-I'm in a country that is no doubt nature's version of cloud nine.

It brings out the inner explorer in all of us.

All you want to do is hike it, kayak it, anything that allows you to be absorbed by it, and its people are very a much a part of what makes this country so spectacular, as they work hard to preserve what is so unique about their culture and their land.

It's a country that is on everyone's wish list.

I'm on the North Island of New Zealand.

-[Performing haka] [ Upbeat tune plays ] I'm Samantha Brown and I've traveled all over this world.

And I'm always looking to find the destinations, the experiences, and, most importantly, the people who make us feel like we're really a part of a place.

That's why I have a love of travel and why these are my places to love.

Samantha Brown's "Places to Love" is made possible by... -We believe watching the world go by isn't enough.

That's why we climb... ♪♪ ...pedal... and journey beyond the beaten path, on storied rivers, with a goal of making sure that every mile traveled turns into another memory.

You can find out more at amawaterways.com.

-To travel is to live, and at AAA, we've been passionate about travel for over 100 years.

That's why we created AAA Vacations, member travel experiences around the world.

Learn more at AAA.com/LiveTV.

[ Tranquil tune plays ] -New Zealand is made up of two main islands: North and South.

I'm spending time in the central part of the North Island, around it's geothermal hot spots, but I'm starting my adventure near Lake Taupo.

New Zealand is famous for its extreme landscapes and even more extreme sports, one of which everyone who visits wants to try.

Everyone, that is, except me.

-You can do it!

-Yeah-eah-eah-eah!

Whoo!

[laughing] At 154 feet, this is the highest water-touch bungee jump in the country.

-And that is Taupo bungee.

-Wow!

I shan't be doing that.

But that doesn't mean I'll be taking it easy.

-Welcome to the Waikato River, New Zealand's longest river.

-Where is this river flowing to?

-It flows to the Port Waikato, which is south of Auckland.

-You can kayak all the way to Auckland -Yeah.

-from here?

I've just signed up for a nice afternoon, Rob.

Taupo Kayak Adventures helps navigate what is a very brisk current, as the river makes its way towards the largest lake in New Zealand.

This river is so beautiful.

Does it have any legacy and tradition within the Maori culture?

-Maori people and the Polynesian people were the first people to travel and circumnavigate the Pacific Ocean and, after they landed on the islands that we now know as Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, and all of that, the rest carried on to New Zealand.

-Mm-hmm.

-When they had discovered this place, they had come in from the port, Port Waikato up in Auckland, and then, as they came through, they found this beautiful spot, you know, the lake.

-This would've been when your people first arrived?

-Yep, yep.

They were the first -So they discovered this pretty quickly?

-people to discover the lake up here.

-So this was your life force?

-Yeah, it was a lifeline for our people back in the days, you know?

You got your water, your cleaning, your eating, your cooking, and everything, pretty much.

-So would you say this area is then sacred to the Maori?

-Yes, definitely sacred and beautiful.

♪♪ -Right off the river are many hot springs to enjoy, courtesy of one of the most violent volcanic eruptions the world has ever known, and Rob and I are having a heated conversation.

[ Laughter ] Yep, trying to pronounce Maori words in a New Zealand accent is the toughest thing you'll have to do here.

It's just open to everybody.

My goal is to do as much in New Zealand as possible and meet as many New Zealanders as possible.

So, Logan, I started with a beautiful kayak down this river, -Yeah.

-ended that journey in a hot springs, and, now, I'm continuing on on a beautiful hike that leads right from that hot springs.

-Yeah, yeah.

-It's like my day just keeps getting better -Yeah, yeah.

-and better and better.

What do you love about hiking here?

-Ah, well, I just love how the scenery's so different, you know?

Just that short distance you walk by and you can go from beautiful bush to open areas.

-It takes a lot of time to get to New Zealand, but once you are here, one natural phenomenon seems to be within walking distance from another.

That may be an exaggeration... Oh, my gosh!

...but maybe not.

Oh!

[laughing delightedly] Wow!

This is Huka Falls.

That is incredible!

♪♪ So that's just all the water that we've seen -Yep.

-pass along the river.

-Yeah, yeah.

Waikato River funnels down into this volcanic rock, comes down about 50 meters, as you can see here, and then plummets over the 6-meter waterfall at the end.

-Walking along and seeing it, you know, be a full 100 meters and then come down to, what?

-16 meters.

-[laughing] 16 meters.

-Yeah.

Creates a lotta pressure for that water and they just push in together.

So you have about 220,000 liters of water per second coming down there, so, yeah, there's enough to fill five Olympic swimming pools every minute.

♪♪ -Water, to Maori, is life.

It's also means of cleansing, a means of wiping away spiritual harms, and we have a lot of words that utilize the word wai, which is the word for water.

Everything that we think and know about has wai to it, so.

-First, there's water.

-First, there is water, definitely.

Kia ora, my name is Arekatera Maihi, but to my friends I'm known as Katz.

As you can see, I wear the Mataora.

Mataora is the tattooed markings on my face.

Here, in New Zealand, our tipuna, or our ancestors, wore these markings before the Europeans came.

To wear this design on my face is a massive responsibility, not only for me, but also because of my people.

-I've come to Te Puia, a place that displays New Zealand's incredible forces of Earth and culture, where you can watch the largest active geyser in the Southern Hemisphere erupt and see how the Maori have harnessed these forces for cooking and heating their homes.

Te Puia is also the home of the national school of Maori Arts and Crafts.

Katz is a teacher and artist who creates art using the traditional Maori methods.

-We had a suppression act put on us in 1907 that stopped us from practicing any of our traditional art forms, cultural practices, a lot of the language suppressed as well, and then, in 1923, they created an act of parliament that allowed us to revisit our culture.

-And, right now, we're watching, literally, a craft that was prohibited -That's right.

-in this country for many years.

-Yeah, yeah.

We didn't have the written language.

This was it, this carving, tattooing, and we also have painting, rafter painting, 'cause each design actually references something from nature or something from the natural environment and that allowed us to, you know, tell our stories.

-How many students are in this year's class?

-In all, we have seven students, which allows us to teach in-depth.

-And what will they go on to do?

-They can teach the craft.

They can make their own business, and, from here, because they have a traditional art form base, they can delve into, you know, the computer graphics and start doing design -Mm-hmm.

-because we have all these design-related elements in our head.

-Mm-hmm.

-So there's a lot they can do.

♪♪ -To provide inspiration in the workshop, there are panels dated from the 1800s that would have been in the community house.

-I'm really honored to be able to, you know, put my hands on this, you know?

-Mm-hmm.

-Because this was made in another century.

-Yeah.

-By other Maoris, that thought totally different to how we think now, and it's pretty awesome.

-It's pretty powerful.

-Yeah.

-Also powerful?

Two massive wood pieces that have been carved by Katz and the students, that will soon be in their new home in the country of Belgium, as a World War I memorial.

-We lost a lot of people there in that war and so we have a lot of people still buried there, so, you know, we were asked by the Belgian government if we would consider bringing something over for that.

-Oh, my gosh!

-So we come up with this.

We carved this.

So this piece on this side is a reference to those that participated in the [indistinct] of war.

-Okay.

-And this side is those that participated in peace, so it's the duality that they stand back-to-back.

-Mm-hmm.

Well, what a beautiful testament to the people -Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-who lost their lives.

♪♪ [ Creatures chirping ] ♪♪ Just 20 minutes away from the largest active geyser in the Southern Hemisphere is the world's youngest volcanic valley.

♪♪ In 1886, Mount Tarawera erupted, causing a 9-mile rift in the Earth, creating 22 craters.

I'm in one of them.

So New Zealand is known as the world's newest country -Yeah.

-and, right now, this is absolute evidence of that.

-Oh, absolutely.

-So that volcanic explosion ripped the Earth apart.

-Yep.

-And 1886 -1886.

-is a wrinkle in time.

-Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

-I mean, that's really new.

-It's like [snaps fingers] this morning -[Laughing] -for geologists, right, yeah.

I'm David Blackmore and my job is to take care of Waimangu Volcanic Valley.

It is the world's youngest geothermal valley.

-From the comfort of a boat, we see hills around the lake that, because of a magma source, steam at about 170° Fahrenheit.

You see steam billow and geysers at play.

Wow!

-Yeah.

-And that just happens on a regular basis?

-Yeah.

-How regular?

-Every sort of 9 or 10 minutes.

-Wow!

You just put your coins in -Yeah.

[laughing] -and it starts it all over again.

-If only.

If only.

-[Laughing] ♪♪ The joy of being in Waimangu is simply wandering through the beginning of the new ecosystem with an amazing amount of plant life that was all allowed to grow naturally.

-Yeah, and that's what people do, they wander.

That's why we have our guide sheet and it's called the Wanderer Guide.

-Mm-hmm.

-Because your job is to come and just simply immerse yourself in the place.

-With no plan.

-Yeah, just forget about time for a minute.

-Oh, [laughing] wow.

[gasp] Totally unexpected.

-Inferno Crater.

-Incredible!

[ Tranquil tune plays ] I'll get the daiquiris.

-Yeah.

-We'll be on the beach.

-Yeah, yeah.

-It's like Caribbean-blue water.

-The blue in the water is actually suspended silica.

-Okay.

-So, if you were to go in and scoop a glass out and hold it up, it would actually still be clear.

-It's so beautiful and, to go from your lake, and that, to me, kind of looked like something, a lake I would see like in the Adirondacks, -Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-in, you know, upstate New York, and, now, I'm here in this beautiful Caribbean, tropical environment -Mm.

-and we walked maybe 10 minutes to get here.

-Yeah, that's it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think it speaks to what's very cool about New Zealand, and that is this idea that it is a couple of dashes down the bottom of the globe, but when you get here, you realize that the landscape changes within an hour, going from the geothermal here to beaches, to parklands, to rivers, to lakes, to anything in between, yeah.

-David was talking about driving distances.

[ Rotors whirring ] But what if I got in a helicopter?

A few massive geological phenomenon and I'm hooked.

We've seen the evidence of volcanoes.

Now, let's see a living, breathing one.

I'm en route to one of New Zealand's most active volcanoes, but we're not just gonna look down on it.

We're going to land on it.

And how unique is it in the world to be able to land on a marine volcano?

-As far as I know, Whakaari, or White Island, is the only place in the world.

♪♪ -Landing on a marine volcano that sits many miles off the coast of New Zealand, I ask the questions I know are on everyone's mind.

Is there a bathroom?

Is there a café where I can get a cappuccino?

-Ah, no.

No.

-Where's the gift shop?

[ Suspenseful music plays ] Before going any further, a few accessories are needed: a gas mask, a hard hat.

Well, there goes my Instagram shot.

Why do we need protective gear?

Now, this is making me very nervous, Matt.

-So, obviously, we are on an active volcano, so, while we're here, there is a possibility that there could be a more violent eruption than what's taking place.

-Rocks could spew out of the caldera, hit me on the head?

-Yeah, that's right.

-Yes!

With hats and gas masks in place, we now walk across the crater floor, with its mesmerizing and otherworldly features.

All the volcanic greats are here.

Fumaroles emit billowing steam.

There's a garden of sparkling, yellow sulfur chimneys.

There's even a volcanic stream.

Now, I see water.

-Does that mean that's like 1,400° water?

[laughing] -No, it's not.

You can drink this water.

-You can?

Where is it coming from?

-Believe it or not, it's coming from the magma that's below us.

Where the Earth's crust is getting drawn down into the mantle, as those rocks get pulled down, they all have a small amount of water held within them and the pressure is so much in the mantle that that water can escape to the surface.

-The water that escapes isn't like normal water.

As you can see, it's bubbling, and it feels slimy because of the heavy iron content.

It also tastes of iron, which is to say, like blood.

Oh, and this entire process?

Takes about 10 million years.

So we're seeing the first evidence of water that was -starting to form 10 million years ago?

-Yeah.

Essentially, yeah.

-[laughing] Oh, my gosh.

Well, now, I've got to taste it.

-Yeah.

It'll shock ya.

-A little bit, okay?

I mean, come on.

I didn't come this far to New Zealand, -get on a helicopter, and go to a volcano for nothin'.

Oh, wow!

That is totally blood.

Wow!

-Yeah, if you're sleepy, the iron will help to wake you up.

So, if you missed your morning coffee, you'll be nice and alert for the rest of the day, so.

-[laughing] Nice.

Another thing that will wake you up is seeing the main event.

[laughing] Oh, my goodness!

-Yeah, welcome to the Crater Lake.

-Wow!

-Pretty spectacular, eh?

-Absolutely!

Nothing says "volcano" like a steaming crater, right?

-Yeah, absolutely.

So the main vent of the volcano is right in the middle there and the one that you can hear making all the noise is off to our left there on the crater rim.

All this yellow off to the left there is the sulfur gardens.

The sulfur gases are coming to the surface and then some of their gases are managing to solidify and turn into crystals.

-On a scale of one to 10, how eruptive is this?

-So, the volcanologists, their scale, they can't count all the way to 10, so they just go from one to five.

-[laughing] Okay.

-So one means minor volcanic unrest, so that's what we're seeing at the moment, where gases are being released into the atmosphere.

-And this is, literally, the rim of the volcano, so, not only are we on top of it, we're actually within.

-We're in it, yeah.

-We're in it.

It's a very humbling experience.

♪♪ It's such a little morsel in the world on Earth, and, yet, so much is happening here.

-I mean, it's just incredible to take in.

-It's been doing this for the last 150,000 years to get to the size that it is at the moment.

-Wow, so what we're standing on right now is 150,000 years of work.

-Pretty much, yeah, to get to, -And, yet, a new world.

-get to this stage.

-Right, this is the newest.

-Yeah, and still, still going, still forming right in front of our eyes, so.

♪♪ -But, now, it's time to fly back to the mainland, on a search for a bird that can't fly at all.

[ Birds chirping ] To see the highly endangered kiwi in the wild, you usually have to hike a great distance, but we are in the town of Whakatane, where this species also happens to live in people's backyards.

-Are kiwis found all throughout New Zealand or just this part of the island?

-They are actually spread throughout the North and South Island, but we're quite unique in that we're so close and we regularly have people interacting with our kiwi.

I'm Laura Morgan and I'm originally from Wales, and, for the last nine years, I've been a proud volunteer with the Whakatane Kiwi Trust.

The trust is actually a charity that was set up to advocate for kiwi in our community.

As you'll see, we're close to houses and the urban environment and we do have difficulties with cats and dogs.

And we're actually gonna leave the track and head into the bush.

-Okay, wow.

It's incredible, how quickly it turns into thick forestation from a housing development.

[laughing] Beautiful.

Laura shows me trap boxes set up for rats, hedgehogs, and stoats, which prey upon New Zealand's native birds and, especially, kiwi chicks.

-By protecting the chicks, we actually make the biggest gains to the population because the adult birds are really good at defending themselves and they can live a really long time.

-Okay.

The Whakatane Trust leads people on specific walks to interact with kiwi in a way that's safe for them.

We're meeting up with a few more of the trust's longtime volunteers.

-Okay, so we sent Leanne and John ahead and they've actually caught a bird for us to check.

-[hushed] Oh, my goodness.

You have a kiwi there?

-I do.

-How old is the kiwi?

-This one's about a month old, -Oh, my goodness!

-so he's just a baby.

[baby voice] He's just a little baby.

-He's very cute.

-So, now, for the first time, I get to meet the bird that all New Zealanders refer to themselves as.

-You get a little bit of his hair.

[ Tender tune plays ] -[profound gasp] Oh.

Oh, my gosh.

Ohh.

Oh, my gosh.

What does he eat?

-Any kind of insects or grubs -Mm-hmm.

-that they can find.

-And it doesn't look like a kiwi has feathers.

It looks like it's -- -They almost look like fur.

-Yeah.

-They are actually very fine feathers.

-Oh, they are.

Where did you find this kiwi?

How do you know where they are?

-We put these little transmitters on them.

-Oh, okay.

-So this here.

-Yeah.

But you have to find them, first, to put a transmitter.

-We do, so we monitor their den and, through their nesting, we can find where the chicks hatch and catch them.

-The dads lay on the eggs?

-Yes, the dads incubate.

-Oh, interesting.

They're the stay-at-home dads.

-Yeah.

-Ah.

[ Laughter ] -If you look closely at his feet, you can see those claws starting, so that's their defense mechanism.

When they're a bit older, then can kick and scratch, but they also use those for digging.

-So we're doing, right now, part of a health check, so you're gonna weigh the kiwi.

What else do you do to make sure that the kiwi's doing well?

-So, we then measure their bill to check growth rates.

Just give them an overall kind of condition check.

Check that their eyes and ears are nice and bright and open.

-A typical physical, just making sure.

And you are all volunteers.

Why do you dedicate so much time to this bird?

I mean, it's pretty amazing.

I think I would, too.

-Kinda speaks for themselves.

If I moved to New Zealand, I must say, I would dedicate my life to that bird.

-We call it the kiwi smile, as you can see on your face.

-You've just met our precious little bird and you can't stop smiling, once you've met one.

-[laughing] No.

♪♪ -[Chanting in Maori] [ Continues chanting ] -My name's William Stewart.

I'm from here, from Ngati Awa, from Whakatane, from this house, Mataatua, the house that went around the world and then came home again to us.

-I'm being called into the house along with William, but, before I receive my feather invitation, I have to go through this.

-[Vocalizing] [ Drumbeat ] ♪♪ [ Performing haka ] -It's a formal challenge.

-Okay.

-So, basically, it's the most agile, fiercest warrior from your tribe.

-Okay.

-He will come out and he will lay a challenge, which you will pick up, and, by picking it up, respectfully shows we've come with no intentions of war and we're here to enjoy your hospitality.

-I'm clearly not the most agile and fierce in my tribe.

[laughing] Is that gonna be a problem?

-As you can see, neither am I, so.

No, I think we'll be okay.

♪♪ -This house is called a marae.

It's a traditional meeting house where everything that is at the heart of the Maori culture, its arts, language, and song, are given a home.

So this is a house that you're not only greeted to, but one that they are protecting.

Why is that?

-In the case of this house, in particular, for us, it's a tribal treasure.

-Mm-hmm.

-It's probably, arguably, our most revered tribal treasure and to have it back after, I think it's been 136 years away, this is something very, very special and something we're very keen to protect.

-Crushed and defeated by the New Zealand wars with the Maori against the British Crown, tribal chiefs decided to build the house to preserve Maori pride in their crafts, traditions, and ancestral history.

-All our histories and our traditions transfer from generation to generation through carving, through weaving, through songs, and so, within each weaved panel, there is a story and, within each carving, there's a story, or many stories.

-This one over here has what you're holding.

What is that?

-Yeah, so this is a tewhatewha.

So, as well as being a weapon, it was also used to command armies, much as flags would've been for the British, so.

Move your people from over there.

And, oi, what are you doing over there?

Get back; get back.

So, stuff for like the tewhatewha.

-As a gesture of peace, the chiefs dedicated the house to Queen Victoria, whose authorities then promptly had it dismantled and shipped overseas.

-We thought it was only going to Sydney, but it ended up in London and it wasn't until 1996 that the government acknowledged, "Yes, we need to return this house," and gave us the funds to restore it.

-This home is for all Maori?

-We welcome anyone, you know?

That's part and parcel of being a marae, but this marae is really the marae of our tribe.

-Okay.

-The house, when it was set up, was to build a positive future for Ngati Awa, for our tribe, and that really hasn't changed.

-After being returned, the house went through 15 years of arduous restoration and then was placed back in its exact same spot.

The house truly did come home.

So everyone who comes through these doors goes through that welcoming ceremony?

-Yeah, that's right.

That's one of the cultural obligations, but you only do that process once because, once you've undertaken that ritual of encounter, you're no longer a stranger.

You're us, you know, you're family.

-So I'm welcome anytime now?

-Absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely.

You're one of us, yeah.

-Not only do you have a home, but a homecooked meal.

This is the more modern version of the hot pool, or hangi, and has become the thing for a traditional Maori backyard celebration.

Well, my day started out being challenged by Henry, where, I'm pretty sure he was mimicking breaking off my legs and maybe licking the blood off of them.

Is that what you were doing?

-I was mimicking ripping your heart out and eating it.

[ Laughter ] -New Zealand is an amazing place: massive landscapes and really easy access.

It's ever-changing.

It's developing in front of you and you're part of the new history of this place.

-When you do come to New Zealand, take the opportunity to get off-track, head into our wilderness.

It's magical.

-Oh, my gosh!

-Your visit here will offer you an insight, a very, very genuine insight, into us, our people, our traditions, and our culture.

We may look scary, -[Performing haka] -but we're really a lovely bunch of people, so come down and get to know us.

Everything here is good for you.

-Oh, wow!

When you get to share in a hospitality established by a country's first inhabitants, Ah!

when you interact with both the country's awesome power Wow!

and gentleness, when you experience firsthand how the Earth is still one glorious work in progress, that is when we share a love of travel and that's why the central North Island of New Zealand is a place to love.

-For more information about this and other episodes, destination guides, or links to follow me on social media, log on to placestolove.com.

Samantha Brown's "Places to Love" was made possible by... -We believe watching the world go by isn't enough.

That's why we climb... ♪♪ ...pedal... and journey beyond the beaten path, on storied rivers, with a goal of making sure that every mile traveled turns into another memory.

You can find out more at amawaterways.com.

-To travel is to live, and at AAA, we've been passionate about travel for over 100 years.

That's why we created AAA Vacations, member travel experiences around the world.

Learn more at AAA.com/LiveTV.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪