Hey Mike NZ

Mike, my son is going to New Zealand and will arrive in Auckland on May 30. and leave June 7.

Do you have any suggestions on what he should see while he's there?

Well, he's off tonight on the long flight there. I'm just hoping for the best and that he has a safe and enjoyable trip

Vaa Fakaosifolau Said:

Jed Said: This from a local paper today.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/travel/newzealand2011/7520841/New-Zealand-in-pictures.html?image=8

That one called half time break is a classic, just about every town in the country you could see that at the sports grounds in the Winter. Not my cup of tea, freezing your azz off for 90 minutes+ in the rain watching johnny play rugby (or football) :silly:

Yeah but it was worth frreezin your ass off in the rain for ninety minutes to have an excuse for warmin it up again in the pub with yer mates after.

This from a local paper today.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sponsored/travel/newzealand2011/7520841/New-Zealand-in-pictures.html?image=8

Thanks for the heads-up, Mike. He went for this because the tickets were cheap........now I can see why they were! :laugh: :( :woohoo:

Thanks for all the good info and ideas. Now I need to plot them all on the map and see how many I can fit into my route! Mt. Tarawera and Lake Tarawera look quite nice. White Island looks neat too, but the tours seem to be a bit expensive. Tauranga is indeed very close to my route and might be a nice beach addition to my itinerary as most of the rest is inland. What has better beaches and scenery, the area around Tauranga, Coromandel, or Northland area?

Thanks for the info Mike. My son may try to email you for more details, just so you know it's not spam or something.

Steve

Hey Mike,

This is Jeff, Steve's son.

I intend to spend almost all of my time outside of Auckland. I'll be renting a car while I'm in NZ, and intend to get out and see a bit more of the natural side of things. I've been reading up over the last few day and have a few tentative ideas.. but I'm sure there are a lot of attractions that I haven't even heard about and I'm curious as to what your favorites might be.

So far a few stops on my list are Waitomo, for the Caves, Rotorua to see some of the volcanic sites, Napier for some wine / coastal action, and Tongariro to hike the alpine crossing. Do you think the Tongariro crossing is already overly cold / icy?

Mapping out the driving route between those sites, it appears that I'll mostly be inland. So, I was thinking about adding another coastal city into the mix. Any suggestions? I'm interested in seing Wellington, but it's a bit far outside the loop of the other stops, and I've already got about 15 hours of drive time in store for me with those. Anyhow, any insight you can give would be much appreciated!