New Zealand

In July 2008 we went to New Zealand for three weeks holiday. It was a place I'd always wanted to visit and the fact that my girlfriend's brother was working there for the winter gave us the perfect excuse.

We organized our flights (with Air New Zealand) and camper van rental (with Maui) via a travel agency here in Barcelona called Viajes Tuareg.

Tuareg gave us a recomended route to follow which we modified slightly with information from friends who had been to New Zealand, from people we know who live in New Zealand and from a guide book.

The route below was what we choose to do and suited us perfectly, other people may have different priorities but we certainly don't think we missed out on anything (although it is impossible to see everything in just 19 days). It served as an outline only and we made sure that we left a few days free (no point getting stressed on holidays!) but as you will can see from the listed days we actually followed it fairly closely.

Each day has a map of the driving that we did that day and you can see the complete route on the map.

  1. Arrival and Auckland - Day 1 and Day 2
  2. Auckland to Paihia - Day 3
  3. Pahia to Auckland - Day 4
  4. Auckland to Rotorua - Day 5
  5. Around Rotorua and Lake Taupo - Day 6
  6. Lake Taupo to Wellington - Day 7
  7. Ferry from Wellington to Picton - Day 8
  8. Whalewatching in Kaikoura - Day 9
  9. Visit Punkaiki and stop in Greymouth - Day 10
  10. Franz Josep and Fox Glaciers - Day 11
  11. Wanaka - Day 12
  12. Queenstown and onto Te Anau - Day 13
  13. Milford Sound and back to Queenstown - Day 14
  14. Wanaka - Day 15
  15. Aoraki Mount Cook or Omarau - Day 16
  16. Christchurch - Day 17 and Day 18
  17. Start the trip home - Day 19