The best places to pop the question in romantic New Zealand. Feeling loved up? You’ll want to find the perfect Kiwi place to get down on bended knee.

You’re deeply in love, so you’ve decided to propose to your beloved. But where should you do it? Romantic Aotearoa, of course. With so many spectacular beauty spots, from deserted islands to lush green bush, all you need to bring is the ring.

Aoraki Mount Cook National Park is a special place for Kiwis and international visitors alike. Famous for its dramatic natural beauty and holding deep spiritual significance for the Ngāi Tahu iwi, the park is home to New Zealand’s tallest mountain and longest glacier. Pop your question on a romantic boat tour like none other. Surrounded by snow capped alps, you will be expertly guided through the ice age as you view the gigantic Tasman Glacier Ice wall, icebergs and the chance to embrace mother nature’s legacy. Walk to the most popular walks in Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park Hooker Valley and walk beside the Hooker River. Take your loved one to the romantic helicopter ride and land on the Tasman Glacier. 

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Gazing up at the heavens can often make a couple feel like canoodling … or perhaps formalising their union. If you’re aiming for the stars, you’d be hard pressed to find a rival for the South Island’s phenomenal starscape at the Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Night Reserve. With a designated 4300sq km light pollution-free zone, the only thing to outshine the twinkle in your eye will be the glittering constellations up above.

Queenstown is one of New Zealand’s most exciting destinations and is one of the most romantic places in the world. Surrounded by towering mountains, positioned on the edge of a lake, Queenstown is a hub of romance, adventure, thrumming with adrenaline and an omnipresent sense of fun. This is the perfect destination to pop your question. Few things are as romantic as TSS Earnslaw, a slow cruise on a mountain lake. For this reason, a cruise on Lake Wakatipu has to come in number one on this list.  Take the gondola up to Skyline for dinner overlooking Lake Wakatipu.

Discover the stunning Wanaka region as you travel from Wanaka Lake, through open tussock grasslands to the summit of Roy’s Peak. Pop your question with this stunning view at the top of Roy’s Peak track. The track begins by zigzagging along a steep 4WD track from the carpark to the conservation area. From there, continue on through wild tussock grasslands until you reach Roy’s Peak summit. Along the way, take time to enjoy the spectacular views from the ridgeline, which take in most of Lake Wanaka and the surrounding peaks, including Mount Aspiring.

The hospitable town of Franz Josef serves the glacier of the same name. Stay here while you explore this spectacular World Heritage Area. Franz Josef Glacier (Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere) was explored by local iwi and in 1865 by geologist Julius von Haast, who named it after the Austrian emperor. The glacier is five kilometres from the town of the same name, and a 1.5 hour walk will take you to within 750m of its terminal face. Heli hike with your loved one is perfect to pop your question.

Experience life with the birds high in the ancient Rimu and Kamahi tree canopy. Easy access for all to enjoy along a steel platform 20 metres high and over 450 metres long. Thrill seekers will feel their hearts pump and the adrenalin rush as they climb to the top of the tower 47 metres above the forest floor or gently sway in harmony with the forest on the Mahinapua Springboard. Look out over Lake Mahinapua to the majestic Southern Alps and Tasman Sea!

Just 45 minutes from Queenstown, Glenorchy is nestled on the northern shores of Lake Wakatipu & is the gateway to hiking trails and Middle‑earth™ magic. This rustic town is a true outdoor enthusiast’s paradise. Set against a background of native beech forest and towering mountain ranges, Glenorchy surrounds are nothing short of awe-inspiring. Lake Wakatipu and the Dart River offer opportunities for jet boating and kayaking, and some of New Zealand’s best hiking trails can be accessed from here. Horse trekking in the area is also highly recommended. Glenorchy’s spectacular landscapes have become a prime location for film scouts, depicting many scenes from The Lord of the Rings trilogy as well as featuring in the Narnia movies. Twenty kilometres away from Glenorchy, as bucolic farmland gives way to beech forests, lies Paradise.  Some say it was christened for its natural charms, others for the paradise ducks that live in the area. Nobody can say for sure how it got its name, but the one thing people agree on is its breathtaking beauty. “This is the Middle‑earth™ I had always pictured,” Sir Ian McKellen (Gandalf) said of Paradise. Pop your question in the real Middle‑earth.

Tucked into the forested foothills of the Southern Alps, the cosy township of Fox Glacier is geared up for glacier hikes, flights and scenic walks in the area. Named after Sir William Fox, New Zealand’s Prime Minister from 1869 to 1872, Fox Glacier describes both the glacier and the nearby village. Like its twin, Franz Josef, the glacier descends from the Southern Alps down into temperate rainforest just 300 metres above sea level. To see the glacier, you can head towards Lake Matheson on Cook Flat Road for magnificent views. You can arrange an ice-hiking adventure or book a scenic flight. There are glow worm caves just a short walk from the town centre, which offers a good choice of cafes and restaurants. Close to Fox Glacier is beautiful Lake Matheson, one of the most photographed lakes in New Zealand. On a clear day it reflects Mount Cook.

Gaze in wonder at the Punakaiki pancake rocks and blowholes, where columns of water shoot skyward from rocks that resemble giant stacks of hotcakes. Filled with romance perfect to pop your question. Nature began this work of art about 30 million years ago. Over thousands of years, alternating layers of small marine creatures and sand became buried and compressed on the ocean floor. This created areas with multiple layers of hard limestone and softer sandstone. Earthquake activity then lifted the ocean floor high and dry, and those slow motion artists – the rain and the wind – began to erode the softer sandstone. The outcome is cliffs and ravines with hundreds of horizontal slices along their vertical faces, like huge stacks of pancakes. In many places, deep inside the cliffs, narrow vertical air shafts created by the rain met with horizontal tunnels created by the pounding ocean. Today, around high tide, the ocean swells rush headlong through ever-narrowing tunnels and force large amounts of water and compressed air to race upward through the vertical shafts. The result is a hissing, heaving, thumping countryside that rhythmically emits geyser-like plumes of salt water. In a strong westerly swell, this creation of nature is a very impressive sight.

The Hokitika Gorge is 33kms from Hokitika. The vivid turquoise water surrounded by lush native bush is well worth a visit. The Hokitika Gorge is one detour you won’t regret taking. You’ll be teased with glimpses of the otherworldly colour of the water through the trees as you make your way along the track. This is an easy walk through lush native bush to a rocky gorge with calm turquoise blue water caused by hard work high in the mountains where rocks are ground into a fine powder by the movement of glaciers. Hokitika Gorge is a short walk from the car park through a mainly rimu and podocarp forest to a viewing platform where the water has to be seen to be believed. An awesome viewing platform is just 4 minutes from the car park and this part of the track is accessible for wheelchairs. Carry on further to an impressive swing bridge and the granite rocks of the gorge’s walls. For good views further up the gorge, cross the swing bridge and when you come to the end, turn left (straight ahead leads to private farmland). The track continues for another 200m through the bush to another viewing platform while looking out to the gorge upstream of the bridge.