BootsnAll Travel Community

from today. Any advice is very much appreciated. June 20th-22nd, flying time, arrive in Auckland on 22nd. Doing the Magic Bus June 22nd-July 11th. http://www.magicbus.co.nz/main/productDetail/index.cfm?productID=94 (New Zealand Encounter) Auckland to Waitomo, Rotorua to Taupo, to Wellington) 9 days in total designated for this. Then Nelson, Greymouth, Franz Josef, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Dunedin, Tekapo, Christchurch. 10 days for South Island. Give or take 2 days in each place. Then on July 11th, we fly out of Christchurch to Sydney, and tour Sydney until the 13th, where we begin the Aussie Explorer http://ca.contiki.com/tours/31-aussie-explorer 25 days. After it ends, we finish in Darwin. From there we are thinking of flying back to Cairns and doing Port Douglas/ Cape Tribulation, then Cairns to Brisbane for 2 days and include the Australian Zoo, Brisbane to Hobart, then tour Tasmania for 6-7 days (Launceston,Cradle Mountain, Swansea, Hobart) , then Hobart to Melbourne, and tour Melbourne for 3 days, then back to Sydney, and hopefully have enough money for Fiji (Yasawa), then back to Sydney and home on the 25th of August. I know it's a lot to squeeze in for 2 months, but we want to do as much as possible, and have the trip of a lifetime. Any suggestions on this itinerary? I know it's jam packed, but we like to see as much as we can, in as little time as possible. Budget is 10 000 cdn dollars.

You'll be sweet with the time you have allocated - but dont stay in auckland go up north far nicer places to see - auckland isnt that spesh. Try to get to White island - a nice little volcanic island in the bay of islands - go easy with taupo and rotorua as they are very touristy and quite expensive. Go to Trinity Hill winery in Hawkes Bay - gorgeous wine. The Karori Bird Sanctuary in Wellington is cool and visit Kapiti island if you can. Franz Josef is fantastic - you will have a great time.

Slavetothetrafficlight,

my advice to you:

"See the city, see the zoo"

Ok, now on to the real advice:

I agree with the above and Auckland does not have much going on. It is cool to go up the Sky Tower and get a view of the city from above but it costs like 18 NZD just to go up so you mayb as well spend $30 and pay for a meal up there. Nightlife is good and there are loads of bars just off Queen Street and the Viaducts area.

If you do go north, there is not much in Whangarei besides Whangarei falls. The Bay Islands are very beautiful and have nice beaches. On the Coromandel peninsula there is a cool day or 2-day trek called the Pinnacles track but you might not have time for that. Also, hot water beach is a beach where you can dig holes and you get these hot water pools which are quite nice.

Supposedly the Waitomo caves are pretty cool but I have never been. I spent 5 months in Hamilton and never managed to make it there. If you are in the area and are into surfing, you should instead head to Raglan. It is this cool little surfing town that has great restaurants and shops and often gets good music playing there.

I have only driven through Rotorua so I cannot tell you much about it other than that it is very touristy. And everyone there does the exact same things: go to the mud pools and see a traditional Maori show. I have mixed feelings about the way these shows are put on but I'll keep that to myself.

Taupo is a nice place but I didn't find there was much to do there besides sky diving and bungy jumping...2 things which I never intend to do! Some good restaurants too though.

If you can make it to Napier / Hawke's Bay, the wineries are great. I went on Vince's wine tour and basically you pay $50 to have a van drive you between 4-5 wineries. And they are VERY generous with their wines! We went to Trinity Hill (as mentioned above), Moana Park, Mission Estate, and Church Road. You can book the tours in the iCentre on Marine Pde. Napier is an art deco city and if you are into architecture, you might find it cool to walk around. There is also the National Aquarium which was pretty cool to see a live kiwi bird.

Wellington is a nice city. I did not spend much time there but there are the typical big city things to do (shopping, restaurants, museums) and they have a good music scene.

Now onto the south island:

I loved Nelson! It was so fun to go out there at night. You are also close to Abel Tasman which has awesome trekking and kayaking. You can rent kayaks for like $50 for a half day and it is well worth it.

Greymouth is home to Monteith's Brewery - which has really good beer. A tour of the facility costed about $10 and when we were finished with the tour we went into the tasting room where we sampled all 5 or 6 beers and then the guide told us we had 15 minutes and we could drink whatever and as much as we wanted. We literally stood up at the taps like pour, drink, refill, repeat. Maybe they do not always do that but it was great they did it then! Just north of Greymouth are the Pancake rocks. I'd suggest going there to walk around for a bit...probably before you do the brewery tour!

Franz Josef and Fox Glacier were neat to see/walk around. There is also this lake nearby called Lake Matheson where you can do a short trek around and get an awesome view of Mount Cook (Aoraki) reflecting in the lake.

Queenstown: lots of adventure activities, again not my thing. Beautiful area though! If you stay there overnight, go to Winnie's for pizza! It was delicious and then later if the weather is nice they open the roof up and it becomes a dancefloor/bar. Lake Wanaka was nice too - somewhere nearby.

Milford Sound: phenomenal! I imagine you will be taking a boat out and it is definately worth it! You will have amazing scenery and maybe even see some dolphins. The drive between Te Anua and Milford Sound is spectacular too...lots of great photo ops.

If you have any time in Christchurch and can get about 30 minutes away towards Arthur's Pass there is this awesome little cave called the Broken River Cave. I couldn't tell you directions but someone might know where it is. You will get wet (and cold) and definatley want a torch or head lamp. You might not be there in a good time of year to do that though??

Well, hope some of that gives you good suggestions! You really cannot go wrong with [most] cities in NZ! Also, depending on how you are getting around on the south island, you will see loads of random places to stop along the way... Harwood's Hole (massive hole in the ground which was actually quite amusing), Knight's Point, Whakaraiki Beach just to name a few. Oh and you can camp just about anywhere in a car or tent!

Good luck and I am so so so jealous! It is one of my favorite places!!

A girl that likes phish, and traveling. I am in heaven!!
Thank you both for your advice, I will definitely look into going further north than auckland. Mt. Tarawera and White Island both look fascinating to take tours on though these helicopter tours are expensive and I think that is the only way to get to tour them. I cannot wait for this trip to start. It is less than a month away

Hi , you say you arrive in Auckland so presumably you will start your Magic travel afterthat date. I travelled with Magic last year and they are really good. Here is a suggested itinerary:

Day 1. Auckland
Day 2. Auckland
Day 3. Rotorua
Day 4. Rotorua
Day 5. Taupo
Day 6. Wellington
Day 7. Wellington
Day 8. Nelson (ferry to Picton then bus)
Day 9. Nelson
Day 10. Greymouth
Day 11. Franz Josef
Day 12. Franz Josesf
Day 13. Queenstown
Day 14. Queenstown
Day 15. Queenstown
Day 16. Dunedin
Day 17. Lake Tekapo
Day 18. Christchurch
Day 19. Christchurch
Day 20. Christchurch.

A few tips:
Don't buy souvenirs at Rotorua they're overpriced. Can recommend the Tamaki Maori Village Hungi and concert - it's very good.
When you're at Wsai-O-Tapu, the shop there sells natural greenstone pendants from NZ$11 - $17. It is natural which means it is uncut, and unpolished. Greenstone develops a sheen from wearing it anyway. And according to Maori legend it is considered bad luck to buy greenstone for yourself - you should only buy it for others. That's the legend.

Magic stop at Hokitika - to to the wool shop, they have the cheapes prices for possum fur products. If you're not gooing to do a heli-hike or glacier climb, you can do one yourself, book the shuttle bus from the town (sorry forget the name of the shop) costs around NZ$10 return. Shuttle tadkes you to the start of a very nice walk. We did it and although you don't actually "climb" on the ice, we g ot pretty close and picked up chunks of ice (for photos).

Recommend a day trip to Milford Sound. There's plenty to choose from but the Milford Sound BBQ Bus is quite a good one - you have a BBQ for lunch on the way. It's a full day trip so best do it the day after you arrive.

Given it will be winter one night in Dunedin will be enough. Take a walk to the dunedin Railway station - it is one of the most photographed buildings in the world and it reall is a work of art.

Because of your time frame you don't really have time to go to Aoraki/Mt. Cook, unless you stay two nights in Tekapo. BTW, the driver organisesd a BBQ/party at Tekapo which was great fun.

Here's the Christchurch tourism link. I'd recommend a day trip to Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula. I caught the Akaroa Shuttle Get the direct shuttle service costs only NZ$25. The drivers were really good - I had a bad fall in Queenstown and was on crutches and the drivers couldn't have been more helpful. There is another company which offer a shuttle but I would advise against them.

Have a great trip. Kia Ora.

whistler you rock, thank you so much. I will be following your advice very closely. Thanks for taking your time to help me, it is most appreciated.

Two suggestions that haven't been made yet-

1) I don't know how Magic Bus' schedule works on the North Island, but try and make an effort to do the blackwater rafting at Waitomo Caves if at all possible. Basically you navigate through the water system of the caves on an inner tube, and it's just great!

2) There is an optional stop on the Magic Bus between Franz Joseph and Queenstown in the small town of Wanaka, and if you have a night to spare I'd highly suggest looking into it. Cozy and gorgeous spot and not half as touristy as Q-Town.

I purposely haven't included Wanaka in the suggested itinerary simply because of the number of days the OP has. Wanaka, pretty thought it is, is no match for Milford Sound or the Banks Peninsula and what Chch has to offer. If she were to cut out a day, I'd suggest a two night stay at Tekapo so she could take a day trip to Aoraki/Mt.Cook.

And three days will be required for Queenstown to do Milford Sound - you need a day of non-travel after.

Magic stop at Waitomo and spends enough time there for the underground boat to the glow-wroms or cave tubing, or a cave rafting trip down to the underground river.