Damson

We are looking at a 3-4 week tour next (end) July. Can anyone give recommendation on how to plan such a trip (perhaps a DVD or website). If we do move we will be based around Auckland for work so it makes sense to start there. Primarily it's a reccie but it's a holiday too. If you did such a trip is there something/somewhere you are glad you did/didn't do? We did think of hiring a motor home but don't fancy being jetlagged and cooped up with our bickering 15 year old and her 11 year old brother! We'd therefore be hiring a car and using motel/apartment-type accommodation. Many thanks.

escapedtonz

July isn't the best time to visit NZ. Being in the opposing hemisphere to the UK it'll be winter here so can be cold wet windy often. If you ask a person who lives in Auckland they'd tell you that winter 2015 has been the coldest, wettest and worst winter for many many years!
Surely better than a winter in the uk of course but you won't be seeing the country at its best. For that you need to be here between late Spring and end of Autumn.
July great if you fancy taking in the ski resorts. There's a few in the North Island. Driving could be problematic at times depending on the weather.
If you are thinking of visiting the South Island you will experience cold and more than likely snow from around Christchurch / Canterbury and all the way down south. Queenstown is the place to go for extreme sports and excellent skiing / boarding.
Shouldn't be any issues with staying in motels at that time of year but they aren't cheap. Probably minimum $100 - $150 per night and it'll all add up over 4 weeks. Camper van would be the cheaper option and at that time of year they should be around half the normal price during summer so a bargain really. There are many free camp spots but I'd assume you'd be better off with an electric hook up so you can use the heater and have hot water etc and other facilities so a camp site would be better in that respect but expect to pay between $30 and $50 per night. There's a great App called Campermate tells you where all the camp sites are with contact details and an indication of price plus all the other essentials like dump sites and medical facilities.

Just ask yourself what you want to do when on holiday here as well as a recce trip - if it's having a few days lying on a beach you're going to be disappointed.

Catchafire

July is the middle of winter. So unless skiing is your thing, it's gonna be tough keeping the kids happy.

Airbnb is a great alternative to motels.

Damson

Hi, thanks for your feedback. We are stuck with the (our) school summer holiday as we would like to come for at least 3 weeks, so it's that or nothing; 2 weeks at Christmas won't cut it and as you may know, schools go berserk if you try to take your kids out during term time. To be honest, as half of the year has poor weather there and here we thought it best to see it in its naked glory anyway. After all, we are looking at it with the viewpoint of living there and the weather wouldn't be sunny all year so let's look at it through more realistic eyes. When we considered moving to Oz, we saw Melbourne in summer and winter and they were totally different so wanted to see it at its "worst" if you like. We aren't really a "beachy" family; more into exploring. We'd also like to bring our salopettes and do some skiing, so that would work well. We're used to amusing ourselves in poor weather so that won't be a problem once the jet lag has worn off!

Hazelnut

We visited in early autumn for our reccie and that was partly so we could see the weather turn. We spent most of the time marvelling over how bakingly hot it was

I found a few things I definitely wanted to do, for us it was visiting friends in two towns, Cathedral Cove, various heritage railway stuff, whale watching, Hobbiton, a flight over the southern alps and Milford Sound, Rotarua and a couple of astronomy sites. We then looked at what towns we'd be likely to get work which, at the time, was Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington. We ended up visiting Tauranga a bit by chance but it's an up and coming area for employment I think so may be worth more of a look now. Those already over there will know far more than me.

A large map of NZ was stuck on the wall with pins in it and I had a piece of lining wallpaper that was around 3ft long. I divided the lining paper into a grid for each week so seven lines long and had three columns (morning, afternoon and evening).

Sticky notes with the towns we wanted to be in and the sites we wanted to see then did a merry dance round and round and round until it all fitted. I culled quite a lot and built in slippage time too. When everything ran to plan we ended up doig some really fun things during slippage time like Puzzling World in Wanaka, a wildlife reserve in the Waikato and some lovely long walks round Christchurch>

We stayed in motels and spent around $55to $75 a night with the odd lash out on luxury ones at $120 plus. This basically got us a small bedsit for the night, often with full breakfast cheaply available too but we could cook an eveing meal ourselves which was a lot cheaper than eating out also gave us an experience of cooking and eating 'at home' and then watching the, somewhat quirky, NZ TV. Google maps is great for calculating car driving distances between places, I added around 20% extra to wahtever it said to allow for unfamiliarity with the roads and driving styles but we really didn't need it.

One thing we did for each town we thought we might work in was drive into the city during rush hour and then out again in evening rush hour. We also walked round the places where we might work to see what the lunchtime opportunities were in the way of food and exercise. We wanted to see how bad the traffic was and what the roads were like. We were pleasantly surprised but we were lucky and didn't encounter any accidents or major roadworks on any of the commuter highways. We also got up most mornings at our usual workday time of 6am and did morning routine as if we were going to work.

You can never simulate what it's going to be like but we did try not to have too rosy a viewpoint. Depsite trying *very* hard to see the negative in things to counteract the holiday feeling we still said we wanted to move over. Things are plodding along for us in a slogging fashion but even a raindrop can wear away granite if it strikes it often enough

We also visited some potential employers and spoke to them about work T&Cs and job prospects. It was interesting to see the different employment practices, there's obviously less of the more employee friendly EU Directives out there, it's more employer biased still. One of the things we discovered is that my career prospects in my current area are virtuall nil, even if I stepped into an equivalent post (need a miracle) I'd still be earning less than half what I earn in the UK. This has prompted one of the delays for us in that I'm retraining for a new career before we move over and the qualifications take 2-3 years to gain.

Meeting up with some forum members was good and people were exceptionally generous with their time. We spoke to people who wanted to come back to the UK as well as those who knew the were going to stay forever. Those who want to come back to the UK were brave and open in talking about their reasons for wanting to return so we could evaluate whether we felt those reasons might apply to us if we moved over. This has allowed us to prepare for something we know is going to be hard which is leaving our parents behind. They are all fully on board with us moving and keep asking why we haven't gone yet (in a supportive and jokey way ) but it is likely that, if we make it over, we won't see them alive again face to face. It's worth rehearsing driving away frm visiting people in the UK and imaging you will never see them again, could you cope with the resulting emotions and heartache that will create?

jmh

My brother, his wife and 2 kids came over in August (due to UK school hols) and they had a great time. Spent most of the time in Auckland. Sure weather is cold, even getting down to a shocking 5 deg C on a couple of nights. Lots of rain, but lots of sunshine as well.

I think it's a good time because you won't be getting holiday fever like you would in January. You'll be seeing the country at its worst, with perhaps the exception of the skiing areas.

I personally didn't think that this winter in Auckland was any worse than usual, but then I have a well-built house to live in which might make a difference.

Damson

Yep, think we'll hit the slopes for a bit which will be awesome. Great tip about Airbnb as I'd never heard of it. Cheers.

bearskin

Hazelnut's post is spot on. A great blueprint.

We had family visitors in July this year and they had a good time. The Auckland weather in winter isn't too bad - usually just wet and possibly stormy.

Damson

Thank you so much for your detailed response Hazelnut; much appreciated. I'm sat in a pub reading it and making notes. Sounds like you work with the same sort of military precision my husband does which is fab. Unfortunately as I have more time it's usually me who organises travel and I'm not like him, so any advice is great!

Just looked up Puzzling World which looks good and just the sort of thing we enjoy. We had a cracking day out in Ripleys, London in the summer (especially the knitted Porche!).

Battery about to die on my phone where I've taken so long to type.

JaneRiley

I love Owlcatraz in Shannon! If you take the full tour you will see things you have never imagined!! Google it.

Damson

Yay, my phone is back up again!

Owlcatraz looks great. Owls, caves and prison and flightless birds - what's not to love!

I'm loving these suggestions folks.

Damson

Following on from my other thread and spurred on by the lovely replies, I thought I'd start this (far better titled) one which would be useful to us and hopefully to others making the same trip.
I'm looking for suggestions please of places you have visited on your reccie/since you've moved there that you have enjoyed. Maybe somewhere you wished you'd found out before the reccie that you could have scheduled in. They don't have to be big dramatic things (although this would be worth hearing about too), but things that you have walked away from and thought how much you had enjoyed them.
If this has already been done, can someone give me a nudge as to where it is please and I'll have a look. Many thanks.