Hell's Gate and Wai Ora Spa, Tikitere is a unique place of extreme contrasts. Visitors walk past steaming fumeroles and pools of boiling mud so violent they are unnerving.

Driving Creek Railway in the Coromandel region boasts a narrow gauge mountain railway, 14,000 planted native trees, a pottery studio and railway coffee cups.

The Croydon Aircraft Company Ltd has a global reputation for restoring classic 1930s and vintage de Havilland aircraft.

Loitering around a public toilet would normally invoke the wrath of the law, but there is one very special place in Northland where a visit to the bathroom is not all about business - the Fredrick Hundertwasser inspired Kawakawa toilets (Bay of Islands).

The Geraldine district has long enticed artists to paint – not surprising, given its superb setting near the foothills of the Southern Alps and its proximity to the mountains themselves. The area is now home to several award-winning artists whose work encompasses a wide range of artistic styles.

Long before Europeans came to Aotearoa New Zealand, Whirinaki Forest has special significance to the early Maori iwi (tribes) of Te Urewera.

Many New Zealand writers fuse Mâori culture and legend into works written in English.

Janet Frame (b 1924) is New Zealand’s best-known contemporary novelist and short story writer and has been nominated several times for the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The legend of Te Houtaewa is relived every year by Northern Mâori Tribes.

Matahiwi Marae is one of the oldest established marae of Ngati Hawea in Hawke’s Bay. It was set up originally as a neutral meeting area for the prominent chiefs around the area.