1 destination · 10 things to do

New Zealand

Auckland is New Zealand’s biggest city and its front door, a harbour city built across a narrow isthmus between two seas and scattered with more than fifty volcanic cones. Tāmaki Makaurau, as it is known in te reo Māori, mixes a compact downtown with ferries, islands and beaches only minutes from the skyline. In a few days you can ride to the observation decks of the 328-metre Sky Tower, meet king and gentoo penguins at SEA LIFE Kelly Tarlton’s on the Tāmaki Drive waterfront, see the great Māori and Pacific collections and a cultural performance at the Auckland War Memorial Museum in the Domain, and walk the rim of the crater on Maungawhau / Mount Eden for the best free view in the city. Take a forty-minute ferry to Waiheke Island for vineyards and beaches, or climb the black lava fields of Rangitoto, the city’s youngest volcano, which rose from the sea about six hundred years ago. Back downtown, the Viaduct Harbour holds the New Zealand Maritime Museum and its heritage sailings, and the SkyCity precinct adds the All Blacks Experience and Wētā Workshop Unleashed. Further afield, the Hobbiton Movie Set is an easy and much-loved day trip. This guide books the tickets worth booking, flags the ferry and weather caveats, and matches you to the right hotel, from a harbourfront splurge in Wynyard Quarter to a budget base five minutes from the Sky Tower.