r/newzealand_travel

Hi everyone, my wife and I will be visiting New Zealand, South Island for about 3 weeks in mid October. We will be renting a small car to travel around the island.

What do you all think of my itinerary? Any suggestion and places that we must go? Thank you ☺️

Day

1. ⁠land at christchurch at 12pm, drive to hokitika and stay for 2 nights. Visit Arthur pass, devil punch bowl along the way
2. ⁠explore hokitika
3. ⁠leave hokitika and drive to fraz josep, stay 3 nights
4. ⁠explore franz Josef take helicopter up the glacier
5. ⁠explore fox glacier and lake matheson.
6. ⁠leave franz josef, drive to wanaka, stay 2 nights
7. ⁠explore wanaka
8. ⁠leave wanaka, drive to te anau, stay 2 nights
9. ⁠explore tenau, milford sound cruise and the falls and walk nearby
10. ⁠leave te nau, drive to queentown stay 3nights
11. ⁠day trip to glenorchy
12. ⁠explore queentown, TSS queentown cruise
13. ⁠leave queentown, drive to twizel, stay 2 nights
14. ⁠day trip to mount cook
15. ⁠leave twizel drive lake tekapo, stay 2 nights
16. ⁠explore lake tekapo
17. ⁠leave lake tekapo and drive to christchurch and explore, stay 3 nights
18. ⁠day trip to akaroa
19. ⁠day trip to kaikoura
20. ⁠Return home

We've (41f and 33m) found ourselves able to do our dream trip to New Zealand for the month of December and a week into January.

We've never been and this is a once in a lifetime trip.

We've traveled all over America in an RV for 1.5 years so we're familiar with camper-life, but also familiar with the limitations that size vehicle can bring.

We are mostly coming for nature, culture, and food. We don't drink alcohol and not super into city life. (We're also LotR fans and have Hobbiton booked for Dec 4th)

I'm getting overwhelmed trying to pre-plan hotels and a full itinerary without really knowing how long we'd want to spend in each place.

How stupid would it be to just play it by ear and grab hotels where we are?

Would renting a camper make that easier or would we need to get a campground booked each night anyway?

What if we did a camper on one island and then a car and hotels on the other? I'm not even sure we can bring a camper on the ferry and I've seen here the ferry isn't super reliable.

What about Christmas-New years week? Anywhere we should avoid? Or anywhere extra special that time of year that's worth it?

Thank you thank you thank you for any help!

I am visiting Auckland in a few days from the US. Curious what local fashion brands you recommend checking out. I want to visit stores that are unique to NZ (even if a chain) or local shops. What are the best ones, ideally not super expensive?

Hi! We’re wanting to plan our honeymoon to NZ in March (6th of March 2027 to 30th of March). We’ve only just started our research but are kinda stuck on making a decision on doing both islands versus choosing one island.

We’re travelling from Europe so we have quite a bit of travel to even get there. But our travel agent has now shown us the following on BOTH islands:

Day 3 Arrive in Christchurch with 1 night in a hotel

Day 4 pick up camper

Free travel in between, we still have to think about what

Day 17 Ferry

Free travel

Day 25 Arrive in Auckland and fly home

Last year we rented a car in West Canada and did about 2800 km’s in 22 days. Including 2 ferry days, so we have done a road trip with big distances before. But on the other hand we know it’s not the same, because we’re driving a camper this time and the roads are different.

Do you guys have any thoughts about this specific trip we’re planning on doing both islands or would only one be better? So hard to make a decision!

We’re both in our thirties, active and very fond of (long) hikes in beautiful nature. We’re no LOTR fans so we can skip that must do 🤓

I’m a high school senior in America who wants to visit New Zealand sometime in the future. I mainly want to go for two reasons: it’s in the only continent I haven’t visited yet, and I want to see all of its unique wildlife.
I’ve been watching videos about some of the animals in New Zealand recently, which introduced me to a bunch of animals I had never even heard of before.

I’m also thinking about studying abroad there for a year when I go to college. What exactly would I need to do to study abroad in New Zealand?

One more question, though: do you guys have as big of a spider problem as Australia and our they as big. That’s the only reason I’m not interested in visiting Australia after New Zealand.

If do decide to go where should I go to actually experience New Zealand?

Also is there racism to black people?

*Please don’t be rude and if I made any mistakes correct me in a respectful way

We are planning our honeymoon which is meant to be 3 weeks in New Zealand in November 2026 (yes I know we are last minute). Self drive covering both islands but not a camper (husbands choice) so will need to plan route, accommodation and excursions etc.

The intention was to plan it ourselves but finding the whole thing very overwhelming and think it would probably be best to use a travel agent to take the stress out!

Does anyone have any recommendations? Either UK based they have used or local if that is actually the better answer.

TIA!

Hi all

I’m solo road tripping around the South Island in October for 4 weeks. I was wondering what the phone coverage is like? I’ve heard in some areas like Fiordland have almost no signal. I’ll have a self contained camper so aim to camp in some remote spots where allowed. I’d love to be someone that could disconnect completely for the month but that’s probably not realistic for me, I think due to being by myself I’d mentally benefit from being connected to friends back home and having easy access to online media etc in the evenings. I’ve considered getting the starlink mini as I camp a lot so it may always be useful, is the data coverage sparse enough to warrant it?

Side note I also will be doing odd days of remote work so it would be nice to be able to remain truly remote for these rather than having to navigate to a campsite with internet

Tah x

We've already committed to visiting NZ in early October, before we realized that October is the wettest month and there can be torrential downpours affecting the coast road. We plan to leave Greymouth around 2pm, and driving to Franz Joseph, a 2.5 hour journey (4 hours with stops, etc). The next day, we plan to drive from FJ to Wanaka - a 4.5 hour journey which we expect to take 8 hours with stops, etc.

I'm totally ready to pull over and wait if the rain is bad, but I've read that the storms in October can be long lasting. Could the storms be so bad as to prevent us making the journey? Do people cancel hotel reservations during this period, due to weather? Are the storms worst during the day, easing off at night? I'm just trying to get a sense of what to expect, and what to plan for.

I'm already familiar with the NZ weather page - https://www.metservice.com/warnings/home and I've loaded it on my phone.

I've read that cell service is pretty limited on this road. Do the police patrol this road pretty frequently, and/or tow trucks? (I'm just thinking about flat tyres, etc).

Going to NZ in mid-November, 11 days road trip from Christchurch > Tekapo > Queenstown > Te Anau > Wanaka > Hokitika > Marlborough.

A bit concerned about rain on the West Coast during that season and wondering if we're not better off traveling back along East Coast to Marlborough rather than drive through the rain for 4 days. We don't mind the rain (heck, we're hoping for it at Milford Sound), but it's not fun to hike in it over several days.

Yes, it's a lot of driving, we don't mind.

Bonjour à toutes et tous,

Nous avons prévu de partir du 26 décembre au 22 janvier prochain : arrivée à Christchurch et départ d’Auckland.
Notre 1ere idée est de louer un Campervan : le coût pour 4 semaines est de 5500€.
Je me pose plusieurs questions:
- y a t’il une alternative à ce coût exhorbitant? En passant par des plateformes de particuliers que je ne connais par exemple…
- en conséquence, je me dis qu’une voiture (sociétés de locations préconisées?) + hôtel/RBNB (l’offre est elle suffisante? Faut il réserver en amont ?) pourrait être une solution mais me demandera une planification laborieuse

Y a t’il des retours d’expériences?
Merci pour vos retours!😉

Howdy y'all. I have the privilege of visiting New Zealand from November 9th (arrival early morning) until November 27. Idea is to fly back on or one day before our flight back from the South Island to Auckland (also where we arrive). Mode of transporation will be a car. Does anyone have a good itinerary for our trip that will cover the (or at least most of) highlights of New Zealand without being on the road every single day? Would love to hear your tips / suggestions!

heading down to Queenstown in early-mid September for about 2 weeks, we've rented a car but the rental company doesn't provide snow chains for the type of vehicle we've rented, so i probably need to find them somewhere else

we'll be driving to mt cook, wanaka, milford sound, and coronet peak + the remarkables ski areas. would the chains even be necessary for this time period? i thought it might be safer to just carry them anyway, don't wanna get fined

currently i can only find snow chain hires for about $30++ daily. i'm thinking if i can rent them for a flat rate for the 2 weeks, that would probably be cheaper and easier. rather than going to rent the chains multiple times for the days that we need them. i can't seem to find anywhere that rents them out at a flat rate. any recommendations?

Hey everyone,

I'm planning a trip to the South Island of New Zealand, but I have a pretty limited amount of time. If you had to cut 2 activities from the list below, which ones would you drop and why?

Here are the 5 options I'm trying to choose between:

• 1. Milford Sound cruise
• 2. Wanaka Roy's Peak hike
• 3. Visiting Glenorchy & Arrowtown
• 4. Strolling around Akaroa
• 5. Mt. Cook Hooker Valley Track

Would love to hear your thoughts, especially if any of these turned out to be overhyped or not worth the detour given a tight schedule. Thanks in advance!

Any recommendations for affordable rounds of golf while visiting. Hoping to play ten to fifteen rounds in each . Thanks in advance