25 years ago, as a wide-eyed teenager, The Fellowship of the Ring blew my mind. Ever since then, I had dreamed of visiting New Zealand. That love for New Zealand only grew over time as I learned more about its history, geography, and culture.
Aotearoa is the Māori name for New Zealand, and in many situations, the country refers to itself as Aotearoa New Zealand. The same is true of many place names. However, for simplicity, I’ll be referring to all places going forward by their English name, and NZ for the country.
I knew I had to do NZ right, which is why it took this long to finally make it happen. In the first 7 months of 2025, I finally found the right opportunity to slow travel throughout the country. This was broken up into multiple sub-trips, with a total 4 months in NZ, but I’ve decided to compile it all into one post here, as I don’t want to spam r/travel. Since no one wants to read a book-length trip report here either, I’ll just mention some of the highlights. I got around between different places by InterCity buses, Air New Zealand flights, trains and ferries wherever possible, but no cars since I don’t drive.
The first idea was leaving winter for snow and the warm north, and from there I planned backwards. That covered the last 2 of the 7 months. Aside from the highest peaks in the Southern Alps, most of NZ’s mountains are snow capped only in winter. That makes both for spectacular scenery and snow adventures like skiing. Snow in urban landscapes is rare, I didn't encounter it.
Winter in NZ is a significant challenge. Tourism is very seasonal, and many operators shut down the bulk of their operations for the winter. Even the ones that continue operating, like InterCity, have reduced schedules, with some key routes only operating 3 times a week. Many of my group tours were cancelled because they didn’t meet the minimum attendance – I was often the only one or two.
And then there’s the weather. I knew this would be a significant challenge, and so it turned out to be. Between snowstorms, heavy fog, and more, half the days were write-offs. I added in a generous buffer, spending nearly a week in the Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park area, but visibility was poor throughout.
Nevertheless, the remaining half of the good days were incredible. Some of my highlights were the flight from Christchurch to Hokitika above the Southern Alps, Hokitika Gorge, cycling around Franz Josef and Fox towns, and hiking on Franz Josef Glacier. Queenstown and Wānaka have spectacular alpine scenery, and are great for skiing and cycling in winter. (Winter is not for hiking, unless you’re an mountaineer.)
Much is said about NZ’s scenery, and it is indeed spectacular, combining the best of Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Pacific Northwest, and Japan in one place. But NZ also has many beautiful cities with unique vibes. Dunedin is one of them, great architecture, unique natural setting, fun pub culture, and a pleasure to walk about.
My other agenda for the winter was Northland. This region is hot and humid in summer, so winter is a better time – just be wary the thunderstorms! Whangārei, Waitangi (birthplace of the nation) and Cape Reinga – the northernmost point – were great.
Going backwards, I had a couple of sub-trips taking me from summer to early autumn. I’ve already covered one of those trips before – dedicated a couple of weeks only to Fiordland National Park. I won’t cover it any further in this report, but I’ll just say it’s an absolute essential visit.
I knew I’d spend more time in the Queenstown-Lakes region in the future winter trip, so I mostly just stuck to Queenstown, and headed to the Aoraki area. I speedran through Aoraki, hoping for better scenery in the winter, which was a big mistake. But I’m glad I was able to see some of it. I spent a couple of weeks in Christchurch, which became one of my favourite cities in the world. Levelled by an earthquakes in 2011, the city has been rebuilt to be a modern urbanist dream, but also retaining its historic charm – such as the Arts Centre. It’s also called Garden City for a reason, with the Botanic Gardens and punting on the Avon being the highlights. Christchurch has many museums, but also unexpected surprises, such as the Tūranga library being a masterpiece of modern architecture in its own right. Finally, there’s tons to see around Christchurch, Akaroa being a particular highlight.
Leaving from Christchurch is the TranzAlpine train, though I do wish I had done this in winter or spring with the mountains being snow-capped. Still, for anyone into train journeys, this is an incredible one. Coastal Pacific and Northern Explorer were great too, as was the Taieri Gorge Railway from Dunedin. It’s a shame air travel replaced trains and today it’s mostly for tourism, given NZ has some of the best landscape for trains after Japan or Switzerland.
Crossing from South Island to North Island was on the Interislander ferry, traversing the Queen Charlotte Sound was great. In the North Island, Wellington is another pretty city to walk around - just mind the wind! Napier has the highest concentration of 1930s Art Deco architecture anywhere - Disneyland for architecture lovers, and Hamilton Gardens is a delight. Then there’s Rotorua with its geothermal activity. Whakarewarewa, the zipine tour through a native forest, Te Puia at night were all unique experiences. Rotorua was also where luge karts were invented, and still has the best one I’ve tried. See what I mean? NZ truly has some cool cities with their own unique attractions!
Perhaps the biggest thing I missed was the mountains of central North Island. I certainly plan to be back and cover that next time, including the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.
The Lord of the Rings tourism is real, and you could easily carve out a 2-week itinerary dedicated to visiting filming locations, workshops, and museums. Even if you don’t care about the films, many of these locations were chosen for their spectacle and are well worth seeing. Hobbiton is just as cosy as you’d imagine, and Mount Sunday that stood in for Edoras is unlike anything I’ve seen.
Auckland feels most like a traditional modern city, reminding me of Singapore, though public transit is still a WIP. It’s still pretty nice, and Devonport and Waiheke Island nearby are charming. As an aside, Auckland is the most diverse city I’ve been too. There’s a lot more I could say, about the native birds, food, the Māori culture, the quaint villages, the beaches, but I hope those is not overlong already.
Other than the winter challenges, the main downside to Aotearoa New Zealand is simply cost. It’s very far away from anywhere, other than Australia, and things are expensive there. Not as expensive as a Switzerland, but think Western Europe tourism. I don’t have anything else to complain about, it was everything I expected and more.
Final notes, since someone will ask, all photos were shot on an Olympus E-M10 Mk IV and a Samsung Galaxy S25. Location for each photo is mentioned in the captions. Zero AI was used in this post, 100% of all words and photos are my own.
As always, AMA!