New Zealand workcation for a month and half

Old Sep 3rd, 2022, 09:57 AM
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Sep 2022
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
New Zealand workcation for a month and half

Hello,

I'm new here and would be thankful for your advice! My wife and I are planning to visit New Zealand starting Dec 22nd and stay up until February 1st week (but we are flexible to stay more). We will be working PST time (4 AM - 12 PM NZ time from January onwards) We like to enjoy natural beauty (shorter hikes, <7km) and culture that NZ has to offer. Things like museums are not our cup of tea. We would like to spend our weekday afternoons seeing the city we are in and weekends going around. Few questions -

1. Planning on spending 10 days in south island doing a road trip (because we have time off until Jan 4th). Is that enough time? Or would you recommend staying in Queensland for a week more?
2. We are confused whether we should base ourselves in Auckland for next 4-5 weeks, or split the time between Wellington and Auckland? Can you help decide? Is Wellington worth living in? Or is Auckland too much of a city?

Thank you in advance!
shreyagarwal3976 is offline  
Old Sep 3rd, 2022, 11:00 AM
  #2  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 19,792
Received 83 Likes on 5 Posts
I assume you mean Queenstown, not Queensland (which is in Australia).

Ten days for the South Island is giving it short shrift. I'd allow at least three weeks to cover the highlights. It takes longer to get from point A to point B than the map might suggest. The SI is long and skinny and has a mountain range running through it. Roads are limited and those mountains need to be gone around...they can be crossed too, but only in a couple of spots.

Neither Wellington or Auckland would be my choice as a base. The North Island isn't my cuppa. Curious why you've selected two cities in a country full of gobsmacking scenery? And yes, Auckland is VERY much a city.

If it were me, and I were in your shoes, I'd opt for Nelson/Tasman/Upper Moutere on the South Island as a base. But it's not me, so there you go.

Last edited by Melnq8; Sep 3rd, 2022 at 11:03 AM.
Melnq8 is offline  
Old Sep 3rd, 2022, 11:14 AM
  #3  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Sep 2022
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Thanks!

Originally Posted by Melnq8
Neither Wellington or Auckland would be my choice as a base. The North Island isn't my cuppa. Curious why you've selected two cities in a country full of gobsmacking scenery? And yes, Auckland is VERY much a city.

If it were me, and I were in your shoes, I'd opt for Nelson/Tasman/Upper Moutere on the South Island as a base. But it's not me, so there you go.
Thank you for the response. Yes I did mean Queenstown, just had a brain fart. 😊 We are both IT professionals and need fast internet for our work, at weird time of day because we are working PST time. Hence the inclination towards big cities during Jan when we have to work. Any recommendation with that constraint?
shreyagarwal3976 is offline  
Old Sep 3rd, 2022, 04:42 PM
  #4  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 19,792
Received 83 Likes on 5 Posts
Yeah, I suspected fast internet might factor into the equation. NZ Internet has come a long way since we first started visiting NZ in the 90's, when coverage was spotty at best. I honestly have no idea if needing fast internet limits you to cities in NZ these days or not. Nelsonian, a contributor who lives in Nelson will be better versed than I am, as will Diamantina, who lives in Dunedin.

As you can probably tell, I'm partial to the SI, precisely because it's less developed than the north. But it too, has grown by leaps and bounds and has lost that remote feel of years gone by.

I suggested the Nelson/Tasman/Upper Moutere area because it has so much on offer in a relatively compact area. It's one of my favorite parts of the SI, but it's also very popular with Kiwis and will be quite busy in Dec/Jan - when most school kids are on summer vacation and locals are taking their summer breaks.

Queenstown also makes a good base from which to explore other areas of the SI without too much travel, but it's a zoo these days - or it was before COVID hit the fan. From QT you can easily get to many places, but QT itself...well, it wouldn't be my choice. Wanaka is Queenstown's little sister and is also a tourist magnet, but is slightly more sedate. Arrowtown is a nice little town, well situated for seeing the QT/Wanaka/Cromwell area. It's busy during the day with tourists, but completely different at night. No idea about Internet though.

So, assuming Internet isn't an issue, I'd still go for Nelson/Tasman/Upper Moutere. If you want a city, there's always Christchurch, and there's a lot to do from there on your afternoons and weekends too without having to drive a great distance. But, it's a city, and pretty busy, although not on the same scale as Wellington and Auckland.

Melnq8 is offline  
Old Sep 3rd, 2022, 05:23 PM
  #5  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Sep 2022
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
That makes a lot of sense, thank you l will research into where might be a good place with our constraints in South Island.

We do want to go around north island too though, since it is our first time in New zealand. Any recommendations for how many days?
shreyagarwal3976 is offline  
Old Sep 4th, 2022, 06:44 AM
  #6  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 19,792
Received 83 Likes on 5 Posts
How many days...that's a tough one. Depends on what you most want to see and how far north you plan to drive. As with the SI, to do it justice I'd allow at least 2-3 weeks. Be prepared for more traffic on the NI, more people, more logging, more development.

Are you wine drinkers? We rather enjoyed our stay in Martinborough a few years back (wine region). We also spent some time in Wellington, then hightailed it back to the South Island. On our first visit many moons ago we visited the Coromandel Peninsula, which is 85 kms north of the western end of the Bay of Plenty, My spouse also went scuba diving at Poor Knights on the east coast of the Northland Region (think very cold). We also went black water rafting in Waitomo Caves, visited Whitianga, Napier, Wellington and Auckland. I can't remember how long we spent there.

New Zealand is a beautiful country and one of my favorites. There's so much to see and do that it's hard to narrow down. I suggest you take a good look at what interests you most and go from there. You will not be disappointed.
Melnq8 is offline  
Old Sep 4th, 2022, 09:47 AM
  #7  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Sep 2022
Posts: 5
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally Posted by Melnq8
How many days...that's a tough one. Depends on what you most want to see and how far north you plan to drive. As with the SI, to do it justice I'd allow at least 2-3 weeks. Be prepared for more traffic on the NI, more people, more logging, more development.

Are you wine drinkers? We rather enjoyed our stay in Martinborough a few years back (wine region). We also spent some time in Wellington, then hightailed it back to the South Island. On our first visit many moons ago we visited the Coromandel Peninsula, which is 85 kms north of the western end of the Bay of Plenty, My spouse also went scuba diving at Poor Knights on the east coast of the Northland Region (think very cold). We also went black water rafting in Waitomo Caves, visited Whitianga, Napier, Wellington and Auckland. I can't remember how long we spent there.

New Zealand is a beautiful country and one of my favorites. There's so much to see and do that it's hard to narrow down. I suggest you take a good look at what interests you most and go from there. You will not be disappointed.
Awesome. Thank you for the suggestions, they are all on our list. And yes, we do love wine. We live in the biggest wine making region of Canada not much different than NZ I think.
shreyagarwal3976 is offline  
Old Sep 8th, 2022, 03:48 PM
  #8  
 
Join Date: May 2004
Posts: 9,338
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Last time in NZ we spent two months in a Wilderness Campervan equipped with Rural Wireless Broadband. Ran a couple of devices @ av speeds of 50mb for most of the South Island. May be worth a look as you would get to see way more that way.

PS - I really wouldn’t want to spend any time in Wellington or Auckland.
crellston is offline  
Old Sep 13th, 2022, 01:15 AM
  #9  
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 2,248
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I know next-to-nothing on connectivity issues so I'm not the ideal person to tell you about internet speeds, however, I live in a typical midsize NZ city and have an Internet provider (Two Degrees) so I guess this makes me minimally qualified to comment. I can only tell you about my own experience. I live in St. Clair beach suburb of Dunedin. My internet download speed is 275 mbps; upload speed is 272 mbps. Every residence and business in Dunedin has had the option of connecting to ultra-fast fibre broadband (UFB) since 2018. I never use free public wi-fi, but I see our city also has free WiFi hotspots.
https://www.dunedin.govt.nz/dunedin-city/octagon-wifi
This app lists free wi fi in our city and other cities, such as Christchurch and Wellington.
https://www.wifimap.io/2171-dunedin-free-wifi/map
But since you'll be working from 4 a.m. to noon, I'm thinking you'll primarily want to access the internet from your rental. Still, I wanted to give you an idea of how widely available it is.

I think almost all towns and cities in NZ have access to UFB, so you'll have many options.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/techn...w-zealand.html
But it doesn't necessarily mean that all property or business owners have bothered to connect to UFB. So if internet speed is important to you, when considering a short term rental with an internet provider ask if you'll have ultra-fast fibre broadband.

There are exceptions. Some semi-rural or rural properties won't have this option. About a year ago, we considered moving to a small beach community 14K down the coast (still well within the Dunedin city limits). The village itself had access to UFB, but the semi-rural home we were looking at was atop a hill on 2 hectares up a road about 2 kms from the village center, which was down by the beach. We were told by the real estate agent UFB could not be accessed from this semi-rural property nor could we connect it to fibre broadband even if we wanted to. If the location you're considering is not on this list, it won't have UFB.
https://www.chorus.co.nz/tools-suppo...adband-checker

I think you might consider spending two weeks or more in Wanaka. But do most of your driving tour first by starting in Picton/Blenheim (if taking the ferry to the SI) or Christchurch (if flying to the SI). If starting from Christchurch, go up East Coast through Kaikoura, then to Picton/Blenheim, then Nelson/Abel Tasman/Golden Bay, then the West Coast/Punakaiki (with a possible detour to Arthur's Pass), then continue down the West Coast through Hokitika and the glaciers (Franz Josef/Fox and Lake Matheson), before driving through Haast Pass to Wanaka. (Note, I'm not necessarily saying you should stop in all the places, because Golden Bay and Arthur's Pass might be out of your way if your time is limited.) When ready to leave, you can fly out of Queenstown or Christchurch. If flying out of Christchurch, stay a couple of days and nights in Aoraki Mt. Cook along the way, Akaroa is worth seeing, too. Remember to book well ahead because you are coming in high season. Places like Kaiteriteri, near Abel Tasman NP, get booked up early, often by families who go there every summer.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/desti...stination-list

Wanaka would give you a real feel for summertime NZ. It's not as busy as Queenstown, though it might be just as pricey, because, after all, you'll be traveling here in peak season (school holidays) and this area, "Queenstown-Lakes District", is the premier South Island tourist destination and because Wanaka has more limited accommodation than Queenstown. Wanaka is surrounded by "natural beauty" and "shorter hikes" in abundance. Lots to do around there. Queenstown is a little more than an hour's drive away, so if you wanted to get into Queenstown for a few hours on a weekday, you could. (In January, the sun sets at around 9:30 p.m., but I'm thinking you need to get to bed early to be up and running by 4 a.m.) If you wanted to explore someplace like Glenorchy, a 45-minute drive from Queenstown, you might want to do this on a Sunday or a Monday, when you can get off to an earlier start.

On the long weekends (preferably three-day weekends), you could get to places like Te Anau/Milford Sound, or the Catlins, or Aoraki Mt. Cook (unless you end up leaving NZ from Christchurch, in which case, stay a couple of nights in Aoraki Mt. Cook enroute from Wanaka to Christchurch).

Wanaka is popular with families as well. Like Nelson/Abel Tasman, it's warm in summer, making the lakefront beaches/swimming spots quite popular.

I like Wellington. It's a fun, attractive, city with plenty to do, lots of dining choices, cultural events, but it is more urban and might not offer the same extent of natural beauty as Wanaka. It's also known for high priced accommodation, though this might not be the case in January as Parliament will be on break. I could see you spending a week here. You asked if Wellington is worth living in? Do you mean on a more permanent basis? Auckland and Wellington are NZ's most expensive cities. It's the political capital, film capital, and home to several universities: this makes accommodation scarce and thus expensive.

https://www.westpac.co.nz/rednews/to...emote-workers/

Do you know where you will go on the North Island? I'd not miss the Bay of Islands, though it is out of the way. I also like the East Cape, actually Whakatane to Napier including a drive around the East Cape from Opotiki to Gisborne, but this drive takes time and maybe it's not an option for a first-time visitor. I also like Martinborough and the nearby Wairarapa Coast. And I like the islands of Hauraki Gulf (off Auckland), though I've yet to visit them all. I also like parts of West Auckland, such as Te Henga (Bethell's Beach), Piha, Muriwai, Waitakere Ranges. I don't know the Coromandel or Bay of Plenty as I only visited briefly many years ago, but they're awfully popular so they must be nice. i would guess, though, that these places are quite popular with Auckland families during the school holidays. The middle of the North Island has the geysers of Rotorua and the volcanic plateau (home to the famous Tongariro Alpine Crossing and Tongariro National Park), and Lake Taupo--all very popular. Oh, and there's Mt. Taranaki inland of New Plymouth on the West Coast. So the North Island is not without its charms. Six weeks in NZ, especially if you have to spend most of that time working, will go by fast.

In case you haven't seen this:
https://www.immigration.govt.nz/know...visitor%20visa.

Good luck and have a great time!

Last edited by Diamantina; Sep 13th, 2022 at 02:07 AM.
Diamantina is offline  
Related Topics
Thread
Original Poster
Forum
Replies
Last Post
noplacelikeparis
Europe
40
Aug 24th, 2021 01:46 PM
dutyfree
Australia & the Pacific
6
Dec 31st, 2012 02:08 AM

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are On


Thread Tools
Search this Thread

Contact Us - Manage Preferences - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information -