New Zealand

[shanghaismog]

We’re just trying to put together an itinerary for a December trip to NZ. We’ll be there for almost 3 weeks (over Christmas & New Year) & need to factor in some sunshine R&R as well as more adventurous stuff. Any top tips or must visit places, preferably off the beaten track a little? No flights booked yet, so can start either in Christchurch or Auckland. It looks like there are a million options for mountains & lakes, so keen to hear of other things to do, cool places to stay or eat, as well as places with fun nightlife. Any help appreciated, as it’s all a bit overwhelming trying to work out what to do & where to go…!

West coast of the south island is stunning, drive/train through the mountains to get there - Greymouth from Christchurch.

You probably can't go wrong with whatever you choose in NZ.
Lots of walks wherever you go.
North of Auckland was beautiful.
You may need to narrow down your 'must sees' then start from there.
Have to got plans for Xmas or New Year's Eve.

Can you fly into Auckland and out of Christchurch or vice versa? Thats what I would do.

Would also be helpful to know if you have DC with you. Hire a car. Lots of people look into campervans but they are big so trickier to driver, often targeted by thieves and it means you have to go everywhere together. No relaxing at the hotel while the other person nips to the shops.

If you start in Auckland, I would head south straightaway. 3 weeks is not long and there are better things to do. Head for Rotorua. Be aware that it is a thermal area and choosing to stay in the heart of the thermal area means that you will smell the rotten egg smell the gases give off the whole time. If you stay slightly out of town you dont smell it. Great things to do are : the luge, the redwood forest walk at night, a maori cultural show and hangi, white water rafting (including a 7 metre drop over a waterfall), swim in the thermal pools and visit the thermal mud pools to look. There is a buffet restaurant at the top of the luge which does really good food and I am usually not a buffet person.

Hobbiton is amazing. It is not sign posted and it is tricky to find directions as they have worked with the local farmers who do not want a bunch of tourists driving there. Most people do it by a bus tour. Thye leave from several places including Auckland and Rotorua.

I would fly from Rotorua to Queenstown. This has great night life and a tonne of things to do. Go jet boating - the Dart river trip is good. Milford Sound, Arrowtown, tandem handgliding, bungy jumping, all the stuff is here.

New Zealand Destinations | 100% Pure New Zealand (newzealand.com) is a good place to start

My recommendations are:

North Island

• Bay of islands (eg Paihia/Russell)
• Waiheke (island off Auckland with beaches and vineyards)
• Taupo (lake in North Island)
• Tongariro crossing (one day hike)
• Coromandel (beaches eg Hahei, Hot Water Beach
• Wellington (cool little city)

South Island

• Queenstown (adventure capital)
• Wanaka (gorgeous lake town, kind of like a less touristy Queenstown
• Abel Tasman National Park
• Milford Sounds
• Marlborough if you want to do wine tastings

Thanks!

Yes, we’re thinking of flying into Christchurch or Auckland & flying out of the other. I'm not worried about trying to fit everything in - I know that we can’t possibly, but just trying to sort through the priorities as everything seems to be ‘must see’! We haven’t decided yet whether we’ll try to drive up (not campervan) or base ourselves out of 2-3 places & trip out from there. Driving distances also seem to be deceiving, so not sure weather the ‘base’ idea works in reality. This is slightly complicated by the fact that we’re going to visit DS who is doing a study abroad year in Palmerston North… which clearly wouldn’t otherwise make the must see list! Trying to work out if we’ll be forgiven for not going there…

No Xmas or NY plans yet as don’t know where we’ll be! Kids are 17/20.

A significant portion of the family are also not convinced by NZ (too many hikes/drives & not hot enough…), so we’re trying to factor in a bit of sunny downtime too. Is it reliably hot enough at the north of the north island for this, or should we try to combine with a Pacific island (but cyclone/wet season?)? Is the weather like a typical southern Uk summer? Bay of islands or Coromandel look like they could be contenders for this aspect? Combine either of these this with Rotorua & maybe Hobbiton for north island leg?

Queenstown seems an obvious South Island base but Abel Tasman area looks gorgeous too & the cross country train looks amazing!

Wineries are a must at some point!

All in all, this is breaking my brain & I need to get kids/DH to weigh in with their preferences so we can get flights booked at least! It’s really not that long away…

@Grizzles thanks, that looks like a great list!

NZ is a very outdoorsy sort of place but, unfortunately, it rains a lot which makes planning tricky. We stayed in various locations for days at a time to try to counter this (I see that you are thinking to do similar) but that doesn't always work e.g. we never did get to do (wasn't allowed) the Tongariro crossing.

South Island if short of time. Second Abel Tasman for walking.it’s stunning. Also whale watching on South Island and MilfordSound boat trip. Queenstown jetboat trip fam thought amazing.

If you want an is, and stopover, recommend Rarotonga - paradise, but dont know about weather in December.

When we went (just over 3 weeks), we flew into Auckland, went north (really is a do not miss!) to Pahia etc. Coromandel, Hamilton (family), Hobbiton, Rotorua, Taupo, Napier, Wellington.
We decided to leave the South Island for a trip of its own.

Agree that you should stick with one island or the other. I’ve been countless times. Personally, I would fly to Auckland, head to Waiheke for a few nights, go to Bay of Islands (Russell) and on up to 90 mile beach, Coromandel and maybe on to Mt Maunganui in the Bay of Plenty for surfing and real beach life. Rotorua is fun but I would not linger - and the smell does not linger either! - and Taupo also beautiful though I personally prefer it during the winter. You could also to a bit off the beaten track and head to Great Barrier Island too. Enjoy!

Thanks all - any info on December weather would be amazing so we can rule in/out a pacific island. The averages look uk-like but it’s hard to get a feel for what that really means. 2/4 of us are not particularly outdoorsy - I mean, love a nice walk but not multi-day hardcore hikes. The thought of spending 3 weeks mostly in a raincoat traipsing around (albeit looking at amazing scenery) isn’t appealing, especially as it’s going to cost a small fortune to do this…

We flew to Auckland and then to Queenstown. We were going to a wedding in Taranaki in the 3rd week so we worked our way up from Queenstown back to Auckland

From Queenstown we went to
Milton Sound and stayed on a boat over night which was wet but lovely waterfalls because of the rain

Also went to a bbq meal and sheep sheering at Walter's Peak, and did the Skyline in Queenstown, beautiful walk up there

drove through Arrowtown stopped off and looked at the old gold mine settlement which was really interesting
next stay was in Wanaka , really beautiful lake and nice little town.

Next stop the Franz Josef Glacier , the Wildlife centre is really interesting to learn about Kiwis

Then drove to Greymouth and got the train to Christchurch which was very scenic.
The Karakura which was interesting because of the earthquake supposed to go whale watching but too foggy

Next onto Abel Tasmen, went canoeing and for long walk, really beautiful area.

Got the ferry upto Wellington, worth the upgrade for comfy armchairs and buffet

in Wellington we did the Weta film studio tour, definitely worth it if your into film
Also the National Army museum to see the WW1 exhibition

The onto Napier the Art Deco town which i loved

Next Taupo to visit the thermals and Huka falls

Rotorua - bumped into Harry and Meghan visited the Maori experince and Geyser and also a trip to Hobbitown

Then drove to the Wedding stopping off at the Waitomo Gloworm caves on the way.

Stayed 4 days for the wedding then drove to Auckland where we got ferry over to Davenport for a nice afternoon

That was 3 weeks, and loved every minute of it. Just wish we could have stayed longer and gone further north

December should be pretty good. I find summer seems to start a bit later than it did but you should get good weather.

Oh and you should definitely head west of Auckland to Piha and Kare kare - simply stunning black sand beaches and landscape. I would never swim there but just beautiful.

Fantastic - thank you all, this is really helping me to narrow down options.

We're going in December too, although it's where I'm from, so won't be doing too much touristy stuff.
We're flying in and out of Christchurch and will spend a week there seeing family (you could do day trips to Akaroa, the Transalpine Express train and other nearby attractions while there). Then we're heading up to Marlborough where my family are and will spend two weeks there. It's gorgeous and we will do lots of mountain biking, walks, swimming, fishing, boating, eating and maybe some winery visits. Kaiterteri is gorgeous and you could spend a few days there either doing walks, enjoying the beach or doing a boat trip up the coast where you'll see dolphins etc.
I'm not that familiar with the north island but you could fill three weeks easily in the south island alone!

This trip we are flying back via Shanghai for two nights, which knocked hundreds off the flight cost, so worth looking at a stopover somewhere to see if it saves £££.

My highlights from 2 trips (8 weeks in total) would be:
Chch (and surrounds) and the drive down to Queenstown (Lake Tekapo/Mount Cook en route)
Glaciers/rainforest on the west coast
Arthur's pass
Pancake rocks and the wine area to the north
Abel Tasman national park
Taupo and Rotorua
Corramandel and surrounds

Things I wouldn't do again/wasn't fussed about:
Milford Sound (it is BEAUTIFUL, but it's a LONG day trip or a long deviation from other routes)
Wanaka (lovely town, but not worth shoehorning in on a short trip)
Auckland (again, nice city, but 'just' a city)
Wellington- preferred it to Auckland, but not worth a deviation for
Kaikoura - whale watching isn't reliable enough to plan an itinerary around IMO.

Places I wish I had been to
Bay of Islands
Tongariro crossing.

I wouldn't try and squeeze in a Pacific island. 3 weeks is no time at all in NZ - I'd max out the time there.

Driving is SO easy there. Roads are quiet, navigating is easy and views are stunning. Definitely hire a car and travel that way.

North of North Island rainier than south too - we went to Waiheke Island last time and it was awful. Torrential tropical rain for five days. For sunshine, head to Nelson/Marlborough.

I'd choose one island or the other. I'd also avoid Queenstown at one of the peak tourist times. It's pretty and v expensive. Milford Sound is beautiful but a long way.

The weather is hard to predict. One Christmas in Christchurch, we had actual snow.

We were there for 3 weeks last Christmas. We were visiting family in Whangarei so went there from Christmas Eve to 1st.

We flew into Christchurch which was pleasantly warm. 2 days in Christchurch then the Transalpine express to the west coast. Drove down the west coast to Queenstown and had a few days in Queenstown doing full on adventure (jet boat / white water rafting m) etc. It was warm but not sunbathing weather.

Flew to Auckland and drove to northland. We did a few day trips to the bay of islands which was properly hot - sea swimming and sunbathing hot but also more prone to rain.

Had a few days in Singapore in the way back where it rained incredibly heavily.

We've done the trip before and went to the Tongariro national park and Hobbiton. Hobbiton is quite out of the way and does take a full day. Tongariro is fantastic if you're into walking. If not, it's probably better to go north or to the coromandel coast.

I agree that your best bet for good weather at that time of year is Nelson/Marlborough, and it has the benefit of wonderful wineries.

If you're into Victoriana/steam punk type stuff then a different place to visit is Oamaru, which is 2 1/2 hours south of Christchurch airport. Great restaurants and cafés, wineries inland, beautiful coast line, and gorgeous old buildings (for NZ).

Hey OP I live on Waiheke Island.
Weather wise Xmas is usually warm and sunny but sun and warmth is never guaranteed! The last 7 xmases have been hot but last year it was tropical rain. The air temperature is always fairly steady around 20-25 but the sun is scorching hot here so makes it feel a lot hotter. Everyday Xmas day has been spent in bikinis on the beach

Remember that almost all Kiwis take their summer holidays been xmas day and mid Jan. Offices close for the duration and it means everywhere is very busy with holiday makers (and therefore things get expensive and booked up quickly)

For the islands it will be rainy season. Again it could mean you are blessed with a week of sun but equally you could end up with rain. It's not the best time to go because if that.

You really do have to embrace the weather in Nz. It's not going to be cold but it will definitely rain a good few times in 3 weeks over December/Jan.

The trouble with asking about the weather is that NZ summer weather is unpredictable... It will be summer of course, and NZ summers are generally better than uk summers (lived in Auckland area for 10 years), but you could get cool/ wet weather). We stopped in Hawaii on one trip out and had lovely hot beach weather, but that was in February.

Thanks all - good to hear the wouldn’t do again bits as well!

Thanks for the weather info too