Daiva keeps returning to this unique land, where glowing worms and dancing whales are not the only magic

New Zealand’s appeal, travel guide Daiva Masiliūnienė says, lies less in checking attractions off a list than in learning to stop, silence the noise and simply experience the moment. She has visited the country four times and describes it as a place where the scenery can leave visitors without the urge to speak or reach for their phones.

She points first to the country’s striking cleanliness. Even older hotels, she says, remain exceptionally orderly. Masiliūnienė connects that standard to Māori attitudes toward the natural world, where nature is treated as living and linked to ancestors. People avoid littering and regard their surroundings as sacred.

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Everything looks so predictable, so perfectly clean.

That relationship is also visible in the Māori view of the kauri tree. The tree can grow to 50 meters and live for more than a thousand years, but it represents more than timber. Masiliūnienė describes it as a spiritual treasure and a symbol of strength and balance, belonging to and protecting the world of ancestors.

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For Māori people, nature is a living organism and their ancestors.

Māori identity also appears in traditional facial tattoos, which are accepted as a natural part of life in New Zealand and are worn by some members of Parliament. Local people jokingly call the tattoos “Māori Facebook” because they reflect a person’s life, occupation, status and traditions.

The two main islands offer sharply different experiences. The North Island is warmer and volcanic, with geothermal landscapes, volcanoes, Hobbiton, Auckland and Rotorua. The South Island is wilder and more dramatic, with the Southern Alps, glaciers, fjords and lakes. Masiliūnienė recommends beginning in the North Island and ending with the grandeur of the South Island, while stressing that both routes offer distinctive experiences.

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Locals joke that it is Māori Facebook.

At Milford Sound, steep moss-covered mountains rise from clear water and thousands of waterfalls surround the fjord. For Masiliūnienė, the place is so imposing that visitors naturally fall silent. Its effect, she says, comes not from one single landmark but from the combined clarity of the air and the surrounding landscape.

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For me, it is one of the most extraordinary places, also called the eighth wonder of the world.