Deep in the Southern Ocean, the Snares Islands is one of the most pristine island wildernesses on the planet and a sanctuary for penguins and millions of other breeding seabirds.
On the doorstep of one of New Zealand's biggest cities, Otago Peninsula provides a breeding sanctuary for endangered seabirds, as well as one of the world's rarest mammals.
New Zealand's top of the south is a landscape of opposites connected by turbulent currents, which both protect and threaten the creatures that come here for the riches they provide.
Each summer the Hauraki Gulf lures millions of visitors to a unique seasonal smorgasbord. The Gulf is an incredibly rich habitat. The abundant phytoplankton that give the Gulf its green colour are the beginning of the food chain, attracting everything from mussels, manta rays and flying fish to bottle nose dolphins, Bryde's whales and seabirds.
North of New Zealand, where the South Pacific Ocean meets the Tasman Sea, the Three Kings Islands works a strange magic on many who go there. This group of 13 uninhabited islands is surrounded by very clear seas and is teeming with fish life. Made a wildlife sanctuary in 1995, the world's rarest tree was discovered here in 1945.
The Cook Islands are a tropical haven for local and travelling wildlife. There are a number of unusual and rare birds in the Cooks, including the rare Kakerori bird. You may be lucky enough to see a marine turtle, or even a hump back whale. but paradise isn't always what is seems.
