This list of the best places to see in New ZealandIt will help you prepare your trip to a country where you will see nature in its purest state and enjoy incredible landscapes, which we are sure, will leave you speechless.
After our experience, we can say that the best way to travel the two islands that form New Zealand is to rent a motorhome, which will allow you to have the freedom to stop where and when you want. This, in addition to giving you this great privilege, will save you money on accommodation and food, making the trip much more sustainable, something important to consider in a country as expensive as New Zealand.
Although there are hundreds of possible routes, after our trip, we recommend you start the route on the North Island by landing in Auckland to after crossing the island, cross by ferry from Wellington to Picton, on the South Island, to after knowing this island , end the trip in Christchurch.
The minimum duration to tour the two islands, seeing the main points of interest would be 3 weeks, although we suggest adding 3 or 4 extra days in case of bad weather at one of its points of greatest interest, have that extra time.
This is something important especially if we take into account that the weather in New Zealand is quite variable, it is even difficult to avoid rains in summer, the time known as high season and the period that corresponds to the months of January and February in Spain.
If you do not want to cross a lot of tourism and find more adjusted prices, a highly recommended option is to consider this trip in spring or autumn, perfect moments in which having less frequent rainfall and pleasant temperatures, you can enjoy New Zealand at its best .
And to show our case. We travel during the month of March and the first week of April and enjoy the whole trip in good weather.
Based on the experience of our trip to New Zealand, we have made this list of what we believe are the 10 essential places to visit in New Zealand. We start!
1. Mount Cook
Mount Cook or Aoraki in Maori is the highest peak with 3724 meters and one of the places to see in New Zealand more beautiful.
And although this is the great icing on the cake, before arriving at Mount Cook we recommend you to squeeze the route and calmly travel the road that goes from Lake Pukaki to Mount Cook, one of the most spectacular in the country, which alone deserves the journey time to get there.
On the way, do not forget to stop at the Pukaki and Tekapo glacial lakes, where you can enjoy an impressive intense blue, the views of the New Zealand Alps and a starry night next to the Church of the Good Shepherd.
Once you arrive at the Mount Cook car park, you can do one of the most famous treks in the country, the Hooker Valley about 4 hours round trip, considered one of the most incredible in the area and New Zealand.
Do not forget to check the weather beforehand to make sure the day will be clear so you can see Mount Cook, one of the gifts of this hike.
From this parking lot, the trails leave for the Kea Point Track for an hour and the Muller Hut for about 9 hours, both well-known and totally recommended trekking.
If your idea is to do both (or even only one of them), we recommend you spend the night at the Whitehorse campsite, with basic services and a price of 13NZD per person and with fantastic views of Mount Cook that we are sure, will leave you without words.
In addition to those mentioned above, located a few kilometers from this area is the point to start the Tasman Glacier Lake, another of the most important tracks in the area and another one of the best places to visit in New Zealand, where you can enjoy one of the best views in all of New Zealand with the glacier, a lake full of large pieces of ice and the Cook in the background.
In addition to the one we mentioned, there are several more trails you can do, all less than 1 hour long, that run through the Tasman Valley area and are a perfect complement to the previous one.
If you do not have a motorhome or rental car you can book this excursion to Mount Cook with a guide in Spanish from the pleasant city of Queenstown.
Tasman Glacier on Mount Cook
2. Hobbiton
Hobbiton is the set of filming of the scenes of the village of the Hobbits and the Region in the famous film of The Lord of the rings and another one of the most essential places to see in New Zealand. Located on the North Island, very close to the city of Matamata, Hobbiton is a magical place surrounded by green meadows and hills, which will love both movie fans and those who are not.
The history of this place begins in 1988 when director Peter Jackson looks at the Alexander farm as the ideal place to start filming the trilogy of The Lord of the rings. After dismantling all the stages at the end of the last film, they had to be reassembled a few years later to shoot the trilogy of The Hobbit By the time the filming of the last film ended, reach an agreement with the producer whereby the Alexander family could keep the shooting set intact and make it one of the country's tourist attractions.
The visit to the shooting set is always done with a guide in English, although they give you a brochure in Spanish, and it is highly recommended to book the ticket in advance, to avoid running out of space, something that happens regularly in summer and spring or autumn
During the two-hour tour you will be able to see most of the hobby houses, including Bilbo Bolsón, as well as knowing many of the curiosities of the film and its filming before finishing the visit at the Green Dragon inn.
In addition to visiting Hobbiton in New Zealand, if you want to complete your experience with a meal in the tent mounted at the party place of the Hobby people, you can book this guided tour.
For us it was one of the most visited visits in the country and despite being guided, you have enough time to make all kinds of photos recreating scenes from the movie.
Hobbiton
3. Tongariro
One of the best things to do in New Zealand It is the Tongariro Alpine Crossing trekking, considered one of the best day trekkings in the world.
For almost 20 kilometers and 8 hours, you will border mountains, volcanoes, blue and green lakes, craters and forests, all located in the Tongariro National Park, the oldest in the country. The best option to complete this demanding route is to leave the motorhome in the guarded parking lot of Ketehahi, where the trekking ends and take a shuttle to Mangatepopo, the starting point of the route.
Keep in mind that although you can do the tour upside down, in this case you will find greater unevenness and difficulty in addition to some views worse.
In addition to being well equipped with mountain clothing and footwear, raincoat, water and food, it is important to know the weather forecast well to prevent the trekking from becoming a nightmare or you simply cannot see anything from fog or rain.
However, in good weather you can enjoy places like the Ngauruhoe volcano, the well-known "Mount of Destiny"where Frodo throws the ring of The Lord of the rings, the Tongariro volcano, the Red Crater, the Blue Lake and above all, the Esmerald Lakes, one of the most impressive places to see in New Zealand.
After our experience, we can only say that it was one of the moments of the trip and we also have to confess that it was not as hard as they told us previously and although there are two very steep climbs and a descent in which it is very easy to slip We consider it an affordable trekking for everyone with a minimum physical condition.
If you want to do the trekking in winter with snow, we have read that it is convenient to book a tour with a guide that includes glacier boots, ice axes and crampons.
Tongariro, one of the things to do in New Zealand
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You can find more information in this article about the best cards to travel without commissions.
4. Wanaka and Roy's Peak
Lake Wanaka and its famous semi-submerged tree, near one of its banks, is one of the most photographed and most must visit in New Zealand.
Incredibly, this lonely tree that began to emerge 80 years ago, next to the crystal clear waters of the lake and the snowy mountains in the background, form a tremendously relaxing postcard image, which we are sure, will be one of the magical moments of your trip.
We recommend you go to see it at sunrise or sunset unique moments where you can enjoy it practically alone and if you also have the luck to coincide with a starry night or with a full moon, it will become one of the great moments of the trip to New Zealand in motorhome.
Very close to Wanaka is another of the best things to do in New Zealand, the Roy's Peak trekking. A journey of 11 kilometers and about 5 hours long, in which after climbing a steep mountain you can enjoy one of the best views in the country.
Keep in mind that the ascent route, which can take you almost 3 hours, does not give truce and it is important to bring water and good shoes. If you still have strength left when you arrive at the viewpoint, you can spend half an hour more to reach the top of the Roy's Peak.
In this case, unlike Tongariro, we have to confess that the trekking became quite hard and we recommend, if you are not physically fit, leave early, take the climb very calmly and make many stops.
Roys Peak
5. Mildford Sound, one of the best places to see in New Zealand
In the southwest of the South Island of the country, the sea languages ​​penetrate the mountainous land forming magnificent fjords, among which Milford Sound stands out, considered one of the most essential places to see in New Zealand, being also the most accessible and famous fjord in the country.
As with Mount Cook, the journey here is also important, so before reaching this fjord we recommend stopping at most viewpoints of the road that goes from Te Anau to Milford Sound, where you can enjoy Alpine landscapes and large lakes that will take your breath away. When you arrive at Milford Sound you will have the best view of the fjord from the parking area and the port leaving the boats that travel the sea language.
We recommend booking this two-hour cruise here or this one that includes food, especially in high season, so you don't run out of seats.
If the day of the Milford Sound cruise rains, do not worry, in this fjord it rains more than half of the year and it is a great time to see it with all the waterfalls in their maximum splendor. Moreover, it is even said that not seeing Milford Sound after or during a torrential rain is like not having seen it.
Not far from Milford Sound is another of the most beautiful fjords of the South Island and the country as well as one of the places to see in New Zealand, Doubtful Sound. This fjord, three times longer than Milford Sound, is less accessible and you will need to book an 8-hour tour that includes bus and cruise transportation to get to know it.
Milford Sound, one of the places to visit in New Zealand
6. Moeraki Boulders
Moeraki Boulders, huge, almost perfect stone spheres, cemented with calcite over 65 million years ago, are located on Koekohe Beach and are another of the essential places to see in New Zealand.
Although the best time to enjoy them in good light and few tourists is at sunrise and sunset, it is important to see them at low tide or a couple of hours before or after. You can check in advance on this page the status of the tides, in order to organize your visit at the right time of day.
To get to Moeraki Boulders in New Zealand you have a free and private parking at the top, belonging to a cafeteria, where you must pay 2NZD. We recommend parking in the first one, not for the price, but for taking a short walk on the beach before reaching these famous stones.
To complete the visit to this area, near Moeraki Boulders you can see (with a bit of luck), several colonies of yellow penguins on the Bushy beach and blue penguins, the smallest in the world, on Oamaru, which will become another of the key moments of the trip and in one of the essential places to see in New Zealand.
Moeraki Boulders
7. Franz Josef Glacier and Matheson Lake
Franz Josef Glacier, Fox Glacier and Matheson Lake, located in the Westland National Park of the South Island, are three others important places to see in New Zealand.
The Franz Josef Glacier of 12 kilometers in length and the Fox of 20 kilometers, run through an incredible landscape of mountains and forests, and is well worth your visit despite the rapid setback they have suffered in recent years.
To see Franz Josef you will have to park the motorhome in a car park located about 2 kilometers from the terminal tongue of the glacier.
Another excellent option is to see it from the air by booking this panoramic helicopter flight that includes a snow landing or this helicopter flight that includes a spectacular hike above the glacier.
After enjoying the Franz Josef experience, you can head to the Fox car park, located just over 200 meters from a viewpoint overlooking the glacier that we are sure, will also leave you speechless.
To complete the visit to this area we recommend you enjoy a sunset at Lake Matheson, another of the most impressive places to see in New Zealand, which reflect, on clear days, the mythical mountains Cook and Tasman.
Franz Josef Glacier
8. Cathedral Cove
Cathedral Cove, located on the beautiful Coromandel Coast of the North Island, is one of the best beaches and one of the essential places to visit in New Zealand.
This photogenic place has a huge stone arch that served as the setting for the gateway to Narnia in the popular film "The Chronicles of Narnia". In addition to this spectacular arch, the two beaches of turquoise waters and fine sand, located on both sides, are impressive to have several semi-submerged rock formations and perfect for a good bath if the weather is good.
If you want to take the typical photo inside the cave with the beach in the background, we recommend you come early or late in the afternoon, when there are fewer people.
To get to Cathedral Cove you will have to park in a parking lot and walk about 45 minutes along a path full of ups and downs, with beautiful views of the coast. Before arriving at the parking lot we recommend you check the status of the tides to know when the tide is low and thus be able to move from one side to another.
Cathedral Cove, one of the places to visit in New Zealand
9. Rotorua
The geothermal area located on the outskirts of the town of Rotorua is the largest in the country and another of the places to see in New Zealand That will leave you speechless.
The most famous area is Wai-O-Tapu and it is where you will find the greatest geothermal activity with geysers, fumaroles, colored pools and mud as well as collapsed craters.
Among the places we liked most in this area are the Artist's Palette, the Champagne Pool and the Mud Pool or mud pool, located about 2 kilometers from the main area. Another of the most famous sites and that at least disappointed us was the geyser Lady Knox, in which every day at 10: 15h, they cause an eruption by putting soap inside the crater, since it is a geyser that by itself It doesn't erupt.
When you leave Wai-O-Tapu, you can take the same road to reach the Waimangu volcanic valley, the other most important geothermal area to see in Rotorua. This area is much more extensive and after our experience, we can only say that it is very worthwhile. In it you can make a hiking route down the valley, seeing craters and volcanic calderas.
To return to the parking again we recommend you take one of the park buses and avoid having to make the road again, in this case mostly ascent.
If you want to know the history and culture of Maori, near Rotorua is Te Puia, another of the places to see in New Zealand, in which you can attend one of the shows in which the Hakas are performed, their most typical dance. You can book the ticket in advance here.
Wai-O-Tapu in Rotorua
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You can buy your Holafly prepaid SIM card here with a 5% discount for being our reader.
10. Waitomo
One of the best things to do in New Zealand and more magical, is to visit the Waitomo caves, famous as the so-called inside live luminous worms or glowworms.
These strange insects, or rather their larvae, feed by causing light in the dark with which they attract their prey to their sticky silk thread.
Although the entrance is not exactly cheap, since the peak only lasts about 10 minutes and in other places in New Zealand you can get to see these worms for free, nothing is comparable to the vastness of Waitomo where you can enjoy of thousands of lights on the walls and ceiling, making the experience similar to being under a starry night, while navigating an underground lake.
As with Hobbiton, we recommend you book your ticket here in advance so you don't run out of seats or have to choose a different time than desired.
Near Waitomo are the caves of Ruakuri, another of the places to see in New Zealand in which you can see glowworms. We believe that it is more a cave to see stalactites and stalagmites, since there are not many luminous worms although the joint experience can be highly recommended if you have time to do both. You can book the ticket here.
If you feel like helping us complete the list of the 10 places to see in New Zealand, add yours in the comments.
