New Zealand - How short is feasible?

Louis Friend

Hi,

My other half has always wanted to visit NZ. I’ve been there. We have three young kids and bringing them isn’t really a runner. We could probably have them minded for a week excluding travel time.

Is that doable? We’d travel at the front of the plane which makes things a bit easier.

Many thanks.

Mrs OBumble

With jet lag, not even slightly possible.

If you want to see/ enjoy the place, you need a month.

And it's likely to be years before tourists will be welcome anyways.

Tell me how

Louis Friend wrote: »

Hi,

My other half has always wanted to visit NZ. I’ve been there. We have three young kids and bringing them isn’t really a runner. We could probably have them minded for a week excluding travel time.

Is that doable? We’d travel at the front of the plane which makes things a bit easier.

Many thanks.

Give you've been there, it seems a strange question to be asking on the internet to be honest. What exactly do you mean by 'doable'?

It depends on what you want to do while there. It is a large country with many specific places of interest and you could easily spend a couple of days in each of the main cities.

It would be a lot of money to put in to a whistle stop tour which and one which you'd almost be guaranteed to be exhausted after once you got back.

Louis Friend

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

With jet lag, not even slightly possible.

If you want to see/ enjoy the place, you need a month.

And it's likely to be years before tourists will be welcome anyways.

Thank you. I was thinking we could sleep pretty well on the flight in those First Class suites (proper beds etc). Then maybe 2 nights in Auckland, with maybe one on Waiheke Island. Then maybe head to Marlborough for a couple of nights to stay at a vineyard. Then maybe Queenstown for two nights and visit Milford Sound etc. Then maybe head to Wellington for a night and fly home.

Larbre34

If you can afford First Class travel to NZ, bring your damn kids.

4 weeks minimum to do it justice.

Caranica

That sounds horrendous tbh. All fantastic places but that time scale would take the good out of it. I would say three weeks minimum but ideally twice that or longer.

Louis Friend

Larbre34 wrote: »

If you can afford First Class travel to NZ, bring your damn kids.

4 weeks minimum to do it justice.

They’re too young to appreciate it. We have someone to mind them but not really for more than 9 days (including travel time).

I went to Oz once for a day with work and I was fine. The time I went to NZ before it wasn’t direct.

fits

By the time you can go without quarantine they will be a good bit older. I wouldn’t go for less than 3 weeks. Preferably more. I’d love to bring our children and rent a camper.

We spent three weeks on South Island. Didn’t get to north island at all. If you had just a week I’d probably just go to Queenstown and spend it around there. Don’t try to cover too much distance.

robinph

Louis Friend wrote: »

They’re too young to appreciate it. We have someone to mind them but not really for more than 9 days (including travel time).

I went to Oz once for a day with work and I was fine. The time I went to NZ before it wasn’t direct.

You have to write off 3 days at each end just for the travel and figuring out which way is up again when you get off the plane. New Zealand is not a destination for a long weekend trip. In normal times 3 weeks absolute minimum, now with losing two weeks at the beginning in quarantine as well you'd want to be talking several months long trip to make it worth the effort.

Alun

I agree. We did just the south island in 3 weeks in a campervan, and while we saw almost everything we wanted to in the time, it was a bit of a rush towards the end getting back to Christchurch, and in reality could easily have filled another week. Going all the way to New Zealand for a week is just madness in my opinion.

Louis Friend

Thanks All

yiddo59

Been there a few times and we've always done 3 weeks over there excluding the travel. As for the jet lag my other half doesnt seem to suffer at at all. I,m fine when we get there but once get home it takes me 3/4 days to recover!

Alun

yiddo59 wrote: »

Been there a few times and we've always done 3 weeks over there excluding the travel. As for the jet lag my other half doesnt seem to suffer at at all. I,m fine when we get there but once get home it takes me 3/4 days to recover!

Yes, on arriving we were just a bit tired after all the travelling, so booked a night in a hotel in Christchurch near the campervan pickup place, and picked it up, refreshed, the next morning. No jet lag to speak of. Coming home however was a different story, took us nearly a week to get back to normal.

fits

Alun wrote: »

Yes, on arriving we were just a bit tired after all the travelling, so booked a night in a hotel in Christchurch near the campervan pickup place, and picked it up, refreshed, the next morning. No jet lag to speak of. Coming home however was a different story, took us nearly a week to get back to normal.

Not to mention the absolute depression at the end of an amazing holiday. Is that just me?

Alun

fits wrote: »

Not to mention the absolute depression at the end of an amazing holiday. Is that just me?

No, not just you! Especially coming back to a cold, dreary Irish winter after spring in NZ.

Caranica

Alun wrote: »

No, not just you! Especially coming back to a cold, dreary Irish winter after spring in NZ.

I went to NZ in May and got back mid July (Lions tour). Missed the heatwave in Ireland and came back from winter to crappy weather leading into winter. 3 winters in one year was not fun!!

trixi001

I have had quite a few trips to Oz for varying lengths of time

Once i think was a week or maybe 8 days..

If you are going to do it for such a short time - time your flights well to minimise jetlag on arrival - arrive at Night..

Tbh - jetlag isn't that much of an issue or hasn't been for me, just means up at 5am and bed about 8pm --but that stills give a nice long day to get things done when i'm there.

As for New Zealand - if you do go for a short time, don't try to see too much, and instead enjoy what you do see - research the North and South Islands, and pick which you want to do, don't try to do both..

I have done 4 days in North Island - picked up a car in Auckland, went to Rotorua for 2 nights, and then 2 nights in auckland (with daytrips out of it)

I had 7 nights in South Island - picked up the car in Christchurch, spent a night there,then Nelson (Stopping on the way at hot springs), then Bleinheim, the Kaikoura, then back to Christchurch to fly out of it. It was so enjoyable and didn't feel rushed at all!

(PS - both of these were part of a longer trip to Oz, the 4 day one was part of a 14 day trip overall, and the 7 day one, think we were away for just over 3 weeks)

So - you can do shorter trips, but is it worth it...

fits

trixi001 wrote: »

I


I had 7 nights in South Island - picked up the car in Christchurch, spent a night there,then Nelson (Stopping on the way at hot springs), then Bleinheim, the Kaikoura, then back to Christchurch to fly out of it. It was so enjoyable and didn't feel rushed at all!

(PS -.

To me that’s an awful lot of ground to cover.

Edit just realised you posted ChCh not queenstown. Not too bad.

Fr Tod Umptious

I've done a week there OP about 15 years ago.

My wife and I had a longer trip planned but work got in the way and I could only do a week in NZ and a week in Fiji rather than 3 in NZ as was planned and as my wife was able to do.

Left Friday afternoon/evening from Dublin, arrived in Wellington Sunday afternoon local time.
Spent a week in the north island between Wellington and Auckland.
I had been before so we went to places on the north island I had not been to before.
It was a decent enough amount of time but obviously I'd been before so was not concerned about covering the whole country and my wife had already done the south island in the weeks before I arrived.

Spent a week in Fiji after so unlike yourself there was no straight back to Ireland.

It's 48 hours door to door traveling there and back so to spend 7 days in NZ you really need 11 days away from home.

A week is doable but only if you concentrate on one relatively small area.
You're not going to be able to see the whole country, but it's got enough to see in particular regions that you could easily fill a week and have a great holiday.
For example you could do Christchurch to Queenstown/Milford Sound to Franz Josef and back to Christchurch in a week.

Or equally from Wellington up to Auckland, or north of Auckland and the Bay of Plenty.

robinph

Shorter durations are doable of your starting point is not Europe.

If you are popping in on the way past on a leg of a longer round the world trip then it's a different question.

beggars_bush

If i was going there, I'd aim for a month. At least. Not everyone has that luxury
Then again i know people who have done 2 weeks and enjoyed it

We did 6 weeks on our last visit. We'd have loved another few weeks.

whomitconcerns

Sorry op. You said you did a day trip to oz for work and you were fine...... if you ignored time zones and night and day in oz completely and had an hour of Irish daytime hours available in Australia for your meeting..I guess technically possible to avoid jetlag ... but you couldn’t be “fine”.

ðŸ‘

salmocab

I did a week there from Australia as a mate needed to go to the embassy there. We saw very little in a week. Think a couple of nights in Auckland, a couple in Taupo and a couple in Rotorua probably followed by another in Auckland. Luckily I’d been before for six weeks so I was happy out. It’s a waste of time and money going that far for less than 3/4 weeks. The more places you try to see the more time you waste travelling between them.

Maximus_1

Just wait until the kids are older and bring them. Sounds crazy going all that way for 7-9 days. New Z will still be there in all its glory in a few years

fits

Maximus_1 wrote: »

Just wait until the kids are older and bring them. Sounds crazy going all that way for 7-9 days. New Z will still be there in all its glory in a few years

Fantastic destination for a family holiday too. I’d go back in a heartbeat.