New Zealand Road Trip

In October 2006 we did a fabulous 15 day road trip around New Zealand covering approximately 2,650 km starting with a few days in the North Island covering Aukland and Rotorua. From Rotorua we flew to Blenheim in the South Island via Wellington to continue our road trip.


The bulk of the trip covered the South Island starting from Blenheim and driving around the island in an anti-clockwise direction visiting Picton, Nelson, Punakaiki, Hokitika, Franz Josef Glacier, Fox Glacier, Lake Matheson, Haast, Queenstown, Te Anua, Milford Sound, Dunedin, Moeraki, Oamaru, Mount Cook and finishing in Christchurch.


The beauty of New Zealand’s wilderness reminded me of my home country of Scotland in many ways. There were incredible mountains, rivers, waterfalls, glaciers and forests to see with large expanses of open countryside to enjoy. The roads were excellent and very quiet so driving was a real pleasure. The only problem was having to stop so often to get out and capture the fantastic scenery.


We stayed at B&B guest houses for most of this trip and all of these were excellent with comfortable and well appointed facilities and friendly owners. The food was excellent in New Zealand with wonderful fresh local produce, wonderful seafood and of course lamb played a dominant place in many of the menus. We also sampled many of the local wines in New Zealand and visited a few vineyards in the Marlborough region of the South Island where many of the great white sauvignon blancs and pinots are created.


This book highlights the route we took with detailed maps and photographs highlighting the outstanding beauty of this fantastic country.