January-March When to visit NZ
 

Plan to take a 3 week tour with OAT sometime between January and March. Will start in Wellington, then the south island, finishing in Auckland. Thinking of doing a week on my own somewhere on north island--maybe Bay of Islands, but open to suggestions.

Does anyone feel one of those months is better than the others? Swimming isn't major factor. Heard that Chinese New Year is crowded in early February and January has a lot of families traveling. Would late February to early March be good?

Yes, Chinese New Year is a zoo in NZ, as I discovered first hand last year.

Personally, I would choose March - the weather is still nice, but the local kids have gone back to school (their school holidays run from just before Christmas through January or so). It's still plenty busy (by my standards anyway).

You'll have very long days, which will allow you to fit quite a lot in. We were shocked at how long the days were in February after having visited in the winter for so long. They were almost too long, lol.

'Chinese New Year is a zoo in NZ' have to agree with you there but NZ needs their tourist $$$.
Visit in mid to late February or March. All school and uni students are back studying by the end of February and the public holidays are all over until Easter.
Bay of Islands area is beautiful but awkwardly placed in that you have to go through Auckland and back the same way. But if you are in Auckland already hire a car and drive up the east coast side and back down the west.
Exploring in the Rotorua/Coromandel area would give a 'loop' unless your tour is going there already.

What is an OAT tour? Is it this?
https://www.oattravel.com/trips/land...w-zealand/2017

If not, where will you be going on the "OAT" tour?

Swimming isn't a major factor for you, but what is? What would you like to see and do while here? Do you prefer warmer weather? Also, why not travel independently throughout your trip?

In 2017, Chinese New Year will be on Jan. 28, preceded by Chinese Spring Festival Eve on Jan. 27 and followed by Spring Festival Golden Week from Jan. 29 through Feb. 2. In 2016, the Chinese New Year holidays started on Feb. 8.

Late-Feb. through early-March offers some of the best weather (sunnier, drier, warmer). Doesn't mean you can't still encounter rain and chilly winds. The weather is unpredictable.

Both Feb. and March are popular with tourists from overseas, with Feb. being more crowded.

According to www.stats.govt.nz:
In February 2016, 122,064 tourists from Australia, 53,152 tourists from China (5 % drop from Feb. 2015), and 37,120 tourists from the U.S. visited NZ. I won't list all nationalities, but, in all, 373,376 tourists visited NZ in Feb. 2016 (8.7 % increase from Feb. 2015). To give you some context, NZ's population is almost 4.5 million.

In March 2016, 133,296 tourists from Australia visited NZ, 40,448 tourists from China, and 32,752 tourists from the U.S. visited NZ. In all, 344,387 tourists visited NZ in March 2016 (18 % increase from March 2015).

December is still the busiest month by far. May and June are the least busy.

International tourism has overtaken dairy as NZ's biggest export earner (as overseas demand for dairy has declined).
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/7544...-export-earner
To avoid "tourists hot spots" from overcrowding, NZ Tourism has made an effort "to get visitors to come in spring and autumn" and to visit regions beyond traditional tourist attractions.

In Dunedin, where I live, April seemed much busier than previous years. Last weekend the Farmers Market looked as busy as it does in summer, and it was drizzling and there were no special events on, nor cruise ships in port.

The Arrowtown Autumn Festival had record crowds last weekend. Stuff NZ reported that tickets for the Bluff Oyster & Food Festival on May 21 are selling faster than ever and there may not be any tickets left for gate sales on the day.

A pristine, remote landing site high in Fiordland National Park is about to have its daily limit of helicopter landings soar from 10 to potentially 80 a day (Ngapunatoru Ice Plateau in the Darran Mountains).

A $5 million heritage and visitor centre, with cafe, camping ground office, public toilets and a small theatre, set in a landscaped garden with a car park is being constructed at the Catlins' Curio Bay to accommodate the ever-growing number of visitors.

The now-gravel road to the Catlins' Nugget Point is being paved because it's gotten so busy.

NZ will get busier, but it'll still be beautiful and not crowded compared to many other places.

Interesting statistics Diamantina. I have fond memories of our first visits to NZ in the early 90's long before the world discovered it post LOTR.

Granted the food has improved a lot since then - I remember a lot of boring white bread sandwiches and chips. Or perhaps our food budget has just increased.

>>>December is still the busiest month by far. <<<

I found the first half of December to be very quiet. I guess the latter half of the month more than makes up for it.