Places charleyspoons Wants to Go

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

Nature's slip and slide.

The platform atop this verdant volcano was built with the help of a royal elephant.

Largest Kauri tree in New Zealand.

Anyone wanting to know what a dwarven mine sounds like need only visit the tunnels of this New Zealand artillery compound.

Handcrafted thermal spa washes away each night with the tide.

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

This unusual rock formation looks like an apple that has been neatly sliced in half.

Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauo tamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronuku pokaiwhenuakitanatahu.

A bronze kitty adorns the grave of the polar explorer who brought the original feline to the Antarctic.

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.

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

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

Deadly scalding and one of the largest hot springs in the world.

The explorer Captain Cook may have named it White Island, but the Maori call it Te Puia o Whakaari – The Dramatic Volcano.

The world's only complete colossal squid specimen is on display at the Te Papa Museum.

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

A gigantic sculpture garden is packed with innovative oddities.

A Maori village obliterated by an 1886 volcanic eruption.

One of the world's largest Tesla coils.

Known for the tunnel that leads visitors to the water.

A glacier pocked with ice caves and surrounded by rainforests.

One man's dream has turned into this naturally growing chapel made of almost nothing but trees.