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 In an increasingly busy world, more and more people want to escape their everyday lives and relax for awhile. New Zealand has many spas and retreats on offer to help people do just that.
While many overseas spas are entirely manufactured, New Zealand is a spa destination with a difference. Its spa services enhance the assets of the natural environment making bathing in natural hot springs a key attraction. Images of Hanmer Springs in the South Island, with people enjoying hot springs surrounded by snow-topped trees and mountains, epitomise the natural advantage New Zealand has in providing a holistic spa experience.
The spa industry in New Zealand is a developing one, but there are essentially three types of spas available: hot spring spas; destination spas or retreats; and day spas. Combinations of all three are also available.
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 National and regional events highlight the production of a wide-ranging supply of gourmet foods and boutique wines. New Zealand’s annual Hokitika Wildfoods Festival, in the South Island, has become world renowned for odd but interesting Kiwi foods like sheep’s eyes, bug larvae, wild highland beef, curried hoki tikka, pesto ice-cream, possum pie and worm sushi. Seasonal festivals, regular farmers’ markets and country fairs, which showcase fresh and flavourful produce, are favourite destinations for locals and tourists. Indigenous foods feature increasingly on restaurant menus, and traditional Maori cuisine is experiencing a contemporary twist at the hands of innovative cooks like Rotorua-based Maori chef Charles Royal. If tasting the delights of New Zealand cuisine isn’t enough, visitors can also learn to cook the Kiwi way. Cooking classes are popular with overseas visitors.
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 The New Zealand gourmet experience is a relatively recent one. Less than 30 years ago 'meat and three veg' was the staple family diet, eating out was a limited experience mostly involving straightforward fodder such as steak and chips, fish and chips, baked meats and pies - a culture which stemmed from the British colonial heritage.
Prior to the arrival of the Europeans, Maori food or kai was always based around the land. Maori were great hunters and gatherers and lived on birds and fish cooked with wild herbs and roots.
In the late 18th century, the first European settlers brought with them foods like potatoes, pumpkin, wheat and sugar which were quickly adopted by Maori who had long been plagued by food shortages.
British influence on New Zealand cuisine continued throughout the 20th century but by the 1960s - when affordable air travel allowed New Zealanders to travel more freely - Kiwi cuisine began to change as travellers who'd developed a taste for European and Pacific cuisine looked for more variety.
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