New Zealand in (their) winter?

[Sturmundcalm]

Is it worthwhile going to New Zealand at the start of July? Detail below as to why but thought I'd start with the basic question...

We have a few landmark birthdays/anniversaries coming up and plan to go a VERY BIG holiday to mark them. We don't normally do fancy holidays, think the most we've ever paid was £1,500 for a family holiday in Majorca about ten years ago - our norm is just UK cottages/Premier Inn!

My OH has always wanted to go to New Zealand but I would only be prepared to fly that far if we went for 3 weeks +. I really dislike flying and would need time to recover from the horror. Because of jobs the only time we could do longer than 2 weeks would be end of June to mid August.

Just not sure if it's worth it/would have a massive impact on enjoyment. But if it's the one place he really wants to go (and I'm not fussed) then does that outweigh being out of season?

What are you expecting in terms of weather? And which bits did you want to visit?

Are they allowing non essential flights yet ?

Oh good point, July 2022 is highly unlikely to be possible. 2023 maybe.

They’re still doing government managed covid quarantines for all incoming flights. It’s supposed to finish soonish but It well not be anything like back to normal for July.

sorry - not this year!!

I'd prefer warm but neither of use copes well with really hot so cool/drizzly is preferable to 35deg and us melting. I feel the cold badly so would prefer that it wasn't bitterly cold though...

I'd like to be wowed by views (do a lot of hillwalking here) and see "nice" places whether great outdoors or towns/cities/villages. OH will want to see LOTR stuff. Probably would prefer not to do LOADS of travelling once we're there - fine to do some but, for example, definitely wouldn't want to hire a camper van or anything like that.

We're not really into "status" luxury but clean, good food, lovely environment would all appeal.

I've been twice (8 weeks in total), but only in summer (their summer!)

In the south island, the climate is pretty similar to the UK. So you might get some clear dry days and you might get some (lots of) damp, cloudy, cold days. You COULD do all the kind of outdoorsy stuff you like, but it would be like doing it here.
If you like all the outdoors stuff, you'd be mad not to go to the south island - the southern alps, Lake Tekapo, Queenstown/Wanaka, the fjords, the stunning west coast (with glaciers), the Abel Tasman park... It's a truly amazing place (and I've only listed some of the main tourist stops, there's a lot more to it than that). But you wouldn't necessarily see all the amazing views etc, because the weather just might not play ball.

In the north island, particularly the top of the island, it's likely to be milder (high temp in July is 14c) but still a high chance of it being wet (average of 15 days' rain). You might get nicer weather north of there (Bay of Islands etc), but you wouldn't go all the way to NZ just for that.

You say you don't really want to travel around... Not much point going all the way to NZ and not travelling. It's a very diverse country and there is so much to see. Travelling is very simple there, and is actually a joy. The journey from ChCh to Queenstown, for example, takes the best part of a day, but is a stunning drive on lovely roads with next to no traffic (although maybe not as nice in winter). But honestly, I really wouldn't go that far and then not move around.

Have you considered Canada? Some truly stunning scenery and northern hemisphere, so nice weather more likely in July. You could fly to Calgary, spend some time in the Rockies then get the train (I forget the name of it - Rocky Mountaineer perhaps) back over to Vancouver. Then spend some time there/Vancouver island. Or East coast area - Montreal/Quebec and surrounds.

Also, it's a LONG way to go for somewhere you're not fussed about. It's a very expensive place to get to, and you're making a big compromise about the time of year. The more I think about it, the more I wouldn't do it. Is it just the LOTR stuff that is drawing your OH there? Apart from a day trip to Hobbiton I don't know how much else there is related to LORT. The amazing scenery of the Remarkables in Queenstown (where they shot a lot of the big-landscape stuff), but you're unlikely to see the best of that in Winter. You could ski there though!

I lived in New Zealand on the South Island for a year and also travelled the country as a whole during their Autumn (so can't really speak for what the North Island is like in winter).

The South Island is beautiful during the winter but a lot of the tourism they get during that season is for the ski season so if you're not into that you may find you have less options.

To get the most out of a trip in my opinion you really need to travel and cover both islands and the best way to do this is by road. If you don't want to drive yourself there are several companies that you can buy hop on hop off tickets with that cover most of the country and you decide how long you want to stay in each town.

I'm personally a big fan of travelling in the shoulder seasons (spring and autumn) as it's less busy but the weather is usually still pretty good.

ReviewingtheSituations suggestion of Canada is a good idea. I haven't been myself but I worked in hotels in when in New Zealand and so many of the Canadian tourists told us that the scenery reminded them of a smaller Canada. Obviously you wouldn't get the LOTR stuff but tbh the main stuff is Hobbiton (which is lovely but feels rushed as you get a limited time slot) and a props/costumes museum in Wellington (which I didn't visit). A lot of the filming sites while stunning scenery aren't immediately obvious as being from the films.

We went at beginning of February about nine years. Family live Auckland and Northland which was quite nice weather, considerably colder on the South Island to the North Island, had to borrow coats from family.
If you like a warmer climate I’d definitely look into the temperature at the times you want to travel. South Island is beautiful. We did a coach trip for a week. North island especially toward Phia and Russel lovely too and probably a better location if you’re concerned about the weather.

It’s an amazing country, North and South Islands are quite different. On our last trip we went to a brilliant museum in Wellington Te Papa which we shot round because we’d actually been to pretty much all the things IRL that it depicted but gives a fantastic overall picture of the whole country, kiwis, Maori’s, flora fauna and wildlife.

when I say we wouldn't want to travel loads I just mean that I'd want to spend at least a few days at a time in one place with minimal travelling while there. would def expect to do both islands though - think we're working on the basis that if we went somewhere closer we'd probably do 2 locations anyway.

interestingly Canada is probably top of my list, although possibly west coast of America somewhere combined with vancouver/vancouver island rather than just Canada - although could probably be persuaded to do just about anywhere at the moment! will go do some more googling. have also pushed back on OH as to why NZ when we would have to do off-season, so will see where we get to...

our utter cluelessness as to what we should do is why we're starting planning early!

I have visited the north island in August. We flew to Auckland stayed a few days there and then visited Rotorua, Napier and Wellington.
Weather was actually pretty decent and it was a rather balmy 18 degrees when we were at the te papa museum in Wellington.

I'm not sure when this will be an option. My auntie, a NZ resident, has just spent an extremely stressful 10 months each day bidding for a space in a quarantine hotel to reenter . Finally by chance got one but tens of thousands others still in her situation. Could be a while

NZ is stunning in winter. We did a driving holiday - 5 weeks with long stops.

We didn't see everything by a long way.

Highlights:

Wanaka is a gorgeous lake town - sitting in the jacuzzi surrounded by snow capped peaks was amazing.
Skiing in Cardrona
Light aircraft from Wanaka to Milford Sound - breathtaking scenery - one of the highlights of my life actually.
Glacier hiking - incredible
Traditional hungi meal

Pros: Clean, accessible, well suited to winter outdoor activities, clean, modern accommodation.

Cons: eating out is expensive, you wontbsee everything in 3 weeks. The roads can close in winter (we couldn't get to Queenstown because the road from Wanaka was shut).

We’ve done a Vancouver /LA 2 centre holiday and it was really successful - you could even do Vancouver - San Francisco then a road trip all the way down to Dan Diego or across to Las Vegas then Phoenix etc. lots of different routes.

I was just watching the NZ News and they are in the middle of new restrictions because of Omicron so as others have mentioned....it could be a while before they open the borders to holidaymakers.
I would suggest going for 3 weeks during March/April (Easter school holidays if you travel with school age kids). The weather is still generally good,warm enough to spend time at the beach. NZ is glorious but going in the middle of their winter you risk getting a LOT of rain .

thanks everyone.

unfortunately shifting times isn't an option because it's OH who is a teacher so the most we would get is 2 weeks and 1 day at Easter (assuming it was a year when the Easter weekend wasn't separate to the fortnight off!).

I think I have started to shift him towards Canada - sent him a link to a package holiday that was Vancouver/the Rockies/train and while that's not exactly what we would want to do it ticked a lot of boxes so fingers crossed... Will start to look up stuff more specifically over the next few months. I had been contemplating somewhere west coast US with Vancouver but he was really clear that he doesn't fancy the US at all at the moment so think it will just be within Canada we do.

think NZ will need to wait till we're hitting retirement!

Just blatantly posting to follow this thread as NZ, Canada and Iceland are the 3 places dh and I both want to go to, so just hoping to keep on learning any helpful information

I have the same issue as you OP, in that I'd like to go for a long time if I'm going that far, but pesky work gets in the way.