Waikato, New Zealand

Waikato is the dairy heartland of the country, which sounds boring until you add the Coromandel peninsula and Raglan. Raglan is one of the great longboard waves on earth and the town around it has a genuine surf culture with the specific friendly patience that comes from a left-hand point break everybody shares; the Coromandel is the peninsula northeast of it with the white sand, the bush and the beaches that Auckland drives to on holiday; Waitomo has the glowworm caves where you float underground under a ceiling of blue light; and Hobbiton is the film set that became a permanent tourist village because the family farm it was built on never took it down.

The region's character is farming with a genuine counterculture layer — the kiwifruit and dairy economy is real, but Raglan and the Coromandel attract surfers, artists and people who left the cities permanently, and the whole region is genuinely relaxed about all of it.

Expect real surf content, genuine glowworm-cave stories, and a region where the farms and the surfers coexist without any friction.

Nearby: Hamilton Auckland Bay of Plenty Taupo