Help me plan my honeymoon (what to do in New Zealand)
 

Got married a month ago, it was dope. had fun.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...78433da34b.png


We are going to New Zealand for 23 days at the end of December for our honeymoon, also dope.

The plan is to rent a camper van in Queenstown, drive to the southern point of the south island, then drive to the northern tip of the north island. (Hailey really wants to go where the top gear New Zealand race happened)

So my question is this, anyone who has been to New Zealand (or lives there) what do we "have to see", what roads do we "have to drive". Here is our tentative route.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mia...37bb03ff5b.png

I've been blessed 1 or 2 days of "car stuff" so if there are any tracks I should try and drive, or any races to see I'd love local info.

Dates are December 27th-January 19th.

I spent 2 months backpacking across NZ in 2003. Here are some thoughts:

BUY a car instead of renting. They have like double the number of tourists than they have residents. They have a "car fair" somewhere around Auckland every weekend during the tourist season. Basically everyone I met who bought a car was able to sell it in one day at the car fair for what they had bought it for. Amazing. If you do rent a car, for god's sake, don't drive it on the beach (only way to get back from the northern tip). They will find out and charge you out the ass for it.

The ozone is jacked there. You will burn like you have never burned before in your life. Prepare.
Sandflies are the spawn of the devil. you will get eaten alive, and the bites last 3 weeks. I met some local surfers who mixed their own sunblock/bug repellent out of zinc oxide diaper cream & DEET. Not a bad idea if you don't care about your pride or poison.
If you travel on the SW coast, park in a protected area. Kia's will eat the rubber off your car.
The roads and traffic are different. You'll get stuck behind some home-made RV going 30mph that looks like a drunk guy built it out of '70's wood paneling, and there are a lot of areas where blind corners are only one lane with a convex mirror.

wow... yeah I'll keep remembering a ton of detail. Amazing place. Excellent choice.

We want a self contained camper. It allows you to camp a lot more places.

https://www.backpackerguide.nz/self-...s-new-zealand/

340 free campgrounds across the country.

I will google car fairs.

What do you mean Kia's? We will be driving up a ton of the SW coast.

I also kind of want a hands off trip. I'd rather pay up front to just not deal with it at all. I work on all my cars here constantly. I want to just travel down there.

Yeah, I get that. If you rent & want to go to the northern tip, you can go on a tour bus for a day. But seriously, 100% of the people I talked to got fined for driving their rental on the beach, and it's the only way to get back down south.

The sunburn and sand flies are forces to be reckoned with. Prepare for them up front, and you will have a way better time.

north island:
Go sky diving over lake Taupo on the north island.
check out Raglan on the north island if you want to try surfing
Napier is cool. They have a strong art deco thing going on there, and they had a bunch of rad '20's/'30's car shows there while I was there

south island:
South west coast- gotta take a boat tour of Milford sound one day. It's really epic.
I really liked the beaches & weather in Golden bay (northwest tip of south island)

NZ is kind of like the PNW in spring in that the weather changes constantly. Also, the camping gear there is pretty expensive. I'd say err on the side of overpacking a bit, especially if you are planning on having a camper.

NZ road food is awesome. Instead of gas station burritos, you can get lamb meat pies everywhere. And passion fruit cheesecake. IDK why. You just can.

My friend went for two months, also just bought a car and sold it. The rental fees are there to fuck Americans. He also said everyone was super nice, like so nice you thought they were fucking with you. How much were the tickets? I think he paid 5k roundtrip...yikes.

I'm definitely considering buying and selling. But we really don't have room in our schedule to buy and sell a car. That would knock at least a day if not 2 off our trip, which is not worth it to me.

Its our honeymoon. Full send.

We paid $3400 round trip for 2.

Also, we want to do a one way trip, which would mean buying a camper van after flying into Queenstown, then managing to sell it the day before we leave (a friday) in Auckland. I don't really want to waste a day on either side of the trip selling it.

New Zealand is known as "The Land of Crushed Vowels", so to help you communicate with the locals, here's some tips:

The vowel "i" is pronounced "u" (as in "up").
The vowel "a" is sometimes pronounced as "u" too.
Practice this by repeating the phrase "Fush und Chups" (that's "Fish and Chips" in English) or the word "Funushed" ("Finished" in English).

The vowel "i" can also be pronounced "e", as in "egg".
This can lead to a lot of misunderstanding when the number 6 comes up, you'll think they're talking about "sex" rather than "six".

Petrol/gas prices are VERY expensive compared to the US so be sure to plan for that.

Bungy jumping was started in NZ so there's that!
Jet boat rides and white water rafting are great too.

It's a stunning country for a holiday - if you're a Lord of the Rings fan, find out where the major scenes were shot so you can visit them.

Whatever you do, DON'T diss "The All Blacks", you may not make it out alive :P
(Rugby is MORE than a religion in NZ - there are no other sports of any consequence).

Anyone suggesting that you buy a car and then sell it on your honeymoon is not married, either because they never were, or because they are not anymore.

Plan to spend longer on the south island than you expected to. It is beautiful in ways that few other places on earth are. Queensland in particular is sort of a jumping-off point for a lot of things. Make sure you hit the Antarctic center in Christchurch as well.

:ROFL: my thoughts exactly.

Current plan is land in auckland and spend 2-3 days there visiting friends/touristy things. Then fly to Queenstown and go south from there.

We hadn't planned on going to Christchurch, wanted to drive up the west coast instead. Is this a bad idea?

We'll, the wife might argue that my Miata is my mistress, but I haven't driven her away with my car shenanigans quite yet. Full disclosure, I rented a Nissan tsuru on our honeymoon.

You mean Queenstown though I completely understand the confusion, a LOT of Kiwis move to Queensland AUSTRALIA :P

Don't forget to bring your wet weather gear - it rains a LOT in NZ which is why it's so green.

All those tourist photos and videos you see with all that clear blue sky - hopefully you'll have some of those days, they have about 4 of them a year :P

Yes, Queenstown. To make matters worse, I've been to both, so I've just given up on not mixing the two names up :)

NZ'er here. Happy to answer questions.

It's a shame your stay isn't a week or two later - http://www.leadfootfestival.com/ is a great time and shows some of the best of NZ motorsports.

It's a pretty quiet period events-wise, but some picturesque tracks that are on your route to look into (and they probably offer some kind of rental to get out on track in):
Homepage - Highlands
https://hamptondowns.com/
https://www.brucemclarenmotorsportpark.com/

Trust me. I wish I wasn't missing leadfoot festival. But it didn't work with our travel plans.

I'll check our the rentals, if something is cheap I'd do it, but I have tracks here to drive, more interested in trying to find a race or some fun event.

Highly recommend both of these, especially in summer:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coromandel_Peninsula
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abel_Tasman_National_Park

Not on your route according to the map you posted but are very minor detours to it (like an extra hours drive).