Wellington

Wellington is, by every measure that matters, one of the world's great small cities. Compact enough to walk across in an afternoon, consequential enough to spend a week in and still feel you've missed things. The city sits on the southern tip of the North Island where the wind comes off Cook Strait and the harbour frames everything — hills behind, water in front, a cable car threading up through the suburb of Kelburn to the Botanic Gardens.

Te Papa Tongarewa, the national museum of New Zealand, is world-class in the truest sense — a building that takes the country's dual Māori and Pākehā heritage seriously and presents it beautifully. Wellington's restaurant scene punches well above its weight: Logan Brown, Shepherd, The Larder, and a dozen others have made this city a genuine food destination. The Weta Workshop — the creative studio behind The Lord of the Rings, Avatar, and Planet of the Apes — offers private behind-the-scenes experiences that are unlike anything else in the world.