New Zealand for the first time: the drives take longer than the map says

The roads here are genuinely excellent and genuinely slow. Two lanes almost everywhere, constant curves, one-lane bridges, gravel shoulders, campervans grinding up the hills, and long sections where overtaking is not possible and not sensible. The open road limit is 100 km/h, about 62 mph, and you will almost never average it.

The rule we work to: add a third to whatever the mapping app says, then add the stops. In New Zealand you will stop. That is the point of the country.

What the drives actually take

Those are our planning times, the ones that go in your document, and they are what the itinerary is built to rather than what the app promises.

First, a word about how we run New Zealand

Our own offices are in Japan, Vietnam, India and the Philippines. New Zealand is not one of them. It runs through partners we have worked with for years: an operator based in Christchurch, and specialists in Queenstown and Fiordland who hold summer capacity that is otherwise unobtainable.

New Zealand and Australia sit furthest from our own footprint, and we sell them mostly to two kinds of traveller: those making New Zealand the far end of an Asia trip, with a stop in Japan, Singapore or Hong Kong to break an enormous flight, and those who have already travelled with us elsewhere and want this one planned by someone who knows how they travel. If what you need is a company with staff living in Queenstown, that is not us. If what you need is a route planned to what the road actually does and the difficult bookings held on the day they release, that is.

What else surprises first-time visitors

December to February is booked a year ahead

Not three months. A year. In Queenstown, Wanaka, Aoraki, Te Anau and around Milford, the good accommodation and the boat and flight capacity go close to twelve months out, with domestic holidays layered on top of international visitors from late December into January.

This is the single most common source of disappointment in New Zealand planning, and it is entirely avoidable by either booking early or travelling in March, April or November instead, which are better months anyway.

The Great Walks have a date, not a lead time

The huts on the eleven Great Walks are allocated through a booking system that opens on one announced date each year, and the Milford and Routeburn huts sell out within minutes of that opening. There is no waiting list that helps and no amount of budget that conjures a bunk.

So a walking trip is planned around that date rather than around your annual leave. That means agreeing your dates six to eight months out, being online at the moment bookings open, and having a second and third start date ready. It is a strange way to plan a holiday and it is how this one works.

The weather does four seasons in a day, and it is not a saying

In the mountains it is a description. A clear morning at Aoraki can be sleet by two in the afternoon. Every day pack a waterproof, a warm layer and more water than you think, in every month, including February.

The corollary is that any weather-dependent activity needs an alternative written down before you leave home. Helicopters do not fly in cloud, the Tongariro Alpine Crossing is dangerous in wind, and boats do not sail in a gale. We put the alternative in the document for every one of them.

The sandflies are genuinely unpleasant

We say this plainly because people arrive unprepared and it colours their trip. On the West Coast, in Fiordland and on the Abel Tasman beaches at dusk, sandflies are relentless. They go for ankles and wrists, they bite through thin fabric, and the itch lasts for days rather than hours.

The answers are repellent applied properly and reapplied, covered ankles, long sleeves at dawn and dusk, and not standing still outside at the glaciers or at Milford. Keep the car doors shut. This is not a small annoyance that guidebooks exaggerate. It is the thing our clients mention most often on the West Coast.

Phone coverage disappears

Between towns in Fiordland, on the West Coast, in the Catlins and over the passes there is no signal at all. Route notes have to work offline, and a breakdown plan cannot rely on calling someone. Download your maps before you leave the city, and take the paper document we send you.

Fuel is in towns and not between them

Fill up whenever you are below half a tank in the south and the west. There is no fuel between Te Anau and Milford, a 75 mile (120 km) each-way stretch, and the gaps in the Catlins and on the West Coast are long.

The roads that deserve respect

The Crown Range between Queenstown and Wanaka, Arthur’s Pass, the Haast Pass, the road into Milford and the Lindis Pass are all serious pieces of driving and all beautiful. In winter several require chains or close entirely. Drive them in daylight, allow twice the time, and stop at the viewpoints rather than looking sideways while moving.

Most rental agreements also exclude unsealed roads, including some that appear on maps as ordinary routes, which rules out a few short cuts people find online. Skippers Canyon is the famous example.

Driving on the left, and the specific ways visitors get it wrong

New Zealanders drive on the left. The mistakes visitors make are consistent: drifting left onto the gravel shoulder while looking at a view, pulling out of a rural driveway onto the wrong side, and misjudging one-lane bridges. Those bridges have a sign showing who gives way, a large arrow for priority and a small one for yield, and they are common on the West Coast and in the Catlins.

One-way roads with passing bays, tourist drivers who have not slept, and roadside stopping in stupid places are the real hazards. Take the extra insurance excess reduction from the hire company, use the marked pull-offs, and do not drive the day you land.

Self-drive, guided, or something in between

Self-drive is the right answer for most travellers. It is the whole appeal of the country and it is safe and easy once the pace is right.

A private driver-guide costs roughly $600 to $900 a day and is worth it for a specific region rather than a whole trip. Fiordland, the Mackenzie or the Catlins with a naturalist changes what you see rather than just who is holding the wheel.

A campervan works for the right traveller. It is slower on every hill and every corner, freedom camping is restricted and enforced, and the good holiday parks are booked out in January. We build them and we tell you where a car and a bed would have been better.

Small group coach touring is the honest answer for travellers who do not want to drive at all. It is not what we usually build, and we will say so rather than pretend a self-drive is comfortable for someone who is anxious behind the wheel.

What we would do differently on a first visit

1. One island, not two. For fourteen days, the South. The reasoning is in how many days do you need in New Zealand.
2. Two or three nights per base, and no more than two consecutive one-night stops.
3. A night in Te Anau rather than a Milford day trip from Queenstown. Nine hours of driving in one day is the most common self-inflicted wound in New Zealand planning. The alternatives are in how to visit Milford Sound.
4. Two nights on the West Coast, not one, so that a cancelled helicopter is not the end of the glacier.
5. A spare day before the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.
6. Drop the car in Wellington and pick up another in Picton rather than taking one across the strait. It is usually cheaper, and it is one less thing to manage on a crossing that occasionally does not sail.
7. A stop in Asia on the way. It splits a very long flight and it means the first three days are not spent recovering.

Entry, in one paragraph

Most visitors from visa-waiver countries need an NZeTA, the New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority, approved before they board. It is not issued on arrival and airlines check it. Alongside it, most visitors pay an International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy. Australian citizens are treated differently and Australian permanent residents differently again. The levy amount has changed more than once and the exemptions are specific, so we confirm the current requirement, the current fee and the correct application route for your passport and your dates, and we send you the official link rather than a copy of a rule that might be a year old.

Biosecurity at the border is strict and taken seriously. Declare all food, and clean your hiking boots and tent pegs before you fly. Soil on footwear is a genuine issue and inspections do happen.

Plan this trip

Send us the route you have drafted and we will send it back with the real driving times on it, and tell you honestly which days do not work. Free first proposal, no obligation.

Start planning

Keep reading

• New Zealand: the complete guide to planning your trip
• How many days do you need in New Zealand?
• Milford Sound and Fiordland: how to actually visit
• What we would skip in New Zealand
• The South Island in 14 days
• All our New Zealand trips

Frequently asked questions