Advice about New Zealand - Flights +

Hi

We are planning a trip of a lifetime to NZ and hope to spend a month there next April.

Any recommendations as to good / cheap flights for a family with 2 childern?

Also any recomended places to visit on the North Island, for an active / adventure seeking family?

Finally any recommendations on accomadation / car hire (again) on the northe island?

Many Thanks,

J

Re: Advice about New Zeland - Flights +

Wouldn’t spend too much time on north island to be honest, its more populated and built up, obviously a few nice spots but south island is much much nicer, we spent a lot of time around milford sounds, foxes glacier, lake takapo, queenstown, also the otago peninsula is lovely, nice penguin colony on a sheep farm out there.
There is also a great town for whale watching, think its on the north east tip of south island (cant remember its name) 120 dollars each for 3 hour trip out watching sperm whales, great trip we saw 6 monster sized ones!
Cant really remember many of the towns names but theres another cool town on south island with thermal baths which are heated from the local volcaninic springs quality.

TO be honest a month in not a huge amount of time to spend there so don’t plan on 2 weeks on each island I’d definitely do 3 on south and 1 on north.
PS – don’t talk rugby with the locals unless u want to agree with them or get in a fight!!

Re: Advice about New Zeland - Flights +

The whale watching town is Kaikora.
It's an old whaling town.

On the north island,
Rotorua is well worth a visit. It's built on a very volcanic area and smells of sulphur which takes some getting used to.
There is a working Mauri termal village there which is definitely worth a look.
Wellington is a really nice laid back city.

Re: Advice about New Zeland - Flights +

Solutions said:

Finally any recommendations on accomadation / car hire (again) on the northe island?

Click to expand...

Dont go to Hertz/Avis for car hire - very expensive there - We hired an 8 year old 1.5l Ford Escort with Unlimited mileage and AA cover for the equivalent of IE€5/day (in 2002) - Hertz were 40+ per day. Older car - But no hassles and AA cover as a security blanket. Drove it all over both North and South Islands. (We were luxury backpackers - but dont see the point on spending a fortune on a car! - Back packing or not!)

We got our from ACE Car rentals in Auckland, But if you go to the Hostels they all have travel shops (dont need to be a resident) where you get the better bargains. ACE picked us up from our hostel and brought us to their car lot.

If your family are adventure seekers - Spend more time on the South Island. Queenstown, Lake Taupo, Glacier hiking on Fox,Franz Josef galciers, Black Water rafting in Greymouth (Caving in a wetsuit - wearing a miners helmet - carrying an inner tube - Onto an underground river - turn the lights out and guided out by the light of the glowworms - amazing). The thermal springs at rotorua are good - but cant see too many kids thrilled at soaking in smelly water!

If you are determined to spend all your time on the north island (which I too would advise against, espcially as you seem to be looking for adventure, of which the south has soooo much more to offer....), you should definitely strike up north of Auckland, maybe even all the way to the top, but certainly far enough to see the very impressive kauri trees. "How impressive can a tree be?" you may ask. Well- pretty impressive really. You can bungy jump anywhere, but you can only see something like this on the north island of NZ: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tane_Mahuta

Enjoy!