Auckland is in the North Island (Te Ika-a-Māui) of New Zealand, and not only is it charming in its own right, there are so many amazing day trips you can take in pretty much every direction. Auckland was our final stop on our honeymoon, but I could have happily sent my whole honeymoon here. Warning... I thought Queenstown would remain my most photo-heavy post, but Auckland tops it because of all of my Hobbiton photos! :-) So sorry in advance for a photo-heavy post! 

Just one of the things Australia is famous for is the Great Barrier Reef, so we knew we couldn't miss an opportunity to see it! We considered this the "beach" portion of our honeymoon, as it was the warmest location and our resort was across the street from the beach.  We flew from Melbourne to Cairns, and it was a very easy trip (about 3.5 hours). It was the second of our three stops in Australia, and it was so relaxing that when it was time to leave, we almost considered canceling our next portion (in Sydney) and staying!