
The Australia/Pacific region may be a seemingly endless flight away for most overseas visitors, but once you land you'll find adventures aplenty to banish all that jet lag -- like diving for black pearls in Tahiti, glacier trekking in New Zealand and exploring the vast red reaches of the Australian Outback. (But we won't blame you if you want to spend your first day or two just bumming it on the beach.) Australia and New Zealand's major gateway cities -- like Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and Wellington -- are cosmopolitan, laid back and welcoming to visitors.