Pastor Flaps

Hi everyone

Well the flights are booked and we are now planning our route around NZ on our Fact / Job / Holiday tour.
We are 2 adults, our daughter who is 6 in Oct, and our Son who will be 2 in Oct.
We have put together a rough plan which we would appreaciate any feedback on whether it be on our timings, places we are going, weather and possible areas we have missed on the way.

We arrive on in Auckland on Thu 14th and will spend 9 days in a motel meeting friends and going for interviews. We may have some time to go north to the bay of islands.
Then we pick up the motorhome and do the following

Day1. Leave Auckland for Coromandel
Day2. Leave Coromandel to Tauranga
Day3. Leave Tauranga and head for Rotorua, then onto Taupo
Day4. Leave Taupo early for Welington (Is this too much in one day)
Day5. Wellington all day
Day6. Catch early ferry then head to Kaikoura. (Want to go Whale watching but maynot be able to take Son on the boat)
Day7. Morning at Kaikoura whale watching then head to Christchurch.
Day8. Christchurch all day
Day9. Set off early north for Hanmer Springs. Then follow Lewis Pass up to Nelson. (again is this too much for one day)
Day10. Nelson all day, tour Abel Tasman NP.
Day11. Early start to Picton for the ferry. Arrive Wellington, then head north. We need a stop over before we get to Hamilton. Suggestions please.
Day12. Early start to Waitomo caves then to Hamilton
Day13. Leave Hamilton to Auckland for our last night in NZ.
Day 14. Flight to UK via KL.

Please do make any suggestions on places to stay e.g. Motels, Campsites, roads to take, some good stops for the kids, Dolphin swimming. We know it will be winter time and may be to cold to stay in the Motor home, so challets or Motels may be better.
Also are we trying to do too much. We both drive, so dont mind sharing the bigger journeys.

We would be interested to hear from those who have done the same and have just got back.
Hopefully this thread will help others doing the same thing.

Thanks

Paul

speckles

Sounds nice if you want to spend 14 days driving!! eg. you won`t see a fraction of the Coromandel by arriving on Day 1 and leaving on Day 2, - all you`ll see is lots of nice passing scenery.

Will your children really want to spend 14 days sitting in the back of a motorhome? You`d be much better picking an area to look around instead of trying to "do" the whole of NZ in 2 weeks.

Regards,
Doug

TIZUS

Hi Paul,

You seem to be cramming loads in ! All i had to do was plan a route form Christchurch to Nelson and still can't make up my mind!! Feel free to contact us when your in Nelson.

Good Luck

Tori

Teresa

Hi

bet you can't wait...

Have travelled with and without two yr old to nz and oz and will say with children, give yourselves some breaks on way round. maybe drop a couple of places and stay an extra night or two at one destination, esp Roturua, Nelson .......Bay of Islands...

I travelled all over NZ for several months but did the hop on/off bus so didn't drive, can recommend a few things though. Roturua has great natural spas for relaxing, Maori evening is a must and thermal mud parks are great too, think the children would love it there, it offers plenty for them.

Nelson, fab place, v friendly people, you need more than a day there and esp if meeting up with people from this site.

Children will love Waitomo caves, really wonderful trip on boat through them. Dolphin Swimming was freezing in Nov so prob wouldn't suggest it now, felt like I couldn't breathe but amazing experience .........maybe one for when you move

Te Papa is well known museum in Wellington, great place and accomodates children too.

Take seasickness tabs as crossing from North to South can be fairly rough and also try jetease tablets for flight (used them and adapted really well), you can get them from garden pharmacy at www.jetease.com/ukretail.html.en

We took Oliver to Oz this year and suggest that you stay in some hotels with babysitters so you can sample some evenings to yourselves. Also good idea to put your car seat in hold of plane as it is v useful to have when doing alot of travelling, saves money and hassle of trying to get hold of one.

Just go with your plan and you will start having a feel for how the trip is going and change it on the way round if need be! Good thing is if you miss anywhere (you've got the south of south island which is amazing too) you can visit once you move to NZ.

Hope you can make sense of all this, will think of loads more that I've forgotten later but sure you've read loads of guide books now and searched the net...

Have a great time, you will find it v hard to leave, I did....

Teresa

smithone

This site will help you calculate driving distances so you can see whow long it takes to get around.

http://www.aatourism.co.nz/locations.html

Unless you are planning on living in Christchurch, Tauranga and Wellington then I would question why they are on your itinerary.

You are missing out on what I believe is the most stunning parts of NZ (Milford Sound, Queenstown, Mount Cook) but I guess you only have 2 weeks.

Waitomo caves is good if you are going to do one of the caving trips (can't do this with kids) but otherwise you'll be doing one of the boring trips looking at the glow worms. With the time you have I don't see Waitomo or Hamilton as highlights but I'm looking at this from a holiday point of view. Your reasons for going there may be to check them out as as possible places to live.

Abel Tasmam is beautiful but I can't see how you can spend the day in Nelson and also explore AT National Park.

The whale trips are weather dependant so you may or may not be lucky. You can do whale/dolpin trips from Auckland. They guarantee dolphins or your money back but whales are seasonal.

You are packing a lot in for 2 weeks. Do you need to spend 9 days in Auckland up front. Can't you arrange interviews in advance and say spend 2/3 days doing interviews etc to give you more time to holiday.

Your itenarary looks like a Japanese tour schedule. Drive, take a few pictures, drive on, more pictures. You're not allowing much time to actually see places.

In my opinion less is more. Spend a few days in a couple of places to allow the kids time out of the car.

Good luck

Kiwipaul

Your trying to do far too much. 2 weeks is not long enough to look around one Island let alone try and do both. You'll spend all your time traveling rather than relaxing and enjoying the scenery.

Their is more than enough to see in either North Island (my preference as it's mid winter) or South Island, forget the motor Home, just get a normal vechile and stay in Motels or hotels. It's the low season except for the ski resorts and so good deals will abound.

If you do want to do South Island Fly to Christchurch and hire from their, do a one way rental or when finished fly back to Auckland.

Flyboy

Paul,

My advice is that you will not see anything apart from road on that trip!! I would try and concentrate on maybe just North Island or if you want to see some of the South, fly down there but don't try to do all that driving as you will not have a chance to see anything and enjoy the place. Also don't forget it takes a lot longer to drive here between places than in the UK as although the speed limits are 100k and the roads are good (in the dry and daylight only!) there are limited places to overtake and if you get stuck behind slow traffic (like a logging truck) you will just have to wait - especially in a camper van!! Allow an average speed of 60-80ks and you should be all right.

As far as the camper van goes, I have never used one as motels are cheap and easily available and the car is better for sightseeing - try parking a camper van in Wellington or Auckland!! There is lots to see around Auckland and if you have time try and see more of the Coromandel and also Northland - it takes about 3 1/2 hours to drive to Waitangi from Auckland so that can be done in a day trip.

Have a great trip though and whatever you see, it will never be enough!!!

Pastor Flaps

Well you havent let me donw with your replies. The advice is great and confirms my original thoughts that we are trying to do too much.
I am really questioning the motorhome idea now. A car will probably be better.
Please do keep the ideas and recommendations coming.
This is the last three weeks of my job before I am made redundent, so you can guess what I am spending all of my time doing.

Thanks

Paul

cinderella

Paul,

I think you are going to be knackered if you do all that driving. How about flying from the N.Island to the S.Island. Would save you a load of time. You can get cheap internal flights booked from here.

You have missed out Queenstown. That is not to be missed and the kids will love it.

smithone

Paul

The other thing that you should think about when planning your trip is where you plan to live. If you plan to live in Auckland then I would spend the majority of your holiday in the South Island as when you start work its pricey and time consuming to explore the South Island. Places like the Coromandel, Taupo, Roturua, Waitomo can all be explored at weekends. However a trip to Queenstown is a major expedition.

Likewise if you plan to live permanently in the South Island then I would explore the North Island.

Just a thought