We are a couple (30's-40's) travelling mid February to early March to NZ for 21 days, in to Auckland & out of Christchurch. It is our first trip to NZ! This is our itinerary and we would appreciate your opinions, suggestions about not to be missed things, or things to do or see. We will have a car. We like mildly adventuresome activities, beautiul scenery, short hikes, good food & wine, and one of us is a great LOTR fan. We know we can't see it all in three weeks and had to make some tough choices (eg: Arthur's Pass is left out!). We don't like one-night stands so have tried to minimize those.

Days 1&2: Auckland

Day 3: Waitomo Caves (Hobbiton, Legendary Blackwater cave tour)

Days 4&5: Rotorua (geothermal areas, Maori hangi, zorb, possibly white water rafting)

Days 6&7: Wellington (via Taupo, Te Papa, gondola. It's a long drive but we didn't want a one night stay en route)

Days 8&9: Abel Tasman (ferry on day 7, Nelson, ? time for winery tour; kayaking & hiking in the park)

Day 10: Punakaiki area (mid way point to Franz Josef Glacier, pancake rocks)

Days 11&12: Franz Josef (heli-hike, glacier walks, Lake Matheson)

Day 13: Wanaka (puzzling world & ???)

Days 14, 15, & 16: Te Anau (cruises on Milford and Doubtful Sounds, hiking, etc?)

Days 17&18: Queenstown (Dart River Safari, LOTR sights)

Day 19: Oamaru (penguins)

Day 20: Mt Cook

Day 21: Christchurch

We have accomodations booked up to Franz Josef. Still working on the rest. Any favorite places?

I have been studying the Rough Guide and Fodors and online sites. Appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks!

Hi Nola -
There's a ton to see and do in New Zealand. You've got quite the schedule worked out! Suggest you do a FIND on this board for New Zealand and check out what others have asked & received as advice. That may help you narrow down your priorities.

I'm personally very fond of Napier, it's a totally Art Deco town. They had a huge earthquake and fire back in the 1930's and so when they rebuilt, it was in the style of the era - Art Deco. Very cool.

NZ also has great wine country. Don't know if your dates will coincide, but the Marlborough Food & Wine Festival takes place on Feb. 9 in 2008, my MIL tries to go every year, it is apparently fabulous. But just driving around vineyards will be great anyway, we always do some when we are down there visiting family.

Do try and order a NZ Automobile Assoc. map book before you leave, so that you can study it. They are excellent.

Janie

Hi Nola,
That's a lot of travelling you'll be doing for a holiday! New Zealand looks small on a map, but can take quite a while to get around.
It's a long way between Nelson and Franz Josef. We stayed at Hokitika, which is a small place on the coast. It's probably not a bad choice.
Wanaka is much closer to Queenstown than to Te Anau, so it would be better to hop from Wanaka to there and then onto Milford and Doubtful Sounds, using Te Anau as your base. Milford Sound is very nice, (although the day we went, it wasn't raining and hadn't rained for a few days, so waterfalls were in relatively short supply), but it's crowded with tourists. Doubtful Sound might be a better option.

Wanaka's Puzzling World is fun. We stayed at Queenstown and drove to Wanaka for the day. It's not a long drive if you go via Cadrona.

Wanaka is also relatively close to Mt Cook, but not so close that you can just pop over for a day. Similarly, from Oamaru, you might find the one-day drive a big effort (particularly if it's bad weather at Mt Cook - you might find you've driven a long way for not much). If you are self-catering, remember to take everything you need into Mt Cook with you, or be prepared to pay big money at The Hermitage for dinner.

Dunedin is wonderful and worth a few days. I like it much more than Christchurch, although Christchurch is pleasant. If you have time, go to the Antarctic Centre, which is located at the airport.

Have fun.

We were in NZ for 4 weeks in February of this year - here are a few hotel suggestions:

1) DON'T stay at the Waitomo Caves Hotel despite how good the website looks. We described in on Trip Advisor as Fawlty Towers but another reviewer described it as the hotel from The Shining!

We did the Labyrinth Tour (described as cave tubing) - it was fun but there was a lot more walking/stumbling than floating as the river level was very low in February.

2) I agree about Napier - we spent 2 weeks there and loved it - I might forego Taupo and travel to Wellington via Napier but not sure how much that adds to your drive.

3) We stayed in Wanaka one night - not sure I'd make it a destination just for Puzzle World. Good restaurants in Wanaka - actually the mexican restaurant on the main business street was really good (we'd been away for 7 weeks at that point and missed mexican flavours!)

4) In Te Anau we stayed at the Lakeside Motel and really liked it. At the time they didn't have wi-fi though if that's important to you. The two motels next door have wi-fi.

If you can fit it in, swimming with dolphins at Kaikoura was fantastic.

Have a great time!

Thanks everyone for replying; I really appreciate the input!

We decided we did not have enough time for Napier because we wanted to see a bit of Tongariro National Park (which we will barely skim after leaving Rotorua). And no worries, we're not staying at the Waitomo Caves Hotel. We have a room reserved at the Hobbit Motel which should be interesting (the LoTR fan was adamant!) in Waitomo. BTW, LizS, I read your entire NZ blog and you're one of the reasons we're braving the Blackwater Cave tour!

Unfortunately, we don't really have alot of time to tour the wineries. I'm still hoping to work one or two in on the day we get off the ferry and head to Abel Tasman National Park (staying at Ocean View Chalets in Marahau).

We are staying in Punakaiki to break up the drive from Abel Tasman to Franz Josef. It's still not going to be a leisurely drive but at least we'll get to see some more of the West Coast.

JillB,I thought we would use Wanaka as a stopping point between Franz Josef and Te Anau. It gets us close to Te Anau but still allows time to see a few things after leaving Franz Josef. Really, Puzzling World is the only thing I've read about to do there, other than nature walks and such. Maybe the Cinema Paradiso, if there's time. I figured we'd pass up Queenstown and hit it on the "way out" of Fiordland. It was kind of a toss up in terms of when to see it.

The one thing I'm thinking about cutting out is Mt Cook because the weather is so often unfavorable there. It would give us two full days in ChCh and I know it would be nice to have a more relaxing end to the trip. Also, if we skip Mt Cook, maybe we can fit in the Banks Peninsula, Hanmer Springs or the TranzAlpine to Arthurs' Pass or even Dunedin. What do you think?

I have ordered the HEMA NZ map but have been relying on AA.nz.co and google.com for distances between destinations. I can already see that we'll need another trip to NZ!!! There's so much to see.

Thanks.

We did a similar 3 week trip to NZ but reverse. We did a lot of camping and backpacking during the trip. I think you might have a bit too much even for a non-slow travel type of trip. I'd pick a couple of places and lengthen the time you stay in one place to relax a bit. Our South Island trip was pre-LOTR so there might be places we would go now that we didn't stop at before. Here's what I remember from my trip to give you an idea of the driving.

We started in Queenstown and did a 3 night backpack to the Routeburn with a boat trip on Milford Sound. I think we spent a total of 6 nights in the area. We picked up a car and then drove towards the West Coast. We spent one night camping each at Haast Pass, Lake Matheson, Okarito, Punakarki. We did have lunch in Lake Wanaka and did maze. The lake is beautiful. We did drive from Punakarki to Nelson. It wasn't too bad if I remember correctly. I think we had time to stop in Greymouth to check out the stone factories. We spent 6 days in the area including 4 days backpacking Abel Tasman + 2 nights in Nelson before and after the hike. We dropped off our car and then took a bus + ferry to Wellington where we spent 1 or two nights. We picked up another car and drove north. We spent a night in Ohakune. It was really dead because it was not the ski season but it was convenient to Tongariro.

We drove through the park and then up to Hamilton. We skipped Rotorua. I've found it to be very touristy and skipped it on both of our trips. Taupo is nice. We had lunch while driving through on our last trip. Another neat town in the area is Tauranga. We stayed here on our last trip which focused on the North island. We did do the black water rafting which is excellent. I think we stayed the night in Hamilton. We ended the trip in Auckland. If you don't have accomodations yet in Auckland - I highly recommend Great Ponsonby B&B.

If possible, I would recommend adding time in the Nelson area. You are on the move a lot this will give you a bit of time to relax. There is a lot to see in the area between the wineries and Abel Tasman. There is also options around Marborough Sound. Also, keep in mind that the weather tends to be worse on the west coast than the east coast.

Nola
If you don't have any particular reason to go to Wanaka, you might be better to keep on driving and go to Queenstown for the night. It's not that much further and it would give you a head-start for your trip to Te Anau.

I agree that if you are planning to drop anything, your one day in Mt Cook would be the obvious choice. We were there for two days (January 06), one of which was so hot, I was still suffering from sunburn a month later, followed by a day where the weather was so bad (cold and windy) that it was not safe to go walking or on the tour we'd organised. The weather certainly is unpredictable. (As you start on a walk up Mt Cook, you pass a memorial to all the people who've died on the mountain. Let's just say that it's quite well populated).

Hamner Springs is an easy drive from Christchurch, although apart from the springs (which are fun to sit in), there's not a lot. Banks Peninsula is nice, but takes a lot longer to drive to than you'd expect. The suggestion to visit Kaikoura is an excellent one, if you want a day trip from Christchurch (it takes about 2.5 hours).

In 2005 we were able to spend about 7 weeks in New Zealand. We blogged about it at
http://www.mytripjournal.com/weaver_new_zealand_2005

Perhaps you can pick up some ideas from our travels. It's a great country with wonderful people. You will have a terrific time no matter what you chose as places to see and things to do.
Marilyn

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. We are so excited about our trip which is now only 2.5 weeks away. We've booked everything and after much thought and debate, decided keep Wanaka and Mt. Cook in the picture. We may never get another chance to come to NZ and it's too late now to add the Mt Cook day to the Abel Tasman area which is where I'd really want the extra time. We really need one (or two or three or four or a lifetime) more days!

In/around Wanaka, we may be able to visit Rippon Winery (we love reds and their pinot noirs are reportedly very nice). We don't have time to do a "wine tour" per se, but we'll fit in wineries as we can!

So very excited!!! Thanks!

We love Rippon Winery. The view from the vineyard is wonderful - grape vines and lake in foreground, snow capped mountains in the background. The wine is very good too. Hopefully the weather will be sunny and you can sit outside with a glass of red.
Jill