Visiting New Zealand

My wife has decided that we are going to visit New Zealand next year for vacation; this is perfectly fine with me. I was wondering if anyone, especially GGG staff since I know you guys all actually live there, could tell me when a good time to visit is and where good places to go are. Obviously I would like to make my way over to the GGG offices and pay you all a visit too if that is something that can be worked out!

Things I would be interested in knowing are what the weather is like during different times of the year, different towns/cities that are worth visiting and why they are cool to visit, and maybe any 'must know' tips for visiting your country.

Anyway, any tips are appreciated!

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Melissa_GGG wrote:

There are a lot of other places but if you have your dates set up/booked you are welcome to send us an email at 'support@grindinggear.com' about visiting us. :)

Wow! I've to remember to do this if I ever make a trip down to NZ too!

We don't have anything set up yet. I was wanting to make sure we come at a good time of year weather wise first. I personally am more comfortable with temps around 75-80 F and would prefer clouds and a little rain.

I think that the Pacific Northwest is my spirit animal...


We do have three smaller kids (the youngest just turned 3) so backpacking more than a few miles might not work well. That being said, she REALLY wants to go visit the Lord of the Rings stuff so i am sure we will be doing some hiking anyway.

I know that this is a bit if an odd question, and probably hard to answer too, but how expensive are things in NZ? What I mean is how far will my money go in NZ compared to in the US?

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GingerBeast wrote:

I personally am more comfortable with temps around 75-80 F and would prefer clouds and a little rain.

24-27c would be a hot day here, you're really only looking January through March. Clouds and rain we got all year round.

Most tourists who visit New Zealand come for the scenery. And there is lots of scenery. It's all just scenery basically.

There are 'cities' but they are basically just towns that are a bit bigger.

with kids so small you will miss nz's main attraction which are the "great walks", 3 to 5 day trips with hut overnight stays in amazing landscapes throughout the country.

there aren't many lotr locations beside the matamata one anymore, nz has a very strict policy to restore nature, when they created edolas somewhere in the wilderness they even had to establish a grass nursery to put it back after the filming.

so you can still get to the locations but then your imagination has to kick in ;)

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i recommend getting a car and doing day trips all around the country.

if i had to recommend some places i've been:
- rotorua's hot wells, lava garden and tree park, agrodrome's sheep shearing :)
- hamilton botanic garden
- auckland's rangitoto vulcano day trip
- lake taupo and a day trip to the tama lakes in the tongariro national park (dependend on wheather)
- tePapa museum in wellington (a must)
- beach in nelson (which is a amazing city with much flair)
- either the westcoast route down the south island by car or the eastcoast route by train along the coast starting from blenheim to christchurch
- queenstown has a nice garden to walk in with amazing big trees, there also is a lift to the mountain nearby which has a cart racecourse on top
- dunedin is a amazing city thanks to the university and day trips, brewery, penguin farm...
- te anau is a must with day trips to amazing places, forests, (overnight) boat trips in the fjords, to milford sound. don't miss the cinema famous for showing "ata whenua" for years with great success!

that's all i can think of just now, last visit was 2 years ago. i probably missed alot of locations, the whole country is amazing to discover.

ggg's hq is in alderman drive