We will be in S. Island from March 30 til April 10,2004. Do I need to worry about accommodations because of Easter holiday?
We prefer to "wing it" Did that last time in November and had no problems. But now worried about places filling up fast because of holiday.
Comments? Thanks

You should pre book the main tourist areas, Queenstown, Wanaka, Te Anau etc.

How far in advance? 2 weeks? or more?

At least by the end of february.

We also plan to be in NZ at Easter weekend next year, probably in Auckland and Bay of Islands. We plan to have our hotels by Feb.

Questions: Are tourist places closed or are they extra busy on that weekend? Are the schools closed and people travelling? Should I take a deep breath and relax? Thanks.

Jed

In response to your post about Easter. On Good Friday and Easter Sunday you will find that most if not all retail stores are closed. Restaurants are usually open in larger centres as well as some bars.

Easter is a school holiday time so accommodation will be in demand. Book early.

Tourist places will be reasonably busy at this time.

In larger centres eg Auckland the Saturday and Monday of Easter are two of the busiest retail days of the year. You will find most stores open and doing a booming trade on those two days.

Hope this helps

Steve

Thanks.

I have some info which may help answer the question of whether it it best to reserve early for the week before Easter.

It is now 2 weeks before Easter, and wotif.com site has the availability for that time, including Easter Sunday. I believe that the school holiday starts on Thursday and goes to Tuesday after.

My evaluation is as follows:

Auckland - most hotels available, even with some bargains.
Christchurch - most available.
Queenstown - half available.
Fox and Franz Joseph - most not available.
Dunedin - half available.

So I can judge that at least 2 weeks before the holiday, availability is mostly good, and it is not necessary to book way beforehand (except Westcoast.)

What the situation will be closer to the holiday time, I don't know.

I should add, of course, that if you want a particular hotel or B&B, then you will want to do it ASAP.

I realize this is an old thread, but seeing as it's topped up, I may as well add that Easter in NZ is a little different than here in the US. We went to a small church on Easter and no one was trying to outdo anyone else with their Easter finery. It was nice, they actually were concentrating on the meaning of the day!