5 Best Sights in Upper South Island and the West Coast, New Zealand

War stories are brought to life with actual historic planes placed in settings dramatized by New Zealand's Oscar-winning special-effects teams Weta Digital and Wingnut Films. The planes are from famed director Sir Peter Jackson's collection. World War I–era planes, and the stories of their pilots, are showcased in the Knights of the Sky exhibition. Dangerous Skies focuses on aviation development during World War II. There's also a café and shop.

Here you can see firsthand the Department of Conservation's successful breeding program of the rare kiwi species, the rowi. You can see a few rowi in the Nocturnal House, but by far the best option is to witness the incubation and rearing program in the Kiwi Backstage Tour. If your timing is lucky, perhaps you’ll see a hatching chick. Other displays here include the West Coast storytelling hut, where you can learn from the "old-timers" and undertake a quite lifelike glacial exploration.

Take the short boat ride out to explore this delightful café, lodge, wildlife refuge, and art studio on the shore of Lochmara Bay. Follow the bushwalks to see native gecko and the kakariki (a native parrot) being nurtured here as part of the lodge's wildlife recovery program. There's a pampering spa room and bathhouse above the beach, galleries of local art, and a sculpture trail. Artists-in-residence sometimes work here. Four-star chalets are suitable for couples and families, if you plan to stay longer.

A hands-on reenactment of an 1880s mining town, Shantytown will show you it was all about steam in those days. Most of the buildings are reproductions, including a jail, a blacksmith shop, a railway station, and Chinatown. Gold-digging displays include a giant water cannon for blasting the gold-bearing rock and soil from the hillside, water races, and a stamper battery---powered by a 30-foot waterwheel—for crushing the ore. You can pan for gold, ride an old bush tramline, take a break in the café, or share a picnic on the lawns and then go back for more.

These artisan shops showcase wines alongside olive oils, fudge, homeware, quilts, ceramics, glassware, jewelry, and recipe books. Dine in the café, let the kids loose in the playground, or you can all just relax in the tranquil lakeside grounds.