WILD Discovery Guides

When Dunedin’s Scottish founders arrived in the 1840s, they soon learned they were sharing New Zealand’s Otago peninsula with some amazing wildlife. And today, close encounters with the wildlife are within easy reach of the city centre.

New Zealand will offer two new walking (or what Kiwis call “tramping’’) trails in 2010.

New Zealand has turned Africa’s concept of a wildlife ‘Big Five’ upside down by developing its own ‘Small Five’ list aimed at encouraging travellers to come and see some of the world’s rarest creatures for themselves.

Two unusual couples - a pair of female Royal Albatrosses and two male Yellow Eyed Penguins - are incubating eggs on the Otago Peninsula, 30 minutes from Dunedin's city centre.

The possum pies are off the menu when we get to the Bushman’s Café , but their purveyor is around to explain why. We’re the day’s first customers when “Possum Pete’’ Salter arrives and while the menu looks interesting, there are a couple of reasons why we’ll go away hungry. First, we’ve failed to bring our own roadkill along (“you kill 'em, we grill 'em” says the menu).

Passengers aboard two tourist boats at New Zealand's Aoraki Mount Cook last weekend were treated to a real show-stopper when the largest iceberg in the Tasman Glacier terminal lake rolled over and split in two right before their eyes.

Two of the world's rarest birds are set to find a new home at New Zealand’s award-winning Zealandia eco-sanctuary.

The population of New Zealand's only native dolphin, Hector's dolphins (Cephalorhynchus hectori hectori), is dropping by about one per cent each year, with the major risk to their survival being fishing nets.

At the bottom of the world, where iridescent sunsets light the horizon, search for the elusive Brown Kiwi and learn about the art of mutton-birding.

Exploring New Zealand's 370km Alpine Pacific Highway loop will bring you to some of the South Island's most stunning scenery - and to the world's first Green Globe certified town, the hamlet of Kaikoura.

The road that follows New Zealand's wild and untamed West Coast meanders through breathtaking scenery, across one-lane bridges and through moody forests, the landscape and geology never failing to amaze. The locals call it "the wet coast" - with reason - but that often just adds to the beauty.

There are two ways to explore the Whanganui River, in New Zealand's North Island: fast, and slow. Discover them both.

Twenty years ago, Whirinaki Forest Park was rarely out of the headlines in New Zealand, as protesters tied themselves to trees to stop the ancient giants of the forest being felled, and mill workers blocked roads to stop the environmentalists getting into the forests. It was a battle the conservationists won, and today tourism is playing a major role in the area's economic revival.

Tuatara, New Zealand’s ‘living dinosaurs’, have been found breeding in the wild in Wellington - the only place on the mainland they are known to do so.

Eight young kiwi have been released into New Zealand's new Orokonui Ecosanctuary near Dunedin, returning the rarest type of the national symbol to the area for the first time in more than 130 years.