Night in Auckland or head north?
 

Still working on my NZ itinerary. We're now debating about spending our first day (arrival & overnight) in Auckland, vs. driving a couple hours north and seeing the city on the way down. We're pretty resiliant with the overnight flight, and are thinking we'd enjoy the city more after jet lag recovery. Any thoughts on what area would be best to stay in Auckland that would provide maximum sights with minimum effort, and/or places on the north route that would be easy to get to but nice to spend the day? Thanks.

Most hotels are in downtown Auckland which is not all that huge, a halkf dozen city blocks either way and you've got it covered, easy enough walking in lower part down near Harbour and http://www.rainbowhotel.co.nz/ will be hard to beat re hotels rooms.

Heading north, Orewa is the first beachside type place without heading too far away from main SH1 and nor sure if they have done anything more on motorway extension that will eventually bypass Orewa - not a great deal there and you might be better off making for Warkworth - http://www.warkworth-information.co.nz/ , about an hour north of city and add on another half hour from airport.

Hi Natalie

After a long flight I would recommend that you spend at least one night in Auckland.

If you want to be based in the city then there are plenty of hotels in the downtown area. If you wanted to be close to the city but in a quieter location then I would suggest Devonport - just a short ferry ride from downtown but much quieter and quaint with a beach close by. The best of Auckland is in the surrounding area and one option might be to spend the day in the city but stay somewhere out of the city. The Waitakere Ranges are an area of exceptional natural beauty just under an hour from the city. You could then head up north via SH 16. Another alternative would be to head north on SH to somewhere around Puhoi (some nice B & Bs)or on to Warkworth oir Matakana - just over an hour's drive from Auckland now that the motorway section bypassing Orewa is open.

If you are arriving in the morning I would head on out. My experience with jet lag coming from the west coast of the US is that you feel tired starting in the mid-afternoon but wake up very early.

If you arrive early enough, pick up the free maps and lodging guides at the Auckland airport, and drive beyond Warkworth..there isn't anything there of major interest. Paihia is only about 3 hours, at the Bay of Islands. If you have not yet visited the Auto Club website, it's
http://aa.co.nz/ or you can to direct to the maps website http://maps.aa.co.nz/
Lots of info on road conditions, hotel listings, travel times, online mapping, etc.

From the airport the drive to Paihia is more like 4 hours - certainly 3.5 hrs depending on how quickly you can get through Auckland. Although you will be on the motorway it can still clog up particularly if you hit the morning traffic (on a weekday of course)

True...it can take an hour to just get out of Auckland.