Jun 05, 2008 05:57 PM
10450 Views
I had been to New Zealand for my honeymoon in December. We had booked our trip through a local operator.( http://www.guestnewzealand.com)
To begin with we dint have a good start coz we misplaced all our travel documents. And it being 24th December our travel operator was not accessible. Everything is closed on Christmas. But I must appreciate the readiness our hotel staff had shown .They took us in without the travel voucher. We had hired a Hertz Rental Car . The lady was quite rude. She was not prompt. However as soon as our travel operator got in touch with us on 26th Decemmber, evrything was sorted within a flick of a finger. All our travel documents were ready in half an hour.
Our journey comprised of the following destinations.
Christchurch - 2 nights
Lake Tekapo - 1 night
Queenstown - 4 nights
Fox Glacier - 1 night
Punakaiki - 1 night
Motueka - 2 nights
Kaikoura - 1 night
Auckland - I night
Paihia(Bay of Islands) - 2 nights
The drive from Christchurch to Lake Tekapo was stunning. I would like to say SELF DRIVING TOUR is the best way to travel New Zealand . Yes its not at all difficult. It was our first experience abroad and still it was easy and its not at all expensive to hire a car in NZ.
The place we enjoyed the least was Auckland. South Island is extremely scenic. What we missed was Mount Cook Glaciers, its quite close to Tekapo, the area around Tekapo is quite scenic. The advantages of self driving tours is
a. Public Transport in NZ is not that accessible.
b. Roads are amazing.
As tourists or first time visitor to NZ, the only place difficult to drive would be Auckland or any other big city coz there are lot of No Entry's and One Way.
Towns worth having a look on your way would be Greymouth, Hotitika, Ahipara.
New Zealanders are quite sporty people. NZ is known for scenic beauty and adventure sports. So I would not recommend it for aged people. They would only be able to enjoy the scenic beauty .
You mite find some racist comments in South Island. North Island is quite open coz there are lot of indians in North Island.
It can get bit lonely in NZ if its only 2 of you who are travelling. So a group of 4-5 people should be fun to travel in NZ.
