Anyone been to New Zealand on holiday?

[chinwag]

How much realistically would it cost?

Which company is good to go through?

Where would you recommend to visit? (DD's aged 7&9)

Just thinking about it at the moment. It's somewhere I have always wanted to go.

We love NZ, but have only been pre-kids, so I' afraid I don't have a lot of advice!

We do usually book our long-haul flights through Trailfinders, they are good at recommending routes etc, and always seem to get us a good deal.

How long would you be going for?

Ooooh - go,go,go. We had a lovely 6 weeks there this time last year. Sorry can't help with flights as we were on a RTW ticket. In terms of where to go/stay, we worked our way around the Top 10 campsites (see www.top10.co.nz. )we stayed in their very clean self catering cabins. Generally gd campsites usually with pool,laundry and playgrounds. Our route started in Auckland then up to Bay of Islands (great site at KeriKeri)- gorgeous - did speedboat ride from Paihia which kids loved and cultural bit at Waitangi. Back to Auckland as stop over on route to Rotorua - got to see Geysers and bubbling mud but very stinky! Also luges great fun and see a kiwi. We went onto friend at Hastings and enjoyed wineries and art deco of Napier. Then onto Wellington - Te Papa museum well worth a visit. Ferry across to South Island - more wineries around Nelson then down for spot of whale watching at Kaikoura - amazing. Onto Christchurch - very Englishy. Then crossed Arthurs Pass - spectacular and onto Franz Joseph Glacier - splashed out on helicopter ride over the glacier - amazing! Then onto Wanaka - kids will enjoy puzzling world and climbing wall place. Opportunity to fly to Milford Sound but bad weather stopped our flight. Then onto penguins at Oamaru, back up to Christchurch and onto Oz. Phew. Hope this is of some help - sorry its a little lengthy - so much to see! Hope you do get to go. P.s Pack your waterproofs!

Thanks for that. Sounds like an action packed holiday!!!

pu pu springs this is top of south island, if you can get some snorkel gear, it's amazingly clear, but FREEZING, gives you a headache it's so cold

drive from chch to queenstown through mackenzie country past the church of our good shepherd on lake tekapo, historic org and the church view from this is amazing.

if you;re into skiing, i would just do a winter tour of the south island. ski mt hutt (out from christchurch), go to queenstown, do the 5 fields down there with site seeing around the island on the way.

north island isn't as good as south (i grew up in Hastings - not a lot of reasons to go to hawkes bay unless you're into wine tours, and of course art deco at napier, do the gannet colony here also. we never seemed to get around to it ) but Coromandel peninsula and bay of islands/90 mile beach/cape reinga would be the highlights and of course rotorua for the tacky touristy maori stuff in the north. So if you're limited for time, just do the south.

Sounds fab. How much should I budget?

hi, live in NZ. Budget would very much depend on what you had planned but it's approx $2.50 to the pound and pretty much pound for the dollar when you are here. If you do the campervan thing petrol is $1.60/litre so cheaper than home but we all think it's very expensive. As somebody said many camp sites are all singing all dancing. If you want to do hotels (def more expensive) I would book with wotif.com (like last minute). Alot of family things here are cheap/free obviously beaches, swimming pools, museums often a donation rather than expensive fee etc. They will sting you though for the tourist attractions like everywhere.

It's a great place to visit especially if you lo's like outdoorsy things, beaches, surfing, walks etc but things are very spread out so be prepared to travel. I've just had friends stay for 2 weeks they went to Rotorua, the Mount, Nelson and Picton and Waiheke Island and felt they'd hardly seen a thing. They're saving for a 3 month trip!!!

budget depends on how long you go for, but whenever i go on a trip, i budget about £30 per day per person, that's just for meals and incidentals (as i'd normally have already paid for accommodation and transport). The campervan thing is very expensive (have priced it out), and then you'd still have to pay site fees for overnights. Better to hire a car, and stay in the cabins in campgrounds.

We were looking to go for a trip Feb 2009, i worked out for a month holiday for 2 adults, 1 child, 1 infant. hiring a car for a month (or part and motorhome part), staying with family 10 days and either motorhome or motels 20 days, would be about £10k

(cheapestmotorhome i could find was thru wilderness, 4 berth £1500 for 20 days, plus fuel, plus camp fees (which i budgeted £30 per night)

can put rest of budget on if uoy like, if dh wil hold the baby

I presume 2 weeks would be about 5k?

it'd take you 4 days of your 14 just to get there and back!

I priced flights based on going aug/sept 07 just to get an idea, this was back in jan, and they were 875 per adult and 710 for children (own seats), flying air nz economy. so flights alone would be 3200.

Yikes!! Think I need a pay rise!

i'd invest in a new zealand lonely planet, sit down work out what you'd like to see, MUST DO things, think about realistically whether you'd go out there again, or if this would be a once only trip to nz.

Make the list, try to come up with an itinerary, then you can see how long you'd actually need. I'd say a good 4-6 weeks if you'll only ever go there once and pack everything in.

Internet is good resource, you can look up car hire (i found budget the cheapest), camp sites, motel prices, attraction fees where applicable (plus lonely planet will have some price guides in it (just be aware of published date and add some inflation if it's a couple of years old)).

Take average price for campsite(motels)/daily car hire/meals per day etc.. then multiply out by number of days until you get a number you can live with.

that's why we were waiting until 2009! we've been out 2yrs on the trot, once for dh to meet my family, the next for a family wedding at expensive time (dec/jan) thought my goodness imagine how much we could have in savings! they were only 2 week trips each time, and were very tiring.

Mmmm. Might have to work on DH for a bit!!!

Thanks for the advice.