New Zealand + Cook Islands Planning
Discussion
Hi guys, looking for any advice on travelling to NZ and cook islands
we are planning a trip there next year as a good friend is getting married in the cook islands, the idea is to spend 2 weeks in NZ and a week in the cook is
ideally looking for advice on flights, we know its not excatly a budget trip esp as we really looking to go in July/Aug! but still wanna keep flight costs down.
also my plan was to hire a camper or car and see most of NZ just by road tripping, anyone with any experience be great to hear some
Cheers
we are planning a trip there next year as a good friend is getting married in the cook islands, the idea is to spend 2 weeks in NZ and a week in the cook is
ideally looking for advice on flights, we know its not excatly a budget trip esp as we really looking to go in July/Aug! but still wanna keep flight costs down.
also my plan was to hire a camper or car and see most of NZ just by road tripping, anyone with any experience be great to hear some
Cheers
I am not long back (Aug/Sep) from a 16 day trip to New Zealand. We hired a campervan from Christchurch and travelled round the South Island then went over to the North Island and dropped the van off in Auckland.
There were about 5 or 6 campervans on the ferry so there should be no problems with that. Our van was 6.7m long and there were 2 bigger than our's. I would recommend signing up to the Interislander ferry email list as they usually have discounts on the easy change tickets, although the discounts usually apply the following month so you won't have one to apply until next July/August. We saved 40% on our tickets.
We were on the road for 14 days with a day in Christchurch and a day in Auckland. We managed to get about pretty quickly so we got to see a lot of the country. However, if we were to do it again we would focus on the South Island for the 16 days. Some places are good to see for a couple of hours and move on but others would be good to stay a few days. Queenstown is one of them where 3 days minimum would've been good.
The weather was fine for us in Aug/Sep. It was dry most of the time apart from when we went up the west coast of the South Island. It started just south of Haast and finally stopped when we were just east of Westport. It was about 10-20C during the day with about 12-13C being normal most days. At night it did get quite cold but the campervan had good heating so it was fine for us.
We saw a fair few campervans out on the road when we went but it wasn't too busy with them and campsites were never full when we arrived at night.
There is a lot of choice for campervans so have a look at a website called rankers for reviews. We went with Wilderness (no affiliation) and we found them to be really good. Not the cheapest but no hidden costs and good customer service.
We flew with BA and the flights were fine. I would recommend Expedia or Skyscanner to get decent prices. We managed to get a cheap upgrade (£189 each as opposed to £800 each if we upgraded when we booked the tickets) to Premium Economy on the way out and this helped for when we arrived as we managed to get some sleep as the middle seats were all empty (about 8 people between 40 or so seats).
I've heard Air New Zealand are pretty good as well, although I've never been with them. I would always aim for for the shortest stopover at each stop you need to make as I find waiting around in the airport can really take it out of you. That's just a personal thing though.
There were about 5 or 6 campervans on the ferry so there should be no problems with that. Our van was 6.7m long and there were 2 bigger than our's. I would recommend signing up to the Interislander ferry email list as they usually have discounts on the easy change tickets, although the discounts usually apply the following month so you won't have one to apply until next July/August. We saved 40% on our tickets.
We were on the road for 14 days with a day in Christchurch and a day in Auckland. We managed to get about pretty quickly so we got to see a lot of the country. However, if we were to do it again we would focus on the South Island for the 16 days. Some places are good to see for a couple of hours and move on but others would be good to stay a few days. Queenstown is one of them where 3 days minimum would've been good.
The weather was fine for us in Aug/Sep. It was dry most of the time apart from when we went up the west coast of the South Island. It started just south of Haast and finally stopped when we were just east of Westport. It was about 10-20C during the day with about 12-13C being normal most days. At night it did get quite cold but the campervan had good heating so it was fine for us.
We saw a fair few campervans out on the road when we went but it wasn't too busy with them and campsites were never full when we arrived at night.
There is a lot of choice for campervans so have a look at a website called rankers for reviews. We went with Wilderness (no affiliation) and we found them to be really good. Not the cheapest but no hidden costs and good customer service.
We flew with BA and the flights were fine. I would recommend Expedia or Skyscanner to get decent prices. We managed to get a cheap upgrade (£189 each as opposed to £800 each if we upgraded when we booked the tickets) to Premium Economy on the way out and this helped for when we arrived as we managed to get some sleep as the middle seats were all empty (about 8 people between 40 or so seats).
I've heard Air New Zealand are pretty good as well, although I've never been with them. I would always aim for for the shortest stopover at each stop you need to make as I find waiting around in the airport can really take it out of you. That's just a personal thing though.
The Cooks are great. On Rarotonga, see if you can stay on Muri beach, because that's about the only place where the lagoon is deep enough for swimming (about 6 foot deep) - elsewhere you may be paddling. We hired a car on Raro to mooch around, but seeing as you can drive around the whole island in 30 mins I'm not sure it was especially cost-effective! See if you can also spend a couple of days on Aitutaki (requires a flight from Raro on a small turboprop) - the lagoon there is enormous and spectacular for snorkelling.
Gassing Station | Holidays & Travel | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff