Southland, New Zealand

Southland is the bottom of the country and it contains Fiordland, which is the biggest national park in the country and one of the great wilderness areas on earth — Milford Sound is the fjord that everybody photographs with the waterfalls falling a thousand feet and Mitre Peak rising straight out of the water, Doubtful Sound is the bigger and quieter one that locals prefer, and the whole southwest corner is rainforest and granite with no roads into most of it. Invercargill is the southernmost city in the country with the wide streets and the genuine southern-town conservatism, Bluff is the port with the oysters that the whole country eats in season, and Stewart Island is the third main island with almost nobody on it and the kiwi population that outnumbers the humans.

The region's character is southern, hardy and genuinely rural, with a strong farming economy, a real fishing industry and a population that is entirely used to the weather and the isolation.

Expect real fiord content, genuine oyster-season energy, and a region that is the last stop before the Antarctic.

Nearby: Dunedin Queenstown Otago Christchurch