In the world of travel, New Zealand is hot\u2014again. 25 years ago, the first movie in Peter Jackson\u2019s acclaimed The Lord of the Rings trilogy hit big screens, and audiences around the world were blown away by the stunning visuals of epic landscapes and the dramatic natural settings of \u201cMiddle Earth.\u201d When they quickly discovered the real setting was New Zealand, it kicked off a tourism boom that save for a pandemic, never subsided. Tourism grew steadily for almost two decades to a record number of international arrivals in 2019, a trend cut short only by COVID-19. To say it has bounced back is an understatement, and right now more Americans are exploring the country than at any time in history, and there are many good reasons for this record travel. That\u2019s why it might be time for you to visit New Zealand.<\/p>\n
Why It Might Be Time For You To Visit New ZealandA Hot Destination For A Quarter Of A Century<\/p>\n
I think the Los Angeles Times may have been exaggerating a bit when they described<\/a> pre- Lord of the Rings New Zealand as \u201cprimarily known abroad for its sheep, its wine and its rugby team.\u201d <\/p>\n If you saw any of The Lord of The Rings movies, you might get that New Zealand is home to breathtaking scenery and outdoor adventures. This is a hiker in Southern Alps, Fiordland National Park.<\/p>\n getty<\/p>\n After all, New Zealand has long been famous as one of the world\u2019s top Bucket List hiking destinations, especially its renowned Milford Track, aka \u201cThe Finest Walk in the World.\u201d The nation began winning the world\u2019s most famous boat race, the America\u2019s Cup, on a regular basis back in 2000 (after making it to the final in 1988 and 1995), kicking off the domination of the 21st century in which it has won half of all the championships including the last two in a row, entering the 2027 event as defending champions. And Kauri Cliffs, the first of many great modern golf courses that helped turn the country into an A-List golf travel destination opened way back in 1999, immediately cracking every important \u201cWorld\u2019s Best Courses\u201d list and starting an entirely new and now red hot segment of tourism.<\/p>\n There\u2019s more to the current story of New Zealand\u2019s burgeoning popularity, including better access and new air routes, and it\u2019s one of the only places where you can currently fly in economy and have a lay flat seat, with more industry-first economy options\u2014and enhanced luxury premium cabins\u2014coming very soon (see below). While it\u2019s not a bargain destination along the lines of Vietnam or Egypt, the dollar goes a long way and certainly performs much better than against many popular destinations\u2019 currencies, especially the Euro. But there are some bigger trends playing into this as well, especially the massive rise of experiential tourism and interest in nature, outdoor recreation and activities, two of the hottest drivers in the travel industry today, and ones that New Zealand is especially well suited to capitalize on. The last time I visited I split my trip between drop dead golf and summer (our summer) skiing, something you cannot do at this high a level of quality in many places.<\/p>\n But New Zealand has cities too! This is Auckland .<\/p>\n getty<\/p>\n As a result, after a very impressive 9.2% year over year jump from March 2025 to 2026, the country is once again closing in on a new tourism high, and that lofty rate of growth appears to be accelerating even more\u2014the latest monthly stats are for March 2026 and those were a whopping 15.1% higher than March 2025, so new records may come sooner rather than later. However, new record travel highs are already here for American tourists, more of whom descended on the country in 2025 than ever before\u2014even pre-COVID. And like overall tourism, that number was still growing fast month over month by the end of the year, suggesting an even bigger 2026. Currently the United States sends more travelers to New Zealand than any country except nearby Australia. It doesn\u2019t hurt that the country has a much better than average tourism site that is very helpful for prospective visitors<\/a>.<\/p>\n Why It Might Be Time For You To Visit New Zealand For Adventure, Nature, Sports And MoreNature And Outdoor Recreation<\/p>\n High speed jet boat rides are a signature New Zealand tourist attraction. <\/p>\n getty<\/p>\n Things like bungee jumping and jet boat rides are deeply associated with New Zealand, as are dramatic glacier carved fjords, volcanic peaks, lush forests, sandy beaches, high snow-capped peaks (and ski resorts) hot springs, whitewater and cave networks. It really is like it looks in The Lord of the Rings.<\/p>\n I recently wrote a detailed 3-Part series here for Forbes on why the entire category of Active Travel is so hot right now<\/a>, and all the options for activities and destinations. New Zealand has long been one of the most popular for such trips, especially for its world-class hiking and multi-sport (typically combining hiking, cycling, kayaking, etc.). <\/p>\n Look familiar? Mount Ngauruhoe in Tongariro National Park is better known as Mt. Doom, at least to Hobbits.<\/p>\n getty<\/p>\n The two biggest and oldest luxury active travel specialists are Backroads and Butterfield & Robinson, both of which I have travelled with multiple times and can emphatically recommend. Backroads just increased its extensive slate of hiking and multi-sport trips to New Zealand<\/a> by 50% for 2027, while B&R chose it as one of its rare destinations for \u201cLimited Edition,\u201d<\/a> its most rarefied category of \u201cOnce in a Lifetime\u201d adventures. Out of hundreds of options, there are only seven Limited Editon trips worldwide. <\/p>\n New Zealand basically has just about everything you could want to in the great outdoors, from skiing and snowboarding to mountaineering and long distance hikes, mountain and road cycling, plus plenty of adventure activities you need no skill to enjoy such as riding on ultra-fast America\u2019s Cup sailboats with expert crews in Auckland Harbor or the famous jet boats.<\/p>\n Surfing<\/p>\n This deserves special mention separate from the outdoor adventures above, as New Zealand is home to more than 9,000 miles of coastline and some of the world’s best spots, from Raglan’s iconic left-hand break to the beaches of Taranaki and Gisborne.<\/p>\n Adventure Lodges<\/p>\n While South America is known as the top locale for all-inclusive luxury adventure lodges with house guides, great food and wine, and a big slate of outdoor activities, New Zealand also has many of these options, which can be an easy to plan, logistically simple and fun stop anchoring your trip. The most famous is venerable Huka Lodge<\/a> on the North Island, but there are many other options such as the duo from New Zealand\u2019s Wilderness Lodges<\/a>.<\/p>\n Golf <\/p>\n Golf in New Zealand is pretty special. These are the 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th,and 17th holes at Cape Kidnappers. (Photo by David Cannon\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Getty Images<\/p>\n In recent years several World Top 100 courses have opened and reached a critical mass that has suddenly made New Zealand a Bucket List trip for avid golfers. Once you\u2019ve done Scotland and Ireland, the next traditional hot spots have been England\/Wales, Australia, Spain and in recent years South Africa. New Zealand has quickly pushed into this top pantheon with standout options that include Kauri Cliffs, Cape Kidnappers, Te Arai Links North and South courses, Jack\u2019s Point, The Hills, Millbrook (36) and the private but amazing Tara Iti, simply one of the best golf courses on earth. Top tier golf tour operators such as Perry Golf<\/a> and Premier Golf<\/a> have now added turnkey planned New Zealand trips.<\/p>\n 11-time World Champion Kelly Slater is widely considered the greatest surfer of all time, and as such has spent a considerable amount of time in New Zealand. But Slater is also an avid and excellent golfer, known to play in pro-ams and to fill his time waiting for perfect waves on the course. He is a member at Tara Iti, part of an oceanfront development alongside two world class public resort courses, Te Arai Links North and South.<\/p>\n Kauri Cliffs Golf Course isn’t too bad either (Photo by David Cannon\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Getty Images<\/p>\n I recently had the chance to chat with Slater about his time in New Zealand, where he loves the golf. \u201cIt\u2019s great, we were down at Millbrook and I played both courses there and also The Hills. Another one was Jack\u2019s Point, really beautiful. Then I spent another week up at Tara Iti which also has Te Arai. There are three courses together along the coast by Tom Doak and Coore\/Crenshaw, it\u2019s amazing. Te Arai is many people\u2019s favorite course in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Fly Fishing<\/p>\n Yes it\u2019s niche, but anglers are passionate and typically well-traveled, and for those who love fly fishing, New Zealand is once again a true Bucket List destination, and quite possibly the very best place in the entire world for sighted brown trout fishing, with trophy catches over 10 pounds surprisingly common and 4-6 pounders an everyday experience. There is also great fishing for rainbow trout, and like skiing, peak season (November to March) is off-season here at home. <\/p>\n Woman fly fishing in New Zealand, one of the world’s best destinations.<\/p>\n getty<\/p>\n I wrote here at Forbes about the amazing Crested Butte, CO sno-cat skiing operation run by luxury lodge specialist Eleven Experience<\/a>, and they also operate two fishing lodges in New Zealand<\/a>, both with expert guides. Owen Lodge is set amidst 29 brown trout rivers and streams while Cedar Lodge offer helicopter served fishing on remote and pristine rivers.<\/p>\n Wine Country<\/p>\n A leader in New World viticulture, New Zealand is world famous for its wines, especially sauvignon blanc and pinot noir, and has 10 major wine regions, the best known of which are Marlborough and Hawkes Bay. These are easily combined with many of the above attractions, from golf to nature. The Association of New Zealand Winegrowers has a handy guide<\/a> to all the geography and options online.<\/p>\n Another Reason Why It Might Be Time For You To Visit New Zealand: Access<\/p>\n Air New Zealand’s new Economy Skynest launches in November with six sleeping pods in its own structure.<\/p>\n Air New Zealand<\/p>\n It has never been easier to get to New Zealand\u2014and it will soon be even more comfortable.<\/p>\n In late 2022, less than four years ago, Air New Zealand, an excellent carrier, launched nonstop service from JFK to Auckland, one of the longest flights in the world at nearly 18 hours. Qantas then followed suite with its own flight on this route. A year later Delta launched its first non-stop from the U.S., Los Angeles to Auckland. Air New Zealand also flies non-stop from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston and Honolulu, the latter also served by Hawaiian. United flies non-stop form San Francisco, Houston and Los Angeles as well. Fiji Airlines offers service from Los Angeles to Auckland with a stop in Fiji, which is longer, but popular with many New Zealanders because it typically has among the least expensive lay flat business class options. <\/p>\n Air New Zealand and Singapore have increased frequency of flights on the key Christchurch and Auckland to Singapore routes, a great hub that is currently the world\u2019s number one airport and there are numerous non-stops from the U.S. on Singapore, one of the world\u2019s best airlines.<\/p>\n This November Air New Zealand is scheduled to change the plane on its JFK-Auckland route to the new 787-9 Dreamliner with the revolutionary Skynest, a first of its kind option for economy and premium economy passengers to book 4-hours of sleep in a true bed. Skynest is already taking reservations, and is a major aviation development I recently wrote about in detail here at Forbes<\/a>. Air New Zealand already has a first-of-its-kind lay flat economy product called Skycouch on many long haul flights, which I covered in the same article. The new Air New Zealand planes will also have larger and enhanced premium cabins for luxury travelers, so whatever class you travel in, these are more reasons why it might be time for you to visit New Zealand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the world of travel, New Zealand is hot\u2014again. 25 years ago, the first movie in Peter Jackson\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":517501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[433,85,3087,18126,9628,2061,111,43,139,69,48432,274,1754],"class_list":["post-517500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-adventure","tag-australia","tag-fishing","tag-golf","tag-lord-of-the-rings","tag-nature","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-skiing","tag-travel","tag-wine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/517501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}