We are planning a 2 week trip to New Zealand in December. I was thinking about making reservations for lodging for the first and last nights only and then just roaming around and staying where ever we wanted the rest of the time. We did this in Ireland and it worked great. I thought I should check with all of you and make sure this will work in New Zealand. I would hate to have to sleep in the car! I also noticed that people were making reservations for some of the activities before they left home. Should I be checking into that as well?

December is school break and Christmas holidays - I would NOT wait to book accommodations or activities.

Depends on the dates, is it early december or mid thru, if the latter then this is indeed school vacation time? If you intend doing coach day trips to well known tourist spots then you should book before you leave home, perhaps directly through their websites.

We will be in New Zealand the first 2 weeks of December. When does the school vactation start?

The rugby workd cups being helod in Novemeber in Australia - so I would assume many travelers for this event will be extending their trips in the area. I would book everything now.

Hi Frieda
You won't have too much of a problem providing you are flexible, B & B's, farmstay, hotels as options, you can book ahead the day before from the tourist office's in larger towns.

I see you have been getting conflicting replies so far.
I would advise making bookings as Dec is a pretty busy time.
If you have an itinery that you will be sticking to, it might pay to make a few advance reservations.
Especially in the more popular tourist areas ...

A good website for discounted rooms is www.wotif.com
You can only book 2 weeks in advance but you can pick up discounted rooms in most main NZ cities.

good luck with the planning.

Thankyou Christa but I reiterate that if Frieda is flexible about their accomodation choices eg farmstays, B & B's and boutique hotels they will not have a problem. You will not get discounted rooms off some large booking agency at these type of accomodations only at large hotels in the main centres. There are many many places to stay at of excellent quality that are not on the internet or have anything to do with booking websites.

Thanks so much for your advise. I'm sure I'll have more questions before I get this all planned.