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Holidays

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

Any advice on New Zealand?

3 replies

whyamisolazy · 08/04/2025 16:58

I like the look of NZ seems to have all the things I like scenery nice food wine etc but I wondered whether you need to be very fit and active?
We are ok but my DH has an ongoing mobility issue that at times can be restrictive.
Thinking of going in February and I really value the opinions on here re travel.

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CarpetKnees · 08/04/2025 18:10

No, you don't need to be.
The scenery from the roads is just magnificent. Loads of stopping places. So many clean and readily available public toilets. Lots of places to stop for lunch or a coffee.
Roads are so empty compared with UK. So easy to drive over there.

If you do follow any marked walks, the timings tend to assume you are very fit and active though - if it says 4 hours, and you aren't the fittest, you aren't going to complete it in 4 hours. But, there are all sorts of places you can see without walking.

You can also get a boat to see the 'Sounds' (like Fjords) or travel by train across the 'Southern Alps'.

It is such a beautiful country.

5foot5 · 08/04/2025 18:19

We have just returned from NZ. In fact we arrived home today!

The scenery is stunning, especially in South Island. DH and I are in our 60s and, whilst we enjoy walking, we are not that fit but we found plenty to do.

We booked through Trailfinders who I can strongly recommend. It is the first time we have used them but they put together a brilliant itinerary that matched our budget and they are also very well organised. All the arrangements worked perfectly.

Actually during the holiday, nearly all the Brits we encountered had used Trailfinders.

The itinerary we did was a self drive tour of North and South Island based on their Best of New Zealand

We did customize that a bit though.

One of the suggested items was a day hike called Tongariro Alpine Crossing. Although we like walking we thought that was too challenging for us so, at the reps suggestion, we substituted that with a stay at Lake Taupo which was beautiful.

Also towards the end of the holiday they have a day cruise on Milford Sound. We upgraded that to an overnight cruise instead. I can strongly recommend that, it was probably the highlight of the holiday and much better to take the time to do the overnight cruise.

The driving was easy. The roads are very good and often not busy. February might be a bit busier I suppose as it is Summer. We were there end March to early April so weather still pretty decent and less crowded.

On the way there we had a stopover of a day and a night in Singapore to break up the journey. On the way back though we had no stopovers.

It has been an amazing holiday. Happy to answer any more questions

Pardon Our Interruption

https://www.trailfinders.com/tours/new-zealand-and-the-pacific/auckland-and-the-coromandel-peninsula/tour-best-of-new-zealand

whyamisolazy · 08/04/2025 22:35

Thankyou so much . I'll definitely contact trailfinders and take it from there !!

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