Yes, New Zealand is one of the easiest countries to backpack on your own: English is spoken everywhere, hostels exist in every town on the main circuit, and coaches link nearly all the big stops.
Dorm beds run NZ$35 to 60 (US$21 to 36) a night, and most hostels have large self-catering kitchens, which matters when a café lunch costs NZ$20 to 30. InterCity coaches cover the core loop from
Auckland to
Queenstown, and the Interislander ferry crosses Cook Strait in about 3.5 hours. The weak spots are trailheads and remote beaches such as
Piha, so budget for a few shuttles or tours at NZ$60 to 90 each.
Plan on 2 to 3 weeks for New Zealand if you want to see both islands; a single week works only if you stick to one region, such as the southern lakes.
In 7 days, base yourself in
Queenstown,
Te Anau and
Wanaka with a day trip to
Milford Sound. Fourteen days covers the North Island from Auckland to Wellington plus Nelson and
Abel Tasman. Twenty-one days lets you run from Auckland all the way to Fiordland. Distances add up fast: Taupo to Wellington is about 6 hours by coach, and Franz Josef to Wanaka 5 to 6 hours. Add a spare day for weather at Tongariro and Milford.
Yes, you can travel New Zealand without a car, since coaches, ferries and a few scenic trains connect all the main towns, although some beaches and trailheads need tours or shuttles.
InterCity coaches cost roughly NZ$20 to 70 (US$12 to 42) per leg when booked ahead; Christchurch to Queenstown takes about 8 hours. The Wellington to Picton ferry takes 3.5 hours, and the TranzAlpine from Christchurch to Greymouth about 5 hours for NZ$170 to 260. Expect to pay NZ$60 to 90 for the
Tongariro Alpine Crossing shuttle, and plan tours for
Piha,
Hobbiton and the
Coromandel beaches, which buses barely reach.
The places in New Zealand you shouldn’t miss are
Milford Sound in Fiordland, the
Tongariro Alpine Crossing,
Rotorua’s geothermal parks, the southern lakes around
Queenstown and
Wanaka, and
Aoraki Mount Cook.
Milford Sound coach-and-cruise trips from Te Anau run NZ$150 to 230 (US$90 to 140). The Tongariro Alpine Crossing covers 19.4 kilometers in 6 to 8 hours. At Mount Cook, the Hooker Valley Track takes about 3 hours return and costs nothing. In Wellington,
Te Papa is free, and in Abel Tasman a water taxi plus a 3 to 4 hour coastal walk makes an easy day. Waitomo’s glowworm boat ride costs about NZ$60 to 70.
If time is short in New Zealand, cut Auckland to a night or two, treat Christchurch as a transit stop, and leave the far north and the deep south for another trip.
The
Sky Tower and
Rainbow’s End cost more than they deliver when you have a volcano or a fiord on the itinerary.
Ninety Mile Beach and
Kaitaia sit about 5 hours north of Auckland by road, which is a costly detour on a 2-week trip.
Invercargill and
Dunedin make sense only with 3 weeks or more. Don’t trade away Fiordland or the Tongariro Alpine Crossing to save a day.
Yes, our itinerary-planner does exactly that. Set your trip length in days, give your interests and travel style, optionally give start- and end location and/or some mandatory stops you would like to include and the itinerary planner creates your personalized routes for New Zealand in seconds. Try it out!
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