Around New Zealand in 30 Days

Sherman’s Travel offers up a primer on New Zealand’s “stunning landscapes … fantastic wine scene, unbelievable lodges, and happening cities,” charting a course through the premier attractions of Auckland, The Wine Trail and The Southern Lakes Region. Author Arabella Bowen writes of Auckland as a “cosmopolitan hub with a burgeoning fashion scene” led by the likes of designers Karen Walker and Kate Sylvester. The City of Sails offers up its water-born charm along its  “superlative waterfront setting,” and with the “iconic Sky Tower, the Southern Hemisphere’s answer to Seattle’s Space Needle.” The infamous Wine Trail offers a ten day, 240 mile journey through both the North and South Island, colored by the world renowned Sauvignon Blancs of Marlborough, the pristine scenery of Hawke’s Bay, an Art-Deco bonanza in Napier, and an overnight stop in delightful Wellington, which “bears an uncanny similarity to San Francisco,” and acts as a “fun, urban counterpoint to the wine trail.” Touted over all, however, is the Southern Lakes Region, “Adventure Capital of the World.” Bowen suggests a five day foray, based out of Queenstown, “one of the world’s most attractive mountain resort settings,” and spreading outwards into the Southern wine district of Central Otago, through gold rush Arrowtown, Lord of the Rings Glenorchy, and out into the highly-lauded Milford Sound. The area accommodates a stunning variety of activity from golf, trout fishing and wine tours, world-class skiing, Jet Safaris (jet boats “speeding along glacier-fed rivers at  breakneck speeds”), and horse back rides through Lord of the Rings country. “If you have time to visit only one place in New Zealand,” writes Bowen, “make it the lush plains and soaring, snowcapped peaks of the Southern Lakes Region.”