Journey into New Zealand
New Zealand
Explore New Zealand's magnificent landscapes, experience contemporary Māori culture and eat and drink along the way.
15 days
Land in Auckland, pick up your rental car and make your way to Waitomo - the drive takes about two and a half hours. Millions of years in the making, the caves in the Waitomo region are an underground wonderland of stalactites, stalagmites, glow worms, sinkholes and subterranean waterways. After exploring Waitomo, continue driving to Rotorua, which takes just over two hours.
Things to see and do in Waitomo
- Explore the Waitomo Caves the easy way, on a walking or boat tour
- If you're feeling more adventurous, try black-water rafting - you'll crawl, swim, and float through the caves on a rubber tube
- For an authentic caving experience, you can explore vast caverns the way spelunkers do it - by abseiling, climbing and ziplining
- Find out more
Fly non-stop from Wellington, then collect your rental car. Dunedin is a heritage city that oozes charm and character. It has New Zealand's finest examples of Victorian and Edwardian architecture, including magnificent stone and brick buildings with wrought iron detailing. It also has a reputation for fine arts, colourful student life and quirky events. If you like cities with a creative edge, you're going to love Dunedin.
Close to the city is Otago Peninsula, where you can see rare and wonderful native animals in their natural habitat. Royal albatross (toroa), yellow-eyed penguins (hoiho), fur seals (kekeno) and sea lions (whakahao) live on the peninsula. Dunedin is also handy to Moeraki and Oamaru, places of interest just up the coast.
Things to see and do in Dunedin
Activities
- Visit Larnach Castle, built in 1871 by Scottish merchant William Larnach. The castle and its splendid gardens have been carefully restored. You'll learn about Victorian culture and the castle's scandalous and tragic history
- Venture along the Otago Peninsula for encounters with little blue penguins, yellow-eyed penguins, albatross, fur seals and sea lions
- Drive one hour north to see the miraculous Moeraki Boulders, a group of huge spherical stones that are about 65 million years old
- Oamaru also has a blue penguin colony - every evening at dusk these enchanting little birds waddle up the beach to their homes after a day at sea
Shop, eat and drink
- At Moeraki you can lunch at Fleur's Place, arguably New Zealand's most famous seafood restaurant
- Drive another 30 minutes north to Oamaru to explore the town's beautifully preserved Victorian precinct. Within the elegant buildings, crafted from local whitestone, you'll find quirky little shops, tasty eateries, museums and pubs
- Find out more
