NEW ZEALAND 2004

15 April to 1 May 2004

Hurrah! Back to Godzone -- but I had to take the Mongrel Taxi Driver as well. Everything comes at a price.

Tony and I were invited to the wedding of Luke and Esther (Tony's cousin and his partner, who I spent time with on my previous trip to NZ in 2002), so we decided to save the pennies and make a proper holiday of it.

We worked out an itinerary that had us arrive a couple of days before the wedding (which was in Dunedin) then gave us most of the fortnight after the big event to tour around. I got to visit a few places I missed out on last time, and of course it was all new for Tony so it was great fun getting to show him what I'd only told him about before. And for New Zealand, words aren't adequate.

(Go to planning and travel tips)

True to form, the Mongrel Taxi Driver naturally assumed charge of the driving duties, which wasn't necessarily a blessing. He has the true cabbie's instinct for choosing the wrong direction. Every time. Damned if I know how he does it: chance alone can't explain it, as his success rate for picking the wrong turn approaches 100 per cent. Uncanny. Nevertheless, we got everywhere we wanted to go, with the minimum of hassle, and since I'm accustomed to dealing with 3 year old Corbin's temperament, coping with Tony's tantrums at the wheel was a doddle really. Well, he came back alive, didn't he?

It was a generally a nice time of year to be touring: not too cold, and the autumn landscapes of Otago and Southland were a literal eye-opener for a Queensland girl. The weather wasn't the greatest, as it was overcast, drizzling and/or foggy most of the time (with a couple of days of spectacular downpours), but that didn't stop us seeing and doing nearly everything we wanted to. And the wedding was delightful.

First Leg

Flew into Dunedin late on Thursday afternoon, picked up our Ezi-Rent car and drove to our accommodation for the next four days, "Annette's Cottage", a self-contained B and B cottage at Roselle Farm near Portobello on the Otago Peninsula. The cottage was great, with a beautiful garden and an outstanding view over Portobello Bay and the harbour. Our host, Annette Cross, is a lovely lady and couldn't have been more hospitable. The next four days were taken up with the wedding, mooching around Dunedin shopping, eating and exploring the Botanic Gardens, and sightseeing on the Otago Peninsula.

• On the Monday we drove the beautiful Catlins Coast, seeing the seals and sea lions at Nugget Point; Purakanui Falls; and the petrified forest of Curio Bay.
• Overnighted in Invercargill, did a quick detour to check out Bluff, then headed north to Central Otago.
• Stayed two nights with Esther's parents in Roxburgh and did some sightseeing around Queenstown, Arrowtown and the Clutha Valley.
• On to Mt Cook (Aoraki), which was breathtaking, stopped to buy freshly-caught salmon in Twizel, then drove to the coast to overnight at Timaru.
• Followed this with two nights in Christchurch, where we had a terrific time browsing the Arts Centre shops and galleries, the Botanic Gardens and Otago Museum, and also visited the International Antarctic Centre and Willowbank Wildlife Reserve. Flew north to Auckland on Sunday 25 April.

See the photos at Webshots

Second Leg

Arrived at Auckland Ariport, collected our Ezi-Rent car and immediately headed north, bound for Whangarei. A lovely drive, with some spectacular views of the east coast north of Auckland, and of the pastures and forests that are so different to the more rugged landscapes of the South Island.

• We spent two nights in Whangarei and saw a bit of the town, Whangarei Falls and the beautiful Tutukaka Coast
• A day sighseeing in the Bay of Islands, including a visit to the Waitangi National Trust reserve, and a brilliant afternoon zooming across the Bay and through the "Hole in the Rock" on board Fuller's 'Excitor' jet boat. What a blast!
• South to the Coromandel peninsula, where we overnighted at Waiomu Bay, on the Thames coast
• Around the Coromandel in pouring rain, then inland to Rotorua
• Two nights in Rotorua, exploring the Te Whakarewarewa geothermal valley, and enjoying the 'Mai Ora' cultural experience and hangi at the NZ Maori Art and Crafts Institute
• Through the Waikato to Waitomo, where we had a great laugh at Billy Black's Kiwi Culture Experience (including Kev the Dancing Pig) and at long last got to marvel at the limestone structures and glowworms in the famous Waitomo caves
• Spent our last night and next morning in the pleasant inland city of Hamilton, then drove to Auckland airport for our flight home on Saturday 1 May 2004.

See the photos at Webshots

Return to Godzone: The Pictures

New Zealand Autumn Autumn Landscapes of the South Island	South Island Otago, Southland and Canterbury, 15 to 25 April 2004
North Island Northland, Bay of Islands, Coromandel and the Waikato, 25 April to 1 May 2004

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Planning the trip

Repeating the formula that worked well for me last time, I got on the Net pretty well as soon as the invitation arrived, and had the itinerary sorted, airfares booked and paid for (Freedom Air again, bless 'em), car hire arranged (Ezi-Rent again, and a good firm to deal with they are, too) and accommodation booked by early November. I entered the all the details on an Excel spreadsheet, including costs and a currency conversion formula, and had everything in nice compact form to print out and carry with me on the trip. (I told you already, I'm obsessive-compulsive).

A few tips and shortcuts I worked out for myself:

• When you're planning your itinerary and have limited time for your holiday, it's worth remembering that Air New Zealand offers cheap "Smart Saver" fares for domestic flights between the major cities (eg. NZ$80 Christchurch to Auckland at the time we went). Flying might be more time- and cost-efficient that going by road all the way and using the Interislander ferry, particularly if you choose a car hire firm that operates in both islands and permits one-way hires. Ezi-Rent is one: they're the budget arm of Nationwide Rentals, and allowed us a 16 day continuous hire (so we got the cheaper rate) for Dunedin to Christchurch, followed by Auckland -- Auckland.
  
  
• The Excel spreadsheet was a very useful tool for keeping track of the plans for the holiday. For each day we planned to be away, I recorded the names and locations of motels, hire car firms, airline bookings and so on, as well as the dates that I sent enquiries, made bookings, received confirmations, paid deposits paid etc. Including a currency conversion formula helped to track costs in both AU$ and NZ$. Apart from addresses and phone numbers, I also included essential details, such as whether accommodation was self-catering, had a guest laundry and stuff like that. For the trip itself, it was simple to format the key information and print it as an A5 booklet.
  
  By the way, if you're planning your own NZ trip, Jasons Travel Channel New Zealand is a pretty good place to start.
  
  
• New Zealand is well supplied with tourist accommodation. We used mainly budget motels, going for studio or double/twin units. They offer good value for money, nearly always have some kind of cooking facilities (handy if you don't want to eat out every night) and are usually clean, comfortable and spacious, if not luxurious. Our average cost was NZ$72 to $75 per night. "Motor inns" offer more amenities and frills, but are considerably more costly. In most towns, tourist motels tend to be concentrated in one or two areas, usually the main highway inbound. It pays to check the location on a street map to get an idea of how far you are from the town centre, shopping and restaurants and principal attractions. Buy a compact travel atlas before you go: they generally have street maps of the major towns, as well as travelling distances and times between destinations. The Kiwi Minimaps edition is good, A5 sized and spiral-bound to open flat.
  
  
• The big supermarket chains (Woolworths, Countdown, Pack'n'Save) usually have their stores on or close to the main highway on the outer edge of the central business area ie. in most places, close to the motel district. Handy for picking up supplies for breakfast and dinner, if you're cooking for yourself: also, most of the big supermarkets offer ready-prepared complete meals that only need reheating. Corner shops (called "dairies" by the locals) tend to be expensive, as you'd expect.
  
  
• It's useful to take a thermos flask, a soft chiller bag, a supply of Zip-loc plastic bags and a good sharp knife with you. You can get a good cup of real coffee just about anywhere in NZ, but at $3.00 plus a cup, it's cheaper to take a flask with you if you're planning on a long drive. A chiller bag is handy for carrying milk, butter, cool drinks and perishables if you're self-catering (and you can pack sandwiches, cheese, salami etc for lunches and snacks as well). Zip-loc bags are great for perishables, breakfast cereal, snacks, films and dirty underwear!
  
  
• For cheap eats and meals while you're on the road, you can't go past the pies, they're terrific just about everywhere. NZ fish and chips shops are awesome, and generally good value. (Look out for chippies that offer $5 "Value Packs" -- the ones we saw included a piece of battered fish, a huge sausage, a potato scallop and a veritable mountain of chips). A nice touch in a lot of self-serve cafes and service stop restaurants are small hot pies, quiches, sausage rolls and such (generically described as "savouries"), and individual sandwich points/quarters: you can help yourself to a high-tea style array of tasty noshes. And you can't go to Enzed without sampling the ice-creams.
  
  

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This page last updated 13 May 2004