ellie_williams

Hi everyone

Hoping you may be able to provide some advice on a road trip we are planning around New Zealand for our honeymoon in mid October.

We have got 16 days in New Zealand, flying into Auckland and out of Christchurch. We are planning on renting a car and then stopping at hotels along the way. I know we will be slightly under pressure for time as we are planning to cover the main tourist spots across the north and South Island.

We ideally don't want to take any internal flights once we are in NZ and will plan to get the ferry between the north and South Island.

Would be great if anyone could provide a suggested itinerary for the 16 days or any key spots we shouldn't miss. Any recommended places to stay for honeymooners will also be greatly appreciated!

Many thanks

annhig

Athough we weren't honeymooners, we did a similar trip a year or so ago, flying into Auckland and out of C/Church. We also rented a car with Apex and use the ferry to get from the North to the South - so far so good.

the main problem that we had, with 17 nights, was deciding what to miss out. for example, we really wanted to see the Bay of Islands [the sub-tropical north of the NI] but in the end we had to jettison it in order to spend more time on the south island. we also decided to miss out Rotorua. We also chose to go west from Picton [where the ferry docks on the SI] and so we missed out on the Marlborough sounds and the east coast between Picton and C/Church where, if you are lucky, you can see whales and swim with dolphins. OTOH we were able to spend a day in the lovely Abel Tasman park and explore the wineries around Nelson.

Driving is not easy due to the time that it takes to get from one place to another, and you need to give yourselves recovery time in between driving days. Also to get to the glaciers of the SI, then to Queenstown and then back to C/Church takes quite a long time - really 10 days minimum if you want to do it comfortably, more if you want to go down to Te Anau to see Milford or Doubtful sound, unless you fly from QT.

so you really need to work out what it is you really want to see and plan accordingly.

i should get a guide book and start deciding what it is you really want to see!

Melnq8

Ellie -

Further to annhig's comments - 16 days just isn't enough time to 'cover the main tourist spots across the north and South Islands', as there are just too many of them and they are too far spaced. Driving distances in NZ are further then they appear on a map and more often than not it takes much more time that you might expect to get from Point A to Point B.

It would behoove you to narrow your wish list from the main tourist sites to those YOU actually want to invest the time/effort in visiting, and then go from there.

Esme_Travels

Dammit. As always, annhig is ahead of me on travel (planning on New Zealand for December, 2015). Kathie usually beats me to the punch too.

Looking forward to reading everyone's recommendations for driving NZ.

FromDC

Following along, our trip is for Oct/Nov.