Chances are you’ve already been to New Zealand without realising. Its bottle-green glaciers, swooping trails, striking fjords and rugged mountain peaks have been the backdrop for many a blockbuster movie, from the Lord of the Rings trilogy to the Chronicles of Narnia.

The South Island/Te Waipounamu, with the sky-scraping mountains of Queenstown and picturesque Lake Tekapo, has cast itself as the adventure-spiked alpine side where heli-skiing, abseiling, ziplining and bungee jumping are everyday hobbies, while its main café-lined city, Christchurch, combines botanic gardens with microbreweries. The North Island/Te Ika-a-Māui, where most of the population live, takes its shape from the ancient volcanoes, bubbling hot springs and swathes of soft-sand beaches. Auckland may have lost its capital city status to Wellington in 1865, but it’s a flurry of vineyards and cellar doors that bottle the geothermal region. Sandwiched between two harbors, you can walk the 16km stretch from the Pacific Ocean to the Tasman Sea.