Road trip around the South Island. Lake Tekepo is beautiful. Visited Larnach castle in Dunedin.
I’ve done two road trips around the North Island (with some overlap due to travelling with different groups). I’ve not yet made it to the South Island.
We did some of the usual tourist things: Hobbiton, Waitomo Caves, boiling mud, mazes, Weta Workshop, etc.
We also spent some time in less touristy areas, and honestly, I really recommend doing that.
I was there longer term, but I did lots of day/weekend trips around the place. Being from WA, it’s a lot less travel to reach interesting/touristy places than I’m used to so that was great. Weather permitting, hiking the Tongariro crossing was my favourite short trip (it took us a couple of attempts as it was -10C at the red crater the first time we went so we just did the first part). That also gives you a LOTR experience (they filmed Mordor scenes there) while only paying for parking, and without falling into the tourist trap that is Hobbiton.
On my favourite trip, I chucked a mattress in the back of my car and my mountain bike on top of that and went on a solo camp/bike trip around the north island for a bit over a week. I did most of the Waikato river trails which were excellent. The trails near New Plymouth were another highlight.
It’s hard to go wrong really, did more touristy stuff in South island but I’m a sook with cold weather
Went for work a couple times a few years back. Ended up travelling up through the middle of the North Island, Wellington to Auckland first trip, second trip i’s only in Auckland, mainly around Epsom. I’s able to fit a lot in on the weekends though.
New Zealand is a fantastic place, the walking can be good, pretty rough with the hills in the city though.
Cool things i did,
Hobbiton, its worth it, its a bit of fun. You go through the horse breeding area where phar-lap was born, which is interesting if you’re into that sort of thing.
Lake Taupo, and Mount Ruapehu look huge, and seem very cool. I only drove past them though.
Café culture is much like Australia’s, which is nice for a coffee lover like myself. Few different take out options, more US chains i think due to some details in their trade deals with the US making it more advantageous for US chains or something like that.
Wellington is straight up a beautiful place, kinda like Albany in Western Australia.
If you’re only in Auckland, but want to go snowboarding/skiing theres a indoor place just North of the city. It was fun enough, definitely helpful if you’re learning and planning to go somewhere else on another trip.
The Zoo in Auckland was a bit underwhelming, but the War Memorial Museum was good, they have a full size Maori canoe, thing is way too big to be called a canoe though :)
With family when I was 5 or 6:
South island, some camping and staying with friends. Couple of great walks (Mueller hut and Routeburne track)
And as an adult visiting my wife’s family, few Queenstown touristy things and a day skiing since we were there at the right time.
