HALP

[nigeltde]

Dear New Zealanders/People who have been to New Zealand/People who have heard of New Zealand/People to like to give unfounded advice,

Bumface and I are heading over in April and I am trying to figure out how long we should stay, with fifteen days being about the max, which would depend on our itinerary. We will probably be renting one of those Wicked vans (I am a shy and retiring figure but they are cheap cheap cheap). Thing is I don't really have a sense of the unmissable spots. Everything I look at seems to be about EXTREEEEEEEME SNOW DIVING or FREE-FORM JAZZ BUNGEE and FOUR-WHEEL-DRIVE UPSIDE DOWN FLIGHTS and that's not really our thing. Plus we don't have scads of money for all the harbour cruises and helicopter rides and all that business. We just like to look at nice scenery and go for little walks and see nice things in nice cities and have fun.

We're landing in Auckland.I'm thinking of doing this driving route but modifying it to get to Dunedin and taking different route back to Auckland, maybe hitting the east west coast of the North Island. Two things I really want to do are go on a horse ride and visit a couple of LOTR sets. And I do like the look of those glow-worm caves.

So what's unmissable? How long do we need in Auckland/Christchurch/Wellington/etc? HALP.

Comments

[jessikast]

Hi! *I* am unmissable! I am in Auckland and I want to meet you in person!

I have travelled around a LOT of NZ, and I have to say, some of the extreme stuff is fun and worth doing, but it can also be very tourist-y and overpriced. I did a mini-road trip with maudlinrose at new years (taking the route down that you seem to be looking at), and we just drove and stopped at places that looked interesting, and we hardly needed to go off the road to see gorgeous scenery.

You can probably get away with just a couple of days in each city if you're just there for the sight-seeing, espeically if you have your own transport and aren't relying on buses to get around. If you want more info about cities and places to see, I live in Wellington for, like, 20-something years, and in Auckland for three years now, and I have visited Christchurch and lots of other places but not Dunedin and I haven't done the West Coast of the South Island, but I'm good with other places, mostly.

[nigeltde]

O yay! I was hoping you might say that! I would love to meet up. Auckland seems awesome, I heard the beach is nice and the Sky Tower thing and Mt Eden, and is there some square with market stalls called Aoeta or something? I would like to go to Dunedin too, apparently it has something called Cadbury World. Oooooooooh yeah.

I have questions if that's ok!

What will the weather be like mid April?
What extreme stuff did you like?
On your mini road trip, was it easy to find campsites or did you book ahead?

I'm starting to think that we might be able to be much more flexible with the whole thing -- map out a basic route and follow it at our leisure, especially as nothing seems too far away from anything else. Tiny country! I guess we have to sort out the things we *really* want to do and make sure we book/get there when it's open, etc. I've heard everything is really well signposted?

[jessikast]

April should be mild - turning into Autumn, but not horrid. If you're travelling through the volcanic plateau, or down south, it might be chilly, but it'll still be t-shirt and light-jersey weather in most places. (What dates will you be around?)

I have done jet-boating down by Queenstown, and the flying fox at Gravity Canyon. I haven't bunjy jumped, but you should probably do that. Black water rafting through some glow-worm caves is also really fun.

Zanne and I weren't staying in camp sites, but a few of the places were campgrounds/accommodation. We were booking ahead. As long as you aren't going right in the middle of school holidays, you should be okay, I think. (I've never tried doing the campsite thing, though.)

And, yeah, you should be able to be pretty flexible. You're probably never going to be more than a few hours drive from where you want to be - Auckland to Wellington in one day is about 10 hours, so...

[nigeltde]

I think it's gonna be April 15 - 25/26, right in the middle of the holidays (we're both students). Maybe we will have to at least plan where we're gonna be each night.

The flying fox and black-water rafting sound cooooooooool!

[lastrega.livejournal.com]

I can't say enough good things about Wellington. It's awesome and there's a lot of LoTR scenery to be seen. Also fabulous food and really nice people.

[nigeltde]

Awesome! I hope to spend at least a full day in Wellington. Wasn't Rivendell done in one of the local parks?

[lastrega.livejournal.com]

I think so, and there are a bunch of guides that show you all the locations. I know we went to one there where they filmed the 'hunt for mushrooms' bit in the first film. You could easily do a couple of days there. The museum is great too, if you're into museums.

And if it's still open (we were there in 2003), there was an awesome Cambodian restaurant there that I highly recommend.

[vestigial.livejournal.com]

I've been to Chirstchurch but that was aaages ago and all I can remember is that the tv in the hotel had free porn.

Alternatively google 'wikitravel New Zealand' and I'm sure they'll have some good tips on any unmissable spots.

[nigeltde]

Christchurch it is.

ooooh wikitravel! Never thought of it. Thanks!