going to OZ/NEW ZEALAND in 2 weeks. help!

[LaurieL622]

hello all. well oz was a great experience......
but im now in new zealand!
i landed in christchuch this morn. i havent dont any research and dont know how im getting around. by the sounds of fellow travelers in oz the best way to go in nz is to rent a car. im not sure if i can match up my schedule to do that with other ppl. so what do you guys think about the bus companies? magic bus seems to be the cheapest so i'll prob book with them if i dont get the car thing going. i have three weeks and i was planning on spending most/all of it on the south island. what does everyone think?

what are MUST SEES? which route should i go???? any advice is appreciated!

THANKS!!!

[omisan]

Dunno about routes and all that since I just flew to Queenstown and based from there, but as far as musts go, I say you go see Milford Sound. And bungee jump. And eat some lamb (if that's your thing).

[mooloo]

Welcome to NZ! yea even though i havn't seen a lot of the south island most people would say to spend your time there, however the north island is quite pretty as well in some parts, but i would definately give the majority of your time to the south island, say two weeks to one in the north or something like that.

The south island i have only been to christchurch, nelson, blenheim and the marlborough sounds, definately spend some time in marlborough as it is absolutely gorgeous down there, and in christchurch definately go see the old university in the cultural precinct if you havn't already, the gondola & the trip to lyttleton i thought was good but takes a while to get there and could be skipped if you didnt have a lot of time.

I'm sure someone else can help you on the south island side of things...

In the north island, it depends what you want to see but auckland/wellington are both nice but can take a lot of time so if you want to do the city thing i would choose one to spend a few days in and then do a couple of days out to somewhere, say from auckland you could go to the bay of island (gorgeous!) or down to waitomo caves or even down to national park (you could go from wellington or auckland to national park) and walk some of the tracks (my b/f and i stopped at some rapids on the way home from taupo the other day and i can't find my camera cord, but when i do i was planning on posting some pics here). from wellington i was also say go national park way then on to taupo or rotorua if you want to get a 'cultural experience', im personally not a big fan of either place but a lot of travellers love them so it all depends on what you want to see and do while your here.

[kiwichick]

in terms of bussing cheaply u cant beat nakedbus.co.nz however thats not specifically tourist orientated if ya looking for a tour, otherwise i think theres a tour group called "stray"? also. I love the malborough sounds and would personally skip the west coast of the south island. Queenstown is gorgeous but relatively expensive, found chch kinda average, in the north i enjoy taupo and rotorua is fun for adventure tourism but if ya do a lot of that in queenstown you could easily skip it. I love napier, although proably not the best time of year to visit i guess, but still a neat little place. Wellington is def under rated!!

[aliz]

Originally Posted by LaurieL622

i decided to pass on the bridgeclimbing esp after i saw it. not too impressive (size wise).

ok so i know you posted this ages ago but i just noticed that comment... you are talking about the harbour bridge right? ok where are you from and how big did you expect it to be? i feel the need to defend my city here! its a really big bridge!

[aliz]

and cause i just noticed in the hugeness of that photo, that little clocktower in front of the building with all the blue lights on top was the tallest building in sydney when the bridge was built. so imagine how freaking huge they must have thought it was then. ok rant and thread hijacking over now.

[raoulduke]

I think that photo is just about life-sized.

Maybe you should link to it instead Aliz. I shudder to think how our dial up friends are handling it.

[aliz]

hehe. just illustrating the bigness of the bridge.

[mooloo]

hehe maybe i do need to come over to sydney, that pic is awesomely huge!

[aliz]

yup just call me miss tourism. anyone else? come on, don't make me post a life size photo of bondi!

[LaurieL622]

aliz.
sorry if i offended you!! didn't mean to.
i;m from los angeles. pretty much born and raised there. im not sure what i was expecting from the bridge. you know when you grow up seeing pictures of something sometimes seeing it in real life can be very different. anyway. i thought the city was beautiful...dont get me wrong. 200 bucks is just a lot of money for a small climb.

ok thanks so much for your comments everyone!!! im sure it' will be very helpful. idont have time to read all of them right now im internets about to run out & i gotta go try to rent a car!

[aliz]

lol its ok. you offended my bridge, not me. just didn't want any other Tpunks thinking we had a teeny little bridge! and yeah the climb is too expensive. have fun on the rest of your trip!

[LaurieL622]

well...im going back home tomorrow

ive had so much fun ......i don't want to leave!!! (as you can tell from my post about working visas in oz/nz)

thanks for all the help everyone! i'm glad i got almost two months to vist two really awesome countries!