How many days do you need in New Zealand?

This is a driving country, the roads are excellent and slow, and every hotel change costs a morning of packing and an afternoon of finding your feet. A route with six one-night stops in twelve days is not a tour of New Zealand. It is a tour of the inside of a car with some scenery attached.

Our working rule: two or three nights in most places, and no more than two consecutive single-night stops. Everything below follows from that.

The map lies, and here is by how much

Add a third to whatever your mapping app tells you, then add the stops you will actually make. Two lanes almost everywhere, constant curves, one-lane bridges, campervans on the hills, and long sections where overtaking is not possible.

Some real ones, with our planning times rather than the app’s:

The Queenstown to Milford return, done in a day, is nine hours of driving before you stop anywhere, and the road is one of the most beautiful in the world, which means you will stop. That day is the clearest illustration of the whole problem, and we have written it out in New Zealand for the first time.

What each length actually buys

Under seven days

One region, and we would choose Queenstown, Fiordland and the Mackenzie, or the North Island’s geothermal centre. This is a trip for someone already in the region rather than someone flying from the other side of the world.

What does not work: both islands. What also does not work: a five-day South Island loop, which is roughly 1,000 miles (1,600 km) of driving with the scenery going past the window.

Seven to ten days

One island, done at a real pace.

The South Island version, which is the one we recommend: Christchurch, Aoraki, Queenstown, a Fiordland day, Wanaka, and back. Five bases, two or three nights in most of them.

The North Island version, which is underrated: Auckland, the Coromandel, Rotorua and Taupo, Tongariro, Napier and Wellington. Geothermal country, Maori cultural tourism at its best, one great day walk and a good small capital.

Ten days is also enough for a single Great Walk plus the region around it, if the hut booking went your way.

Fourteen days

The most common length we build, and the honest recommendation is one island rather than two.

The South Island in fourteen days is not rushed and it holds Christchurch, Kaikoura, the Mackenzie and Aoraki, Queenstown and Glenorchy, Fiordland with a proper Milford or Doubtful day, Wanaka, the West Coast glaciers and back over Arthur’s Pass. That is the South Island in 14 days and it is the trip we would take ourselves.

Both islands in fourteen days is possible and it becomes a driving holiday. It works only with one internal flight to cut the backtracking and with the North Island kept to three stops. We build it when asked, and we say what it costs you in hours.

Seventeen to eighteen days

Both islands, honestly, with the North Island kept tight: Auckland, Rotorua, Tongariro, Wellington, the ferry, and then the South Island route above with one region trimmed.

This is the length at which the ferry stops feeling like an expensive interruption and starts feeling like the middle of the trip, which is what it should feel like.

Twenty-one days

Both islands with room to stop, plus one of the following: a Great Walk, Stewart Island, the Catlins, or a proper week in the far north. Three weeks is also where a campervan starts to make sense, because the slowness stops mattering.

It is the length that finally allows the thing everyone wants and few people build: two or three unscheduled days, spent where you liked it enough to stay. That is New Zealand in 21 days.

Where the days actually go

• Queenstown and around. Four to five nights, and we would rather you slept in Arrowtown or Glenorchy for some of them.
• Fiordland. Two nights minimum in Te Anau or Milford. A Milford day trip from Queenstown is a nine-hour driving day, and the alternative is a night in Te Anau which changes the whole experience.
• Aoraki and the Mackenzie. Two nights. The Hooker Valley Track, about 6 miles (10 km) return, and the night sky, which is a scheduled activity inside a dark sky reserve rather than a bonus.
• The West Coast and the glaciers. Two nights. One is not enough because the helicopters do not fly in bad weather and you need a second chance.
• Wanaka. Two nights, or one long one if the trip is tight.
• Kaikoura. One or two nights, and the whale boat is the reason.
• Abel Tasman and Marlborough. Three to four nights for both.
• Rotorua and Taupo. Two to three nights.
• Tongariro. Two nights, and a spare day, because the Alpine Crossing needs settled weather and is dangerous without it.
• Wellington. Two nights, and it is where you catch the ferry.
• Auckland. Two nights, mostly as a gateway. Waiheke Island is the best of it.

The ferry, and how it changes the arithmetic

Wellington to Picton is roughly three and a half hours, and the second half of it, threading through the Marlborough Sounds, is the best part. Sailings are occasionally cancelled for weather, so we never put a fixed commitment on the far side of an evening crossing.

Taking a hire car across is expensive. It is usually cheaper to drop the car in Wellington, cross as a foot passenger and pick up a new one in Picton, which we arrange by default. Budget the crossing as most of a travel day rather than as a boat ride.

Where a flight buys you days

One internal flight can rescue a two-week both-islands trip: Wellington to Queenstown or Auckland to Queenstown, skipping a long backtrack. Christchurch to Queenstown does the same at the end of a South Island loop.

On a three-week trip you usually do not need one, because the driving becomes part of the holiday rather than a tax on it.

Plan this trip

Tell us how many days you have and which two or three things matter most, and your named specialist will build a route to what the road actually does. Free first proposal, no obligation.

Start planning

Keep reading

• New Zealand: the complete guide to planning your trip
• The best two-week route through New Zealand
• New Zealand for the first time: the drives take longer than the map says
• How much do two weeks in New Zealand really cost?
• New Zealand in 21 days
• All our New Zealand trips

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