We have booked all of our New Zealand trip ready for Christmas and we only have 4 months to wait. The trip is heavily scheduled as there is a chance we’re heading back to the UK in March 2023 and likely we won’t be back to New Zealand for 5 years, if not longer. 

This schedule is only for the North Island and it is a two week itinerary. If I’m honest, I could have planned for a month in the North Island alone and then we’ve not even covered the South Island. I chose the North because there were a few specific things that I knew I definitely wanted to do and they were based there. Otherwise it would have been an incredibly tough decision.

So here goes, as always the spreadsheet is available to download and edit to your own schedule:

Day One

Fly Sydney to Auckland and spend the afternoon/evening exploring the city and going for dinner.

Day Two – Hobbiton

Pick up the campervan first thing and drive straight down to Hamilton to visit the gardens and a brewery. 

In the afternoon, we’ll do the Blue Spring Putarutu walk before driving to our campsite.

We’ve been offered a lift down the road by our host to the Hobbiton Movie Set – here we’ll do a tour of the set before having a 2 course meal at the Green Dragon pub which was in the movie! Then we’ll do a lantern lit night tour of the set again – expensive but I’m hoping this is going to be well worth the money we’ve paid.

Day Three and Four – Taupo, New Zealand

Today we drive down to Taupo which is where we’ll be until after Christmas Day. There is a lake so we plan to do lots of swimming, paddle boarding and kayaking. There are also hot springs and spas in the area, so as long as they’re open over the Christmas holidays, we’ll be going to at least one of those.

Day Five – Mount Doom

This is an exciting day. We will drive 1hr and 20 mins to Mount Ngauruhoe otherwise known as Mount Doom from the Lord of the Rings films. We plan to do the Tongariro Crossing which is just under 20km and should take around 6-8 hours. 

We will not be climbing the summit of Mount Ngauruhoe as it is a sacred Maori site. This is not widely known but in an effort to be respectful, especially to the indigenous people of New Zealand, it’s important to take this area (and others) into consideration when planning your trip.

That being said, we do plan to do the crossing and we plan to dress as Hobbits whilst doing it. 

Day Six – Christmas Day

This will be a low-key Christmas Day for us. We’ll likely relax, swim, read and obviously eat until we fall asleep.

Day Seven – Rotorua, New Zealand

Spend the morning at the Wairakei Spa and get a massage. In the afternoon, we’ll drive up to Rotorua and do a night kayak tour. The kayak tour is supposed to be in an area with low light pollution so we’re hoping to have a great view of the night sky. 

Day Eight – More Rotorua

We’ll be zooming through the forest at the Rotorua zipline in the morning. The afternoon will be free for relaxing and exploring the area – most likely taking a walk into the forest to see the Redwood trees.

Day Nine – White Water Rafting

This day will be pretty adventurous. The morning will be spent white water rafting where I will try to take on the adventurous tackling “the world’s highest commercially rafted 7m waterfall”.

I’m pretty anxious about this one but when in New Zealand you’ve got to push your limits! During the afternoon, I will no doubt be trying to lower my blood pressure from the morning’s activity and hopefully we’ll still be alive. We’ll be attending the Redwoods treetop night walk in the late evening so as to avoid the families with children earlier in the evening. 

Day Ten – Waitomo Caves, New Zealand

Drive to Waitomo Caves – Abseiling, tubing and walking through caves lit up by glowworms. I think this is the one we’re most looking forward to.

We’ve done a little bit of caving before whilst we were in Belize but this day tour seems to encompass so many activities all in one. I’m less nervous about this than the white water rafting but still slightly concerned about jumping off rocks into darkness and abseiling 30m into a cave – YIKES.

Day Eleven to Fourteen – Coromandel, New Zealand

In the morning, we’ll leave the campsite at Waitomo Caves and drive just over 3 hours to Coromandel.

We plan to spend a good amount of time here, partly because it’s New Years but also because we want to take a little time out to relax and attempt to get a tan (originally from the UK and I could not get any more pale if I tried). 

There are a lot of cool walks to do here including visiting Cathedral Cove where you can get some insta-worthy photos. 

Day Fifteen – Auckland, New Zealand

Drive from Coromandel to Auckland and drop off the campervan in the city before heading out for dinner and exploring the city.

Day Sixteen

Fly back to Sydney.

Here is the spreadsheet for you to download and amend to suit your itinerary:

Let me know in the comments if there is anything you would have done extra on this trip!

Want another adrenaline filled adventure? Check out my Queensland Adventure Post.