New York to Auckland = 19 hours
Most travelers who venture to this fluorescent-green land of volcanic peaks and low-hanging clouds bring a backpack and sneakers. But this bottom-of-the-world isle has loads to offer the bungee-averse set, too, including five-star hotels and slick new restaurants. Check into one of the chandelier-bedecked suites at Mollies in St. Mary’s Bay (from $950; 6 Tweed St.; mollies.co.nz) for sweeping harbor views, or head to Hotel DeBrett (from $250; 2 High St.; hoteldebrett.com), where guests are treated to velvet bathrobes and goose-down mattress toppers. Decompress with an all-natural botanical peel at futuristic spa Lucy & the Powder Room (packages from $125; 16 Morrow St.; 64-9-524-6702); burn some plastic at Britomart (56 Tyler St.; britomart.org), home to new flagships from local labels Zambesi and Kate Sylvester; and tuck into a seven-course omotenashi degustation ($69) at nouveau-Japanese restaurant Cocoro (56A Brown St.; 64-9-360-0927). Tourists with time to spare can jump a 45-minute ferry to opulent Delamore Lodge (from $650; 83 Delamore Dr.; delamorelodge.com) on Waiheke Island, and spend their night contemplating the good life over glasses of reserve Chardonnay at Cable Bay Vineyards (12 Nick Johnstone Dr., Oneroa; 64-9-372-5889).