# New Zealand Help



## bchill (Jul 19, 2010)

Hi, we're trying to plan our dream trip to New Zealand next January, February or April.  I'd appreciate any advice about where to stay.  We want to start in Queensland but have no idea where else to go.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  We're in our early 60's and want to see as much as possible.
Thanks,
Barbara


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## easyrider (Jul 19, 2010)

We haven't made it yet but have been planning to go. It looks like for us we would need to stay for at least three week to a month to see and do what we want. 

There are two Worldmark resorts in New Zealand. There are many bed and breakfast and other places to stay so thats not a problem. This is one of the websites I looked at. http://www.newzealand.com/travel/northamerica/

For a short trip of 3 weeks I think I like regions 1 - 7. One of the planned stops for us would be Waiau Falls. Fishing out of the Bay of Plenty is also on the to do list. Good Luck.


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## ausman (Jul 19, 2010)

Barbara,

Are you planning a NZ and Australia trip or NZ only.

Queensland is an Australian State and Queenstown is a NZ small city.

Since Lord of the Rings has been prominent lately I'm guessing NZ and a slip of the fingers.?


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## Armada (Jul 19, 2010)

Barbara,

I'll try to help. My wife and I spent about 6-7 weeks in New Zealand over two years.  This was back at the time the America's Cup was last held in Auckland.

If you want to spend a month or so seeing all of New Zealand, timeshares may not be the best choice for lodging.  An exception to this might be a week in the Auckland area.  Otherwise, you would do best by staying in an area for 2-3 nights to see the local sights. After that, move on to another area and see the sights there.

A sample trip might be a week in the Auckland/Hamilton area; 2 days each in the Northland and at Rotorua; 3 days each in Napier, Wellington/Martinborough, Nelson/Marlborough, Christchurch, Dunedin and Queenstown.  Add to that an overnight at Milford Sound.  You are now at 30 nights and missed the Gisborne, Greymouth and Coromandel areas.  All of the cities/areas I mentioned are at least 100 miles from each other.  So if you are static, staying in one area for a week, your time will not be well spent.

I do have a suggestion: buy a copy of Explore New Zealand by John Cobb. I think the most recent edition is from 2005.  It may not be easy to find, but is definitely worthwhile.  In about 150 pages, it has approximately 60 driving tours in different areas of New Zealand.  This was my 'bible' for planning my trip and it was very effective.  I can't recommend this book enough.

If you(or anyone else) have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.


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## easyrider (Jul 20, 2010)

Bill.... Did you do any fishing ? Did you see both Islands ? Is it worth a look ? Best thing there is ?

Thanks
Bill


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## colamedia (Jul 20, 2010)

BillMorrow's idea is true (if you did mean New Zealand/Queenstown, and not Australia/Queensland), if you really do 'want to see as much as possible', a timeshare week in one spot will limit you.  
You're going in summer, it might be worth spending some time hiring a RV and driving around.  NZ is actually a lot bigger than it looks, but the distances are easily manageable, the roads are good and not busy, so you should have no trouble with driving on the other side of the road.
Or if driving isn't something you want to do and you'd prefer organised tours, Auckland would be a good base for very long someone-else-driving day trips.


If you did mean Queensland Australia, I'd recommend you plan April - January/February is the 'wet season' very hot, very humid, and possible cyclones (hurricanes), so flooding, damage to the Great Barrier Reef and killer jelly fish are all possible! Though Easter is late April in 2011 and that means school holidays, so best plan early April for easy booking (also applies for New Zealand, school holidays in second half of April).  January is also the summer school holidays in Australia and New Zealand, so maybe plan NZ for Feb or early April, for less crowds, easier bookings etc.


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## Carolinian (Jul 20, 2010)

If you are doing timeshare in this part of the world, I would suggest exchanging through www.daelive.com which often has more inventory than RCI or II.


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## CarolF (Jul 20, 2010)

colamedia said:


> If you did mean Queensland Australia, I'd recommend you plan April - January/February is the 'wet season' very hot, very humid, and possible cyclones (hurricanes), so flooding, damage to the Great Barrier Reef and killer jelly fish are all possible!



You forgot to mention the Drop Bear problem


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## bchill (Jul 20, 2010)

Thanks to all of you for your help.  I did mean Queenstown, NZ - not Australia.  We plan on spending 3 weeks and would like to do a side trip to Sydney, Australia.  Would that be feasible?  Also do you recommend Sydney or another city?  Would it be better to go to Australia in late January and then on to NZ in February?  We can extend our trip to 4 weeks.  We hope to be able to stop in Tahiti for 4 nights to break up the flight, but that will depend on the airline and how expensive it is to stay there.


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## colamedia (Jul 21, 2010)

Auckland-Sydney is over 1300miles/2000km, so if that is your definition of a side trip, it's doable, to put those distances in perspective, that's further than San Diego-Seattle. I'd recommend Sydney, but I'm biased  

Direct flights to NZ are usually much cheaper than the flights that allow you a break in the Pacific.  Jan-Apr is wet season in Tahiti, hot, humid, typical afternoon tropical storms, so possible hurricanes again (but no killer jelly fish) 
If you flew to Sydney late Jan, you'll hit Australia Day on 26 Jan, (which is also the end of the school holidays).  There will be a lot of Australia Day celebrations, lots of people out and about, fireworks etc, it's sort of 4th July type thing. 

Some of the flight are something like LA, Sydney (via Auckland), then Auckland stopover for 3 weeks then back to LA. Air New Zealand and QANTAS both fly that route. 


I'd recommend you look at some of the ATT Kings tour options and see how much there is to cover as in number of sites and distances, figure out what YOU want to see, and sort out your own possible self drive itinery and you might be able to figure out 2 spots you want to spend a week with a timeshare and some local sites to see. Do 1 week timeshare and local day trips, 1 week frantic touring (self drive or organised tour)  followed by another week at a timeshare to see local sites.  Feb should be easy for a timeshare around Queenstown/Wanaka. Would you consider any of the treks around Milford Sound etc either multiday or single day mini-hikes? You've got to do at least a day walk!


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## Armada (Jul 21, 2010)

Bill, 

I didn't do any fishing in NZ so I can't help you there.  However, fish and seafood are in abundance in the restaurants.  Wherever you are in NZ, you are never more than 75 miles from the ocean.  Overall, I found the food to be very good.  Lots of seafood, excellent lamb and farm raised venison. Beef was the one thing I found lacking.  The only good burger I had was at the Hard Rock in Queenstown.  The restaurant pricing is different from here. Tipping is not expected(servers are paid a living wage) and there is no additional tax added to the bill. The price you see on the menu is your final cost.

For our first trip, we only visited the North Island.  When we returned the following year, we toured the South Island and then spent a week in Auckland for the America's Cup.  Both islands have a lot to see, but the South Island is the prettier of the two.

For planning your trip, you might want to check the forums at Fodor's and TripAdvisor.  There are always lots of posts by people planning their itineraries.


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## DerekS (Nov 1, 2010)

colamedia suggested an RV. The biggest RV rental company in New Zealand is Maui.  (Yes, the same god as in Hawaii and the same legend about capturing the sun with a fishing net). You can actually get a timeshare exchange into an RV thru RCI.


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## Fisch (Nov 1, 2010)

We are going to NZ in a few weeks.  Our decision was to not use any timeshare weeks.  The distances between things to see is too much for driving each day.
We decided just stop at diferent towns and get a motel or condo for a few nights in each area.

Check out 100% Pure NZ website.
http://www.newzealand.com/travel/about-nz/about-nz-home.cfm
Great info.

Al


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## Poobah (Nov 1, 2010)

*New Zealand*

I did fish in NZ on Lake Wakatipu (sp) at Queenstown. We fly fished for trout. I caught two Browns both over 20" and lost a Rainbow due to the incompetence of the angler. The guide took one of the Browns and I took the other. The hotel (Holiday Inn) fixed it for us. It came stuffed on a silver platter surrounded by steam vegetables. It was amazing. The Kiwis are great people.:whoopie: 

I would suggest that you think seriously about skipping Tahiti. If the plan is to stay in Papetee you will not really see "Tahiti." You need to go to the other islands. JMHO.

We spent almost three weeks in NZ and had no trouble filling our time. It is absolutely an amazing place. We would go back in a heartbeat. 

Cheers,

Paul


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## Steve Cottrell (Jan 18, 2011)

HI, I live in Christchurch.  I would not bother with timeshares as they are not the best way to see the country (with the exception of Queenstown, which located amongst enough stuff to easily fill a week) because the maijor sights are spread around too much.  You need to tour around to get the best of the country.  Happy to answer specific questions.
Steve


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## cotraveller (Jan 20, 2011)

We toured Australia and New Zealand for the second time in 2005.  We did stay at a couple of WorldMark resorts in Australia, but not in New Zealand.  As someone pointed out, it is not a short trip from Sydney to New Zealand, I think it was about a 4 hour flight to Christchurch.

For New Zealand I'd definitely include Christchurch and Dunedin. I was starting to describe some of the things we saw and decided it's easier to link to the picture album. There are 21 pages of pictures, split about half and half between Australia and New Zealand. You need to scroll down on most of the pages to see all of the pictures.


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## Conan (Feb 17, 2011)

BillMorrow said:


> Barbara,
> I do have a suggestion: buy a copy of Explore New Zealand by John Cobb. I think the most recent edition is from 2005. It may not be easy to find, but is definitely worthwhile. In about 150 pages, it has approximately 60 driving tours in different areas of New Zealand. This was my 'bible' for planning my trip and it was very effective. I can't recommend this book enough.


 
I'm also planning a future New Zealand trip. So far my planning consists of buying the above book, via the amazon.co.uk web store (shipped to me in the US) since I didn't find it at amazon.com 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Explore-New-Zealand-Scenic-Driving/dp/1869660978/ref=dp_ob_title_bk


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## Armada (Feb 20, 2011)

If you are a AAA member in the US, you will have reciprocal benefits for roadside service with the Automobile Association of NZ.  Also, they are a good source for maps and local tourist information.  They have about 40 locations through out NZ.

If anyone is interested,  I have large group of organized links for NZ.  Send me a message if you want them and I will email them to you.


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## LynnW (Feb 20, 2011)

We are also trying to decide what to do before the Tug cruise next Jan. I noticed that there are several RCI Points resorts within driving distance of Auckland and I'm wondering if you could arrange stays of less than a week. It's to early to check yet but that would be another possibility if you have points.

Lynn


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## colamedia (Feb 22, 2011)

January is Summer school holidays, you'd be very lucky to find anything to exchange into.


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## LynnW (Feb 22, 2011)

colamedia I just thought of that last night. We may have to settle on hotels.

Lynn


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## Jwerking (Jul 16, 2011)

DerekS said:


> colamedia suggested an RV. The biggest RV rental company in New Zealand is Maui.  (Yes, the same god as in Hawaii and the same legend about capturing the sun with a fishing net). You can actually get a timeshare exchange into an RV thru RCI.



We are planning maybe a month in NZ as part of a RTW ticket.  Will likely to limited to the North Island since we will be flying into Auckland.  The plan is to do this from mid-Dec 2012 to Jan 2013.   I like the suggestion about a timeshare week - broken up with point to point travel for a week.  

Will definitely try for a timeshare in Auckland - I think that there is one.  Then there are a few in the norhern part and some around Rotundia/Lake Taupo to the south of Auckland.  So would these work for week stays and then do maybe two weeks of travel from town to town.  Sorry - have not done much research to date yet as to what to see.  Maybe dreaming - as just to rent a car for a month or five weeks will likely break the bank. 

Has anyone actually ever done the RCI RV exchange - that would be awesome?

How hard in general will it be to trade into NZ North Island timeshares for Dec thru Jan???  Know that the Xmas and NY weeks will be super red - but assume that the other times would not be too hard to get.

Any comments and suggestions would be appreciated. 

Joyce


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## ausman (Jul 16, 2011)

Jwerking said:


> How hard in general will it be to trade into NZ North Island timeshares for Dec thru Jan???  Know that the Xmas and NY weeks will be super red - but assume that the other times would not be too hard to get.
> 
> Joyce



That is summer school holiday time. 

I don't like your chances now for 2012. Suppose all you can do is try though and have a fall-back plan if time-shares don't work.


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