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North Island NZ - your suggestions?
Well, you've all said you are sick of spammers and idiots, so cut your teeth
on this serious question ... We are planning to go to North Island, NZ, for 3-4 weeks in November for a fly-drive holiday staying in motels or B&Bs, hoping to be gone before the school holidays start (when exactly is that?) We are a middle-aged Australian couple and we have been to NZ a few times before for a mixture of work/play, but mostly to the South Island, although we have previously visited Auckland, Rotorua and Wellington for a couple of days each (and driven through but not really explored places between them). So, we figure this trip should focus on exploring the North Island. We are happy to revisit Auckland etc but hoping to see different things rather than the "big name" tourist attractions that we've previously visited. To provide some context about us ...We are of ordinary fitness, so not looking for arduous tramping (short ones are OK especially if rewarded by fabulous scenery) or engaging in extreme sports (although I guess we'd be happy to watch others risk their lives!). Our interests are otherwise fairly eclectic, keen to see fabulous scenery, interested in food and wine, interested in history and culture and art and architecture. Not really into shopping, but generally willing to visit markets especially with regional produce or locally-made crafts (spare us from the tourist traps with tacky made-in-China souvenirs). We're not particularly constrained by budget, but equally not keen to be ripped off. We don't mind using the services of local tour operators for day trips in preference to driving ourselves around an area if the experience would be better that way (better information, doing wine tasting so there's no drink driving issue, access to places inaccessible to independent tourists, etc), but otherwise prefer to be independent. We aren't planning on self-catering (maybe some bread/cereal for a quick breakfast occasionally) so would tend to prefer to stay in towns or facilities able to provide us with decent coffee and some choice of cafes/restaurants for our meals. We are rather partial to NZ films, by which I mean ones like Smash Palace, Goodbye Pork Pie, World's Fastest Indian etc rather than Lord of the Rings (not that there was anything wrong with LOTR), so if you know of any North Island places that featured in any NZ films, that would interest us. I've looked at a few NZ tourism WWW sites for some itinerary suggestions but for North Island nobody seems to think you might want to spend more than a week there and so the typical itinerary seems to take in the fairly obvious places (Auckland, Bay of Islands, Rotorua, Lake Taupo, Wellington). Is this some kind of hint that there is nothing else worth bothering with? I hope not as we could spend up to 4 weeks if there was enough to see to make it worthwhile. So, I'd like any serious thoughts on anything you'd recommend in North Island and why. Also any thoughts on an itinerary (we are not particularly concerned about driving long distances but prefer not to retrace our steps if there's an alternate route that will take in different scenery). We usually travel with one or more guide books (usually at least a Lonely Planet), road atlases, etc, so we aren't asking for details (except for things that won't make the guide books) but more on ideas. But if you have any suggestions for particularly good guidebooks or other resources for planning the trip, feel free to mention them. I'd vaguely thought of doing a "Goodbye Pork Pie" holiday retracing the route of the film, but much of the film was in South Island so I don't think that's really going to work out as a basis for the itinerary. As we will most likely fly to/from Auckland, we may spend a few days there without a rental car at the start or end of the trip and I was vaguely wondering about spending a few days on some of the islands just off Auckland. Any recommendations/advice on those? Kerry |
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North Island NZ - your suggestions?
On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:31:59 +1000, "Kerry Raymond"
wrote: Well, you've all said you are sick of spammers and idiots, so cut your teeth on this serious question ... We are planning to go to North Island, NZ, for 3-4 weeks in November for a fly-drive holiday staying in motels or B&Bs, hoping to be gone before the school holidays start (when exactly is that?) We are a middle-aged Australian couple and we have been to NZ a few times before for a mixture of work/play, but mostly to the South Island, although we have previously visited Auckland, Rotorua and Wellington for a couple of days each (and driven through but not really explored places between them). So, we figure this trip should focus on exploring the North Island. We are happy to revisit Auckland etc but hoping to see different things rather than the "big name" tourist attractions that we've previously visited. To provide some context about us ...We are of ordinary fitness, so not looking for arduous tramping (short ones are OK especially if rewarded by fabulous scenery) or engaging in extreme sports (although I guess we'd be happy to watch others risk their lives!). Our interests are otherwise fairly eclectic, keen to see fabulous scenery, interested in food and wine, interested in history and culture and art and architecture. Not really into shopping, but generally willing to visit markets especially with regional produce or locally-made crafts (spare us from the tourist traps with tacky made-in-China souvenirs). We're not particularly constrained by budget, but equally not keen to be ripped off. We don't mind using the services of local tour operators for day trips in preference to driving ourselves around an area if the experience would be better that way (better information, doing wine tasting so there's no drink driving issue, access to places inaccessible to independent tourists, etc), but otherwise prefer to be independent. We aren't planning on self-catering (maybe some bread/cereal for a quick breakfast occasionally) so would tend to prefer to stay in towns or facilities able to provide us with decent coffee and some choice of cafes/restaurants for our meals. We are rather partial to NZ films, by which I mean ones like Smash Palace, Goodbye Pork Pie, World's Fastest Indian etc rather than Lord of the Rings (not that there was anything wrong with LOTR), so if you know of any North Island places that featured in any NZ films, that would interest us. I've looked at a few NZ tourism WWW sites for some itinerary suggestions but for North Island nobody seems to think you might want to spend more than a week there and so the typical itinerary seems to take in the fairly obvious places (Auckland, Bay of Islands, Rotorua, Lake Taupo, Wellington). Is this some kind of hint that there is nothing else worth bothering with? I hope not as we could spend up to 4 weeks if there was enough to see to make it worthwhile. So, I'd like any serious thoughts on anything you'd recommend in North Island and why. Also any thoughts on an itinerary (we are not particularly concerned about driving long distances but prefer not to retrace our steps if there's an alternate route that will take in different scenery). We usually travel with one or more guide books (usually at least a Lonely Planet), road atlases, etc, so we aren't asking for details (except for things that won't make the guide books) but more on ideas. But if you have any suggestions for particularly good guidebooks or other resources for planning the trip, feel free to mention them. I'd vaguely thought of doing a "Goodbye Pork Pie" holiday retracing the route of the film, but much of the film was in South Island so I don't think that's really going to work out as a basis for the itinerary. As we will most likely fly to/from Auckland, we may spend a few days there without a rental car at the start or end of the trip and I was vaguely wondering about spending a few days on some of the islands just off Auckland. Any recommendations/advice on those? Kerry Just a couple of things to consider. I did a short trip, driving, starting in Auckland for a few days then to Wellington via Rotorua, Taupo, and Napier. If you drive you will find that there are some very cheap deals doing the reverse direction; it seems everyone goes the route I did and they will almost pay you to get the car back from Wellington to Auckland. I could have spent a lot longer wandering North of Auckland and also in the wine country to the West and North-west. Similarly I could easily spend a week around Hawkes Bay and Napier; no specific sites or landmarks, just a nice district with interesting towns and locations. Cheers, Alan, Australia -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/alan_s/ http://loraltravel.blogspot.com Latest: The Taj Mahal |
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