There is one good reason to visit New Zealand (not counting you already happened to be in Australia so why not swing by). It's because you wish you lived in The Lord of the Rings instead of in the real world.
Just ask Air New Zealand, which appears to have conceded this in its latest Middle-earth-themed video—not its first. The new spot urges you to pack your bags with golden baubles and helmets and shields, then board a giant eagle-winged aircraft piloted by bearded dwarves. A man in a wizard's hat will use a gnarled wooden staff to wave the fowl plane down the tarmac. Hobbit-footed and pointy-eared flight attendants will serve you the Shire's crunchiest vegetable produce.
If you do go, be nice to the real Air New Zealand staff, as many of them debased themselves to bring you this fantasy—all because the airline wants you to know that what you see in the cinema is not just "a load of fanciful imaginings." Alternately, you could just use the million-hour flight to marathon all of the J.R.R. Tolkien movies. And then do it again when you get to the hotel, too.
Because you, Bilbo Baggins, sure aren't going to defeat that dragon while sitting comfortably in the Bag End replica you've built in your girlfriend's mother's basement.
