Places educatorclaire Wants to Go

This rocky spread has been squeezed up directly from the bowels of the earth.

A chaotic collection of maritime artifacts, art, and really whatever else happens to be around.

Ice roads, deep holes and 3,500 pounds of diamonds.

A famed drink seasoned with an amputated toe, now on its tenth digit.

Home to a full cast of the largest woolly mammoth ever recovered in North America. 

This tiny square mile of Canadian sand was once considered the world's smallest desert.

This preserved village shows the modest lifestyles of the area's 19th-century Chinese gold miners.

An unusual and powerful memorial in which earthquake victims are remembered by empty white chairs.

Celebrating the history of whiskey production during New Zealand's era of prohibition.

New Zealand's only running funicular railway.

One of the largest collections of traditional Māori artifacts in New Zealand.

These two delightful animal-shaped buildings host a visitor center and wool shop.

One of the world's largest pianos is displayed in the workshop of the man who built it as a teenager.

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

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

Largest Kauri tree in New Zealand.

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.

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

Highly spherical boulders on the shores of New Zealand.

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

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

This strange geological landscape erupts with sudden bursts of water.

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