Damson

Following on from my previous (poorly titled) thread in which I had some lovely and interesting responses, I thought I'd do one a bit more specific.
Is there anywhere you wish you had known about before your reccie so that you could have programmed it in? By that I mean anywhere/thing interesting, exciting or beautiful. Basically, somewhere you have come away from and thought to yourself that you have had a really lovely time. Big ticket places are always good to hear about of course, but I'd like to hear about smaller stuff too.
We are coming end of July 2016 (so obviously mid-winter there) so water parks would be out!
I'm sure others will find your comments interesting too.
Cheers

Justcol

Whongamomona

Bridge to nowhere

Blue springs

Catchafire

Hi Damson

If you are heading down the South Island, then the east coast starting from Picton down to Kaikoura, then inland through to Queenstown will be spectacular (if the sun is out!).

If you are into wine then Marlborough is worth a day or two hanging out.

Sparkleydiva

Waiheke Island. Voted this week in top 5 places in theworld to visit in 2016 by Lonely Planet.

We go a few times each year, do one of the annual festival walks too. Lovely wineries - Goldie, Mudbrick, Miro etc...

Onetangi is beautiful and Oneroa is too but has a few shops

Wouldn't miss it!

snaps

Hamilton Gardens on the outskirts of Hamilton, this is the 'Jewel in the Crown', ensure you find the Italian Gardens on a hot sunny day, other times it is only wonderful.

Damson

Awesome, thanks so much guys for the lovely suggestions. I'm printing pages off then plotting them on a map to try and work some into our route.

bearskin

I rate the Waitomo Caves, which would be good in winter. If you do get a couple of sunny days, the area around Kuaotunu and Matarangi is excellent - has a few holiday homes to rent on bookabach.co.nz, which is also something I would recommend a quick trawl through - there are still some 'typical kiwi bach' types places to rent on there.

Pom_Chch

Are you sticking mainly to the North Island Damson?

Damson

I really love caves and a trip through one with glow worms there too is very appealing. Had a look at bookabach which I hadn't heard of and there's some great properties, some of which are quite reasonable. That's great thanks.

Damson

Not really sure at the mo tbh. We are there for just under a month which sounds a lot but there is of course quite a lot of land to cover. Realistically it makes sense to do North only as that's probably where we'll live, but "down south" does look lovely too. So far the only feedback from the kids is that we have to visit a Hobbit film location. We also don't rule out skiing which can of course be north or south.

Having said all of this as o/h is a structural engineer and may have opportunity to travel to South Island through work, it would be good to have a look Christchurch.

In short, NZ is our oyster. Now just logistics to think about� ����

We've booked with Korean Air as they looked pretty good and were far cheaper than the others - fingers crossed they are ok.

Woodlea

Don't bother with the North Island, just come to the Mainland, we have all the good stuff

Damson

Now, I may be wrong, but I reckon there are quite a few on here would dispute that!!!

Where do recommend going then woodlea?

scrubbedexpat094

So you'll need to be heading to Matamata (Hobbiton) then. Agree with Waitomo caves. Go for the first tour of the morning for the Glowworms. I love going to Rainbow Springs in Rotorua and the Kiwi house there.
Lots to do around Rotovegas - Wai-o-Tapu for geothermal stuff, take in one of the Maori hangi evenings. Polynesian spa for relaxation + lots more.

Around Lake Taupo is beautiful, plus just between Rotorua & Taupo is Huka Falls then you could head down to Tongariro and ski-ing at Mount Ruapehu.

In Auckland you could head to the Waitakere Ranges and the west coast beaches of Piha, Muriwai and Bethells. I usually take visitors up One Tree Hill in Cornwall Park to get great views over the Auckland region especially if they don't like going up tall man-made structures ie The Sky Tower!
From downtown Auckland you can get ferries over to Devonport, Waiheke, Rangitoto etc. My own favourite island trip is to Tiritiri Matangi Island, a wildlife/bird sanctuary. We go from Gulf Harbour though. Ferry comes from the city and does a pick-up here first.
Plenty of vineyards around Kumeu and Matakana in Auckland. Loads of regional parks too. We have Shakespear Regional Park 5 mins away but also love Wenderholm & Mahurangi too. You can hire Kayaks and paddle down the Puhoi river from Puhoi to Wenderholm. Great fun.

Plenty to do in the North Island. Happy to meet up for a tea/coffee/wine!

snaps

As in the above post, you should try Huka Falls, New Zealand too, it's free at present and no silly car parking charges.

AVOID Kerosene Creek no matter what the AA say, unless you intend to spoil the trip and make an insurance claim.

Damson

That looks absolutely beautiful.

The name alone would put me off kerosene creek.

Cheers