Hi all,

We are just beginning to plan our first trip to NZ for next March so please forgive these initial basic questions. I've been looking at hiking trips through Backroads.com on South Island or a multi-adventure (hiking, biking, kayaking) trip on North Island. I would be interested in hearing from you all on a couple of topics, (1) recommendations for local NZ hiking operators that specialize in small groups and stay in nice lodges with good food options (we would prefer to have an operator make all the arrangements for us and furnish local guides to take us on hikes and educate us about the region), and (2) if we want to visit both north and south whether it's better to do an outdoorsy trip in the north vs. south combined with a city/sightseeing/wine tasting trip in the other region. We are 2 couples in our early sixties who are fit and hike and bike alot in the Western US. We'd like to spend about 2 - 2.5 weeks in total.

Many thanks for any advice you're willing to share!

Can you arrange for more than 2.5 weeks? Because this is not much time for seeing both the North and South Islands. But you can certainly do a bit of both that will include the activities you're interested in. For the South Island, you might want to fly to Nelson or Christchurch and make your way south, flying out of Queenstown. Or just fly into Queenstown, and start your explorations from there. A lot of travelers to the South Island travel a loop starting in Christchurch, but you wouldn't have time if you'll also want to visit the North Island. Can you narrow down which places you'd most like to see?

I have a only a few suggestions for you.

Ultimate Hikes offers guided and catered multi-day walks of the Milford and Routeburn Tracks, both in the South Island. Are you coming from the U.S.? The NZ dollar is at three-year low against the U.S. dollar, so your dollar will stretch far here.

There are a number of companies that will arrange cycling trips of the Alps2Alpine or Central Otago Railtrail, these, too, are both on the South Island.

Kayaking choices include those along the coastline of Abel Tasman NP, Rosco's Kayaks' tours of Milford Sound, Glenorchy's Rippled Earth, Mt. Cook Glacier Sea Kayaking's excursions onto Tasman Glacier Lake in Aoraki Mt. Cook. NZ's surrounded by water and full of lakes and rivers, so you'll have a lot of choices!

You'll find great wine regions everywhere, from the north (near Auckland) to the deep south (Central Otago). There are even wineries in the Bay of Islands. You'd probably enjoy Waiheke Island (a beautiful and popular island in Auckland's Hauraki Gulf), Hawkes Bay (Napier is known for its Art Deco architecture and good food), and the Central Otago wine region (close to Queenstown and the Central Otago Rail Trail). They're all scenic. You'll be able to find cycling tours of the Gibbston Valley (part of the Central Otago wine region) from Queenstown. Or cycling tours of wineries of Hawkes Bay wineries from Napier. Marlborough is the country's largest and most famed wine region, most known for its sauvignon blanc. If you decide to hike or kayak in Abel Tasman NP, you'd also want to visit the Nelson wine region. Have a look at: https://www.nzwine.com/en/our-regions/

As you're interested in cities, you'll probably enjoy Wellington, NZ's vibrant and attractive capital and home to the national museum, Te Papa. It's known for its restaurants, coffee culture and craft breweries. The Martinborough wine regon is about 90 minutes away, part of it along a winding steep road, but I'm sure you'd be able to find a tour from Wellington. The Interislander and Bluebridge ferries sail out of Wellington to pretty Picton, which is a half-hour from the Marlborough wine region.

You'll find it very easy to plan a self-guided independent tour of NZ, both North and South, including suggestions for routing, restaurants, winery stops, hiking, cycling and kayaking trips with help of the people on this forum. There are many companies that offer one-day guided hiking trips in popular locales. Though I don't think you'll need this as much as you think. Have a look at the walking brochure for walking-and-cycling-tracks-in-aoraki-mt-cook.pdf. It'll tell you if the track is easy or challenging, how long it will take, what the vertical gain is, and so on. A number of websites, such as TA and Rankers, have reviews of various popular walking tracks.

Have you seen the DOC (Dept. of Conservation) website? You'll love it.
https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-re...-and-tramping/

March is the third most popular month (after December and February), so you will want to book well in advance.

Diamantina - thanks so much for your helpful reply...super informative. I will check out these websites and will be back with more questions I'm sure!