Two islands, one short holiday.
Which Milford day still beats the coach queue. Whether the Shire is worth the drive from Auckland. What a glacier landing really costs. Every New Zealand tour, reviewed.
The days every New Zealand itinerary is built around.
Mitre Peak at the end of a fiord, a hobbit hole in Waikato farmland, glowworms on a cave ceiling, a ski plane putting down on the Franz Josef ice. Six days most trips are planned around, and the best way to book each.
Auckland to Fiordland, the way most people drive it.
WaitomoThe tours that fill up first, from Waitomo to Milford Sound.
All 667 reviews →More travellers take these than anything else in the country, and each one earns the slot for a different reason.
1
Hobbiton Movie Set: Guided Tour Ticket
Tour Hobbiton’s 12-acre Shire set, hear film secrets, photograph Hobbit Holes, and enjoy a complimentary drink at the Green Dragon Inn.
From · $71
Read our review →
2
Glowworm Caves Guided Tour by Boat
from $48
3
Rotorua Canopy Tours: 2.5Hour Native Forest Zipline Adventure
from $123
4
Hobbiton™ Movie Set Walking Tour from Shires Rest
from $74
5
Mitai Maori Village: Cultural Experience and Dinner Buffet
from $101
6
Waiheke Island: Ferry & Hop-On Hop-Off Explorer Bus Tickets
from $59
7
Whale Watching Cruise
from $104
8
Premium Milford Sound Small Group Tour & Cruise from Queenstown
from $216
Milford Sound is a four-hour drive and worth every minute.
All Milford Sound cruises →
The road in from Te Anau climbs through beech forest and a single-lane tunnel before the walls open up. How you arrive decides the day: a coach with a two-hour cruise, a small boat that gets close to the falls, or a flight over the Southern Alps both ways.
Queenstown and back, cruise included
Out through Te Anau at dawn, the Homer Tunnel by late morning, two hours on the water and the Southern Alps in the window the whole way home.
Fewer people, closer to the walls
Under fifty passengers instead of four hundred. The skipper noses into Stirling Falls, waits on the seal colony and turns back when the light is right.
Doubtful Sound, three hours past the road
Across Lake Manapouri, over Wilmot Pass, then into a fiord three times longer than Milford with almost nobody in it. Bottlenose dolphins live here year round.
Queenstown invented the bungy and never slowed down.
A lake town of 16,000 people that runs jet boats up a canyon, drops people off bridges and puts a gondola on the hill above the main street. Book the big ones early; the shoulder seasons are quieter and cheaper.
From a Wai-O-Tapu ticket to a landing on Franz Josef.
Every tour on the site sorted by what it actually costs. A very good New Zealand day starts well under a hundred dollars.
Thermal park tickets, lake cruises, cave tours and city walks — the everyday best of both islands.
The full-day classics: Hobbiton with lunch, whale watching off Kaikoura, the Milford coach and cruise.
Heli-hikes on the ice, fly-cruise-fly to Milford, Doubtful Sound overnights and private guides.
Nowhere else: the bungy, the Shire and the glowworms.
Wine and mountains you can find in a dozen countries. A commercial bungy bridge, a film set left standing and a cave lit by an insect that lives only here belong to New Zealand alone.
The Kawarau Bridge
A. J. Hackett strung the first commercial bungy off a 43-metre road bridge over the Kawarau River outside Queenstown, and it still runs. The water touch is optional and the ride back up is slower than the way down. The Nevis, further inland, is 134 metres and takes 8.5 seconds.
- 1Kawarau Bridge Bungy – World’s First Bungy!★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 102 reviews
- 2Nevis Bungy – Australasia’s Biggest Bungy!★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 56 reviews
- 3AJ Hackett Taupō Bungy – NZ’s Highest Water Touch!★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 18 reviews
The Shire
The set was torn down after the first trilogy, then rebuilt in permanent materials and never removed. Forty-four hobbit holes sit on a working sheep farm outside Matamata, the gardens are planted and weeded for real, and every tour ends with a drink at the Green Dragon.
- 1Hobbiton Movie Set: Guided Tour Ticket★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 8,167 reviews
- 2Hobbiton™ Movie Set Walking Tour from Shires Rest★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,577 reviews
- 3Hobbiton & Waitomo Caves Guided Day Trip from Auckland incl lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,677 reviews
The Glowworms
Arachnocampa luminosa lives in New Zealand and nowhere else. The boat glides out with the lights off and the cave roof turns into a star map. Do not talk and do not use a flash — the larvae go dark when they are disturbed.
- 1Glowworm Caves Guided Tour by Boat★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 4,908 reviews
- 2Hobbiton & Waitomo Caves Guided Day Trip from Auckland incl lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,677 reviews
- 3Glowworm Caves Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 2,611 reviews
Auckland is a harbour city with a vineyard island in it.
A 40-minute ferry from downtown lands on Waiheke, where the vineyards look over the Hauraki Gulf. Back on the mainland the same water gives you whales, volcanoes and the country's two biggest day trips leaving before breakfast.
Rotorua smells of sulphur and that is the point.
The ground steams in the parks and the lakefront. This is also the centre of Māori tourism in New Zealand: a hāngī lifted out of the earth, a marae welcome, carvers working in the geothermal valley at Te Puia.
Above Lake Tekapo the night sky is a protected reserve.
All stargazing nights →The Mackenzie Basin holds one of the darkest skies anyone has measured, and the observatory on Mount John sits in the middle of it. Clear nights show the Magellanic Clouds with the naked eye.
These sell out while you are still choosing flights.
Most of New Zealand can be booked from the campground the night before. These cannot: they run on capped group sizes, single operators and shuttle seats that are gone by December for February.
- 01Hobbiton Movie Set: Guided Tour TicketEntry is timed and guided in small groups, and the Shire runs at capacity right through summer.
- 02Premium Milford Sound Small Group Tour & Cruise from QueenstownOne road in and one road out. The small boats and the fly-cruise-fly seats go weeks ahead in season.
- 03Premium Tongariro Crossing Guided Group WalkThere is a four-hour parking limit at the trailhead, so the shuttle is the only practical way in and seats are capped each morning.
- 04Doubtful Sound Wilderness Day TripBoat, then bus over Wilmot Pass, then boat. One operator, few departures, and the overnight berths go months out.
Rain turns Milford Sound into a thousand waterfalls.
Fiordland takes around seven metres of rain a year and the fiord is at its best in the middle of it: temporary falls open on every wall. Elsewhere the answer is underground or indoors — a glowworm cave, a hot pool, a workshop full of film props.
Region by region, Northland down
Auckland102 tours
Bay of Islands22 tours
Rotorua65 tours
Wellington39 tours
Christchurch47 tours
Queenstown111 tours
Fiordland42 tours
Glacier Country15 tours- Every region on the map →
Or start from the kind of day you want
Recently reviewed, from Northland to Southland.
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Chefs Private Martinborough Wine Tour with lunch from Wellington
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Lake Wanaka 1-Hour Cruise Including Wine and Cheese
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Scenic Cruise & Guided walk on Historic Motor Yacht Lake Te Anau
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Waipara Wine Experience for 2 or more, inc tastings and lunch
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