Travel: New Zealand

['tis the Bearded One 662]

If you live or have traveled to New Zealand I would love to hear your recommended travel destinations and any other tips for enjoying Kiwi Land around post-Christmas time. Some of my family and I are planning to spend nearly 30 days there and I'm currently in the process of devising travel plans

 

Looking at some of the awesome natural wonders/tramping tracks is making me drool! I may have to make NZ my holiday travel destination....

[Waitingforyou 495]

Recommend Bay of Islands and Queenstown, seriously beautiful parts of NZ. 

[CrystalFaerie 1,316]

I second the above. Also, Wellington is a funky place and very natural for a capital city, and I'd recommend all travelers spend at least a couple of days there Otherwise, the whole Coromandel area is beautiful, and Rotorua is awesome if you're looking for a unique destination.

['tis the Bearded One 662]

Thanks ladies I heard Bay of Islands is really nice and Coromandel looks awesome! How tolerant is NZ of campervans camping in "un-designated" areas? Some countries/regions seem to be quite hostile towards it.....

[Waitingforyou 495]

from what i can tell, as long as you aren't on private property, people are rather chill about it here

['tis the Bearded One 662]

You are lucky to live in such a beautiful country! And due to its size, its natural beauty is so accessible compared to Australia's. Some of the things we did was the Coromandel Coastal Walkway (circuiting over the mountain bike track - a bad idea,,,), Hobbiton, Tongariro Alpine Crossing, and Waipou forest. My brother and I would have liked to scale Mt Ruapehu or Mt Taranaki aswell but I didn't find my hiking boots before the trip so had to make due with steel capped work boots and Tongariro left me with large blisters. While some of the geothermic landscape was amazing around Rotorua, I wouldn't want to live there! The quality of the air just seemed so...oppressive... Bay of Islands was amazing. Overall I quite liked the familiarity of the European feel of the landscape with its hedges etc. Though the weather was annoyingly unpredictable. We heard that it becomes more predictable in February. Sadly we didn't have enough time for the South Island but I definitely want to do some tramping there some time! It's kinda weird that it took me this long to visit the country next door but it has definitely put NZ on my travel list

[CrystalFaerie 1,316]

You are lucky to live in such a beautiful country! And due to its size, its natural beauty is so accessible compared to Australia's. Some of the things we did was the Coromandel Coastal Walkway (circuiting over the mountain bike track - a bad idea,,,), Hobbiton, Tongariro Alpine Crossing, and Waipou forest. My brother and I would have liked to scale Mt Ruapehu or Mt Taranaki aswell but I didn't find my hiking boots before the trip so had to make due with steel capped work boots and Tongariro left me with large blisters. While some of the geothermic landscape was amazing around Rotorua, I wouldn't want to live there! The quality of the air just seemed so...oppressive... Bay of Islands was amazing. Overall I quite liked the familiarity of the European feel of the landscape with its hedges etc. Though the weather was annoyingly unpredictable. We heard that it becomes more predictable in February. Sadly we didn't have enough time for the South Island but I definitely want to do some tramping there some time! It's kinda weird that it took me this long to visit the country next door but it has definitely put NZ on my travel list

 

Great to hear that you had a fun time!

 

Aaaah, you're making me miss it now… I left last year and though I love where I am and what I'm doing now, nothing quite beats home 

[AlakMorreno 0]

Hello George.

That last photo is just great, it COULD be used for a postcard. New Zealand must be a very popular place for aussies to holiday at. There have been three people over there that I know of.

I have been looking around the website at caravans and the caravans from New Zealand seem to be very English like to me.

Frank.

[robbyfine 7]

New Zeland is so magnificent. We spent 18 nights and split between both islands.... we wanted to do things that were a little different so we went north to the Tutu kaka Coast which was awesome and I liken it to Kauai. On the South Island we kayaked and hike the Queen Charlotte Track which was brilliant. We spent 3 nights at a great eco lodge "near" Nelson. We went to the Tasman Sea and hiked and we boated in the National Park. We did not get to Queenstown or Milford Sound. Auckland reminded me of Seattle and Elliot Bay (on steroids) a boaters heaven. I thought Nelson was the cutest town. We spent too many days in Wellington - it's cute but small but the National Museum is worth a day. To get tips and hacks on travel planning, we use https://travelsites.com/