I am a college student with somewhat of a limited budget that is going to be traveling to New Zealand in roughly a week and will be there for 14 days. My laptop with all my travel plans and research, decided it would die so now here I am last minute trying to re plan my itinerary with what little I have from memory. Any advice/ help given would be greatly appreciated. First off, I will be flying into Wellington on Jan 20th where I was planning on staying at Base Wellington (a hostel) for the night to get my bearings and then go from there the next morning. My intent was to rent a car so that I can move about the country at my own pace. From what I have read and heard from friends, the Southern Island interests me the most, so I plan on spending most of my time exploring it and seeing the best sites of New Zealand while maximizing the time I have there. However, I would like to make it up to Auckland for a day or two. I am an avid scuba diver, so I am considering The Poor Knights, Bay of Islands, Fiordland and Stewart Island. Not sure where to pick if I were only able to do one or two dives. Any better ideas? I definitely want to go and explore the Waitaimo Caves. I am hoping to go on a couple nice scenic day hikes (Fox Glacier is one consideration). Sky diving in Christ Church is also an option. I am very open to any ideas and recommendations that you all might have. My intent is to be staying in cheap lodging for most of the nights, but also "splurging" for a nicer hotel/ resort a few nights.

Hi, Ferrari05
What a curse about your laptop.

I hope you are over 21 as all renters (and any additional drivers) must be over the age of 21 and hold a full driver's license at the time of rental.

With the time you have I think you would be wise to choose just one island to visit. Driving times in NZ between places are often quite long. Driving between Auckland and Wellington is a good 8 hours for those of us who know the road, to give you an example. Check out the website below for help.

http://www.aatravel.co.nz/main/td-calculator.php

There have been some very interesting itineraries posted here in the last 10 days - I suggest you search for them and see what you culd mix and match for your own itinerary.
Where do you fly from to NZ, and from which city are you leaving NZ? That too could help with ideas for you - allowing for jetlag, etc.
My daughter and her husband dive at Poor Knights and would recommend it to anyone.
Good luck with your planning.

Hi Dottyp,

Thank you for your help and giving me that website to check out! I didn't realize that the drives would be that long, but that will just add to the adventure of it all. I will be in Germany 2 days prior to my arrival to New Zealand, so that should help somewhat with the jet lag. I will be arriving and departing from Wellington for the sake of cheaper airfare and because it is relatively centrally located. Thank you again for your help.

p.s. Could your daughter recommend a reputable dive shop there at Poor Knights that I could rent gear?

I lived in Newzeland as a student for 3 years and on a limited budget and with travelonmymind i wanted to see as much as possible. Im not a diver though, infact cold water (with is the case in NZ) is just not my thing, although i had gone swimming with the dolphins of the cost of Kaikora (on the way to chirstchurch from picton-which is the northern most tip of the south islads also where the ferry from wellingtons ports), anyhow snokerling with the dolphins was awesome.
Now you are talking about the BAy of ISalnd & the Waitomo caves with are all on the north island. I would definately do the caves (the black water rafting is wow).
I recommend you divide your trip into half and spend 7 days on the north island and 7 days on the south.
I dont recommend renting a car at wellington as its a walking city (thats where i lived, distances are not much and parking is a pain and can be expensive (about 3-4$/h). Take a ferry from wellington to picton (south island) i would rent a car there, drive on the east side through kaikore to christchurch, explore as you go along. (by the way skydiving way better at Tapou-north island) you can drive all the way to queenstown. (good thing is if you use a rental company like hertz you can almost leave he car anywhere). also their manual/stick cars are cheaper.
i would fly back to wellington rent a car, drive taopu (5hrs from welly)(larget fresh water lake in autralsia), skydiving there, then drive across to the wiatomo caves (anoth 4-5 hrs), then to auckland and finally to the bay of island.

Thats for now hope it helps, also a lot of budget travellers (depening on ur visa and stuff) can wor while ther travel (working holiday).

Oh ya and accomodations can be inexpensive look for doms type hostels (about 30-45$) for shared rooms and common bathrooms, these are normally neat and clean.

Sorry about the spelling mistakes.

I doubt that two days in Germany will help much with the jet lag situation, Ferrari. Don't underestimate the effect of this on your ability to drive here, particularly in view of the fact that we drive on the left side of the road. There are many road accidents here involving overseas people who drive before adjusting adequately and either fall asleep at the wheel or react inappropriately to emergency situations because they are not fully alert.

Rob.

Base Wellington is awful. Try to get the YHA instead, it's right around the corner. Or anywhere else.

A good website for hostels is bbh.co.nz, which has a rating system.

I think with the short stay you have you might just stick with one island. I don't think Auckland is worthwhile. Wellington has a few days worth of sites and this should be find for recovering from jetlag.

If you are looking for adventure activities they abound near Queenstown. The dolphin swim near Akaroa is also popular.

Thank you everyone for all your input and recommendations!! I really appreciate it. I will look into all these sites and take all of this into consideration. MLGB....I am confused who to use because there are so many different hostel organizations there. I have found YHA, BBH, Hostels Worldwide, Base Hostels, and Nomads Hostels. Which is the best organization to go through? Is it really worth joining one of these just for a 2 week trip? The problem is all of these sites/organizations claim to be the best, and obviously not all of them are. What are the chances of finding a room when I get there? I am thinking the way this is turning out for me now, I will have to figure out where I am going to stay the night prior to arriving to that destination. I am use to doing hotels when I travel and I am new to the whole concept of hostels. How do you recommend I go about doing this best?

You don't have to join any of the organizations to use them. Joining some gets you an added per night discount and perhaps a phone card.

The chances of finding a room at one of the better hostels by just turning up is probably not good.

In NZ I've used YHA and BBH, and stayed at the one Wellington Base (never again). Many of the hostels are rated, for BBH they have their own system (and I recommend using it, stick to hostels in the 80s and above)> Another rating system is hostelz.com.

For YHAs, Tripadvisor has ratings.