11 day North Island Advice

Hi there,
What are your plans for Wanganui? It's not somewhere I would recommend for a visit. If it's just to break up the trip from Wellington - Auckland then I would suggest moving Taupo to that stop and driving from Rotorua - Napier without Taupo in between (it will still be quickest to go via Taupo but you don't need to stop there on the way to Napier, if you wanted to save it for the trip back). Otherwise, you could just fly from Wellington-Auckland (should only cost $30-$60ish pp).

If it were me, I would rather spend 2 nights in the Coromandel and miss out Tauranga, but that depends what you prefer. Coromandel has much nicer beaches and you could sightsee to a few different places (try Cathedral Cove in Hahei, Hot Water Beach and Whangamata). Tauranga is more of a city feel and has some nice shops and cafes.

Wellington is great and there's lots to do there, 3 nights is a good plan.

Do you like Lord of the Rings or the Hobbit at all? If so you could stop at Hobbiton on your way to Rotorua.

Happy to suggest things to do in some of your destinations if you're interested, just let me know!

Edited by: rowd

Hello and thankyou very much for your reply.

Yes we were just picking Wanganui in order to break up the drive back to Auckland. We got a great deal with Apollo campervans so need to drop our campervan back in Auckland unfortunately.

In Coromandel, I imagine we would get there in time for lunch, and then wouldn't need to set off until late afternoon the next day. As we are spending quite some time in Wellington though I will look into whether we need to stay at Tauranga too.

We are looking forward to Wellington, especially as I won't be able to do much walking etc.

We are not super interested in Lord of the Rings, however if we were driving through we would probably have a look.

I might look at recutting it over the weekend then get back to you. Thanks :)

Edited by: mitchlou84

I agree with Wanganui being problematic. It is about 7 hr by car to Ak, so much longer in a campervan. I would also drop it in favour of Taupo on the way north, but you might like to consider Tongariro N P instead. I don't know anyhthing about CV parking there though.

We are only in a Hi-top, so really just mini bus size, I admittedly don't drive it as fast as a car, but I think that is more my terror of the NZ roads, my boyfriend is more confident.

I definitely take your point that it is too far though.

I like the idea of the national park though, will look into that, thanks :)