We loved our vacation in New Zealand!
New Zealand
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Feb 24 - Mar 7, 2025
We loved our vacation in New Zealand and hope we have the chance to come back for more adventures!
Some highlights:
-Afternoon Wilderness tour: great guides, good pace, informative
-Hobbiton: on time early morning pick up, tour was lovely - wish it could have been longer; lunch was very worthwhile. Hobbiton was a magical place to visit, truly special. The transfer to transport service was smooth (though our luggage sat in van trunks and got a bit warm, so good thing we carried around any heat-sensitive items)
-Te Ra Guided Experience at Te Puia Rotorua: we learned a lot on this tour despite the misty rain - the bubbling mud pools were neat to observe and so cool to see our first kiwi birds of the trip; very easy to get to via Uber from our hotel
-Zealandia: AMAZING! We probably heard bird song (and cicadas haha) more than we saw creatures, but we did see numerous Kakas, Tuataras, a North Island Robin, several Shags, and THREE Little Spotted Kiwis. Will and Judy, our guides, were lovely.
-Full Day Lord of the Rings Tour: of course you have to use your imagination and visualize how the film crew turned locations into movie sets, but it was neat to see several of the sites. No pictures allowed on most of the tour, though it was neat to see various artists at work. And of course funny photos with Bilbo's trolls outside were fun. No 'Rivendell Ripple' at the end of the tour so that still remains a mystery...
-Gondola: really cool ride up the mountain; easy to find ticket pick up location; views were spectacular; we are glad we didn't book the buffet lunch at the restaurant at the top as we had a lovely lunch at Bespoke Kitchen at the base of the gondola
-Walter Peak High Country Farm Excursion: really cute and fun tour; loved seeing all the farm animals and even though the interaction was brief, we enjoyed feeding and petting the sheep, cows and goats. High tea was delicious! We would revisit many places, but we would love to do the horseback riding tour and high tea at the farm.
Some things we wish we knew in advance:
- Early check-in at the QT Auckland hotel was $150 NDZ. We got an extra bonus hour in NZ as our flight landed over an hour early, so we're grateful for our airport pickup (Warren - he was very welcoming and knowledgeable!) monitored our flight and was able to pick us up and we were able to check into our hotel early, so it all worked out.
-The afternoon wilderness tour included a stop for lunch! We didn't know that in advance, so we spent time in the morning finding a place to pick up a sandwich and be at our pick up location on time. Had we known there was a lunch stop where we could purchase lunch, we would have spent time in the morning doing something else.
-On the way to Hobbiton from Auckland, the transport included a stop for breakfast about 1 hour into the journey. Had we known we could purchase breakfast along the way, we wouldn't have had to coordinate a to-go breakfast with the hotel and ask for our early departure to be accommodated (hotel breakfast started at 6:30am, but our pick up was scheduled 6:30-6:45am). The breakfast stop had two different cafe/restaurant options that had a lot to offer - breakfast sandwiches, pastries, coffee, tea, etc.
-New Zealand domestic flights have next to no security (especially in the tiny Rotorua airport)! HUGE difference from the US. We did get the last sandwich at the tiny Rotorua airport cafe, which was lucky... will be good once the full cafe is available there. At Wellington airport, we are glad we got a bite to eat before going to our gate because there is only one tiny cafe option once you go through security and there's a whole large food court and set of souvenir shops BEFORE security.
Some things we would change:
-The ferry to Waiheke Island was nice, but we would have skipped the hop on/hop off bus as they weren't really able to keep to the drop off/pick up schedule, making pickups unpredictable and long waits thus less time for exploring. We would have rathered figuring out the public bus that runs seemingly more smoothly and regularly. We also needed a map that showed restaurants & shops, not just vineyards - such a highlights map didn't seem to exist and google maps wasn't as helpful as it usually is in other locations.
-Outside of really anyone's control but hotel management's: the lighting in all the hotels were pretty poor, to varying degrees; plus the light switches were overly complicated (too many combinations and permutations to try to figure out how to turn a few on or the bathroom lights on and not the entire room! never have had such complicated lighting at a hotel. Other travelers on tours we were on mentioned the same thing at their hotels so the issue seems pretty common.).
-In Auckland, we should have not included breakfast at the hotel. It was OK but we would have enjoyed going to local cafes instead as the hotel breakfast menu and continental breakfast didn't offer much that we enjoyed.
Hotel Reviews
Lighting in room was OK in comparison to other hotels. Bathroom set up was one of the best. Clean and quiet hotel and our room view was decent too. Overall the breakfast offered had a good variety (very long line at the coffee machine though!).
Nice, clean, quiet hotel. If you are on the top floor (7th) be prepared for stairs - the elevator only goes to the 6th floor - not an issue for us but for some guests it might be. Definitely in the top 2 for breakfasts of the 4 hotels we stayed at. The location was very convenient for all of the activities we did!
Nice, clean, good location. Room lighting was horrible. We would have skipped the breakfast inclusion.
Great location on Cuba St. Having front and back entrances led to some confusion for pick ups for drivers but in the end it worked out. Interesting interior design... some quite dizzying (especially elevator and carpeting). Decent breakfast offerings. Very nice morning staff. The lighting in the room wasn't very good, and too many on/off switches. The bathroom was squeezed into a very tiny room (shower, sink & toilet all in behind a door) and there was no shower curtain so water escaped easily and only one person at a time could access the bathroom.
Activity Reviews
Just as magical as I imagined! We had beautiful weather to enjoy Hobbiton. The tour does start with a tour bus ride with a little bit of a cheesy video but it's such a small part of the tour. Amazing how they've set it all up again and are preserving the hobbit holes. Loved every minute and didn't want to leave! The lunch was very satisfying.
This was a fun tour. Neat to see where some of the movie scenes were shot. The tour of the Weta Cave was neat too though couldn't take pictures during most of it. Enjoyed learning about the artists and seeing their work in action.
We LOVED this! The tour was fun and the high tea was so good. We'd definitely consider coming back for the horseback riding or the eco tour.
This was more fun than we expected. It was amazing to see the views. It will be even better once they finish construction on the larger observation deck.
This was a nice tour though it was raining the day we were there. I'm sure it would be incredible if we had better weather but nonetheless we made the best of it and really enjoyed learning from our guides. We saw the geyser on the livestream just before the tour started - it ended up too steamy to see anything once we were out there! It was very cool to see the bubbling mud as well as the kiwi birds at their kiwi conservation station.
This was a great afternoon activity. Friendly, informative guides. At the end at the beach, the guides set up a table with some treats (cookies, juice, tea, manuka honey).
One of the biggest highlights of our trip!! We saw a variety of species (and heard even more) and were very lucky that we got to see THREE kiwi just waking up and starting their night. Truly incredible conservation work being done at Zealandia.
Great cultural experience. We happened to be there when there was a competition going on so the usual performers were away and the performers we saw were younger (late teenage years / early 20s). We wouldn't have known if the hostess hadn't revealed that info as they were phenomenal!