I went to New Zealand for the wine, but stayed for the glow-worms

The highlights of the country’s scenic North Island aren’t always the ones you expect

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Curling off a fast-moving river into air thick with fern and towering cypress, it gives the whole scene a prehistoric quality, as though something brontosaurusy might emerge from the far bank at any moment. Standing on the veranda of Huka Lodge in my bathrobe, tea in hand, I decide this is the most exquisite morning view I’ve ever had. I bet the Queen of England would have agreed.

Elizabeth II stayed here four times, and with its manicured lawns rolling down to the Waikato River, the hidden dining nooks, the general sense that the world has been tastefully muffled, it’s not hard to see why. Balmoral, it is not. But it is, unmistakably and only, New Zealand.

New Zealand has a way of doing that — pairing things that shouldn’t work together but somehow do. Wild and refined. Adrenalin and stillness.

I’d come to the North Island chasing wine and outdoor adventures. What I found was that New Zealand doesn’t make you choose between what you came for and what finds you. It hands you both.

Two amazing day trips out of Auckland My trip begins, as many good things do, with a boat and wine. Waiheke Island sits 35 minutes by ferry from downtown Auckland, and the crossing through water so turquoise it looks artificially enhanced, allows me to decompress after my 13-hour Air New Zealand flight. The island has no traffic lights, four villages and 27 boutique wineries spread across 92 square kilometres.

“We drink all the wine we produce here — with your help,” says Grant, my guide from Ananda Tours. The island, rimmed with white sand beaches, runs three degrees warmer than the mainland with less rainfall. We day-trippers and the grapes love it.

At Casita Mira, a Mediterranean-inspired lunch arrives alongside a flight of wines, and by the third glass, that transpacific flight feels like someone else’s problem. New Zealand produces just 1.5 per cent of the world’s wine, and Waiheke produces a disproportionate share of reasons to stay for another round, but I need to move on. There are kiwis to find.

Spotting kiwis, those adorable flightless birds found nowhere else on earth, in the wild ranks among the world’s top wildlife experiences. How requires some local knowledge, which is why I find myself an hour north of Auckland in Tawharanui Regional Park, with Auckland and Beyond Tours. After 40 minutes of walking under a half moon, the trail lit by our red flashlights, we hear rustling in the bush.

I catch a glimpse of that telltale, long, curved beak probing deep into the soil before it scurries into the undergrowth. We’re rewarded with four more kiwi sightings, each one resembling a large grey chicken going about its business. A volcanic landscape that’s very much alive The next day, I move onto Rotorua, which announces itself with a warm, eggy undertone, a reminder this landscape is very much alive.

This is the North Island’s geothermal heartland, and for the Māori people who have lived here for centuries, it’s never been merely a backdrop. It’s a living system, a