New Zealand sights

Islands Cove
The following recommendations are for one of the North Island's most popular tourist destinations, Islands Cove. It is an amazingly beautiful bay with a scattering of small islands, abundantly covered with vegetation. The coastline of the Bay of Islands is a series of sheltered lagoons with a mild subtropical climate, always warm and sunny. The Bay of Islands is a favourite destination for many divers, fishermen and water sports enthusiasts.

Hobbiton Village
Many people associate the New Zealand countryside with the works of Tolkien. Fans of the famous film trilogies The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit will surely know what to visit in New Zealand. It's Hobbiton is an artificially created village which became the home of a fictional people in the films. Its main peculiarity is that it's not created as a temporary set from plywood and cardboard, but is rebuilt as a real settlement. Just think how much effort has gone into creating this fairytale place: skillfully made huts, well-tended vegetable gardens and fragrant gardens delight visitors' eyes and let them plunge into the recognisable atmosphere of favourite fantasies.

Milford Sound Fjord
The melting of huge glaciers over the millennia has gradually formed steep depressions, or fjords, in the bedrock. The picturesque New Zealand fjord of Milford Sound, in Fjordland Park on the South Island, was formed when a glacier melted from the mountains towards the Tasman Sea. The fjord reaches a dizzying 512 metres at its maximum depth, stretching 19 kilometres. The area surrounding the fjord is mountainous and wooded, and the humidity of the air is always high, creating comfortable conditions for many endemic bird species.

Franz Josef Glacier
In Westland National Park, on one of New Zealand's two main islands, the South Island, there is a glacier with a beautiful bluish hue that takes its name from the Austro-Hungarian emperor. Each year the glacier welcomes around 250,000 visitors, who arrive by helicopter or in full gear to climb the ridge. There are both small walking tours in New Zealand to the Franz Josef Glacier, and challenging multi-day tours with experienced guides, which include journeys through the tunnels and grottoes of the glacier.

Waitomo Caves
A truly fabulous attraction in New Zealand can be found on the country's North Island. The famous karst caves are a masterpiece created by nature over millions of years. Once there was an ocean at the bottom of which big limestone formations formed a labyrinth of passages. Later, when the water receded, the cave system was formed, of which there are about 150. But the most striking feature of the caves is that their vaults are inhabited by amazing organisms - small fireflies, creating a gentle blue glow, resembling the vaults of the night sky.

Waimangu Geyser Valley
Waimangu Valley was known as "the land of hot water" by the Maori tribes. Nature has created a hydrothermal geyser system in this valley with geysers shooting up to 30 m high from underground. The hot water from the springs sprays out and forms clouds which envelope the valley surroundings. The geysers emit hot steam and water either together or alternately. Feedback from first-time visitors suggests that the clouds of steam create a spectacular sight from afar. Even in the town of Rotorua, situated at the epicentre of geothermal activity, streams of white steam can be seen seeping through the cracks in the pavements.

Sky Tower
New Zealand's largest and most prosperous city, Auckland, has built one of the tallest towers in the world, the Sky Tower. It is not just a huge 326 metres high tower, but a major landmark for travellers - wherever you are in the country you can catch sight of the monumental structure's pinnacle, pointing towards the centre of Auckland. The building itself has three vantage points. At 190 metres, there is a revolving restaurant with panoramic windows, and the highest of the platforms is at 220 metres, from where you can see the surroundings within a radius of more than 80 kilometres.