We've always known the Southern region has some of the most thrilling, memorable and interesting places in the world. Now it's official.
More than 40 years in the making, the world's largest travel guide publisher, Lonely Planet, has published its Ultimate Travelist - the first definitive wish-list of the 500 most thrilling, memorable and interesting places in the world - all ranked in order of brilliance.
And not surprisingly for locals, three of the places on the list are in the Southern region.
Fiordland National Park is ranked number 17 on the list, along with Lake Wanaka (94) and Stewart Island (125).
There are six other New Zealand gems which also feature on the travelist's ''all time best places'' to visit in the world.
They are: Abel Tasman National Park (35), Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers (81), Bay of Islands (130), Whakarewarewa (276), Waitomo Caves (280), and Te Papa Tongarewa (285).
The Cambodian temples at Angkor top the bill, with Australia's Great Barrier Reef and Peru's Machu Picchu rounding out the top three. The Great Wall of China is number four and India's Taj Mahal number five.
The list was compiled from all the highlights found in every Lonely Planet guidebook over the past 40 years.
Since 1973, the company has printed more than 130 million guide books to almost every destination on the planet in 13 different languages .
Each attraction and sight recommended by Lonely Planet authors was included, before being whittled down to a shortlist.
Everyone in the Lonely Planet community was then asked to vote on their 20 top sights.
The results were weighted in favour of sights that received consistently high votes, which lead to the 500 top-ranked places published in Lonely Planet's Ultimate Travelist.
So why would you spend thousands of dollars on a picturesque overseas vacation?
Sounds like Lonely Planet has just given us a good reason to stay home and explore our own back yards.
