New Zealand comes with a reputation as a unique land packed with magnificent, raw scenery: craggy coastlines, sweeping beaches, primeval forests, snow-capped alpine mountains, bubbling volcanic pools, fast-flowing rivers and glacier-fed lakes, all beneath a brilliant blue sky. Even Kiwis themselves – named after the endearing, if decidedly odd, flightless bird that has become the national emblem – seem to be filled with astonishment at the stupendous vistas of what they like to think of as "Godzone" (God's own country).

All of this provides a canvas for boundless diversions, from strolls along windswept beaches and multi-day tramps over alpine passes to the adrenalin-charged adventure activities of bungy jumping and whitewater rafting; in fact, some visitors take on New Zealand as a kind of large-scale assault course, aiming to tackle as many adventures as possible in the time available. The one-time albatross of isolation – even Australia is fifteen hundred kilometres away – has become a boon, bolstering New Zealand's clean, green image, which is, in truth, more an accident of geography than the result of past government policy.

To a large extent New Zealand lives up to these expectations, and remains unfettered by the crowds you'd find elsewhere. What's more, everything is easily accessible, packed into a land area little larger than Britain but with a population of just 3.8 million, over half of it tucked away in the three largest cities: Auckland, the capital Wellington, and the South Island's Christchurch. Elsewhere, you can travel miles through steep-hilled farmland and rarely see a soul, and there are even remote spots which, it's reliably contended, no human has ever visited.