3 Weeks on the North Island
 

Hi Fodorites,
We're toying with the idea of spending some time in NZ next February. The very early planning is to spend three weeks in the North while working remotely and a proper vacation (10 days or so) in the South. The South portion would be taken care of by our travel designers. Whan it comes to the North a couple of recommendations were Devonport (lovely Auckland suburb), Taupo (Maori, carving, lava glass) and/or Napier (gentleman farmer, vineyards, artisans). Our sightseeing would mainly be on the weekends. I havent researched where all the sights are yet but I think there is more we would want to see in the northern part of the NI. Please tell me you thoughts and recommendations.
Thanks in advance.

Have you checked the visa situation? In some countries you would need a different visa for work, as opposed to a travel/holiday visa. You don't want to get refused entry.

Thanks KayF. I didn’t know that would apply if you are working for your company in the US as opposed to doing work for a company in NZ. I will look into it.

I'm kind of thinking about it as well. I've been to NZ 2 or 3 times but I haven't seen much of the North Island beyond Auckland and Wellington.

One destination up there is Cape Reinga, which is at the very top of the NI and the country. It's in a tropical zone I believe.

The thing is it's very long ways to get to. Up there, it seems much less developed than the rest of the country. A very popular destination is Bay of Islands and one of the nearest towns there is Paihia. There's also a nearby airport, Kerikeri. Paihia and Kerikeri are 3.5 to 4 hours drive from Auckland. Then, if you want to visit Cape Reinga, it's another 3 hour drive each way. There appears to be smaller towns about 60-90 minute drives from Paihia or Kerikeri but very limited in accommodations.

You can certainly fly from Auckland to Kerikeri and rent a car up there. Kind of wary though, while there appears to be more than one flight a day, it's on smaller planes.

I don't mind driving up to 4 hours to reach Paihia. But then it's more hours of driving to reach Cape Reinga and then drive all the way back down towards Auckland, from which to fly to the South Island or fly back to the US>

I guess if you plan on 3 weeks just for the NI, it's not that bad. But if your entire trip is 2-3 weeks, maybe it would be a lot of driving over the course of 7-10 days you'd devote to the NI.

There are probably more destinations up in the Northland region but for now, I'm thinking of Cape Reinga, Bay of Islands and Whangarei, which is 2 hours north of Auckland.

Then you have the region south of Auckland, which would include Napier, Egmont National Park, Tauranga and Mount Maunganui.