Places alessandralee Wants to Go

Three rooms of bones, curios, and one artist's collection of natural artifacts create this intriguing museum.

New Zealand's west coast is one of the best places in the world to view these large seabirds.

One of New Zealand’s few castles boasts beautiful gardens, grand architecture, and a history filled with family drama.

Nature's slip and slide.

Watch the seas clash at the place where according to Maori tradition, the spirits depart for their journey to the afterlife.

Handcrafted thermal spa washes away each night with the tide.

New Zealand's epic shrine to all things puzzling.

The once and future home of New Zealand's famed Pink and White Terraces.

The premier place to experience the Victorian imagining of the steam-powered future.

A lakeside garden in the Southern Alps full of whimsical artwork and thousands of beautiful flowers.

Major tourist destination known for its bubbling mud-pools and hot thermal springs.

Only 68 people per day are allowed to visit this New Zealand bird-watcher’s paradise.

These phallic stone spires once served as Tolkien's Paths of the Dead.

A galaxy of glowworms—larvae of a gnat—hides deep in the belly of these caves.

This strange geological landscape erupts with sudden bursts of water.

A Maori village obliterated by an 1886 volcanic eruption.

The most southerly spot on New Zealand's South Island is home to surreally shaped, permanently mangled trees.

A gigantic sculpture garden is packed with innovative oddities.

Some of the clearest water anywhere in the world.

A glacier pocked with ice caves and surrounded by rainforests.

Known for the tunnel that leads visitors to the water.

A perfect turquoise lake colored with glacier dust.

This electric green sulphur lake in New Zealand looks like a cartoonish radioactive dump site.

A solitary tree has grown up all alone on Lake Wānaka, backdropped by the beautiful Southern Alps.