New Zealand in July

In My Humble Opinion
1

Yet another travel advice thread! My apologies, guys…

Anyways, here’s the deal. I get quite a bit of time off in late July/August so I want to take a trip. I live in Japan, so east Asia and so on is obviously cheapest and most accessible. The problem: I cannot stand east Asian summers. The humidity kills me. I hate the rainy season. Japan is bad enough. I’d like to see Thailand, Vietnam, etc. at some point but during late summer? And China is out for obvious reasons since I have no interest in the Olympics. So my conclusion was: hey, in Australia and New Zealand it’s winter! It will be COLD! Blessed cold. What I’m saying is, cold weather is not a disadvantage for me. I’m from the Pacific Northwest. I like the rain, as long as it is chilly and windy as well, like God intended. None of this 90% humidity and 100 F shit. Also, from what I understand, New Zealand is cheaper and nearer to Japan than it is to the States, even the West Coast, so now would be the time to go if I ever want to see that part of the world…

However, my questions…

Just how cold and rainy will it be during late July? Will there be snow involved? Obviously it depends on the locations I go to. Which places would you say would be nicest during that time?

How much should I try to see? Unfortunately, I will only have about 10 days there. And that’s after the plane flights, etc. Not nearly enough time, I know. I figured I’d stick to just one island. North or south? South gets less rain, I seem to be reading? But it’s also colder, right? What is a practical itinerary? I just don’t have a good conception of how big NZ is.

Last, I just don’t know that much about New Zealand. Like a lot of other Americans, the beautiful scenery in the LOTR inspired a desire to visit the place, and I have the basic rapacious attitude of the travel-addicted–it’s somewhere I’ve never been, so that in itself is an attraction… but I am not big into extreme sports, which seems to be a big thing in NZ. Will I still enjoy myself? What should I see? What are the really gold-star spots in NZ? I like hiking but not the hardcore, trekking, overnight kind of thing. Just rambling in the countryside. I want to see some unspoiled countryside and of course the dramatic scenery NZ is famous for. Japan doesn’t have a whole lot of country without concrete blocks or telephone wires blocking the view. I also like museums and history and all those dorky things.

I’m just in the early stages of planning and I haven’t even booked the tickets yet, so who knows if I will end up there or not. But I would appreciate any advice, nonetheless! I’m sure I’ll get there someday.

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You can travel most of the South Island in ten days. Or most of the North Island.

The extreme sports and the ski fields are mostly in the South, mostly in areas where there will be a fair amount of snow.

There will also be a reasonable amount of rain and drizzle no matter where you go.

There’s still plenty to see anywhere you go, and the LOTR type tours will still be worth it even in poor weather.

3

Auckland and north will be snow free and will provide lots of sightseeing opportunities. July is our mid winter - there may be frosty mornings, and in Auckland at least, there will definitely be rain. Auckland only gets humid in summer.

This may be of some help. Lots of sights, attractions and tours - no extreme sports.

When I saw your username, I immediately thought Tena koe (Greetings / good day) to you, too :slight_smile:

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Anywhere from National Park (in the North Island) south should suit the cold-wet requirements, I’d say. I’m not even going to bother stirring to head to the southern Waikato ‘till spring starts gettin’ sprung again this year. But, that said – the weather’s playing silly buggers at the moment. We could have an overall mild winter, or the rough stuff might get saved for when lambing starts, the poor wee sods.

Enjoy your stay here, Tanaqui.

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Thanks for the replies everyone! Do you think I’m better off in the north island, then? Man, it is so hard just to narrow it down. There is so much information out there about New Zealand, especially compared to some of the places I’ve gone recently. It is overwhelming, but I’m enjoying trying to sort it out.

Are there any places of particular scenic beauty or interest in New Zealand that really stand out for you as impressive and “must-see”? Particularly places that would still be good in the winter time as well.

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There are various “top 100” lists for sightseeing - I could probably find one for Napier (winery tours!), and another for our region (Hawke’s Bay) and another for ‘lower east - North Island’ etc.

You really need to narrow your choices - will you be driving or taking tour buses? Flying between locations? You might enjoy the Overlander, a train tripthe length of the North Island. The link goes to a list of scenic train trips throughout the country. The Overlander starts in Auckland, travels right through LOTR (Shire) Waikato, down through the central plateau (Taupo - the lake of which is a huge extinct volcano caldera), past some dormant and active volcanoes in National Park with all it’s native bush and LOTR scenery.
Don’t blink or you’ll miss Hunterville (please wave to my mate Herbie) then onto the plains and coast before the hills of Wellington (home of Weta Studios). That gives you the chance to hop onto one of the inter-island ferries and join up with another train in the South Island for the alpine section of the LOTR locations.

The scenic trains may well give you the best “bang for bucks” if you’ve got limited time, otherwise, you’re going to have to cherry pick a few sites from the net and start saving for your next, in-depth, trip.

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Well, if you want scenic train trips in the winter, the TranzAlpine Express is literally world class, often cited as one of the top ten rail trips in the world. It’s in the South Island, between Christchurch and Greymouth.

New Zealand is a tourist bonanza all year round, so you have to narrow down your interests, capabilities, and budget, and look around.

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My husband and I found the TranzAlpine overrated and overpriced. The scenery is nice, but nothing more amazing than what we drove through to get to the train. Perhaps in the winter (we were there in January, midsummer in NZ), with snow on the mountains, the views would be more spectacular.

My favorite place that we went was Doubtful Sound, in Fiordlands National Park, but that would probably be awfully wet and cold in July. You might want to look into it if you are going skiing in Queenstown, on the South Island.

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I have to agree with GilaB, I first went to Queenstown and saw the Remarkables with no snow on them - they didn’t live up to their name. The next night it snowed and everything was stunning and spectacular. Mid-winter, the TransAlpine will be very pretty indeed, if you are into snowy alpine scenery. That’s why I recommended the Overlander first, the North Island trip has a lot more variety. Going through National Park by train was where Peter Jackson first thought it would be possible to film LOTR using NZ locations.

Alternatively, the OP could fly into Taupo as a base and hire a car to spend a week or so doing day trips around the central plateau. Everything from glowworm caves to steaming mudpools, trout fishing and cultural shows are within a couple of hours drive. Even the Hawke’s Bay (Wineries and Art Deco buildings) is only 1.5 hours drive if the road is open. Possible snow, which I don’t think was on the ‘acceptable’ list.

Northland calls itself ‘the winterless north’ - very little chance of snow, but plenty of pretty. History all over the place and roadside “hangi” [homersimpson]mmmmm hangi glglgrg[/hs].
Waipua forest with Tane Mahuta (king of the forest) - a Kauri tree that was a seedling when Christ was a boy (literally). Gum digger museums, sport fishing, historic sites, 90 mile beach (a legal road, watch out for the quicksand), Cape Reinga where the spirits of the dead leave and you can see the Pacific Ocean clashing with the Tasman Sea.

I’m trying to leave out the extreme sports since the OP wasn’t into them. So, no sand-dune surfing.

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Er, the “winterless north” as maggenpye has said means its not cold enough for snow, but it still rains and is still cold. If you pick the wrong 10 days in Northland, it can seem to rain everyday. :stuck_out_tongue:

Still, as she said there’s a fair bit to do. Though whether you want to spend 10 days just in Northland, I don’t know; 4 days is enough to hit the highlights unless you’re into diving or fishing. I took my last set of tourists to the south end of 90 Mile Beach and did some quad biking in the sand dunes. That was fun for half a day. I think we did everything maggenpye lisited except the fishing but included the sand dune surfing and quad bikes and it was only 2 nights away (I was based in Ruakaka at the time). But we didn’t stop enough as my friends were at the end of their trip and had to get back to fly out.

I’m not sure of the winter climate further south, I don’t go that way in the winter unless I have to :smiley: , but the east coast of the lower NI ought to be a bit drier, but maggenpye ought to be able to give better advice about that.

Perhaps fly into Auckland, a quick blitz around Northland, back through the center of the NI via some stops to Taupo, across to Napier, then up the coast to Gisborne, then carry on via East Cape to Tauranga, then the Coromandel and back to Auckland. The east coastal route has some stunning scenery.

There’s a fair bit of driving in some of those legs, but there’s not much reason to stop (well except of the views :smack: )

One thing though is that there are school holidays from 5/7 to 20/7. The snow areas at least will be full.