New Zealand North Island- Travel Ideas

Summary: If I have just a week to spend on the north island, for example, I would do these following things: Tongariro Crossing, Hobbiton & Glow Worms, Coromandel Peninsula (hot water beach and cathedral cove). You probably can fit more than that in a week, but those are the places that even as a returning tourist, I would go see again. Overall the North Island is more about beaches and lush forest, the south island is more about mountains and lakes. So, if you have a preference for one (for me that is mountains), plan out your time according to that preference!

1. Auckland

I spent two weeks on the north Island. I flew into Auckland on a red eye flight. Wasting no time I left my bags at the low end southside motel I had booked and used Uber to get to One Tree Hill, and  Mount Eden. Neither of these were sights you need to see. I felt they were pretty overrated. It was a stormy day and so my view wasn’t pristine. Perhaps with a clear day they would be good view points of the city.

From Mount Eden I did a self-guided walking tour of downtown Auckland, the Botanical gardens, the University, the Sky tower, the harbour, the maritime museum. I pretty well hit it all in one afternoon on serious jet lag. It was too much walking, I don’t recommend walking all that territory. The stretch from Mount Eden to downtown is pretty long. The Sky Tower, again, because it was stormy, not much to see, but perhaps on a clear day if you want a view of the city, choose either the sky tower or mount Eden to get it. The difference would be Mount Eden would be free!

At the end of the day, in my opinion, Auckland is just a city, not much unlike Calgary, but smaller. A city is as a city does, and so don’t waste too much time. It can serve as a place to get over some jet lag at the beginning of your trip, but there are no “must sees” there.

2.       Northlands: Drive to Paihia via Whangarei (“W” is pronounced as  “F”)

From Auckland I drove up to Paihia, with a stop at Whangarei, as it is on the way. Worth a stop, do the short hike to the Whangarei waterfall. I also went to a kiwi house there. You will not see Kiwis in the wild on your trip, so I suggest paying once to see a Kiwi. If you decide to go up north to Paihia, go to the kiwi house in Whangarei. It is the least busy, we had the best kiwi viewing, at your admission supports a good cause, the kiwis!

Pahia I stayed in for three days. It was my main beach area stop on the trip. I went parasailing, took a tour bus up to 90 mile beach and Cape Reinga (the north most tip of New Zealand). You can drive up there,  I took a tour bus just for a day off from driving. Also, it is cool because the tour bus drives right up along the 90 mile beach. I would say a drive up to the most North Point is not necessary, just depends on the time you have. I also went on a dolphin sight- seeing boat ride that took you out to what is called “hole in the rock”. If you are prone to see sickness, you will get sick most likely. I certainly did! It’s a very rocky ride that far out into the ocean. Seeing the dolphins was a highlight of the area for me. If you have seen dolphins in the wild before then don’t bother, but if not, look into it as there are numerous places in New Zealand, north and south Island, where you can take a dolphin tour I think.

3.       Coromandel Peninsula

If I had to pick Northlands (as described above) or Coromandel Peninsula, due to time constraints,  I would pick Coromandel Peninsula. The scenery is rugged brown cliffs to ocean, and there are a couple eclectic things to see/do there. I went to Hot Water Beach, which is really neat. You go about two hours before or after low tide, I think we chose two hours before low tide. You can rent a spade at the Top 10 Holiday Park located nearby, and possibly even park in the grass lot outside their facility (at least they let us do that). It’s a short walk down to the beach. You will see masses of people on the beach digging holes. The holes fill with geothermal water. This water can get even uncomfortably hot, in which case you just keep digging your hole out wider to let some cooler ocean water in. We didn’t even have to dig our hole as some people had come and go already and abandoned their hole. The idea is basically a natural hot tub on the beach, pretty cool. If you aren’t able to hit up this particular hot water beach, google if there are any other similar places where you are going, because I know this is not the only “hot water beach” area in New Zealand, perhaps just the most popular one.

The other thing I enjoyed on the Coromandel peninsula was Cathedral Cove. You can hike down to a series of coves one after the other. It was sunset so I only had time to hike down to Cathedral cove, but it’s the one you will see in all the tourist pictures and also in Narnia. It really is beautiful. I have heard you can do a kayak trip where you kayak from each cove to the next, look into it if you are into Kayaking.

4.       Tauranga and Mount Manganui

I don’t think these are must see areas. However, if you are driving a loop of the island and are going through the area, Mount Manganui has beautiful beach area right by the mountain itself. If you hike the short hike up the mountain you will get ocean and beach views. In Tauranga I went to a place called Pori Pori Waterfalls. On a hot day these would make an amazing swimming hole. Ask me for details if you decide you are staying over in the area, as they are a local swim hole and hard to find.

5.       Waitomo Caves and Hobbiton (based out of Hamilton)

I stayed in Hamilton and did a half day trip to Hobbiton and half day trip to Waitomo Caves. There is no need to go to Hamilton, I went there purely to see the LDS Temple there, as I am Mormon, so if that isn’t your thing, no reason to go there. Hobbiton on the other hand, is a must see!! Unless you hate Lord of the Rings….But if you are even just a band wagon fan, or neutral on it, you need to go to Hobbiton. You will want to stay and live there after you see it. Go on the earliest tour of the day so that there won’t be a bunch of people ahead of you. The tours run every 15 minutes, so it will get crowded.

Waitomo Caves are the place to see your glow worms and get inside some caves. If you are not headed that way for whatever reason, you can google other places to see Glow Worms. There are  some areas on the South Island as well that you can see Glow Worms. Waitomo is perhaps the most built up for tourists and therefore very accessible. You really should see glow worms somewhere when in New Zealand though.

6.       Rotorua

I am going to say up front, if you have been to Yellowstone National Park, then Rotorua will not impress, and I would be tempted to say you don’t even need to go there. However, it is a pretty popular stop. It is a good place to catch a Maori cultural show and dinner. I would splurge and to one of these sometime on the trip.  I went to the show at Te Puia. We bought a ticket that got us into the park Te Puia and included the dinner and show. The park has a bunch of geothermal stuff to check out and kiwis, but a very busy place to try and view kiwis. Basically to see any of the major geysers, hot water falls etc. you have to pay to get entrance into a park. There are a few there. If you just meander around their park in town, there are hot foot pools you can dip your feet in. In conclusion, I’m on the fence when it comes to Rotorua. If geysers, hot pools and bubbling mud is something you have never seen and are not likely to see elsewhere, then pick one of their parks there and pay the entrance fee to go in.

7.       Tongariro Crossing (in the National Park)

The Tongariro Crossing is an amazing “day walk”, meaning day hike. It is located in what they call The National Park. The trick with it is the weather. It is known for bad weather, and if it’s all clouded in you really won’t be able to hike it, or if you do hike it, you won’t see any views so there won’t be much point. If you have flexibility in your schedule, check the forecasts and play it by ear. If you just have to schedule it like I had to, I scheduled two days in the area and hoped for the best. It is Lord of The Rings scenery. Not just that, it’s also just great scenery. Turquoise lakes set in volcanic wasteland. I scrambled up “Mount Doom”. You definitely need to do that! It’s a side trip on the trail, but it is signed. It is actually called Mount Ngauruhoe. I recommend hiking poles for that hike as it’s a pile of ash and like a “down-scelator”, if you know what I mean. I also recommend going up the areas of hardened ash that is more like solid rock, and then descend on the loose ash and rock that you can shale ski down.

8.       Wellington

I drove back up to Auckland and flew down to Wellington, to save driving time. Wellington is on the very south end of the North Island. The main attraction there is for Lord of The Rings fans. It is known as “Welly-wood” as lots of movies have production in the studios there. So I guess if you are a lord of the rings movie fan and just a movie fan in general, there’s an appeal. I liked checking it out, but it is way out of the way, so with limited time, don’t worry about it. However, if you do end up down there, check out the Weta Museum, and pay to take a tour of the workshop, definitely worth it. I also drove out to see the “paths of the dead” from Lord of the rings but it’s not a convenient drive, it’s up over a mountain pass on winding roads. You can take one of a few different move tours in Wellington or look up the Lord of The Rings filming locations yourself and drive to them. I suppose if you are planning to rent just one car and drive all the way down and take the ferry to the south Island, then you will probably have a stop in Wellington. So if that is the case, the number one thing to check out is The Weta Cave Workshop. The next best thing is the Te Papa museum, which is free and very excellent.