Aoraki Mt Cook National Park

Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park in New Zealand's Southern Alps protects the country's highest peak, Aoraki/Mount Cook (3,724 m), and the longest glacier in the southern hemisphere outside the polar regions, the Tasman Glacier. The star-gazing within the park's Dark Sky Reserve is among the finest in the southern hemisphere. The Hooker Valley Track offering lake-and-glacier views, and the alpine village of Mount Cook at the park entrance, make it a supreme destination for outdoor adventure.

Queenstown

Milford Sound

Milford Sound is Fiordland National Park's most spectacular fjord, a place where sheer granite walls rise 1,200 meters directly from the dark water, and waterfalls cascade hundreds of meters unbroken into the sea. Sir Edmund Hillary called it the eighth wonder of the world, and boat cruises through the fjord reveal a primeval landscape of glacially carved cliffs, fur seals, dolphins, and Stirling Falls. The 2-hour drive from Queenstown through the Homer Tunnel is itself a remarkable journey.

Franz Josef Glacier

Franz Josef Glacier is one of New Zealand's most accessible and dramatic glaciers, a 12-km river of ice descending from the Southern Alps almost to sea level in a temperate rainforest on the West Coast of the South Island. Named after the Austrian emperor by a Victorian explorer, it can be explored on foot or by helicopter landing on the ice field. The glacier has retreated significantly in recent decades, making visits a poignant reminder of climate change.