Driving Tour in New Zealand

Our driving tour in New Zealand turned out to be the best sight-seeing tour we ever have so far. For over a period of 23 days from 15 February 2016 to 8 March 2016, we drove a total distance of more than 4,250Km.

Upon landing at the Auckland Airport on 15 February, we immediately picked up our pre-booked rented car and drove straight to our hotel. The next morning after breakfast, we started our driving tour from Auckland. For the next 6 days, we drove through the central North Island spending overnights in Rotorua, Taihape and Masterton. To see the Glowworms, we made a detour to the west to Waitomo Cave after visiting Hobbiton.

                  North Island Route: From Auckland to Wellington

Then upon reaching Wellington on 20 February, the southern most city of the North Island, we returned the car, crossed the Cook Strait in the comfortable Bluebridge Ferry. For 3 1/2 hours in the ferry, we were feasted with stunning landscapes and scenery of Cook Strait.

Bluebridge Ferry

Stunning landscape and scenery in Cook Strait

We were fortunate to find a table next to a circular window
with a good view from the front of the ferry.

Restaurant Counter in Ferry

Lounge and Restaurant

Then upon disembarking from the ferry, we picked up another pre-booked car and drove to our motel in Picton and spent a night before commencing our next phase of driving tour in the South Island.

South Island Route from Picton after crossing the Channel

by Ferry from Wellington

From Picton, we drove across the west of South Island for a period of 14 days. We stopped overnights at Murchison, Hokitika, Franz Josef Glacier, Lake Wanaka, Queenstown, Te Anau and finally joined a cruise boat in Milford Sound.

South Island from Te Anau to Christchurch.

After our cruise at Milford Sound, we drove eastwards to Dunedin. From Dunedin, we continued along the eastern coastline of the South Island and passed through the Moeraki Boulders and Oamaru. Then from Oamaru, we continued along the eastern coastline and traveled a further 72Km until a road junction. At the T-Junction, we turned left (west) to Pareora River Road which eventually led us to our next destination - Lake Tekapo, After Lake Tekapo, we drove northeast to Christchurch. 

After spending 2 nights in Christchurch, we dropped our car at Christchurch Airport and flew back to Auckland. Upon exiting the Auckland Airport, we picked up our third and final car. We spent our last 3 days in NZ in Auckland and finally left NZ for Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

The trip may look grueling but in fact it was a very relaxing one. On the average, we drove about 185Km a day with the longest of 465Km on just one day on 22 February mainly because of a detour to see Arthur's Pass.

Touring NZ during Summer has the added benefit of having a much longer day time - one can enjoy the sunlight literally for 13 hours daily from 7am to 8pm. Hence, we could drive around to explore for at least 4 hours to see many places after checking into the hotel at around 3pm before nightfall.

We discover there are many ways to tour and explore NZ - Guided tours in air-conditioned buses, train, caravans, motorbikes, cycling, hitch hiking and even on foot. Driving is to us the best option. It allows a lot of flexibility and changes along the way. We discovered many interesting places and made instant detours simply because of signboards we saw along the ways.

In fact, after numerous driving tours that we had, we are less and less inclined to follow guided tours. However, we understand that driving on our own is not something that we can do in many parts of the world. There are places where it may not be safe to drive either because the laws may be lax or the traffic system is simply too chaotic to be safe to drive.

But for our driving tour in NZ, I dare say that our decision to drive on our own in a single car with just two senior citizens throughout such long journey is an achievement few dare to attempt!

Rest assured, this would not be our last driving tour!