Two Weeks in New Zealand

Lucky bastard. So many friends have visited NZ since I went and I have yet to go back. :-/

I was only in the north island for a week or so so I'm probably not the best guide, but I'd say that the cities seem pretty boring. You want cities, go to Japan or something. NZ is all about the landscapes, no? Taupo is basically a sporty kind of place - if you're into windsurfing etc it's probably great for a couple of days, if not you can take a guided tour for an afternoon and that's about it. Rotorua has a shitload of volcanic springs etc and is well worth going to. Err, probably the NZ natives can tell you more, I spent a lot of time visiting the relatives there so didn't see all I should have (i.e. the south island).

don't worry about not having time in the cities, the cities are the not the reason you go to NZ!

If you have some time to spare and like kayaking, Alex, the Malborough Sounds is a beautiful place for that. That's what I'd be doing if I got a chance to get back there. I'm unfamiliar with the mail boat thing you mentioned.

skip the north island,spend it all on the south,which is nature's paradise.

First off, you'll have an amazing time. Great choice for honey balloon.

I was in NZ for 3 weeks back in 2000 with two friends and followed a similar path. It's annoying to miss out on the stuff north of Auckland, but kind of inevitable on a 3-week stay, let alone a 2 week one. We were in a camper van and really did stay in some amazing campsites, but I understand that might not be your thing.

Rotorua itself is a bit of a dump, as I recall. I think it's OK to miss it, though the geysers are quite fun. Also, we found a public hot spring area (eventually) called Kerosene (!) Springs or something which was a great lark till we discovered that vandals had knocked down the sign that said "DO NOT PUT YOUR HEAD BELOW THE WATER. DANGER OF DEATH FROM MENINGITIS". Apparently hot springs are a breeding ground for deadly bacteria. Anyway, we didn't die.

I echo what the others say about not worrying too much about not having time in cities. We had fun in them, but it's definitely not what you go to NZ for.

I think the most memorable day we spent was in Tongariro National Park, in the south of the North Island. Here's a pic:

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/50/108082463_a23d7a7f6e.jpg

Just jaw-dropping. I've a few more pictures of our trip up on Flickr if you click on that one and look at the set.

Another lovely jaunt off the main road's trail was to Jackson Bay and around, on the west coast of the South Island. Slightly eerie place but nice to get away from it all. And we saw rare penguins! Abel Tasman park is really stunning too.

Queenstown's great if you're into adreneline sports and stuff. Avoidable otherwise. I did the big "Nevis" bungee jump. It was OK. White water rafting fun too - bus to it was scarier than the rafting itself. Luge run in Queenstown itself is a laugh.

My most disappointing thing was Milford Sound, but I couldn't really say why. Maybe I'd had it built up too much, maybe it was just too touristy or maybe it's just not my absolute favourite type of scenery. And good grief the sandflies were awful. It was the most stunningly situated campsite to see when you wake up though (we arrived at night). You can do helicopter tours, which might be good. We just went on the boat.

I wasn't that into the Franz Josef glacier, either. It's just a big thing of icy stuff. I guess my favourite days were the ones where we did our own thing, rather than seeing "the things you have to see".

It was the best holiday of my life, anyway.

Here's a very thorough round-up that my friend sent pals afterwards. I don't think he'd mind me posting it.

Just a quick update now my trip with boys from back home is over. Another
circular I'm afraid. I have now arrived back in Sydney after 3 fantastic
weeks in New Zealand with J and N if you are interested here is a
not very brief account of what we did.

We started in Auckland for a couple of days J sorted us out a very nice
penthouse suite at the Auckland Park Royal and we pretty much spent our
first two days on the running machine in the gym. We also walked up many
of Auckland’s volcanic summits in search of a legendary tree known as one
tree hill this wooded Shangri-la eluded us at one point we thought we
had found it but were fought back by the flashes of 2000 Japanese tourists
viciously defending their Kodak moment.

Weary but still full of hope we picked up our silver camper van from a
Dodgy German and hit the highway south. Our first stop proper was at Waitomo
Caves. New Zealand is the worlds premier country for adrenalin sports and
we thought we should get the ball rolling with some softcore black water
rafting basically this involved floating through pitch black underground
caves in a huge rubber ring and occasionally leaping backwards off
waterfalls in to the dark chasm below, whilst avoiding killer eels. (And
all this whilst wearing enormous purple pants over your wetsuit it was
great fun.) The real reason for this madness was to see the legendary
glowworms and we were not disappointed by the galaxy of glowworms
illuminating the roof of the cave.

After Waitomo we crossed over to Lake Rotoroa for a bit of thermal
activity. N decided it would be a laugh to go to the kerosene pools delightfully
named we thought why not? We dived into the nearest pool and sat under
the waterfall ooh ouch mother, more cold please! For those of you who
have never sat in a boiling hot river you must try it unfortunately in
our haste we had not read the signs keep your head above water, amoebic
meningitis lurks nearby!! oh well so far so good.

Rotoroa also introduced us to thermal theme parks we sneaked in for free
under the wheelchair of an elderly Japanese man and giggled inanely at the
mud pools, stared aghast at the geysers one of which looked uncannily like
the Prince of Wales. After a quick glimpse at the notoriously nocturnal
kiwi bird we jumped back in the van and headed south past lake Taupo. The
biggest lake in NZ it was created quite a long time ago by possibly one of
the biggest volcanic eruptions ever so big that all life on NZ was wiped
out and unfortunately nobody was left to enjoy this fantastic new lake.

We stopped next in Tongario National Park. Here we did a day long dirty
Tramp into the volcanic mountains. I think this may be one of the best
walks I have ever done in my life climbing to 1440m we sat at the bottom
of the snow capped Mt Rupheau and active volcano and looked down on two
crater lakes. I made the worst coffee ever to celebrate.

That night tired and blistered we drove all night to Wellington to catch
the ferry to the south island. An uneventful journey apart from the tragic
demise of a number of possums under the wheel of Js maniacal driving.
We arrived the next morning in the delightful seaside resort of Nelson and
decided it was time to hit the beach and slow the pace down a bit for a
couple of days.

After a day on the beach we hit the town hard and had our first experience
of NZ nightlife. It was somewhere between your worst ever experience in
the 80s and one of the village discos I used to go to in Devon when I was
about 14. We went home early and played cards. Next Day we did some
exploring in Abel Tasman National Park. I suggested we went to Pu Pu
Springs which unleashed a predictable amount of pooh poohing jokes from my
hilarious travel buddies.

Next day back on the road again heading to the west coast we stopped at
Cape Foulwind where all our sides nearly split with more hilarious and
Yet predictable jokes from J and N who had clearly been spending too much time alone at night in the camper van. Cape Foulwind is basically
where Abel Tasman became the first westerner to discover New Zeeland in
about 1647 Capt Cook put that in your pipe and smoke it it took him
about another 125 years to get this far. Abel didn’t think too much of NZ
in fact he thought it was rubbish and said as much. Nowadays people go to
Foulwind to see the seal colony that lives there. This was the first of
many amazing wildlife spots on the trip round the south island.

That night we arrived at the Franz Josef Glacier. We did a morning walk on
the glacier, which was amazing mostly for the fact that I don’t think any
of us really knew what to expect apart from a lot of ice. It is a truly
amazing spectacle sliding down the side of the mountains and one I would
have liked to have spent a lot more time looking at. But when you’ve only
got 3 weeks we were on the road again that afternoon past Fox’s glacier
where incredibly they do hand out complimentary mints on the road to our
next stop in Haast.

From Haast we made the short trip to NZ most remote settlement Jackson
Bay. In the 1860s Jackson Bay was intended to be NZ premier west coast
town unfortunately the project only lasted for about 3 years after a
mixture of bad weather, bad planning, bad farming, bad diseases and bad
vibes caused the place to be abandoned. Nowadays a few people do live
there but we went to see the penguins. After a perilous clamber over the rocks
and up a cliff face we chanced being cut off by the high tide and were
rewarded by the sight of two pairs of Fiordland Yellow Crested penguins. I
have to say this was a beautiful moment as the sun set behind them made
perhaps even more exciting to discover later that these are the rarest
penguins in the world.

Next day we headed to Queenstown via a place called Wanaka (more hilarious
jokes) where N insisted that we stop at a theme park called Puzzling
World and do this world famous maze. The maze is supposed to take the
average human being between 30-50 minutes. I was very disappointed by my
time of 1 hour although I did enjoy a few smug moments waiting for the
arrival of my two companions who registered 1hr 10mins (N) and 1hr
15mins (J despite cheating). The recriminations have been flying backwards and forwards ever since and this is not an episode you will ever hear mentioned
by the other two as they just cant bare the fact that I whuped their
arses!!

Queenstown is the adventure capital of the world. I think I had more
adventure in 24 hrs than in the whole of the rest of my life. Firstly the
amazing sky gondolier, then 3 rides on the luge next day up early for
white water rafting on the aptly named Shotover river. The Shotover river
varies from grade 3 to grade 5+ rapids (grade 6 is unraftable). With me
and Jat the helm our raft survived intact despite the best efforts of the
lemon squeezer, the toilet and CASCADE. I guess at the end of the
day though we were a little bit disappointed that nobody drowned but there you
go.

N put us to shame in the afternoon by doing the 2nd highest bungy in the
world he has a video so watch out. J and I did another dirty tramp up
Queenstown hill where we sat and stared at the lake and the Remarkables (a
mountain range).

From Queenstown our next stop was the world famous Milford Sound. Its
actually not a sound at all it is a fjord and if any one doesn’t know the
difference wed be happy to tell you. We arrived at night but by moonlight
it was still clear that the drive to Milford Sound is possibly one of the
most beautiful in the world with towering mountains on either side of the
road. We caught a cruise boat and cruised right out to the mouth of the
Tasman Sea which is about 6 miles from Milford. It is really difficult to
explain how beautiful the trip is you really have to see it for yourself
or see our endless photographs.

Over the course of 20 Ice Ages the glacier has literally carved a route from the mountains to the sea at Milford Sound you can see the highest mountain in the world the rises directly from the sea. In fact it would be almost impossible to step off the boat because the land rises vertically from the sea. And yet even on a vertical cliff face a unique rainforest has evolved watered mostly be the endless
waterfalls pouring straight of the mountains and into the sea. Quite splendid.

We had two nights in Milford which was just about enough as the places is
swarming with sandflys and J and N seemed to offer a
particularly tasty form of British blood for these bloodsuckers to gorge
on.

Next Stop was Dunedin via Nugget Bay on the East coast of the S.Island.
This was also the most southerly point we reached and indeed any of us had
ever been to between 45 and 46 degrees south. We had another wildlife
bonzana here. J saw dolphins that may or may not have in fact been seals.
We also saw sea lions and possibly more penguins, which may or may not have
been seagulls. As we were driving out of Nugget Bay we saw an enormous
rock shaped like a sea lion on the beach, as we got closer we realized it was
actually a sculpture and as we drove past we realized it was a moving
sculpture finally we came to our senses and realized that we were face to
face with a fully grown Sea Lion no more than 5 metres away. This was
undoubtedly one of the finest moments of the holiday this guy was huge
and pulling a very funny face which I have tried hard to develop an impression
of. N has photos and you will be astonished!

Dunedin promotes itself in two ways the Edinburgh of the southern
hemisphereand as having the best nightlife in NZ. Well the Edinburgh bit
was certainly true as we heard endless songs by the Proclaimers. As for
the nightlife well if you like the Proclaimers then you’re in for a treat.
Actually we had a great night out in a club called Outback. Dunedin is a
university town and it made us all feel very old we were even turned away
from a couple of places for being firstly not studenty enough and then not
smart enough it made us feel like we have no place in this world.

After our first big night out we relaxed the next morning in a hot spa
J refused to take off any of his gold jewelry despite warnings and was later
ejected for smoking cigars and drinking martini. N was nearly lost down
the plughole when the angry owner decided to turn the spa off.

After watching Lennox Lewis defeat the local NZ hopeful David Tua (man) in
the afternoon we went on a barmy army style victory parade around the
streets of Dunedin. That was until we came across the steepest street in
the world - Baldwin Street. It’s true and it is in the Guinness book of
records it is very very steep (1 metre in every 1,26 metres) and well
worth a trip halfway round the world to walk up it.

From Dunedin we moved onto Lake Tekapo in the Mt Cook National Park. This
is a turquoise blue lake of extraordinary proportions. Fed by the
meltwaters of the glaciers small fragments of the glacial rock float in
suspension in the lake water and through the refraction of sunlight the
water turns turquoise. At least I think that is how it works it is an
amazing sight anyway. N and I tramped up Mt John, but J claimed he
didnt need to walk up any mountain that was named after him and stayed in
the van to have some well-earned quality time!!!

The next day we hired Mountain bikes and set off on a dirt track around the
lake. Unfortunately N disproved the theory that it is just like riding
a bike and was an early retirement. J and I pressed on and had a lovely
time reliving some of the great moments from the Tour de France over the
years. Unfortunately we got a little bit carried away and forgot that we
would have to cycle back. Sore legs is one thing but a sore arse after 20
miles of off the road cycling is quite another.
From Lake Tekapo we start the long journey back to Auckland. We had a brief
stop in Auckland where J and N spent their entire 2 hours looking for
a record shop. I went to the museum.

Our ferry was at night and we did another night drive to arrive in Napier
the next morning. Napier was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake
in 1931. It was rebuilt in Art Deco style making it the most unique
example of this type of Architecture anywhere in the world. N and I did a
guided walk and are now art deco know it alls as J will testify.

From Napier it was back to Auckland for one last hurrah. J took us to
The world famous skytower casino. J took approximately 33 seconds to lose
All of $20 dollars worth of his chips. We left. J never quite recovered
From his dismal performance on the roulette table and returned to the hotel room
to listen to his newly acquired Afghan Whigs tape.

N and I, together again, decided to go clubbing it was Charlie’s
Angels night at the Box I put on my flairs and N got out his cat suit and we
soon made lots of friends on the dance floor. Unfortunately we didnt win
the fancy dress competition but we did have a great time dancing to 99 red
balloons.

When I woke up the next morning the lads were gone a message next to my
bed said see you in London whenever.

And there you have it most of it is true. There are a few other points
Of note that I would like to make. I grew a beard in NZ I have photos,
including a rare one of me with a moustache, which I will send to anyone
for a small fee. Be very wary of N offering to show you his photos he got
a little bit carried away with his new camera and took 25 films (this is no
joke). And as for J, well keep a look out for his new Aladdin shoes
it is panto season after all I suppose.

Picton's a dump.

Make sure your shit doesn't get stolen on the ferry.

When I was a kid my family spent a month in NZ in a camper van driving around. We only saw the North Island, but we saw every bit of it. The Coromandel Peninsula was by far the best, with the far north of the island a close second. Lake Taupo was also entertaining. I was 13 when we went so I can't really give much advice that's currently relevant, other than you're going to love it!

Its a shame that you won’t be around for an All Blacks match.

what you have seems fine, although i dont think taupo or queenstown are that exciting. you might want to read up on the hawkes bay and see if that is your thing. weather is usually great, heaps of wineries and napier is real cool if you like art deco. it's a 90 minute to 2 hour drive east of taupo, and then you can go to wellington from there.

soon-to-be-missus!! honeymoon!!!

Yeah, Taupo and Queenstown are fine if you want to go real fast or jump off stuff, but otherwise, meh.

Milford Sound is also beautiful, but we were advised, because we wanted quiet, to go to Doubtful Sound instead, which was ridiculously beautiful, but the tour makes you stop at an underground power station first, which is not fun if you don't like underground things.

You should definitely try to stop in Kaikoura for a night. The scenery there is absolutely beautiful, and they have the most amazing doplhins you've ever seen.

We generally stayed out of all the cities and big towns except for Christchurch, which I loved and which has a couple of nice bars and some fantastic second hand bookshops, and Wellington, which has a great museum and a couple of good restaurants.

Soon-to-be-missus? Honey moon? WTF! You're getting TIED DOWN, mofo! Congratulations! :-) I am mega proud! <3 Oh yeah, did you tell her about your wacky Michael Mann dislike? ;-)))))

Already been mentioned - twice - but the tramp across the Tongariro national park - the 'Tongariro Crossing', they call it - was definitely the highlight of the north island for us: scrabbling up through scree, full-on sulphuric winds at the top, descending through blissful minty lakes... plus Mordor of course, if you're into all that shite.

*** SPOILERS: A few more photos to whet your whistle:

http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/8571/img3969dm5.jpg http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/3816/img3998vv7.jpg http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/5641/img4002rn6.jpg

Wow.

napier is real cool if you like art deco.

It is! A lovely little place. I highly recommend going if you can, and also getting on a walking tour. One of the "Friends of Napier Society" (or something like that) took us around and showed such love for and knowledge her town's heritage. It's sad that the town can only offer very limited protection to its art deco wonders, but economic demands mean they can't be too precious about it.

HI!!!! i'm in wellington, if you're stopping there, please to be coming to my restaurant for dinner - nicolini's (italian, cheap-ish): 126 courtney place, central city wellington, 802 4442; phone up and ask for me (justine) and i will get you good table, or ask for me when you come in - i will buy you a bottle of wine for your wedding present :)

i've lived here all my life but i know FUCK-ALL about my own country. except: everyone's right - stay out of the cities. NZ IS a landscape-focussed tourist destination.

our national museum ("Te Papa", in wellington) is shit. don't waste your time visiting. except if the big NZ art retrospective is still being exhibited (it's free).

If you want the real New Zealand experience, have sex with sheep.

Please note that I was actually one paid to help send Americans over on their vacations to Australia and New Zealand.

Oh, alright. I'll be more help on the next thread but here goes...

Driving is the best way to get around - and it's not tooooo bad in NZ.

I'd skip most of the North Island - Auckland is nice for an afternoon and even through it is the tourist trap of all tourist traps, I do recommend a day in Rotoura just for the Maori culture.

Then get yo ass to the South Island.

Milford Sound is great but getting there is an almighty pain the arse. You pretty much waste a day (unless you can afford to fly there from Queenstown) and it is becoming very touristy, but I still rank it very highly.

The only city really worth checking out is Christchurch, which is *very* pretty.

BTW, are you going through an agency or an operator or doing it all yourself?

I really don't buy this "skip the North Island" talk.

Well, if they have the time, I would suggest Bay of Islands...but nobody ever has the time!

Oh, it is lovely there though. We stayed in Paihia and took a sailing trip around the bay and went to Russell for ice cream. It was great.

I'd recommend that place outside Rotorua that I can't remember the name, where all the great sulphur pools and things are. It's like a bit of the Earth that's not finished yet.

Whakarewarewa?

The North Island also has the Tongariro National Park, which was like my favourite place of all!

Top choice. Having spent 2 weeks there at the start of the year, some recommendeds:

- Visit Waiheke island from Auckland and hire motor-assisted cycles and visit wineries.

- Get the train to Christchurch from Picton - brilliant stuff on a rickety old train.

- Hire Spaceship (converted people carrier) and drive all over

- Go past Lake Pukaki; I can't believe this isn't in guidebooks as it's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. The water is unnaturally blue, Mt Cook is in the distance and it's just jawdroppingly beautiful.

- Visit a glacier (we went to Fox)

- The road to Milford Sound seems better than the sound itself - I know what Alba means. However, it is lovely, and if the mist is in, see if it reminds you of the island in King Kong. Utterly untouched by humanity and you could think you're the only person for thousands of miles. The tunnel in the rock on the way to Milford is a thing to behold - over a km long, carved by hand, as the risk of avalanches meant they could dynamite.

- Queenstown is good - I recommend fly-by-wire as your stupid NZ activity (that and zorbing)

- Bungee at Taupo - less queues and less people than Queenstown but still fantastic.

Yeah, the road to Milford Sound is fucking amazing.

I do recommend a day in Rotoura just for the Maori culture

Yeah, we went to a Maori cultural event, kind of interesting, not too cheesy and the food was fucking fantastic (what's it called when they cook the food underground in a pit oven?). Recommended for an evening if you're in Rotorua, it's not like there's much else to do there of an evening.

"soon-to-be-missus!! honeymoon!!!"

YES MARRIED! SOME DEGREE OF RESPECTABILITY! CRAZY!

Napier sounds great (ART DECO AND WINE!) If we don't want to do a second day in Taupo we might head in that direction (although it seems kind of like it might be a choice between that Tongariro Park.)

I'd really like to do the Bay of Islands, but I don't think it's in the cards for two weeks.

And Lake Pukaki was also recommended. I think it's on the way from the glaciers to Queenstown, no? We'll definitely stop by if we get the chance.

How do you get to Doubtful Sound? There doesn't seem to be a main road. Is it worth doing the helicopter ride at Milford?

Also tell me more about bookshops in Christchurch? And record shops in Auckland? When I'm not looking at the wonders of nature I want to search for old paperbacks and cheap Flying Nun CDs haha.

How do you get to Doubtful Sound? There doesn't seem to be a main road. Is it worth doing the helicopter ride at Milford?

When we went we stayed the night in Te Anau (which has cutesy caves with glow worms in 'em) and took a bus tour to Doubtful Sound next day. Te Anau is wee and quiet, and I liked it a lot better than Queenstown (although the scenery is not as staggeringly amazing as the Remarkables).

Whangerei on the North Island has some good second-hand bookshops too.

Christchurch is only small as cities go. You'll have no trouble finding the bookshops and so on.

Hi Alex, congratulations on the upcoming wedding. I reckon Taupo will underwhelm unless youre a trout fisherman while the Tongariro Crossing lives up to its billing as the best short walk in the world, wonderful.

IF I WAS YOU Id spend an extra day in central Auckland on foot... Start at red light district on K road which is about as gritty as nz gets with quite a few cafes/book/record stores down to top Queen street. Real Groovy records at top of Queen St would be my next stop. Auckalnd art gallery is close by memory as well. AT the bottom of Queen St check out the Viaduct basin area developed for the Americas Cup before getting a short ferry trip to Devonport to spend an hour or so. Devonport reeks of restrained wealth, pohutakawa lined seaside bunglaows and classy restaurants, its really very quaint + cool, quite out of character with the rest of Auckland, it also has a couple of good second hand bookstores in the main street. Take a walk up Mt Victoria at the top of main street for harbour/city views. From there get a ferry to Waiheke Island, Ive never been but friends rave about it as day trip- it used to be a hippy getaway and you can hire a scooter and visit all the winneries/arts/crafts.

Give us an email at isherwoc.ac.nz if you want to meet up or stay when youre in Christchurch. Courtenay