicious variations on the traditional varieties

Sweet as bro

Sheep; Maori; the All Black; clean and green; nuclear-free; extreme sport; the end of the earth; Middle Earth; Neil Finn; Janet Frame; pohutukawa blossoms

Not everyone plays rugby; there’s a thriving food and wine culture; much more than just two island

The cries echo across the sheltered bay, reverberating from steep cliff sides. lt is not hard to imagine Captain Cook on his sailing vessel, moored silently in this same cove, with the same sounds haunting the ship’s crew: or for that matter the Maori on their quests for popunamu, greenstone, which they value so much. Little has changed since the forests re-colonised the carved valleys after the ice age ten thousand years ago.