 | Home > Off Topic > What to do in New Zealand for 2 months ? |
 
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| leeds Member Since: 28 Dec 2009 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 8582  
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A while since I have been to NZ.
All depends what you want to do/see. Have seen some of North Island and South Island but not Stewart Island. The Geyser hot water springs are worth a visit if a bit smelly. Mount Cook is a must. Catch some theatre in Christchurch/Wellington. When I was there plenty of working Land Rovers on the vineyards. They are well worth a visit as they do decent tasting and decent food as well. Just be a bit careful on bridges in remote areas as they are often combined rail and road bridge and may well be single lane. Go and enjoy. Brendan |
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9th Sep 2013 7:52pm |
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| LR90XS2011 Member Since: 05 Apr 2011 Location: bickenhill Posts: 3655 
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Fantastic place Im so Jealous . catch the train from Greymouth to Christchurch, go black water rafting, whale whatching in Kaikora, visit the bay of islands and swim with wild dolphins, visit the glaciers, and the fiords and Queenstown the whole place is great DEFENDER 90 TDCI XS,
I hope everyone is well and your land rovers make you happy Last edited by LR90XS2011 on 9th Sep 2013 8:16pm. Edited 1 time in total |
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9th Sep 2013 8:07pm |
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| AndyS Member Since: 18 Aug 2012 Location: London Posts: 595 
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I've been to New Zealand for two months (one month for each of our two visits). For both trips we flew into Auckland then straight down to Queenstown. On the first trip we drove up the west coast of the South Island and then took the ferry to Wellington and up to Taupo for the Ironman. On the second trip we drove up the east coast of the South Island then flew to Rotarua and onto Taupo for the Ironman and then onto Haihei for a recovery week before flying out.
Out of all the things we did my favourites are: Being in Queenstown, it's a fab place to be. Drive around to Glenorchy, it's a road to nowhere but a great drive past Pig and Pigeon island and up around the north of Lake Wakatipu. There's a mountain bike ride from Queenstown over to Milford Sound I want to tackle at some point, highly recommended to me. Visit Arrowtown as it's a frontier town and a passage back to the old days. Drive up to Deer Park Heights for a view over Queenstown, the lake and airport. Just unwind from the flight in Queenstown as it's very accommodating and familiar to us Brits. Then onto the fiords, you can drive around to Te Anau and take the ferry and coach over to Doubtful Sound or drive all the way around Lake Wakatipu and through the Homer Tunnel to Milford Sound. Both are great, do both if you fan but do at least one. Wanaka is good, great scenery and a fab lake. It's one of the cleanest lakes I've ever swam in. Totally clear water so you swim along watching the fish watching you. I felt most at home in Wanaka, it's totally relaxed and the road from Queenstown over the heights is worth a trip to Wanaka alone. We took the ferry across Foveaux Straights to Oban on Steward Island. Oban is an island retreat, a brilliant way to spend three/four days touring the various nature areas and sanctuaries but be warned, the crossing can be bloody terrible. My Mrs was sick within 10 minutes of leaving the harbour and I lasted 45. The crossing takes 60 minutes and it's 60 minutes of hell if it's rough. They have a ferry specially built to handle rough water. Stewart Island fold commute on the ferry and stand down the back drinking beer while the tourist puke into a paper bag handed out by a woman specifically employed to spot for people being sick. We traded in our ferry crossing tickets for a flight over to Invercargil and the woman who changed our booking said "you do realise you've swopped 60 minutes of hell for 15 minutes of terror, the plane flies when the ferry won't said so you're in for a ride". But the weather was a lot better and the crossing was good. If you do get there seek out Fahana and get yourself over to Ulva Island for one of her tours. Just ask for her in the tourist office, it's an island so everyone knows everyone. From there the Catlins are worth an explore. We spent three days in the company of Mary and Fergus at the Mohua Park, Fergus guides the tour while Mary caters for your food needs back at base. You get your own hut to live in and all food is served back at the family house in the company of all the other guests. A great way to spend a few days and get some tips on what to do next. Kai Koura and whale watching is good, the whales were good but the dolphin spotting was better. Getting a tour across the spit at Golden Sands right at the top north west corner of the south island is a good trip, it takes you right out across the sand dunes to view the seals and albatross colonies. In fact, the best thing to do is give Paul at New Zealand in Depth a call, he'll sort you out with whatever trip you want to do. He booked both of our trips, I said we're there for the Ironman but want to have a three week holiday around it and he asked us a serious of questions on what we like to do and booked a holiday around that. Booked the cars, crossings, flights and accommodation. We could adjust the trip as much as we wanted and he sorted it all out. http://www.newzealand-indepth.co.uk/ Well worth a call. NZ is very friendly, it's perfectly possible to land at Queenstown and have your first three nights booked in advanced to recover from the journey then just make it up as you go. Some of the best places we stayed in were B&B's away from the tourist spots. Give Paul a call, he'll sort you out. |
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9th Sep 2013 8:14pm |
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| TJ101 Member Since: 30 May 2007 Location: Taunton Somerset Posts: 3750  
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Brendan, Rob, Andy
Excellent guys,Thank you, Some homework to do then So far, flights and a motorhome booked Outline plan plus other above to add !! North island - Auckland - paihia/bay of islands 90 mile beach/cape reinga Head back south via....??? Coromandel - cathedral cove - hot water beach Matamata - hobbiton, Lord of the Rings movie set Rotorua - lake / bay of plenty Taupo.... Head to wellington via.....??? Otorohang kiwi house waitomo caves massive tree, SOUTH ISLAND- Picton, through to nelson/Marlborough Sounds Abel Tasman West Cost fox glacier - lake matheson mount cook *lake tekapo milford sounds - lake quill, Sutherland Falls fiordlands Invercargill Queenstown arrowtown te anau Dunedin Queenstown shotover jet World sign Wale watching / swimming with dolphins Drive Arthur's Pass Purakaunui Falls, south otago, catlins district The moeraki boulders, north otago Pancake rocks, punakaiki California F1, 75th 110 "Kermit", 50th Ann V8, 90 V8 Hybrid, 55 Series 1 Main Brian James Trailer Dealer for South West UK |
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9th Sep 2013 8:29pm |
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| AndyS Member Since: 18 Aug 2012 Location: London Posts: 595
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Ironman NZ is in Taupo so I've spent a fair while there. To be honest, in a country such as NZ I wouldn't hang around Taupo for too long. They say it's a shopping paradise but it has no more shops then the worst of UK high streets. Best to head along to somewhere else. Lake Taupo is the biggest lake in the southern hemisphere and even if you're into lake swimming there are better lakes in NZ to swim in (such as Wanaka).
Wellington was good, I really liked the vibe in Wellington. It is a proper city with a city vibe which you'll start to miss after a few weeks in NZ. It's all small townships and long drives. Wellington is probably worth spending three/four days in, get the see the street art, Te Papa museum, the Parliament buildings and sample city life in NZ. It depends what you're into. The north of the North Island is tropical, has long sandy beaches and warm weather. We've been to Cathedral Cave and stayed at The Church is Haihei. It's beautiful and typical of your holiday postcard. I thought the South Island was more stunning because it has mountains and weather. It's all up to you, whatever you want, it'll be there. If you go to Lake Tekapo make sure you get yourself up to the star gazing at Mount St John. They do night tours of the skies from the observatory. The skies are so clear you can see satellites cross the sky. Amazing. We spent two months in NZ toying with the idea of moving there. All said and done, NZ is about the best place to take a holiday but for us it wasn't home. For the couple we travelled with to do the Ironman in 08, they moved there in 09 and live just outside Auckland. |
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9th Sep 2013 8:42pm |
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| leeds Member Since: 28 Dec 2009 Location: West Yorkshire Posts: 8582
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Bungee jumping at Queenstown
They also do a helicopter ride up and over the canyons. The Jret boats can be fun especially when the pilot cocks up and has to leave party by deserted gold mine workings Tandem Sky diving
Lots to do, just go and enjoy. Brendan |
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9th Sep 2013 8:47pm |
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| yobbie Member Since: 15 Nov 2010 Location: Isle of Wight Posts: 713 
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Never been to NZ but have a good NZ friend who was a top class triathlete, cyclist & medalist at world skating championships. Seen lots of pics and the scenery looks stunning. Would love to go at some point
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9th Sep 2013 9:11pm |
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| farmer giles Member Since: 09 Feb 2011 Location: worcestershire Posts: 1299 
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AJ Hackett (bungee jumping company) used to run trips from queenstown to a bridge jump site in a 101 (other fleet vehicles were 110s).
i hired the services of a ghille and went fly fishing on some rivers near taupo (highly recommended) black water rafting at waitomo was good fun (far better than shotover jetboat in my opinion) mountain biking in rotorua forrest sea kayaking on the abel tasmin coast if dophins are not around at kiakora do go swimming with the seals (far more fun) there is supposed to be excellent diving at poor knights islands but i got there just after a really bad storm and it wasn't so good. |
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16th Sep 2013 1:57pm |
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| TJ101 Member Since: 30 May 2007 Location: Taunton Somerset Posts: 3750
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What a great trip
A bit of offroading with the locals,, sorry about the rented wheels !! not a LR to be had !! Bottled it on the deeper stuff, it was a renter after all !! [URL=]  Click image to enlarge[/URL] Well off the beaten track [URL=] Click image to enlarge[/URL] [URL=] Click image to enlarge[/URL] Like always with pictures, a lot steeper that it looks [URL=] Click image to enlarge[/URL] A great trip, with some nice tracks, friendly locals and excellent scenery,, the local government, actually encourage the use of the lanes for vehicles Admin note: this post has had its images recovered from a money grabbing photo hosting site and reinstated  California F1, 75th 110 "Kermit", 50th Ann V8, 90 V8 Hybrid, 55 Series 1
Main Brian James Trailer Dealer for South West UK |
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9th Jan 2014 10:56pm |
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| AndyS Member Since: 18 Aug 2012 Location: London Posts: 595
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Good stuff but going to NZ has a down side, you'll want to go back again (and again)!
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11th Jan 2014 8:27pm |
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| TJ101 Member Since: 30 May 2007 Location: Taunton Somerset Posts: 3750
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Not wrong there !!, Another trip in the offing,, 
Mount Cook at 6.00am Shame we had one neigbough at the wild camp [URL=] Click image to enlarge[/URL] Going Down [URL=] Click image to enlarge[/URL] Admin note: this post has had its images recovered from a money grabbing photo hosting site and reinstated California F1, 75th 110 "Kermit", 50th Ann V8, 90 V8 Hybrid, 55 Series 1
Main Brian James Trailer Dealer for South West UK |
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11th Jan 2014 8:45pm |
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