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My wife and I were married in June, and after much waffling on my part we are going to New Zealand for our honeymoon. We chose New Zealand because it's on my bucket list and my wife just wants to go places. I fell in love with NZ as a small child after seeing color photographs of the south island. We're leaving the US east coast on Feb 7th and we'll be in NZ from the 9th through the 16th. We are both more interested in seeing beautiful sights or doing cool things rather than fine dining and fancy hotels. We do plan to have one or two nice meals while we are there, but we figured we'd do that in Auckland on the night before we fly out. Our current plan is to fly into Auckland, eat lunch and check the city out a bit then hop a flight to Christchurch and stay the night. From here on is kinda up in the air and where I am hoping to find some NZ goons to give me some hints. We definitely plan to rent a car. I would much rather do a private or self guided tour with just my wife and I somewhere. I don't really want to be on a tour bus or in a group. We were thinking about driving into the mountains and checking out Lake Colridge one day and then maybe going out to see the giant weird circular peninsula thing to the east of CC. But that's just what we came up with after a few hours googling. If you know of any activities or interesting sites please share. On Wednesday we plan to hop a plane to Wellington, rent another car, drive roughly half the distance to Auckland and stay the night. Maybe hit Hobitton. Thursday we'll arrive back in Auckland, have a nice meal and depart on Friday. So where should we eat in Auckland (All food is good. No price ceiling.)? What's cool to see around Christchurch / Wellington / Auckland?
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Dec 7, 2017 05:01
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| # ? May 3, 2024 16:00 |
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Beats me, to loving hot to do anything at the moment.
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Dec 7, 2017 10:18
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Just got back from my honeymoon in NZ. Stayed 3 weeks and even that felt rushed. Christchurch honestly is doable in one day, check out the gardens and maybe hit the beach in Sumner or something. We had two weeks on the south island and our circuitous route went Christchurch-Mt. Cook-Te Anau (fjorlands)-Queenstown-Wanaka-up the west coast before heading back to Christchurch and then onto the north island. If you're into the outdoors, NZ is the place. To give you some inspiration, we went hiking, surfing, mountain biking, kayaking, and bungee jumping just on the south island. Mt cook is definitely worth checking out. Queenstown is super touristy but there's a lot to do in the area including wine tours and adrenaline activities. Another thing to keep in mind is the flight is a complete bitch and you might feel like poo poo for the first few days. Seems like you're prettyopen to anything, if you have specific questions, I'd be happy to answer
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Dec 11, 2017 17:15
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I can't offer much insight on the north island, but your 7-day is really loving short. Is there any way you could extend that? I think you're going to be in too much of a rush to enjoy anything IMO. You're basically going to be in total-rush mode ticking off boxes on a checklist and not actually enjoying the leisure of it. Either pick one island and stick with that or extend it. Anyways I worked in Christchurch for almost 3 months and did some stuff around the south island. I agree that it can be done in a day easily; gardens are nice, victoria park was nice, a bunch of other neighborhood-ish areas (cashmere) that were nice to walk. Make sure to check out Akaroa (old volcano basin french-settled town outside Christchurch). Absolutely drive down the coast and stop at places like Oamaru and Dunedin. I would highly recommend staying the night at Larnach Castle in Dunedin, it was fun as hell on a rainy day/night. We didn't quite make it down to Invercargill but Stewart Island looked nice, not sure how to arrange that trip though. I didn't care much for Queenstown just because it was so touristy but worth a night or two since there's a fair amount of things to do around it; I wouldn't recommend going out to Milford Sound because its a long trip on you're already short-trip, if you had more time definitely. West Coast was a lot of fun and we stayed at an BnB in Hokitika, would highly recommend, a lot to do over there and there were basically entire beaches we had to ourselves to run around nude or whatever. Mount Cook was goood.
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Dec 12, 2017 04:58
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Thanks for the responses! We have decided to stick to the north island as our short time there will mean entirely too much traveling to be worth it trying to hit both islands. The plan at this point is to drive from Auckland to Taupo and stay there for 5 days branching out to whatever we can see in a day. We've planned a day trip to hike around in the Tongariro National park. We also plan to checkout Rotorua and or Whirinaki forest, and Huka falls. Any other suggestions?
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Dec 12, 2017 06:44
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I would check out the NZ Frenzy North Island book. Helped me plan. I wish I spent more time on the north island, I liked the hot water beach at Coromandel and the city of Wellington more than I expected.
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Dec 16, 2017 18:22
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Rotorua was excellent when I visited, the national park with the different coloured thermal pools was definitely cool, and it was nice to chill out in the thermal springs. You can reach it by bus in about 3? hours from Auckland. Just make sure to get your clothes a wash once you leave or you'll smell like sulfur.
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Dec 24, 2017 09:26
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It’s also a very easy drive if you want to rent a car. Driving around and being able to check out cool stuff is what sold my wife on going back.
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Jan 4, 2018 05:09
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PromethiumX posted:Thanks for the responses! We have decided to stick to the north island as our short time there will mean entirely too much traveling to be worth it trying to hit both islands. Maybe I'm missing something, but why would you want to double the distance driven in a day? We drove in a circle stopping wherever and it was great. Regardless caving in Waitomo caves was awesome and Wellington is a really cool City to chilling.
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Jan 7, 2018 13:34
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asur posted:Maybe I'm missing something, but why would you want to double the distance driven in a day? We drove in a circle stopping wherever and it was great. I dont understand what you mean by double the the distance driven in a day?
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Jan 13, 2018 16:11
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2nding caving at Waitomo, the Black Abyss tour was one of the coolest (and coldest) things I've done.
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Jan 17, 2018 07:27
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I just did 15 days over there. Best things were Queenstown (Jetboating at Skippers Canyon) and Doubtful Sound overnight cruise. Sew everything else but these two were outstanding.
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Feb 4, 2018 23:03
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| # ? May 3, 2024 16:00 |
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PromethiumX posted:Thanks for the responses! We have decided to stick to the north island as our short time there will mean entirely too much traveling to be worth it trying to hit both islands. Huka Falls is alright, if you can get to Motu Falls, that's even better (might be a bit far of a drive though). Husband and I did two weeks in NZ for our honeymoon in December and it was the absolute best. Opotiki is also a very cute town right on the ocean and has an excellent beach. Try staying at motor lodges or (nicer) backpacker places as a way to save money. Every room has an electric kettle so you can get instant noodles or something as a quick meal if needed. Rotorua is also amazing and you should check out Te Puia and Rainbow Springs if you have time. If you have any other specific questions, feel free to PM me. Enjoy!
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May 1, 2018 18:13
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