Don't think I saw a true desert, though they did have a section they called a "desert" but really just looked like something out of the South Okanagan. But yeah a lot of landscapes that just don't really go together in your mind. You can be walking thru a rainforest and look up and see glaciers (pic 8). Or have snow-capped coastal mountains like you see here, but the ocean is turquoise blue like in the tropics (pic 7).
Not to mention miles and miles of country that looks straight outta the classic Windows 95 background:
It's no wonder they chose NZ to film the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies:
