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Holidays

Use our Travel forum for recommendations on everything from day trips to the best family-friendly holiday destinations.

New Zealand for three weeks! WWYD?

28 replies

GatoNaranja · 27/02/2015 13:56

We are a family of four planning a trip to New Zealand this Christmas. We plan to fly in and out of Christchurch as we have friends there. We're hoping to stay with them for a while but we really want to make the most of our trip. Any advice would be much appreciated and I thought I'd ask you guys to help / suggest a tour for us!

Budget is reasonably tight, so we're happy to camp / hire a camper van for some of it...

Two things that must be included:

Some awesome horse riding for me and dd1 (currently looking at a place in Glenorchy on the south island but open to other suggestions)

Something nice to do on Xmas Day (the children aren't too impressed about going away over Christmas and while we'll do the whole 'ooo look Santa's visited' thing when we get back we will probably bring a main present for each of them and that's kind of it. So maybe a hotel or something for a couple of days and get into some kind of festive spirit?

One thing that I would like:
Some sun - preferably towards the end of the trip. Will this mean going far north and if so how long does it take to travel from place to place and where can we go?

This is a once in a lifetime adventure for us as a family and I really want to make the most of it! Children are aged 10 &11.

Thanks in advance :-)

OP posts:
specialsubject · 02/03/2015 11:01

er..you won't be skiing in NZ at Christmas!

Well remember going out a summer's day in Christchurch without taking a coat -big mistake.Also remember two weeks of boiling hot weather on the west coast of the south island where it 'always rains'. You just can't tell.

what you do get is lots of blue skies, lovely long evenings (they are closer to the equator than the UK and are effectively on double summer time - thanks for nothing, Rees-Mogg) and amazing Christmas flowers.

glad to hear things are on the up in Christchurch, always one of my favourite places in NZ.

slug · 02/03/2015 11:29

Back in the olden times when I was a student in Christchurch we used to go to Hamner Springs for picnics in the winter. We would sit in the hot pools, wearing wooly hats while the snow fell around us. It's all been upgraded now.

Christchurch has some truly excellent beaches.

GatoNaranja · 02/03/2015 22:04

Just found all the replies, sorry - haven't disappeared. Will go through them all now! Thank you!

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