Use this itinerary as a guide to help you plan your perfect trip to New Zealand

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Year visited: 2017

Time of year: March/April

New Zealand Itinerary

There is plenty to see in New Zealand. More than can be seen in 10 days, but enough that any number of days will give you amazing adventures to dream about.

This is the itinerary that we followed on our trip to New Zealand in 2017. I spent a long time planning it out to do everything that I wanted to do in the short amount of time we could spend there (Spoiler—it wasn’t 10 whole days. That includes travel days!).

This is meant to give you an idea of what you can do in the time that you have there, and maybe ideas as to what you really want to do and what you might skip.

You don’t have to follow the same itinerary that we did (although it is pretty perfect, I think!).

Day “O”

Travel Day

• This day doesn’t count as part of my 10 day itinerary, because we are not actually in New Zealand this day. And because 10 days sounds better than 11 days.

The first of 2 travel days. Because, not only is New Zealand really far away (assuming you’re coming from anywhere but Australia or Papua New Guinea), you also cross the international date line. So, suddenly, it’s tomorrow (“It is? It’s usually today…” -Winnie the Pooh)!

So day 1 is a day of travel. Airports, layovers, and then boarding a 17 hour overnight flight to Sydney, Australia! Complete with movies, music, and way more food than you needed to eat (unfortunately I slept through the part where they handed out late night KitKats!).

Day 1

Travel Day

(And arrival in New Zealand. Thus—Day 1)

We left on a Thursday night, and we arrived in Sydney about 6 am Saturday morning. So somewhere in there Friday happened.

I was really hoping we could see the Sydney Opera House from the plane window, but the airport is not near the city, so I guess I’ll have to plan a separate trip down under for that.

• We did pick this particular flight, because it had a layover in Sydney, and we wanted to say we’d been to Australia!

Our layover was 2 hours, which was enough time for us to go through security again in Australia, buy some coffee so we could get Australian money, and be ready to board our final flight into Auckland.

• If you visit Australia, you need to get a visitor’s visa. But if you have a connecting flight in 8 hours or less, you DO NOT need a visa.

• Since we visited in 2017, New Zealand now requires a visitor’s pass before you arrive (but not a visa). Click here for more information.

We arrived at Auckland International Airport, passed through customs, and took a green cab to our hotel in downtown Auckland. Our hotel was within easy walking distance of many downtown restaurants, so after my sister and brother-in-law arrived (from Papua New Guinea), we walked down to eat dinner.

Day 2

Waitomo Glowworm Caves

(day trip from Auckland)

We walked about a 10 minute walk from our hotel to Hertz to rent a car for the day. Then we drove the 2 1/2 hours from Auckland to Waitomo for our tour of the famous glowworm caves.

I had directions written down on a piece of paper, and we were doing great! But then one turn came up too soon, we missed it, and got totally lost. Luckily, one of my friends had international data on her phone, so she looked up the directions on her phone, and we got there just fine.

• If you’re driving in New Zealand, remember that they drive on the lefthand side of the road, and that they also love their roundabouts.

There are many different tours you can take of the glowworm caves. We chose to do blackwater rafting, which is essentially hiking through the caves with an inner tube on your back, one jump off a small waterfall, and some times floating along under the glowworms on your inner tube.

It was a fun tour that also included lunch, but we were not allowed to take pictures. If we ever go back to New Zealand, I’d like to try one of the other tours, and maybe get some pictures of my own of the glowworms!

Day 3

Hobbiton

(day trip from Auckland)

This is the reason we came to New Zealand! The Hobbiton movie set is about a 2 hour drive from Auckland, and one of the most popular day trips. You can easily find tours from Auckland, or you can rent a car and drive yourself.

We took a tour with Red Carpet Tours. They were fantastic, but I don’t think they do day trips anymore. They do offer multi-day tours of Lord of the Rings sites throughout New Zealand.

• Here is a great website for finding all your tours. I took the liberty of typing in “Hobbiton” for you!

Day 4

Flight to Queenstown

Our fourth day of adventuring was spent traveling from Auckland on the north island to Queenstown on the south island. We spent 3 nights in Auckland, and then 3 nights at our hotel in Queenstown.

• We took a green cab from our hotel to the airport, and then again from the airport to our new hotel. You can book them online ahead of time, or you can just find one at the airport. We flew Air New Zealand from Auckland to Queenstown, which I would definitely recommend over Jetstar.

We arrived around lunchtime and had no other plans for the day, so we got to explore the town. Queenstown was our favorite stop on this trip. I would not have minded spending more time just hanging out there. It is also the adventure capital of the world.

Here our hotel had a full kitchen, so we could walk down the street to a grocery store and buy food for lunch and dinner, which saved money.

Day 5

Lord of the Rings Themed Safari

(day trip from Queenstown)

You can schedule a full day safari or a half day safari with Nomad Safaris (and it doesn’t even have to be LOTR themed, if for some reason you’re not into that).

• This was my favorite thing that we did on our whole trip to New Zealand, so I 100% recommend it!

We took the half day tour, starting at 1 pm, so we had the whole morning to just walk around and explore Queenstown some more. This is where I saw a troubadour playing a piano he had saved and refurbished from a dumpster, and another troubadour singing a duet with his big shaggy dog!

My one friend really wanted to see a kiwi bird while we were in New Zealand. There is a kiwi sanctuary in Queenstown, where she easily could have gone that morning to see one. Except…we didn’t know about it until it was too late, and we didn’t have enough free time left.

Our afternoon was spent driving through rivers, along cliff edges, panning for gold, and altogether having a fabulous time.

• You can read all about it and see amazing pictures of the scenery around Queenstown here.

Day 6

Milford Sound

(day trip from Queenstown)

When I researched what the most beautiful places in New Zealand were, Milford Sound is what I came up with. It’s so awe-inspiring in fact, that my sister and brother-in-law decided to extend their trip one more day to go with us, before leaving us for Australia (and actually staying long enough there to say they visited).

Milford Sound is gorgeous, although I think there are many places around New Zealand that are just as beautiful. I think part of my “uninspiredness” with the place was just how much it had been hyped up to me. So let me talk it down a bit for you now, in hopes that you will truly be blown away if you ever do get to visit.

We took a tour bus from Queenstown, and it took the whole day. Complete with photo op stops along the way, a 2 hour cruise (not a “3 hour tour”) of the sound (technically a fiord), and the bus ride back, it was basically a 12 hour day.

• To decide for yourself if it’s worth it, check out this article.

Day 7

Train to Dunedin

We had to get to Dunedin, New Zealand somehow, because that’s where the penguins are. My sister actually found this train for me, which was the perfect way to get from Queenstown to Dunedin.

The train does not go all the way to Queenstown. The train goes to the middle of nowhere (AKA Pukerangi). If you book the “Queenstown Connection,” that means they will book a green cab to pick you up and drive you into the middle of nowhere (AKA Pukerangi).

From there we got the train ride back through the Taori Gorge into Dunedin and walked to our hotel.

• Dunedin is steep. And a big city with crowded streets. I would not suggest walking to your hotel with all your luggage. Just get another one of those handy green cabs.

We were staying at a hotel right downtown, so once we caught our breath and dropped off our luggage, we could easily walk around the city centre Octagon, which had lots of shops and restaurants. We also stopped at a grocery store to get food for the next day, since our tour was not scheduled to get back until 8 pm.

Day 8

Tour of Dunedin, the Otago Peninsula, and Penguin Place

We booked a tour through Viator which included a tour of the city, and Penguin Place. Our tour guide picked us up at 1 pm for the tour which would take the rest of the day. We should have returned around 8 pm, but because we added on the surprise bonus of watching the penguins at the Royal Albatross Center too, we didn’t get back until 9 pm.

In the morning we could walk around the city near our hotel, and we discovered they have a Cadbury Chocolate Factory there! So we spent the morning touring that, eating lots of free chocolate, and then eating more chocolate in their café.

• Unfortunately the Cadbury Chocolate Factory closed! But there is a “replacement'“ chocolate factory: Otago Chocolate Company.

Then our tour guide picked us up, and we had the rest of the day to learn about the history of the city, see the steepest residential street in the world (among other sites), and of course, lots of local wildlife!

Day 9

Dunedin, and flight back to Auckland

Once again we had the morning free, and we were able to explore a little more of Dunedin.

Then around 1, we had a green cab (them again!) pick us up and take us to the airport. Our flight home the next day wasn’t until 1 pm, so theoretically we could have spent the whole day in Dunedin, and flown back the next morning.

But we didn’t want to take any chances, so we flew to Auckland that afternoon on what we thought was a super cheap flight with Jetstar. It wasn’t quite as cheap as we thought, since we had to pay for all of our bags (even the personal items).

We gathered in a corner of the tiny airport, tossing stuff out, putting on coats and rearranging our bags so that we could save as much of our stuff as possible and still pay as little as possible (it wasn’t cheap). One of my friends decided she could throw away a pair of shoes—but unfortunately she found that night that she had only thrown away one! What an extra waste of weight!

We arrived back at the airport in Auckland and took a shuttle to one of many airport hotels. Just like our cheap flight, we (I) didn’t do a great job picking our cheap hotel. We passed plenty of good looking options before we finally arrived at our home for the night, the Auckland Airport Kiwi Hotel.

This was just not a great day for us.

The airport shuttle to the hotel was free (precisely why I booked a hotel with a free airport shuttle), but the ride back to the airport was not. This is part of their evil plan. Either pay us to leave or stay at this sketchy hotel FOREVER! Mwahaha!

I mean, it was only $2, but still.

Day 10

Travel Home

Even though our flight wasn’t till the afternoon, we paid our $2 and took the first shuttle out of there that we could!

Then we could hang out at the airport, spending the last of our NZD and buying more souvenirs before we left behind magical New Zealand, and (although we took three flights, one of which was 15 hours) arrive home just a few hours later that same evening. So even though we completely lost a day into the void of nothingness on the way there, we got a day back when our 24ish hours of traveling landed us back home the same day.

And that’s it!

That’s our 10 (or 11) day travel plan for a quick trip to New Zealand.

But there is plenty more to see on the islands, so don’t feel limited to doing what we did.

The official day count of the trip is a little confusing— one of the days we were traveling just disappeared when we crossed the international date line. We left on a Thursday and arrived in New Zealand on Saturday afternoon. We were in New Zealand from Saturday to the next Monday (over a week later) and then flew out and arrived home on Monday. So we were gone from Thursday-Monday, which is officially 12 days total.

Have you been to New Zealand? Got any ideas of other places to go? Leave your suggestions in the comments below!

You might also like:

The Beginner’s Guide to New Zealand

Fun & Unique Things to do in Dunedin, New Zealand

Where to See Penguins in New Zealand

Is Milford Sound Worth Visiting?

A Lord of the Rings Safari around Queenstown

Hobbiton & the Waitomo Glowworm Caves

Lord of the Rings Places to See Around the World

What to Read & Watch Before Going to New Zealand

Photos of Hobbiton

This article was written by: Julia Rexford