I just got a flight alert for a $600 flight from Denver to Auckland in the next couple months. This would be a great time for me to take a couple weeks long vacation for a few reasons, so I’m strongly thinking about just sending it.
I know a lot of people on the forum either were just there for worlds (or live there) and was looking for some insight on recommended places or ways to travel.
As I’d be going solo, I want to keep it relatively cheap and my questions would be best ways to get around? Should I rent a car or is public transit OK? Also where to go? I’d love to do some training from the other side of the forum while there too.
I’d love to hear from anyone and everyone today as I have to decide on booking the flight probably in the next 20 hours.
Rent a car. That will be your biggest expense. They drive on the wrong side of the road (and sit on the wrong side of the car), but you get the hang of it pretty quick.
I’d pick North or South Island and then see as much as possible on that island. Driving top to bottom will take a long time. It’s not like you jump on a freeway and get where you want to go quickly.
We went Vancouver->Aukland in the fall of 2023. Basically I work a shit tonne in the summers so around sept I asked my wife to “get us on a plane somewhere”
Our trip started out as 2 nights in Auckland…and that was it, the rest of the two weeks would be spent going counter clockwise.
So we just walked down to the rental place, got a car without booking (Toyota suv) for 1300$ and spent time on a circle route.
Spent a few days in the north eastern tip area, small hikes and runs, lots of waterfalls. Then to Taupo, then rototua then a day doing the 18 km alpine crossing hike (pretty tame 4-5 hours, boardwalks and packed trails) then 2 days in this really cool hippie town called Raglan, great restaurants and beginner surfing areas. Then closed out the trip with 3 days in the bay of islands area for some easy relaxation.
Also hit hobbit town and waitomo caves…both a must do in my opinion.
Freestyle vacations are awesome, all up we spent about 7k$ cad for two people, two weeks….in November.
you’ll need a car. you could easily get from city to city on buses, but then you’ll be hamstrung once you’re there, and the cities aren’t where you want to be exploring and doing other forum things
biased but I’d spend the trip on the south island
as others have mentioned, DO NOT make the mistake of thinking you’re going to see the entire country in X days
earlier better than later, maximize daylight and weather
answering your real question about doing it on the cheap
can rent cars from mom’n’pop rental agencies instead of Hertz etc, cars will be older
can stay in hostels/backpackers
can hitchhike, widely accepted and safe here
if you’re doing land-based sightseeing and other forum things, no need to be paying for any activities; endless supply of tourism and adventure activities that are designed to extract dollars from you
I’m guessing you will connect somewhere on the west coast? Flight really isn’t that bad, from the west coast. At that price is it a basic ticket where you cannot pick seats in advance? I’d just be aware of stuff like that. I’ve only ever been to Auckland and Christchurch but it’s amazing!!!
SFO-AKL generally comes in at around 12:45 flight time. At least the last couple months, and the other direction usually an hour shorter. Cruise ship season is ending, so are the crowds. Went to Waiheke last Sunday, ferry was a zoo. It was also 80F, everybody was out and about.
Thanks everyone for the replies. Ended up booking it for 2 weeks the second half of april. Connecting through LA so right on a 12-13 hour flight. Not my first rodeo with long flights, there is a Denver-Munich direct I did last year, not so bad.
Looks like I have a decision to make: North or South Island, and then rent a car and bum around seeing a ton. Will be a busy month to try and get this planned out.
south island, look at spending chunks of time around abel tasman/nelson, banks peninsula/chch, QT/wanaka, west coast, catlins, stewart island, mt cook (I’d say pick at most 4 of those). aurora very active this year, so you would include 1 of catlins and stewart island if you want a shot at seeing/photographing that (we get them in wanaka but it’s better the further S you go).
fingers crossed for good weather, should still be pretty sweet around then.
it’ll be difficult to resist the urge to see all the things, but just treat it as though it’s your first trip, not your only trip, and you’ll be sweet.
bring your running shoes and you won’t want for anything to do: all of those places have life-changing trails easily accessible.
Thanks for this advice. Because I am flying into Auckland I’ll probably do a day or two there to adjust then catch a flight to Queenstown or Christchurch.
I am definitely going to head to the south island, sounds like much more to see/do in my brief reading this weekend. Going that far south, Catlins/stewart island, Does it get snowy by late april or is it still fall?
I am keeping the fingers crossed for good weather, but wont let that stop me.
We did Queenstown in late March and it was t-shirt weather. That trip included a hike on the Routeburn Track and we had amazing weather the whole time. Our friends went the second week of April and they had some snow in the upper mountains. I think by late April you might want a light jacket in town but they don’t get much snow even in the winter. Christchurch is a little warmer.
Easter is late this year, but I would think that will mark the end of tourist season. So you should see less crowds, but some of the summer activities will be closed for the year after Easter. Of note, almost everything will be closed on Easter Sunday.
Perfect, I love that kind of weather so this should be a great time for me.
I’ve been looking into the Routeburn Track, I’m a fairly experienced backpacker so I was looking at doing it in 2 days/1 night or just through hiking in one day. 20 miles is a long day but nothing too insane. Maybe I’ll look for a good weather window while down there, staying flexible.
also thanks for the easter tip. Itll be the second day there so will need to get prepared after landing saturday.
I don’t know if you’re familiar with this guy, Harmen Hoek, but he produces some incredible silent hiking videos. I don’t know enough about NZ to know if this hike is in the same area that you’re looking at, but you might enjoy this.
Huge caveat: tiny rock in the middle of an angry ocean, would NOT count on mild weather. In the same breath, you can expect that it’ll be very nice except for when it’s awful.
Routeburn of course is a one-way track so you’ve got shuttling logistics that range from cheap and scrappy to $ and painless. Lots of people run it in a day.
Look into a camper van. We got cheap one from Juicy (basically a mini van you sleep in) years ago.
It gave us a lot of flexibility. We did a loop around the South Island. It was awesome! We went surfing and heli kayaking annd fjord kayaking and hiking and swam with seals. Just an absolutely amazing trip.
Good news, my bonus came out to be quite a bit more than I was expecting, so ‘on the cheap’ doesn’t have to be strictly followed anymore.
I’ve gotten a rough Itinerary down this week. Although its 2 weeks flight to flight, I’ve got about 10 days around the southern south island, so going to base out of 3 towns.
Day 0 Auckland
Landing at 6am, full day of the city/recovery from flying
Days 1-3 Queenstown/Te anau
Milford sound cruise
Routeburn trek (getting car moved to the QT side)
Days 4-6 Stewart Island
Sunset ferry across
Water taxi to Port william and hike back to Oban
pray for good weather/ clear skies and maybe aurora sighting
Days 5-8 Wanaka
Hiking (Roys peak, more)
May rent a bike if weather is good
Wine tasting tour (dont want to drive myself)
Day 9-10 Back to QT at some point, keeping it open if I want to spend more time somewhere/weathers bad at some point.
Flight to Auckland
Day 11 Flight back to USA
This works out to be not that expensive staying in backpackers, may opt for a hotel room somewhere too. With the nz$ weak against the $ even going full out for some of these expenses wont be unmanageable.
I thought about getting more north, but the 5-6 hour drive to Christchurch didn’t seem worth it with how much I already wanted to do. Definity will have to come back.
