[shoolhouse]

Hi all i'm Gary and me and my wife Gina and our two boys are on our way (from the UK) in April for a holiday and to try and have a good look around to see if NZ is for us,Or are we any good for NZ:)!.We like the look of The Hawke's Bay area so are going to spend three to four days looking around at schools, work,i'm a car mechanic and my wifes a hairdresser.Yes i know very sterio typical:laugh .We are only doing the North island as we have only 14 days,got to go to Oz see see relatives.
We have hired a camper van and so far plan on doing :
Coromandel Peninsula
Rotorua(3 Days)
Taupo
Hawke's Bay
Palmerston North????
Any more suggestions?
PS have been warn of campers being broken in to in car parks is this true.

[JandM]

Hello, and good luck.:)

We spent five weeks with a hired campervan in NZ last year. We had no trouble at all, but we did keep our valuables well out of sight, and also never left wallets and passports in the vehicle.

[LesleyS]

I know you mentioned 3 days in Rotorua, but if you could spare one of those days to nip over to Tauranga and the beautiful Bay of Plenty then I'm sure you won't be disappointed - It's awesome!

[All Aboard]

Yes be very aware of campervans being broken into. I think Rotorua is quite bad. It was on the radio only this morning that tourists are being targeted - one couple had all their belongings taken and they only had left the clothes that they were wearing!!. The radio was calling for campervan companies to highlight this to the tourists renting them.

Have a good trip

[holland]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I am sure you will think Hawkes Bay is stunning...but then I am bias!

J and G x

[peebles16]

Hello and welcome from us too :)

Enjoy your trip!
Karen

[jackie m]

Hi & welcome to the forum,
Hope you have a good trip if you come as far as Palmerston North would be an idea to take a trip into Wellington aswell. Usually plenty mechanics jobs available in and around the Wellington area.

Jackie

[shakyle2906]

Hi


Yes, we live in Hawkes Bay and it is fabulous, i guess we are biased too!

Wellington is definetly a must if you can, we spent 2 days down there at Christmas and it was beautiful.

Rotorua and Taupo are stunning too.

Good luck and let us know how things go

Sharon

[janrzm]

Hello

We are also going out for a good look around in April.
We're visiting Tauranga,Rotorua,Taupo,Napier,Wellington & Nelson.
Can't wait!
Hope you have a great time.

[Kerry and David]

Welcome and good luck with your trip.
We are also out in April on our Reccie exciting times!

K x

[dusk]

*jealous* have a good time :)

[Red Devil]

Hi Gary... welcome to the forum :nice1

We also have our 3 week 'recce' trip booked for April and will be doing a similar route to yours, but we'll also be taking in the South Island as my wife is a nurse and has been told there's possibilities of work in Christchurch, Dunedin to name just a few places... anyway our route for the North Island is:

Auckland, Tauranga, Rotorua, Taupo, Napier & Wellington

We also thought of hiring a campervan, but our little one is only 5 years old so we've gone for the option of hotels & motels (all pre-booked via internet using 'tripadvisor' website).

Have a great time and hope everything lives up to your expectations... look forward to reading your feedback.

[shoolhouse]

Hi and thanks all for the best wishes,we're looking forward to our trip.We actually start our trip with a two day stay in Auckland sight seeing before getting the camper.We will be ending up in Wellington.
We got 10 days in the camper, free to roam!.

[willsken]

I remember our recce trip well. Have a great time! Welcome to the forum by the way. :nice1

[Kiwi-In-Texas]

Hello and welcome. Enjoy your trip in April.

[D&J]

Hi, we visited New Zealand for the second year running last year (mam, dad, to boys aged 9 and 7) and hired a campervan, we enjoyed every minute it's an excellent way to see the island. As far as problems go the only thing we found was parking sometimes. If you entered the towns a lot of the street parking was nose into the curb, which meant the back end obstructing the road, only a minor thing I suppose but worth thinking about. No security problems though, just be sensible with what you leave on show. We planned our trip before we went, with in reason and then decided where and how long we would stay at each park once there. We stayed at Top 10 parks (information can be found at the link below) .They may not be the cheapest around but the facilities are fantastic and all cater for young children, games rooms, go karts, pools, trampolines etc. A membership card can be purchased for $30 which gives 10% discount at all Top 10 parks. We traveled from Auckland and stayed off at Waitomo 1 day, New Plymouth 1 day, Wanganui 1 day, Lower Hutt 3 days, Masterton 1 day, Napier 2 days, Ohope Beach 1 day, Papamoa 2 days, Waihi Beach 1 day and back to Auckland. Can highly recommend the Coromandel also, if you can fit it in but we did that the year before so we concentrated more on the lower part of the North Island this time.
Just brief outlines I hope it helps if you need anything else just ask. For the record we liked it that much we are planning on emigrating later this year. We have residence visas and have our house on the market now, hopefully it will sell soon and we plan to relocate to the Papamo, Tauranga area in October, November this year.
Good luck and have a fantastic time!:nice1

http://www.top10.co.nz/index.html

[Cobra]

Hi , My wife and i are going over second week in April for four weeks to christchurch to make final decision. I was over there in May last year for eight days touring around the south island and i must have been unlucky . had alot of heavy rain and very cold at nights. But mayby i was just unlucky. way better weather up north. I wish you the best of luck and take care, Would love to live in Tauranga:yes :yes