We spent a week exploring New Zealand’s North Island. We flew into Auckland. After a couple of days exploring, we picked up a hire car and drove south as far as Wellington. After a quick park run, we caught the ferry to the South Island for more adventures. Note: We stayed in Carterton (near Wellington) for a couple of days to visit a friend. Although we enjoyed visiting Martinborough and Greytown, I would probably recommend skipping these two and spending more time in Wellington.
New Zealand (North Island) 1 Week Itinerary
| Day 1 | Auckland Flight to Auckland Accommodation – Victoria Street Apartments SkyTower Aotea Square Auckland Art Gallery Albert Park |
| Day 2 | Auckland Waiheke Island Goldie Estate Winery |
| Day 3 | Auckland to Rotorua Matamata Hobbiton Movie Set Tour Rotorua Accommodation – Cosy Cottage Thermal Holiday Park Kuirau Park Government Gardens |
| Day 4 | Rotorua to Taupo Te Puia Craters of the Moon Huka Falls Lake Taupo Accommodation – Tuscany on Taupo |
| Day 5 | Taupo to Carterton Napier Napier Art Deco Tour Picnic on Napier Seafront Carterton |
| Day 6 | Martinborough New Zealand Wine Trail Lunch at Hawthornthwaite Winery Tirohana Winery |
| Day 7 | Greytown Greytown Historic Tree Cobblestone Museum Lunch at The Clareville Bakery Dinner at Mount Holdsworth Pizza |
| Day 8 | Carterton to Rarangi Lower Hutt Parkrun Wellington Te Papa Ferry to South Island Marlborough Sounds Queen Charlotte Sound |
Day 1 – Auckland
Flight to Auckland
Today we fly to Auckland. We arrive at the airport in plenty of time and I set about deciding how to spend our remaining dollars. I opt for a fridge magnet and a jar of chill chutney.
I fall in love with New Zealand before we even land. This is a combination of the view out of plane window as we approach plus the generous amount of wine distributed by the lovely Air New Zealand cabin crew.
There is a slight blip at immigration. I try to go through the e-gate but accidentally answer ‘yes’ to the question: ‘Have you spent any of the past 12 months in prison?’ I get pulled out of the queue to speak to an immigration officer. I explain that the correct answer is: ‘No, but I had quite a lot of wine on the flight’. He is very understanding, stamps my passport and sends me on my way. The old man sulks. He went through the e-gate without incident and doesn’t have a stamp in his passport.
There is a slight blip at customs, when my chilli chutney is discovered, but I am allowed to keep it.
Accommodation -Victoria Street Apartments
We’re staying in an apartment; Victoria Street Apartments, because our original hotel cancelled our reservation to accommodate a block booking. It has upped the cost somewhat, but it is very conveniently located and the presence of a washing machine is a source of great excitement.
SkyTower
The apartment is directly opposite the SkyTower. Or, to be accurate, opposite the SkyTower bungee area. It’s quite disconcerting – every now and then a body comes hurtling past the window.
Auckland Harbourside
We go for a wander, Auckland is heaving. There’s a big yacht race in town, so the city, particularly around the harbourside, is buzzing with music and boats and people.
Aotea Square
The enormous Aotea Square is a popular location for festivals, parades and music events and is capable of holding up to 20,000 people. At the entrance is a Māori gateway. There is also a fountain and several sculptures of notable New Zealanders.
The square is surrounded by public buildings, such as the Town Hall, the Aotea Centre and the Civic Theatre.
Auckland Art Gallery
Auckland Art Gallery is located in the corner of Albert Park. The building itself is a 19th century château with a modern wood and glass atrium. It houses an extensive collection of national and international art.
When we visited, the ticket prices for foreigners were quite expensive, which seemed unfair as New Zealanders can visit British museums and galleries for free. So we admired the building and the public sculptures outside and move on to Albert Park.
The gallery is open daily from 10 am until 5 pm. Entry is currently free.
Albert Park
Albert park is a large Victorian park with formal gardens, sculptures, fountains and some very impressive old trees.
Queen’s Wharf
From the park, we head towards the waterfront. You can walk along the 350 metre long Queen’s Wharf, past the original 1910 building, Shed 10 and the more recent Cloud (built to house a fanzone for the 2011 Rugby World Cup) to the Lighthouse at the end.
The Lighthouse is actually an artwork by Michael Parekōwhai. Its exterior is a replica of a 1950s family home, while the interior features a light installation.
Viaduct Harbour
The fancy waterfront area of Viaduct Harbour was given a makeover before hosting the Americas Cup in 2000. It is lined with bars and restaurants and buzzing with activity.
Wynyard Quarter
At the edge of Viaduct Harbour, you can walk across the bridge into the Wynyard Quarter. Here, there are yet more bars and restaurants. Or you can just wander round, enjoy the atmosphere and admire the yachts and the various pieces of public art.
We take a look round, then buy some bread and cheese from the supermarket and go home to do our laundry and have dinner. I add some chilli chutney to my sandwich. It is very strong. It is some considerable time before I regain any feeling in my lips and I wish it had been confiscated by customs.
Day 2 – Auckland
This morning, we start with a passion of mine; sculpture trails. Owls, on this occasion. The Big Hoot places 50 owls painted by local artists around town. We manage to locate 20 before losing interest.
Waiheke Island
We take a ferry to Waiheke Island, which is a lovely afternoon out for two reasons; (1) the scenery is beautiful and (2) it’s covered with wineries.
Picnic on Waiheke
We have a picnic beside the bay then go to a winery for a tasting which is served on a hillside overlooking the vineyard.
Goldie Estate Winery
Goldie Estate claims to specialise in ‘Wine Science’. I think I would be a good wine scientist.
We catch the return ferry to the mainland. It’s starting to get rather choppy. Cyclone Hola is heading our way. We buy a nutritiously balanced evening meal; a bag of chips and a bottle of Hawkes Bay sparkling wine and head back to the apartment to pack. Tomorrow we set forth on our New Zealand adventure.
Day 3 – Auckland to Rotorua
Auckland has been fun, but I’m excited to get moving. Today we pick up our hire car and head south.
Matamata
First stop – Matamata, which has rebranded itself Hobbiton since its use as a film location in The Hobbit. I’m not a Lord of the Rings fan but the old man has bought me a set location tour ticket regardless.
The Matamata tourist information office has been converted to resemble a hobbit hole and there is a sign which says ‘Welcome to Hobbiton’ in the street outside. They’re keen to milk their LOTR link for all it’s worth.
Hobbiton Movie Set Tour
We drive to the set location; a 1250 acre sheep farm in the middle of nowhere. Despite this, the place is heaving with tourists and set tours depart every 10 minutes hosting up to 4000 visitors a day. I can’t believe how many people are willing to forego £56 of their hard earned cash and 2 hours of their life to look at little houses.
We have a guided tour of the hobbit village. It’s a pretty location in the rolling hills which Peter Jackson chose from a helicopter because of its lake and huge ‘party tree’. The tour is full of interesting facts like how the buildings are constructed in varying proportions depending on what characters are going to stand outside. Big ones to make hobbits look small, small ones to make Gandalf look big etc.
The tour finishes with a complimentary mug of cider at the Green Dragon Inn, which improves the experience somewhat.
Rotorua
We continue to our overnight destination, Rotorua. It’s a fascinating town. As you approach, you can see random gushes of steam escaping from the earth here and there.
Accommodation – Cosy Cottage Thermal Holiday Park
We check in to our cabin at the Cosy Cottage Thermal Holiday Park. It’s on the shore of Lake Rotorua and has its own thermal springs and a pool of boiling mud (in the children’s play area!?). The swimming pool, central heating and the showers are all powered by the geothermal springs. It even has a steam oven where you can cook your dinner over a spring. It sounds fun until I read that it takes 5 hours to cook a chicken. Who has the patience for that? They sell ready roast chickens in the supermarket round the corner. You can be in and out in 10 minutes.
Kuirau Park
We take a drive to Kuirau Park for more geothermal activity. It’s like a normal city park but peppered with steaming springs and boiling mud holes. It’s quite spectacular, but rather smelly. By now we are in the grips of Cyclone Hola. The rain is getting steadily heavier and we are soaked through so we admit defeat and return to our cabin to dry off.
Government Gardens
Once the weather has cleared, time for a brief visit to Government Gardens. Past the Maori carvings and huge wrought the iron gateway is a beautifully manicured Victorian rose garden leading to a vibrant green volcanic lake with random clouds of steam belching forth. It’s both very English and very un-English at the same time.
Day 4 – Rotorua to Taupo
Te Puia
The springs in the park were good but for a full-on geothermal experience one needs to part with cash. We select Te Puia as it covers three NZ essentials; geysers, Haka and kiwis.
Haka
We continue to Te Puia and opt to start with the Maori cultural performance which includes a Haka. I even get the opportunity to go on stage and learn a Maori dance.
Geysers
Culture checklist ticked, we head for the biggest geyser, Pohutu. A board explains that the geyser erupts every 30-60 minutes and that the smaller Prince of Wales Feathers geyser is an indicator of when this will happen. There is geyser activity and it looks pretty impressive. The old man explains that this is the small geyser and we sit down to await Pohutu. I’m not convinced but I am informed that I am too impatient and that he is determined to get his $95 worth. 80 minutes later, with mild sunstroke and having inhaled our bodyweight in sulphurous gassed, he asks a tour guide when Pohutu is likely to spring into action. She says it has been in action continuously for over an hour!
Craters of the Moon
We head off for tonight’s destination, Taupo. We detour for a walk round the Craters of the Moon; a boardwalk round some more geysers and mud pools. But it’s way past lunch time and I’m pretty much over geysers and definitely over sulphurous gas, so we don’t stay long.
Huka Falls
Huka Falls is a beautiful place where the water from the falls roars as blue-green water turns to white rapids and back again as the river flows through a narrow gorge into a pool. Here, adrenaline junkies can spin round and round in a speedboat for no apparent reason.
Lake Taupo
A few minutes down the road is Lake Taupo. My first impression of Taupo is that it is very pretty. My second is that it scores highly on the weird sculpture scale.
After a photo stop, we continue to our hotel.
Accommodation – Tuscany on Taupo
I say hotel because the old man told me he booked a hotel; Tuscany on Taupo. He has in fact booked a B&B. I have programmed Google Maps for Tuscany on Taupo. It informs me we’ve arrived. We drive up and down a residential street several times wondering where the chuffing heck the hotel is. Eventually, we find our accommodation, which is very nice. It has access to the lake shore, which has a footpath running around it. We take a stroll as the sun sets, stopping for fish and chips.
Day 5 – Taupo to Carterton
We have a 5 hour drive ahead of us today, so I start with a lovely scenic run round Lake Taupo. It’s a pleasant way to start the day and sets me up for the huge cooked breakfast our host has prepared.
Napier
We set off, breaking our journey at the coastal town of Napier. The area was decimated by an earthquake in 1931, hence a large rebuilding programme in the 1930s. So it’s an Art Deco extravaganza with many of the public buildings, hotels and shops built in that style.
Napier Art Deco Tour
We purchase a Napier Art Deco Tour self guide map for $10. The old man mutters about the cost. A lot. Then we spend an hour wandering round the city centre taking pictures of the Art Deco buildings.
Picnic on Napier Sea Front
We return through the pristine seafront gardens, have a picnic lunch and set off for tonight’s destination – Carterton where the old man will be reunited with his best friend from school.
Carterton
A brief shopping stop in the market town of Carterton. According to my guide book, Carterton is renowned for its hanging baskets, so I take some photos.
I choose a pretty 19th century building with window boxes, hanging baskets and banners with photos of a man’s face. A voice behind me asks if ‘I would like to photograph the real thing?‘ I am taking pictures of the office of the local MP (the man on the banners), who is standing next to me on the pavement. I make an embarrassed retreat.
We continue to our ultimate destination, which is a friend’s small holding in the back of beyond some 60 miles north of Wellington. There are some sheep and lots of alpacas.
We spend a pleasant evening eating, drinking and catching up.
Day 6 – Martinborough
Today, for a nice change, I’m not responsible for the itinerary so no need to pore over guide books and maps selecting destinations and planning routes. Our hosts’ plan for the day; a trip to Martinborough, part of the NZ Wine Trail.
It seems fitting that my namesake town is renowned for its abundance of wineries. This Mr Martin was both egotistical and patriotic. He named the town after himself, had it build round a park with 8 roads leading outwards forming the shape of the Union Flag, then named those streets after places he had visited.
New Zealand Wine Trail
We are following part of the New Zealand Wine Trail, with a couple of wineries picked out for us.
Lunch at Hawthornthwaite Winery
Our first winery is Hawthornthwaite, where we buy a bottle of rose and have a lunch platter. The platter is huge and contains a significant amount of various cheeses. There are also cold cuts, chutneys, figs, sundried tomatoes, olives and pickles, mostly grown in or made at the vineyard. Wine and cheese with friends in the sunshine – does life get any better than that?
Tirohana Winery
We move on to Tirohana for a tasting and to purchase some wine for later. I go to the toilet and a tipsy old lady follows me into the cubicle where I point out (and she has to check to confirm) there is only one toilet. Eventually, I am left alone and she stands outside alternatively checking the door and knocking on it until I vacate the cubicle.
Day 7 – Greytown
Greytown
It’s our last day visiting friends, who suggest an outing to Greytown – claim to fame: NZ small town of the year 2017. It’s a beautiful little town with many traditional wooden Victorian buildings (the fire brigade is very centrally located). We wander along the high street admiring the architecture.
The Historic Tree
Greytown’s other pride, its abundance of mature trees. Most notably the Historic Tree; an enormous eucalyptus planted, having been stolen off a wheelbarrow while its owner was in the pub, in 1856.
Cobblestone Museum
On the outskirts is the Cobblestone Museum. This isn’t, as I first suspected, a museum dedicated to cobblestones. It’s a selection of old public buildings which, having outlived their usefulness, were moved here to create a ‘settlement village’.
We take a look around and learn Greytown has another claim to fame – it is here that the Kidd family, whilst experimenting with cross-pollination, created the Gala Apple.
Lunch at The Clareville Bakery
We stop for lunch at The Clareville Bakery, very proud of its status of ‘Best Regional Rural Café of the Year’. The food is good but their success is reflected in their prices. I’m not sure even a really good cheese and ham toastie is worth $17.
We head home, stopping (suddenly) along the way to photograph a mother pukeko bird with two babies which we spot on the verge.
Dinner at Mount Holdsworth Pizza
In the evening, we head out to Mount Holdsworth Pizza. It’s literally at the end of a track half way up a mountain in the middle of nowhere but it’s absolutely packed. It’s owned by a Swiss family and built to resemble an alpine chalet. It only opens one day a week (on Friday evening). You have to order a base in advance then make your topping choice on arrival. We sit by the brook listening to the live band with our BYO wine until our pizzas arrive. I have blue cheese, bacon and onion and it’s delicious. A perfect end to the day.
Day 8 – Carterton to Rarangi
Lower Hutt Parkrun
Saturday is parkrun day. We have to set off at 6 am to make it to Lower Hutt in time. The route is out and back along the River Hutt. The course description states that “on a calm day this will be a fast and scenic course”. Luckily, it is a calm day and it is indeed a scenic course. I don’t feel qualified to comment on whether it’s fast.
It features a split start with the faster runners running along the riverside, while the slower runners start at the top of the river bank and run down to join the riverside further on.
Wellington
That concludes our time on North Island. Time to head to Wellington to catch the ferry to Picton. We change out of our running gear, but showering isn’t possible. The old man thinks this is a problem. I see it more as somebody else’s problem. Once we have dropped the hire car and grabbed some breakfast in McDonalds, we have 2 hours to walk the mile back to the ferry terminal.
Te Papa
So I am allowed an hour in the enormous Te Papa; Wellington’s combined museum and art gallery. It’s a real whistle stop tour, you could amuse yourself for days in here. It’s packed with exhibits with plenty of opportunity to interact.
We take the lift to the observation platform on the 6th floor, then walk back down to the ground taking in as much as possible in such a short time. We work our way through art and Maori culture to social and natural history.
Wellington Harbourside
We have time to amble along the harbourside, admiring the view and taking photos, before boarding our ferry.
Ferry to South Island
We board the ferry bound for Picton on South Island. I’m not a huge fan of boats. Luckily, after a few blustery days in the grip of a cyclone, it is calm today. Although I am a little concerned that they deem it necessary to tether the vehicles and by the large number of sick bag dispensers dotted around.
Marlborough Sounds
It’s a 3.5 hour journey out through Wellington Harbour, across the Cook Strait and through the Marlborough Sounds. My brochure promises me some of the most breath taking scenery in the world. It isn’t kidding!
I order a basket of chips with aioli for lunch. The are literally the best chips I have ever tasted. Nevertheless, I am relieved they don’t make a reappearance when we reach open water. In addition, the aioli is very strong, thus adding to my odour issues.
Queen Charlotte Sound
Once we enter Queen Charlotte Sound, we go back on deck to enjoy the view. It is indeed very special with its lush green volcanic landscape and blue-green waters. We even have some dolphins come to dance in the ship’s wash. Sometimes it’s the journey not the destination…
I hope you found the above information useful. For guides to more destinations in the 50+ countries we have visited, check out my full list of Independent Travel Itineraries here.
- Trip taken: March 2018
- Updated: August 2024
Jane's Midlife Journey 
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