Want some suggestions on which place to halt for an overnight stay when driving from Rotorua to Wellington since driving time is nearly 7 hrs.

One choice would be to stay in/near Tongariro National Park. There are some nice rustic cabins in the Park, near Whakapapa Village. Higher-end hotel accommodations are available there as well (Skotel Alpine Resort, Grand Chateau, Tongariro Lodge). This is probably 40% of the way to Wellington. If you want to go a bit further south, you could stay in Ohakune, at the south end of the National Park. I know of two places there: Ohakune Court Motel (inexpensive) and Cairnbrae House (higher-end).

It is really beautiful around Tongariro, and you could do some interesting things, like take the Whakapapa Skifield chairlift more than halfway up Mt. Ruapehu for spectacular views. If you are a LOTR enthusiast, significant parts of the films were shot in and around the Park.

We stayed at the Skotel. It's a nice property, but the standard room is pretty tiny. We ended up staying only one night and driving to Wellington the next day, especially since we decided not to do the Tongariro Crossing.

You could also drive over toward the west coast and stay in the New Plymouth area.

Lee Ann

No, New Plymouth is too far west and won't reduce your daily driving time that much. The other issue is that you really need to be lucky to see Mt. Egmont at all (it's usually covered in cloud). I would stick with the suggestion to stay around Tongariro NP. I did make it to Wanganui once, there are some nice old B&B's, but I think the drive would be better by sticking with Hwy 1. (I took the old River Road to Wanganui which was for expert drivers only at the time).

We stayed at a motel called The Hobbit at Ohakune. It was very reasonable, ($88.00NZ) had a good restaurant and the owners were very friendly.

The owner has been a Hobbit and Rings fan for years, the motel has had its name long before the current craze.

Heartily recommended.

I think Ohakune seems to be a better place to stay and the motels also seem to be reasonably priced. What will be the distance of Wellington from Ohakune?

>>No, New Plymouth is too far west and won't reduce your daily driving time that much<<

That's true; I wasn't thinking of the fastest route necessarily.

It's about...four hours, I think, from Ohakune to Wellington. It might be less - we had to stop to change a flat tire along the way and then buy a new one in Feilding, so that probably has thrown my time memory off a bit.

Lee Ann