Two Weeks in New Zealand

It’s time to reflect and ruminate on what we’ve done, both to help us remember this trip and to improve how we do other trips or even return.

Planning a visit to New Zealand is especially challenging as there is a lot to see which is spread over two islands. Some people in internet groups suggest using all of that time for one island or you will do too much driving which will exhaust you. However, examination of those same groups shows a diverse range of itineraries, each dependent upon the traveller(s). For instance, we chose to use hotels rather than a camper because we had so much we wanted to see. Also, I did all of the driving due to familiarity with driving on the left. We needed to travel in a way that was specific to our group: active parents in their 50s, a 20-year old and a 19-year old, each with their own preferences. As a mix of US and UK, especially having lived in the UK’s Lake District, we were more familiar with the environment than many would be.

When planning, we started by researching all the things you could do and identifying priorities. This was Samuel’s bucket list trip and his priorities were Bungy, SCUBA, Hobbiton, and general adventure. We all agreed! We wanted to do some hiking and other LOTR stuff. My sister had recently travelled here and gave the great ideas about Milford Sound, Hooker Valley, and the trains. So I started mapping these out and putting activities into days, and a couple of things become clear, after deciding to start in the South. The first was that the ferry is essential and it was getting full, so I booked that which defined the South North transition. Then, which places to skip. That list is long but it wasn’t too difficult once the priorities and constraints were clear.

For some, the driving might be an issue, but for us, the tiredness came from doing so much. This is a combination of the activities themselves and the mental effort of processing it all. This blog is great for remembering things (which is its primary purpose 😎) though is another tiring commitment. It was good to delegate where I could, and Bailey was great at deciding where we should eat. We chose not to cook because of time. We were very fortunate to find great affordable accommodation for the four of us at most places which really helped but it’s critical that everyone have their own space and bathroom preferences, though we all still had our moments! We had separate hotel rooms once which was nice but logistically more difficult in just talking about things, as well as being more expensive. I now realize that a bunk bed means the room is too small for us!

With aggressive timetables, it is good to buy everything direct from the provider, removing one chance of things going wrong. We booked almost everything 2-3 months ahead of time, and even then, some things were full. However, we were able to find some last minute activities, and it was important to include some that are not organized tours, giving us some freedom, flexibility, and saving money for arguably a better experience. The schedule also meant we wouldn’t have time to do laundry until the second week. As we were likely to have to check one bag anyway, we all checked a bag. Packing lighter is always preferred, but this worked in this occasion. Building spare time into travel is essential to reduce stress and miss things. We were fortunate in this trip that there weren’t any logistical mishaps or missed connections.

So what did we do? Here’s the summary. Everything was great unless stated otherwise.

Day 0-1 Houston to Queenstown: 29 hours of travel from Houston to LAX to Auckland to Queenstown. Eat at Fergburger. Take the gondola, kids did the luge, we regretted walked down. Stayed at Melbourne Lodge.

Day 2 Queenstown to Milford Sound: Breakfast at Copthorne (expensive, convenient), amazing 7-hour bus ride with RealNZ to Milford Sound. Miles Better Pies for lunch in Te Anau. Phenomenal overnight boat ride with RealNZ including tender trip and swim.

Day 3 Milford Sound to Queenstown: Finish boat ride, return bus ride and Miles Better Pies still great. Picked up Hertz J-class rental at airport. Ate at Bella Cucina. Grabbed some groceries. Stayed in too-basic/small room at Pinewood.

Day 4 Queenstown to Twizel: Breakfast at Coffee Club, Samuel Bungy jumped. Drove 2 hours to Twizel plus stops, lunch at Poppies Cafe, checked in at Mackenzie Distinction hotel, drove to and hiked Hooker Valley track in the rain, Indian dinner at Fishtail restaurant.

Day 5 Twizel to Christchurch: Christmas Day. Breakfast in hotel (expensive, convenient, limited options), church service at Church of the Good Shepherd in Lake Tekapo, continue driving to Christchurch on the scenic route stopping at Rakaia Gorge. 3-4 hrs driving. Return Hertz car. 2 rooms at Crowne Plaza and dinner in their crowded bar, but limited other options.

Day 6 Christchurch to Wellington: Train to Picton (scenic and convenient, slow and dated, comfortable and coffee/food was good). Ferry to Wellington (great views, smooth), pick up Hertz car, check into Capital View Motor Inn, sizzling steaks at Southern Cross Garden Bar. Grabbed some groceries.

Day 7 Wellington to New Plymouth: Breakfast in room, Weta Cave tour, LOTR sites on Mt Victoria and viewpoint, Porirua shopping mall for lunch (pitas and sushi) and Starbucks mugs, 4-hr drive lengthened to 5 by car wreck causing road closure. Dawson Falls then drive to New Plymouth, dinner at Cobb & Co and stay at Landmark Manor.

Day 8 Hiking the Pouaki Crossing: Grab and go breakfast and lunch (we grabbed insufficient), Ducks and Drakes shuttle for Pouakai Crossing hike, grueling hike, dinner at Burgerfuel.

Day 9 New Plymouth to Rotorua: 3-hr drive scenic road (though wet) to Waitomo after McDonalds breakfast, 45-min glow worm cave tour, lunch at The Thirsty Weta in Otorohanga, about 2 hr drive to Hobbiton, 2.5 hr tour, 1 hr drive to Rotorua Hideaway Lodge, fet groceries and Taco Bell for dinner. Tiring day with driving, experiences, and previous days.

Day 10 SCUBA Diving in the Bay of Plenty: 1-hr drive to Tauranga, SCUBA with Dive Zone in Bay of Plenty (2 dives), DIY breakfast and lunch, dinner with friend from uni in Tauranga.

Day 11 Kiwis, Redwoods, and 2024!: NY Eve. Lie-in. Enjoy animals at hotel, book kiwi tour, visit Chemist, Brunch at Urbano, walk around Redwoods, coffee at Coffee Club, kiwi hatchery tour, Chinese dinner from Yummy Takeaway, nighttime Redwood Treewalk to bring in NY.

Day 12 The Finale: Lie-in. Brunch at Bold Flavors, rabbit mini golf, Zorb (Samuel), bubble tea at Teariffic on Lake Rotorua, souvenir shopping, Gondola to Stratosphere buffet.

Day 13 Getting Home: Drive to airport, then flights from Auckland to San Francisco then Houston.

Most rooms had good real coffee and a French press. Also, real milk, but sometimes you had to ask for it. Also, a kitchenette in the room was common.

Most places have WIFI, and there are dead cellphone spots (especially Milford Sound, which also lacked any WIFI). I used international credits with my Mint Mobile which did not work very well. The others used Airalo which worked very well. I needed to phone a hotel once for a late checkin and I used Skype. Hotels texted/phoned my US number so a local number was not essential. This saves a lot of money compared to AT&T’s international day plan of $10/day, which I had to disable to avoid the charges. (The rest of my family is on AT&T). I was on airplane mode most of the time and enjoyed the disconnectivity 😎. Everywhere we stayed had good WiFi (except the Milford Sound boat) which allowed the kids to FaceTime their significant others which was important for them.

I got $200NZ out in cash from an ATM and had $90 left on the last day. I don’t think I really needed the cash, but it was good to have in case. In many places, there was a 1-3% surcharge for using a credit card, but as I get that many points back, I always used my card.

What would we do differently next time? We have no regrets about this schedule. First, I booked the return flights to Auckland first, as I was watching prices, before working out we’d start in the South. Once we had determined our itinerary, we needed the extra flight to Queenstown, and it would have been better to book that with the other flight.

Our hiking was not the most enjoyable but that was mostly weather. We did not bring our Merino Wool baselayers, which would have been welcomed. Hiking less touristy tracks would have been good, and we would seek tracks that are not primary wooden steps/walkways (as Pouaki Crossing was).

I’d probably share the driving, getting Janet to drive in good conditions.

I will use Airalo instead of international credits with Mint Mobile in future.

Finally, while Rotorua is advertised a lot, it felt like a crowded outdoor theme park, reminding me of Orlando. There is nothing essential there and it is smelly! It happened to suit our itinerary well for a relaxing final few days so I would not change. Also, their kiwi hatchery is special.

So what are our impressions of NZ?

It has great scenery. It’s like Britain except the scenery is more dramatic and extreme. It has different and less history.

It is a real melting pot of nationalities, and you might go a while between talking to people born and raised here. There are lots of different nationalities/ethnicities. Mostly Brits, Aussies, Indians, and Chinese, and this applies to both tourists and residents, and you cannot tell their status. Many people hold onto the accent of their birth, so a sixty-year-old who moved here in their late teens might still have an accent from their place of birth.

NZ is a real melting pot and I’d describe kiwis as warm, friendly, easy going, and welcoming. The place is different in that it feels less affected by the world as it is so far away, yet it has its own problems. As such, it is difficult to describe accurately, and one needs to read other people’s accounts, recommendations, and suggestions with care as its uniqueness means that everyone’s experiences will be different.

Until next time, you fine people and islands. May it be soon!

This page is part of our New Zealand trip set of posts