17 Day Sibling Roadtrip
My baby brother, Quinton, is graduating high school this year, so I decided to gift him a trip around New Zealand. I thought it would be awesome to show him where I have been living, and it is a great opportunity for him to explore the joys of traveling as well. Christmas break was the best time for him to come, so I decided to make the beset of it and have him spend his entire break in NZ. Because Christmas falls right in the middle of summer in New Zealand, it's quite a busy period, so we decided to book everything beforehand. Below, I have listed the itinerary that we followed for our 17 day trip, and I've shown changes that we made on the way as well.
TRIP PLANZZZ
DECEMBER
17: TOUCHDOWN!! 10:00 am Auckland Airport.
Drive from Auckland to Cathedral Cove (2.5 hours)
Drive from Cathedral Cove to Waitomo (3 hours)
Sleep at my place in Waitomo
18: Black Water Rafting! 6:00 am (before opening)
Sightseeing: Marokopa Falls, Mangapohue Natural Bridge, Kiritehere Beach
Chill out at my place and sleep.
(We were supposed to drive down to the Tongariro Crossing at 5pm to stay in a cabin I booked, but we decided to hang out at the beach longer and just drive up early in the morning.)
19: Tongariro Crossing 7:00 am (We planned to do the whole thing and finishing around 3pm, but the weather got so crappy. It was super windy and rainy, so we turned back and finished at around 11 am.)
Drive to Wellington (4 hours) (We had extra time, so we kinda chilled out and took our time, then my car blew up.. so we had to stop and figure things out. We ended up finding a nearby car rental place, and got back on the road.)
Take the ferry from Wellington to Picton 8:45 pm.
Camp out in Picton area.
20: (The original plan today was to go Dolphin swimming and whale watching in Kaikoura, but due to the recent earthquake, Kaikoura is still inaccessible to tourists by land. We just cancelled those tours instead and spent the day leisurely driving down to Lake Tekapo, which we were going to do after we finished in Kaikoura.)
Drive to Lake Tekapo (5 hours).
Hammock camping next to the lake.
21: Drive to Queenstown (3 hours)
Breakfast, Gondola and Luging, check in at Canyon Swing
(We also had the options of ice skating and doing an escape room on this day, but we decided to take it slow instead)
Below Zero Ice Bar
Sleep at Base Hostel.
22: Drive to Milford Sound (4 hours)
12:15 Scenic Cruise in Milford Sound
Drive to Devil's Staircase (3.5 hours), camp out.
23: Drive to Queenstown (30 minutes)
8:00 am Shotover Jet Jetboating
9:30 am Canyon Swing
1:00 pm White Water Rafting on the Shotover River
Sleep at Absoloot Value Hostel
24: 9:00 am Routeburn Canyoning Trip with Canyoning Queenstown
5:00 pm Finish, drive to Wanaka (1 hour)
Sleep in Airbnb
25: Merry Christmas! Roy's Peak Hike (8 hours)
BBQ on the lake
Sleep in Airbnb
26: Chill out on Lake
Drive to Omarama (2 hours)
4:00 pm Glider flights with Glide Omarama
Drive back to Wanaka, camp out
27: (We planned on doing the Wild Wire via ferrata trip, but we decided that we could cut it out for budget's sake, and we had done a bit of similar stuff while canyoning.)
Blue Pools Walk
Drive to Franz Josef Glacier (3.5 hours)
Sleep at Montrose Hostel
28: (We planned on doing the Heli-hike glacier tours on this day, but we also cut it out for budget's sake, and we decided to hike up to the glacier instead.)
Hike up to Franz Josef Glacier (1.5 hours)
Greenstone carvings at Te Koha Gallery
(We were originally going to drive to the Hokitika Gorge to camp and check it out, but we spent a lot more time on the greenstone carvings than expected, so we just passed it up and kept driving to a random area and camped out.)
29: Drive to Nelson (4 hours)
Chill out day in Nelson. We didn't do much, we both caught up on some work on the computer that we needed to do.
Sleep in Tasman Bay Backpackers
30: 8:00 am Ferry from Picton to Wellington
(We were originally going to drive to Taupo and camp, then make our way up to Mount Maunganui via Rotorua, but we decided we wanted to sleep on beds and have some showers, so we went back to my place in Waitomo instead.)
Drive to Waitomo (5 hours)
31: (This is where we planned to visit Huka Falls and the Hot n Cold in Rotorua, but we spent the day at my place instead so Quinton could finish his college applications, and I did some cleaning)
Drive to Mount Maunganui (2 hours)
Hike up the Mount and watch fireworks, chill out at the beach
Sleep at Airbnb
JANUARY
1: Recover, pack stuff, chill out, beach time.
Sleep at Airbnb
2: Drive to Auckland (2.5 hours)
(We originally planned to head out early and spend some time in Auckland CBD, to go up the Skytower, but we decided against it last minute and just decided to chill out and take our time packing up to leave for the airport.)
1:00 Drop off at Auckland airport for 3:20 pm departure.
One very important thing I learned on this trip, is not to underestimate the importance of "just chilling". Me being me, I just enjoy adventuring so much. I always want to be doing something new, or going to a new place. This was a reminder that not everyone travels the way I do; not everyone enjoys doing things as fast-paced as I do. It also made me realize that "just hanging out" can be much more fun and meaningful than it sounds, especially when it's with people close to you. It's nice to take some time to just enjoy each other's company.
If there is anything you see that interests you, and you'd like to know more about, feel free to contact me and ask me! These plans that I made revolved around the areas and activities that I found most interesting and enjoyable in New Zealand.
