Auckland City

Advantages: Great place to see views of city
Disadvantages: It is a city and New Zealand is so much more beautiful to go rural

...General over view: Auckland was my first destination when I arrived in New Zealand, traveling into the city and seeing the Sky Tower for the first time was really cool, I remember thinking I made it! I am really here!! The City is big but easy to get around using the tram system they have in place. It is a very clean and friendly city, if you don't have long I would recommend a couple of days here. The Sky Tower is the main thing to see and do and is a great place to get great views, I also recommend taking a ferry trip to one of the near by islands. A great hint and tip for you is to take the Stray Bus free city tour, this was great to see what Auckland has to offer you, and you can book onto the tour through your hostel. They pick you up from the hostel and first take you to the Sky Tower, here they will ask if anyone wants to...

LIZKEMPO 10.04.2008 · Read review
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Review of Auckland & Northland (New Zealand)

Don't rock the boat! Only 4 hours from Auckland!

Advantages: Great scenery, lots of activities, value for money
Disadvantages: Long way from anywhere! A bit dependent on the weather!

...If you are ever in Auckland I definitely recommend this "Rock the Boat" trip. The "Rock" is a boat offering overnight cruises on the beautiful Bay of Islands in the very north of New Zealand about a 4 hour drive north of Auckland. The captain and his friendly crew will meet you at Paihia wharf at 5pm or 4pm in winter to give you a bit extra sunlight. As you board the boat, all the crew meet you and ask your name etc and make you feel really welcome! I was actually a bit embarrassed because I didn't remember some of the crew's names even when they knew mine and they had everybody on the boat's names to remember and I only had a few to remember but it really did make you feel welcome! The people on the boat where a mixture of backpackers, holiday makers, singles, couples and people travelling alone so if you are worried about...

Allyalcock 01.06.2006 (02.06.2006) · Read review
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Review of Auckland & Northland (New Zealand)

Auckland / Northland highlights.

Advantages: big city, islands, picture perfect scenery ...
Disadvantages: Auckland traffic is a killer

...Auckland. I visit Auckland a couple of times a year for various reasons and always manage to find a new side to this city on every visit. This sprawling city is the largest in New Zealand and approx 1/3rd of the countries population live there. This makes for an interesting multi-cultural city but it is pretty much undistinguishable from most other major world cities. The thing that does make Auckland special is its setting. The city is located on a natural harbour and is made up of lots of interesting bays and coves. Auckland is known as the City of Sails and after familiarising yourself with this city you will see why. There are hundreds of yachts moored in various harbours all over this city and on a summer weekend the harbour is awash with water craft of every description. TRANSPORT I always have my own...

casnz 22.07.2004 · Read review
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Review of Auckland & Northland (New Zealand)

"Pokarekare ana Nga wai o Rotorua" - ROTORUA, New Zealand

Advantages: Somewhere very diiferent, Maori culture, boiling mud and geysers
Disadvantages: the smell was a little off putting, Maori evening was awful

...ROTORUA: Rotorua is on the North island of New Zealand almost in the middle about three hours drive from Auckland and six from Wellington. We stayed at the Sudima Hotel right beside Lake Rotorua and as we got off the bus the interesting sulphur smell of Rotorua greeted us. It is quite a strong rotten egg sort of smell that gets in to everywhere. I didn?t find it too revolting but others in our group found it very over powering and complained constantly that it even pervaded the air-conditioning in the rooms. The town is quite small enough to walk around the main sights, the lovely steaming lake and the park alongside it and all the way to Ohinemutu. On our first evening we went to the Tamika Maori evening ( see separate review on this one) TE PUIA ? THE NEW ZEALAND MAORI ARTS AND CRAFTS INSTIRUTE: The next day we were up...

catsholiday 03.10.2009 (05.10.2009) · Read review
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Review of Rotorua, New Zealand

Auckland

Advantages: everything within easy access, friendly people, great atmosphere, plenty to do.
Disadvantages: becoming a victim of its own popularity.

...and history of New Zealand. The Zoo is another great day out if only to watch the randy ostrich running around its enclosure. For the more energetic of you there is the Coast to Coast Walkway, which takes you through the City's parks and inner suburbs and up Mount Eden for more panoramic views. Also the local vineyards are home to some of the country's best wines and are worth a visit. If you fancy lying on the sand head to North Shore, where you have the popular Takapuna or, my favourite, the more secluded Narrow Neck beach. The nightlife is also first class. For such a small city it buzzes. There is the hum of the bars, clubs and restaurants in the Viaduct, or further into town there are several more dotted around, near the backpacker hostels and also on Ponsonby Rd and the infamous K-Road. Auckland really is an excellent example of how...

blahblah2 11.05.2007 · Read review
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Review of Auckland & Northland (New Zealand)

Breathtaking New Zealand!!!!

Advantages: Great Scenery, lots to do
Disadvantages: long bus rides to see the whole area

...most of the meals they had made and had to go buy more food even though I had prepaid for the meals. • There are long bus journeys however this is to be expected. • There are very early starts in the morning! • Had 'introductions' were you had to stand up in front of the bus and talk about yourself. As I'm shy I hated this. You didn't have to but felt very awkward if you didn't. Travellers who you are travelling with are constantly jumping on and off the bus and finishing at different stages. This meant more introductions. So you had to do it more than once. • Had to pay extra to not be in share accommodation. The North Island of New Zealand (115,000sq km) and this is where we arrived at. Our tour started in Auckland which is a cosmopolitan city. We met the bus outside Base Backpackers hostel where we were...

DeniseKelly40 13.09.2007 (14.09.2007) · Read review
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Review of General: New Zealand

Sky Tower, Auckland, New Zealand.

Advantages: Beautiful hotel, friendly staff, clean hotel.
Disadvantages: NONE

...My husband and I stayed three nights at sky tower in Auckland, New Zealand in 2005. The Sky Tower is 328 metres and the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. The hotel is huge but all the staff were very friendly, when I needed to contact my family by emails and was unable to get the hang of the computer, a young lad from the front desk came to help me do it. The internet was free to hotel guests and was widely used by most of our party. To get to our room we went up in the lift on our arrival but the lift stopped at a much lower floor and wouldn't move. When we all trooped back to the front desk where we told that we had to insert our room card in a slot in the lift to access our floors, only guests were thus able to go near the rooms. There are two brilliant casinos on two floors where I won lots of cash; all...

parkfields44 04.09.2007 · Read review
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Review of Sky Tower, Auckland

Great Auckland

Advantages: Wide range of Activities available
Disadvantages: Long Distances to travel

...New Zealand Earlier this year me and my family visited New Zealand, we spent 3 weeks there and we cannot wait to return. The key to New Zealand?s individuality is its remote location in the world, situated to the East of Australia?s coast it requires a 2 hour flight from Brisbane or Sydney across the Tasman Sea to reach Auckland Airport. New Zealand was once apart of the Australian continent but over millions of years the two land masses have drifted apart. In the vicinity to New Zealand are many Pacific island groups Tonga, Samoa & Fiji are few you may have heard of, these islands were formed by volcanic eruptions caused by the shifting of the Earths plates and many hundreds of island groups exist in this part of the world. One of the things I was presently surprised about was the travelling, I know some people don?t like...

robert23 19.04.2004 · Read review
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Review of Auckland & Northland (New Zealand)

New Zealand now has a small peice of my heart!

Advantages: Amazing country!1
Disadvantages: Weather unpredictable

...New Zealand is such an amazing country I have truly fallen in love with it! After 6 weeks of traveling the North and the South Island I fill very happy that I covered most of what this country has to offer. I am going to give a brief over view of New Zealand as I am planning some more in depth reviews about each place. I hope this will give you an idea of how long you need in each place, the highlights and the best advice for getting around etc Traveling around New Zealand: There are many options available to you, camper vans and cars are the best way as you get to create your own journey stopping along the way from place to place, just make sure you get a good guide book so you know where to go etc. I don't drive so I opted to go with magic bus Tours which is a hop on hop off bus service, Magic bus where the cheapest option...

LIZKEMPO 02.04.2008 · Read review
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Review of General: New Zealand

Christchurch - a little piece of England in New Zealand

Advantages: Beautiful city
Disadvantages: Not very Kiwi

...Christchurch is in the Canterbury region of New Zealand's South Island and is the largest city on this island. Like the North Island's Auckland, it is a key arrival point and hub for international travellers. Christchurch is situated close to the East coast and to the West lie the immense flat sweeps of the Canterbury plains. These vast plains feel flat, even to me, a native of East Anglia. Their main use is farmland and they require regular wind blocks of tall fences of trees to stop the topsoil from blowing away. Named by the after Oxford's Christ Church (a college that one of the Canterbury Association went to), it was a colony sponsored by the Church of England about 150 years ago. Even today, the city centre has an extremely British in feel to it and even has a river Avon upon which you can go punting!The centre itself has...

beckyXX 03.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Christchurch - New Zealand