Time and one place

[motoGP]

Yeah, fair point. My boat's floated by among other things... bikes, spectacular scenery, adrenaline activities that require no/little skill - I don't have much seafood, new music...

If you like a bit of an adrenalin rush, the Rotorua/Taupo region is a great place to start. With stuff like jet boating, parachuting and bungee jumping along with a beautiful area studded with little titbits of natural history, and volcanic hotspots, it’s a great place to start. It is very tourist oriented though, but if you do plan on going around March or February it will have settled down heaps.

I can also recommend the Waitomo caves, as mentioned above definitely a must see.

[Biff]

Take Leeds, fill it with Kiwis and twice the volume of traffic, throw in some waterfront for good measure and you've got a similar city to Auckland. If that rocks your boat - cool.

My bro (also from Leeds) was here a couple of months ago - his verdict on must see places:

Rotorua (spelling?)
Wellington
Coromandel
Christchurch (if you're into medium sized UK towns)
Otago (not Queenstown)
Milford Sound

And as you're a northener (the only decent kind of POM) - you'll get on well with the yocals. But leave your ferret and flat cap in t'campervan when in public.

Enjoy!

[Winston001]

Three weeks sounds like a long time until you get here and realise you will want to see everything! Autumn is the best time to visit - February-March - as the kids are back at school and the weather is USUALLY warm, dry and settled.

I'd be tempted to fly in to Christchurch and tour up the island - don't miss Central Otago and Marlborough, then pop over to Wellington for a day or two, and head up the east side of the North Island, Wairarapa, Hawke's Bay, then across to the Bay of Plenty and then up to Auckland. If you have time, head north to the Bay of Islands, but that way you should at least get a good taste of the country.

One place to visit? Mmn, that's a hard one - I reckon you'll love just about everywhere, depends on what you like - lakes, rivers, mountains, forests, cities - we've got it all!

Good advice. Most tourists say two things:

1. They spend 2 weeks in Australia and 5 days in NZ - they wish it had been the other way around.

2. They start at Auckland and spend the majority of time in the North Island but wished they'd had more time in the South Island.

So far as living here goes - I think Christchurch is ideal. Not too big, not too small.

[sels1]

My boat's floated by among other things... bikes, spectacular scenery, adrenaline activities that require no/little skill

Queenstown - adventure capital of NZ. Spectacular scenery, heaps of activites, way too many tourists, hardly any NZers! But by the time you have driven there and back, you would have seen some of best sights in the country. And while you are in the area take in Milford Sound, Te Anau and Wanaka

[Fat Tony]

Thank you, thank you, thank you all.

Damn, I wish we could get over there today. I might stick some of my body parts on ebay and see if I can fund the trip sooner. So excited about getting over there I can't tell you.

RiderInBlack - thanks for the offer