New Zealand and Australia - two places I have no interest in visiting.
I always wanted to go to Australia , the land and sea there looks beautiful. Then I found that everything ...every snake is poisonous to some degree...a box jelly will kill you in two minutes…salties and great whites will eat you and even platypuses (platypi??) are venomous. Go figger.
Australia is a wonderful place to visit. We have been 3x. You spend next to no time in the cities so the politics is irrelevant.
Instead you walk among sea lions on a beach, take boat rides in the Northern Territories where Jesus birds walk the water & sea eagles will swoop in and take food scraps from a floating seat cushion. Lots of chances to see crocodiles. In the Northern Territory there is a ranch 2hrs by car or 30min by plane from the nearest main road(plane from Darwin). There the lizards fight & carry on from the netting that is your roof and water buffalo munch the vegetation at the edge of the water 20 yds away. Wallabies hop onto the landing of the steps to your cabin and gorgeous water lilies are in bloom on that same water when you take a boat ride. There are gourmet meals and one of the hands will teach those interested to crack a rope. In the NT there are crocodile jumperoo cruises and an aborigine museum.
Outside of Brisbane the Atherton Tablelands are a different natural beauty and in Daintree you can take a boat ride on the Daintree River at Dusk & and sunset and see not only the diverse wildlife but the bats fly out over your heads at dusk to forage and back to their roosts at sunrise.
There are lots of great places to meet Animals, like Australia’s zoo where we met echidnas, dingos, koalas, and many more animals. Kangaroo Island has Paul’s place where you can nurse a bush baby infant,feed termites to echidnas, feed rheas, all animals were rescues. The Gold Coast has amusement parks cheek to jowl with nature centers. Kangaroos line up for food in dominance order & there are impromptu boxing matches at the wildlife center.
If you are so inclined there is lots of skydiving, hang gliding, paragliding and other action activities. It is cheaper & more accessible than in USA because the informed consents protect the companies that offer these activities.
NZ is also nice to visit, with it’s own unique pleasure but the politics there intrudes a little more.