12 Surprising Things to Do In New Zealand

Your fully immersive hunter-gatherer experience will have you part of the action from beginning to end. Enjoy dramatic scenery and cultural charm as you forage for ingredients such as pine nuts or berries with local farmers and forest guides.

Learn about the flora and fauna in the region that local hunters would have relied on, then take your knowledge into a humble homemade kitchen. Your hosts will share preparation and cooking techniques still used today as you create local dishes such as kai moana, a seafood medley of oysters, muscles, cockles, and fish.

Enhance your experience with a little wine pairing. Savor a glass of full-bodied red bursting with blueberry and smoked charcuterie flavors as your sommelier shares local wine-making techniques in an intimate setting.

Best Places For Hunter-Gatherer Tours: Hawke’s Bay

Walk the paved trails and cobblestone bridges through a botanical garden that offers more than just floral beauty and a cozy café. Here, you will find a sculptureum, a unique art destination that will stimulate your senses of sight, hearing, and taste when you wander through the gardens, art gallery, and restaurant.

This experience showcases an eclectic array of artistic expressions highlighted through bronze and silver sculptures interspersed with flower beds and leafy trees. Inside, an art gallery promotes light-hearted pieces made from plastic and paper and works of art created by masters such as Picasso.

Your experience of the sculptureum culminates with a bite to eat in the on-site restaurant, where the menu is inspired by artistic themes and local flavors. Dive into perfectly cooked lamb shoulder or rabbit as you gaze out over natural beauty interspersed with quirky displays of glass, iron, or metal.

Best Places For Sculptureum Tours: Matakana

This exclusive tour offers a blend of history, architecture, and local libations, all experienced from the comfort of a luxurious 1930s vintage car. The excursion is intimate, with a handful of guests, a stylish journey through renowned art deco centers and gin distilleries.

Listen to the rumble of the engine, take in the smoky smell of old leather seats, and feel the smooth wooden steering wheel glide through your hand as you travel through streets lined with art deco buildings. Notice the geometric lines and ornate trimmings of the buildings, many boasting modern storefront designs supporting historical roofing.

Continue your excursion to a distillery to sip artisanal gins. Piney notes of juniper will tantalize your taste buds. The artistic flare flows from the art deco design of your location to the botanical flavors of your glass of gin.

Best Places For Vintage Car Art Deco and Gin Tours: Napier

This adventure delivers the ultimate surprise for thrill-seekers and adventure enthusiasts, offering a combination of off-roading in a custom-built 4x4 and clay target shooting. Get your adrenaline pumping, then slow it down as you move from a steep landscape to your shooting site.

Navigate rugged terrain and obstacles provided by nature as you traverse man-made tracks, rock climbing, cliff dropping, and adrenaline-pumping angles. Your qualified guide will ensure the thrills are never-ending.

Take things down a notch with a clay bird shooting session. Follow the instructions of your qualified guide as you try your hand at hitting the target each time, the automatic clay throwers challenging your attention to detail.

Best Places For Off-Roading and Clay Shooting Tours: Queenstown

Get ready for a four-day e-bike adventure that will see you cruising along a beloved New Zealand cycle trail, one that is accessible to riders of all ages. Set out through ancient rainforests, the canopies stretching high above you, creating a green tunnel for you to ride through.

As you pass serene wetlands, look for resident wildlife. Then, cross historic bridges and pass icy-cold glacial waters. Follow old tracks laid by gold rush miners, logging tramways creating a mild obstacle course for you and your bike.

Embrace the ever-changing weather as part of the adventure and enjoy the contrasts of brilliant sunshine and light, misty rain. Your legs may be tired at the end, but you will come away with incredible memories.

Best Places For 4-Day E-Bike Cycling Adventures: Hokitika

Soak up a surprising experience when you spend time unwinding in a cedarwood hot tub tucked away between forests and streams. Let the non-geothermal waters help you to relax as you listen to the sounds of nature.

Be still as you sit at the foot of ancient trees during the day, the night transforming into a display of brilliant illumination with over 30 lanterns hanging from tall branches, a truly unique spectacle.

Further your self-nurturing with a bite and beverage at the nearby café, returning your feet to water with a mini hot tub foot soak.

Best Places For Secluded Hot-Tub Tours: Rotorua

This adventure will share a surprising location and historic tale, a rail cart journey along the Forgotten World Railway. Travel through handmade tunnels of brick and stone and peek out at picturesque hillside country farms or local bush.

The carts resemble a twist on the modern-day golf cart, with large, solid wheels clinging to the tracks as the train of carts follows the light at the end of the tunnel and out onto snaking rails that seem to disappear into a scenic landscape.

On the way back, stop by a lavender farm, where the relaxing aroma of lavender fields compliments the calming purple hues around you. Admire scenes of fields flowing into the Whanganui River and wrap up your adventure in the community museum.

Best Places For Forgotten World Rail Cart Tours: Taumarunui

Experience an underworld rafting and glowworm experience in a lush and dramatic coastal landscape far from the crowds found in other key tourist regions of the country.

Combine a cave exploration with slow-moving underground river waters to discover a moving picture of dramatic stalagmites and stalactites, then simply float in a tube under the guidance of natural glowworm light.

Shift your focus from slow and steady to bubbling and rapid as you emerge from the cave into a vast, seemingly untouched area, then jump into the fast-moving waters of the low-grade Nile River Rapids. The scenery features forest-covered hills that paint the landscape as you wind your way through this remote region of New Zealand’s wild west coast.

Best Places For Underworld Rafting and Glow Worm Tours: Punakaiki

Take to the skies on this full-day exclusive excursion in a private helicopter, soaring over some of New Zealand’s peaks and glaciers. You will feel like you can touch Mount Aoraki, the country’s highest mountain, and almost feel the chill of the ancient glacial waters.

Watch as white turns to green as snowcapped slopes slide down to meet lush green coastal rainforests. Landing on a secluded beach, your adventure continues with a truly surprising culinary experience.

Watch as your pilot exchanges his stripes for a wetsuit and dives down to secure the catch of the day, perhaps fresh crayfish or soft rainbow trout which you may wish to enjoy for dinner. A helicopter flight will take you to a private location where you can enjoy your crayfish dinner.

Best Places For a Helicopter Adventure: Lake Tekapo, Mackenzie Basin

Indulge in a cooking experience that focuses on a farm- and sea-to-table philosophy, incorporating hands-on traditional cooking techniques in a picturesque setting. You will be under the watchful eye of your chef, who will guide you through a delicious recipe that uses local ingredients and a catch-and-cook intention.

You will be introduced to the menu and shown around the kitchen, all the while being made to feel welcome and comfortable. Perhaps a cup of coffee will be in hand as you take it all in. After your cooking lesson, take some time to explore the large cookbook library, taking time to look up and out over a scene of coast and mountain.

Round up your day with a local beer in hand to compliment your cuisine, which may comprise pan-seared grouper or a plate of plump and flavorful mussels, perhaps combined in a chowder.

Best Places For a Surprising Kitchen Cooking Class: Kaikōura

Your restorative journey begins with an escape to a hot spring and a spa destination, a chance to awaken your senses through a carefully crafted and therapeutic pilgrimage experience. Draw in the culture and practices of the Ngati Whakaue, combining hot and cold therapy and embracing the natural environment. This two-hour experience will incorporate cool waters, geothermal pools, and heated-stone benefits.

It will begin under the cool waters of a waterfall to cleanse your body, followed by a turn in the Te Ahi Tupua, a vortex of geothermal energy representing the “eternal flame” that burns within all of us. Immerse yourself in a cold plunge pool to loosen your muscles, then step inside the Kohu Wai Arik steam room to rejuvenate your mind, body, and soul, a moment, perhaps, to reflect on this touching experience.

Best Places For a Hot Spring Restorative Journey: Wai Whakaora, Rotorua

Consider birdwatching of a different kind with this surprisingly fascinating and fun experience when you visit a kiwi hatchery. Gain a deeper understanding of the conservation and breeding of the birds, as you learn about incubation practices and chick-rearing techniques. You may get to see newly hatched chicks and learn from displays offering information on kiwi behavior and conservation efforts.

You may have the opportunity to volunteer in the conservation efforts of these fascinating birds and discover the procedure to re-introduce kiwis to their natural habitat. Pop into the purpose-built nocturnal house during your visit, a space plunged into darkness to show you how the birds behave at night.

Best Places For Behind The Scenes Kiwi Hatchery Visits: Agrodome, Rotorua

New Zealand is a land full of surprising experiences set in remote and charming locations that go beyond its well-known natural beauty. Soar above snowcapped mountains one minute, then explore pristine beaches and walk through lush rainforests and glowing caves the next. Embrace encounters with kiwis and gain cultural and historical insight while savoring local flavors of food and wine.

Explore more surprises with our New Zealand travel guide or when looking at new possibilities among our New Zealand tours and vacations.