Mounds of fine golden sand that can rise nearly 500 feet tall.

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

Running since 1864, this clock has yet to be wound, one of the longest-running science experiments known.

This quirky collection is an interactive exhibit crammed with creative contraptions and tinkered-with toys.

This aluminum “stairway to heaven” has impaled at least a couple of birds.

An eerily charming collection of salvaged buildings and curios grown out of a family scrap business.

New Zealand's only running funicular railway.

Nature's slip and slide.

Handcrafted thermal spa washes away each night with the tide.

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

New Zealand's epic shrine to all things puzzling.

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

Highly spherical boulders on the shores of New Zealand.

Modern art meets modern convenience in possibly the world's most architecturally important public bathroom.

The glacier tucked within a New Zealand rainforest.

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.

This strange geological landscape erupts with sudden bursts of water.

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

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

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

Some of the clearest water anywhere in the world.

A perfect turquoise lake colored with glacier dust.

Victorian-era pub covered head to toe with mementos from patrons of decades past.