Planning a trip to NZ and Australia with the wife and…wait for it…5 month old in December. Long haul flights are booked. First leg of the trip is NZ. Then we go to Sydney for a wedding and finish in Brisbane/Gold Coast. Maybe Hamilton Island and then down to Brisbane. Not sure on that just yet.

I'm interested to hear the board's thoughts on what I should be looking to do in NZ. I think we will have 4 days in NZ so not a ton of time. Will need to prioritize. Would love to get to the South Island but not sure it's worth another flight with the baby.

Let's just assume that both north and south islands are options.

Prefer to do outdoorsy type stuff as opposed to sitting on a beach. Will get plenty of that in Australia.

The wife is okay with me losing them for a couple of days to do some things while in NZ.

Is ****ord Sound worth the trip? Any can't miss fishing spots? Hiking?

Feedback from the Outdoors Board is that 4 days probably means it's best to stay on the north island of NZ.

Assume you'll be staying in AKL

Flying into AKL but would like to venture out to other parts of the island if it makes sense.

Facebook has been reminding me that it's been 10 years since my wife and I went there for a 3 Day weekend - Australian Labour Day.

The Inner Harbour - Viaduct area is great (Looks like it's called Viaduct Harbour these days).
There's an awesome Sailing Museum there which you can't miss because it's got a massive America's Cup boat out front from "When we beat the Yanks".

Wife and I took a harbour cruise which was kind of fun but the real fun we had was doing a winery tour of Waiheke Island. Which when you pronounce it with a Kiwi accent sounds exactly like Waikiki (Hawaii) so that was really confusing for me at first.

There's a great Irish Pub in the Viaduct and I don't know if it's still there but, there was a Russian Ice bar where everything is frozen and as I recall, they had jackets for you to wear.

Don't know where you're going but remember that the seasons are reversed to the Northern Hemisphere and Auckland can get quite cold in the winter.

I've been down to Wellington for work and it's great but, if you've only got a few days in NZ, I'd probably spend it exploring places like 90 Mile Beach.
https://www.newzealand.com/us/feature/ninety-mile-beach/

There are a lot of immigrants in and around Auckland. South and East Asians of course along with a surprisingly high number of Scots and a ridiculous number of South Africans. The South Africans call each other Japie (ya-pee) and a lot of them still live in their own little enclave where they speak Afrikaans. People refer to the place where they live as Japieville.

When you get to Northern QLD, the weather is great there year round.

Obviously before you go to NZ, you'll want to brush up on Rugby Union and the All Blacks. By the way, NZ was the only nation who never stopped playing South Africa when the anti-Apartheid movement was on.

Be prepared for some of the over the top face tattoos and such in NZ. The Maori culture is dominant because they were warriors and unlike Australia where the Aboriginals were hunter-gatherers, the Maoris killed their British invaders.

If you want some cultural exposure before you go, here are a few movies and such I recommend.

Boy (2010) [Warning - extremely depressing but probably pretty real]


Eagle vs. Shark (2007) - Jermaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords


Auckland Daze is a TV show which gives a feel for more of the urban professional 20 something culture (10 years ago)


And of course... any Haka (sounds like harker in a Kiwi accent) by the All Blacks is a good intro. Here's one from last year against the South Africa Springboks.

I can't help with NZ. I change planes in Auckland and it really looks like a place I would like to visit. All of it.

My wife is Australian. She spends about six weeks there every summer visiting family. I visit every other summer (Our summer). For the Australian side of your trip, Sydney, do the fast ferry and go to Manly and Watson's.

Fishing, Cairns.

Zoo, Australia Zoo. (Steve Irwin Zoo). North of Brisbane. Amazing.

Gold Coast, it is a ways from Brisbane but worth a trip down if you have the time.

Highly recommend the Toothbrush Fence.

In NZ have really only done the sub Antarctica islands which are difficult to get to but are incredible.
Lived in Perth in the 60's. Had to take the wife back to see my old haunts. Still somewhat of a provincial town. Travelled from Darwin to Perth. Have gone along south coast which is amazingly dramatic with the storms coming straight up.
A lot to do in Aussie if you have time.
Most locals spend months to years in their tricked out Landies, utes or SUV's traveling the Outback.

Mlilford Sound is absolutely worth it but it's a full day from Queenstown, which itself is one of the most beautiful towns on earth (imagine Breckenridge or Vail and you're not far off).

We are scheduled for a cruise to all of the Sub-Antarctic islands in late December. Spore Ag's post has increased my excitement level! Do you have any suggestions, tips, etc. for these islands?

That south island may be the diverse stretch of land in the world so far a climate goes.

The area around Wanaka is river basin farmland.

You got to slightly higher elevation and you could be in western Colorado.

Mountain valleys in that area look like tropical forest.

You go down into a flat grassland valley and you also looking at a snowcapped peak and glacier.

Have been lucky to see a solid chunk of the world. The South island of New Zealand stands out as one of the most magnificent places on earth.

If you thinking about going, go. Will be the best money you ever spent.

NZ sub Antarctic Islands are amazing. They do not quite match S. Georgia but still. I was there early March. Be open minded about landing potential as some it may be impossible. Dress for total weather fluctuations and expect rain. Also some have environmental controls so clean your Kit from debris, seeds, soils etc, as it will save you a lot of time. There are unique species like the yellow eyed penguin. Actually 13 out of the 18 penguin species are in NZ.

Thanks for the feedback. We will be sure to take a variety of clothing to cover weather changes. Our cruise company has told us about cleaning shoes, etc. so they are free of debris.

Which outfit are you doing? I did Oceanwide Expeditions, a Dutch group.

Heritage Expeditions, a Kiwi company.

After the cruise we are going to spend about ten more days seeing the South then North islands. Should be fun.

I don't want to burst your bubble, but Auckland as a home base for four days is doing such a disservice to NZ.


I highly recommend Piha beach outside of AKL.
Lake Taupo is a good visit.

In AKL there is a short hike/walk you can do to get up on top of a hill and view the city.

Cornwall park.

An Aquarium.

The exposure in this photo was not particularly good, but it was, for me, a meaningful moment of perspective staring out upon the Farewell Spit.

You got a sense of how small, isolated, and special NZ was (at least in 2016). I didn't see a single person the entire walk on this trail.

To enter Australia, US citizens need to apply for a visa before traveling, which can take anywhere from a couple weeks to a couple months to get approved. You must do this on their phone app and they will do a facial recognition scan.

We applied months in advance but my wife's visa was not approved and they never sent us any emails about that. She missed two of the three weeks of the trip because of this.

Also, not allowed to touch your phone while driving and only allowed to use it for navigation. I used mine for navigation, but was holding it so they have sent my fines totalling $1200.

They also have average speed detection on the highways, so don't speed anywhere at any time or they'll send you an fine for that.

New Zealand requires a visa as well that can be obtained same day, but don't delay that either.

Australia big brother is nice as long as you don't cross them and it's just a matter of time before they send the trains to carry you away.

Beautiful country, but they're going the way of Big Brother. F Australia. I'm never going back. Plenty of other places in the world to see that want my tourist money.

Most American citizens can use the ETA programs in Australia and New Zealand in lieu of a visa. You need to apply for each country independently (there are apps for each country you can download and apply with) and the turnaround is usually within a day or two. If you have any criminal convictions beyond minor speeding tickets you'll need to declare them and apply for a proper tourist visa instead of the ETA, which can take a month or two and require a good bit of paperwork.

As the previous poster mentioned, Australia has all of the world's annoying driving enforcement technology, so not just speed cameras, not just average speed cameras, but even "paying attention" cameras that measure whether someone is looking down at their phone and not paying attention to the road. Add the absolutely horrific tolls around most cities and it can add up quickly.

Driving in Aussie just do not drink. In some states if you get stopped for anything the first thing they do is breath test.

Watch NZ visa as the government operation is cheap like $30 I forget but if you google a service pops up and it is like 200$.

Thanks for sharing that.
I left permanently on January 31st, 2020 to move to California for lower taxes and more personal freedom.

Thank God I wasn't there during the lockdowns, I would have gone to jail for sure.

And I didn't think it could get any worse than speed cameras, average trip time cameras and of course the RBT checkpoints where you have to blow (no 4th Amendment there).

But it looks like I was wrong.

Distracted driving cameras, wow. Amazing.

The Aussies LOVE their taxes. That said, there's no tipping culture here and prices displayed include sales tax and GST. So at least there are some redeeming qualities.

I live in Sydney but am not a permanent resident or anything yet, so I pay into their public health system (called Medicare, ironically) yet cannot use it. I get a rebate against my Aussie taxes, so there's that.

Counterpoint said:

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HollywoodBQ said:

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Thanks for sharing that.
I left permanently on January 31st, 2020 to move to California for LOWER taxes and MORE personal freedom.

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That's a very powerful indictment of Australia!

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Sadly, that was the truth.

And 14 months ago, I finally made the move to Texas for lower taxes and more personal freedom.
Plus, after 3 years of Kalifornia Covid, I was finished with Los Angeles.

I got a speeding ticket (6 months after my visit) and it was literally 5 minutes into me leaving the Brisbane airport....I still call BS...but whatever

Like everyone said the south island is incredible, but I do love the the north island too. I really like getting out of Auckland. In Auckland whale watching, this tour https://bushandbeach.co.nz/tour/wilderness-experience-nature-tour/, and then a ferry ride to Waiheke island is a big winery party.

Lake Taupo had some amazing rivers and kayaking.

Wairua Lodge is one of my favorite places on earth....I've offered the owners everything I own and they said I'm about 1000th person in line to buy.
it's also short drive from there to where you can dig a hole in the beach and it fills up with hot water and you have your own jacuzzi. Crazy!

If I had 5 days I'd either hit Christchurch or Queenstown. I would grab a connector flight right after landing from the US. 6 months old....brave. Won't get any worse adding another hour or two of flight time after the first 15+.

I also got a speeding ticket months later. Doing 120km/hr in 100z

They must make a lot of money doing that.
No evidence, just a note they got me somewhere..

In New South Wales, they provide pretty good details on when and where.

I got one one time when I wasn't even in the country because my wife was speeding in my vehicle.

If you dispute it, they'll have to produce the photo.

Or, there is also a provision if you're close to losing your license due to the number of points associated with the ticket, you can have one of your friends claim that they were driving and they can fill out paperwork (statutory declaration - commonly called a stat dec) so they can take the points instead of you.

When flying to AUS/NZ you want to avoid looking at the clock or that inflight map for a long as possible.

Nothing more demoralizing than eating dinner, sleeping for what you think is a long time, then waking up and accepting the stone cold reality that you still got 7 hours 50 mins to go.

If you used to flying to Europe got it in your brain that you wake up, you be landing soon. Here that is not the case and it hits hard.

Stat Monitor Repairman said:

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When flying to AUS/NZ you want to avoid looking at the clock or that inflight map for a long as possible.

Nothing more demoralizing than eating dinner, sleeping for what you think is a long time, then waking up and accepting the stone cold reality that you still got 7 hours 50 mins to go.

If you used to flying to Europe got it in your brain that you wake up, you be landing soon. Here that is not the case and it hits hard.

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Never EVER look at the clock or the map until you're absolutely 100% POSITIVE you're more than halfway there.

It's not a short flight, but if you break it up into 2 via LAX, I think it's 11 hrs?

Nah you enter a weird time void whenever you're on ultra long hauls. If I have to fly DFW-BOS I'll be like "ugh freaking four hour flight" but flying to Dallas from Sydney the other day I was like "SWEET only seven hours left!"

It's weird.

evan_aggie said:

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It's not a short flight, but if you break it up into 2 via LAX, I think it's 11 hrs?

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Flight times from USA to Sydney are:
LAX - 14 hours
SFO - 15 hours
DFW - 17 hours
IAH - 17 hours

To Auckland, it's 11 hours from LAX and 12 hours from SFO.

Then you've still got another 3 hours to Sydney.

The only option to break up the flight into shorter segments is via Honolulu but there aren't good flight options to do that.

I have made my kids do it when I was using points because I could use United points from Honolulu to IAH or IAD. And I could buy them a ticket on Jetstar to Sydney. But, they had to spend the night in HNL in one of the directions plus, it's always dicey if you change carriers.

I'm heading across the ditch to New Zealand next week too actually, anyone have recs for the Mount Taranaki region?

I hiked up the lower base of Mt Taranaki years ago. It's more like a jungle / wooded hike, and nothing too strenuous. I'd recommend it, as it is geared towards visitors and actually not too crowded.

I stayed in New Plymouth a night or two an explored a ship-wreck site, a few hikes around in the book below.

I'd also HIGHLY recommend buying this book asap.

https://www.amazon.com/Frenzy-North-Island-New-Zealand/dp/097992328X/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2XVUYWU6G8GMD&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Jnj6NWH0h5wP3sl7GMNudUeL8i_VQZgOzRHELnySlABr8OPhAnyLmjtG044p2KYxcxLqBBf4RnizeQOiHDlUmw.N-YRWRG8qolLtcDLHy-Dz-txqHbxGD68lquhk1y3vS8&dib_tag=se&keywords=NZ+Frenzy&qid=1731342302&sprefix=nz+frenzy%2Caps%2C188&sr=8-2