[bilbo baggins]

Hello

We are planning to come over in Feb 09 with a view to finding somewhere we may wish to settle.

It just seems to be a predicament on where to visit as although I have kind of decided on the SI my OH has never been so want to give him the opportunity to see the North.

Any advice on a 3 week Itinery that takes in the main towns which have hospitals but also gives us the opportunity to do some exploring walking etc?

My thoughts were to rent a car in Aukland and do Rotaroua, Taupo and Wellington then down to the SI to do Ch Ch OVER to Dundedin and Queenstown possibly Milford Sound. I know there is no hospital there but came over in the terrible November of 99 and never saw it!! Then to up to Nelson, Blenheim and Picton. Maybe we will use YHA or equivalent but am fairly easy really.

Any thoughts or help with this really welcome as it seems a bit daunting especially as I have to fit in visits to hospitals on the way. We just don't want to be travelling and not do some exploring.

Planning to come over in June 09 and will be applying for PR when we return. Just getting to the end of the very laborious applying for Nz midwifery reg!

Anyone working in other hospitals as Midwives. I have had some really useful information on Christchurch but any news on Nelson, Blenheim, Ashburton and Timaru or Rotorua really welcome.

June 09 here we come!

Goodbye NHS

Bilbo Baggins

[essjayo]

Good luck with your trip. We are going over in October, we've got 2 weeks on North Island staying in Auckland for a couple of nights to recover from the flight, then Hamilton, New Plymouth, Taupo/Rotorua before one last night in Auckland. We've hired a car, and booked accom with Bella Vista Motorlodges & Quest Apts, as they have 2 bed apts. Wish we had longer and could take in South Island too, have a great trip
Stuart

[Nick88]

You have a choice of route from Taupo to Wellington. You can either go to the east or west of the mountains, via Napier or Palmerston North respectively. Personally I would go east, Hawkes Bay is a lovely area (they have a hospital, too).

[bilbo baggins]

Thanks for the feedback. Anyone else got any tips on who to use and where to stay?

BB

[Red Devil]

Hi Bilbo

We had our 3 week 'recce' trip last month and it was a huge success. Before I start, may I add we have a 5 year old son and he coped perfectly fine with all the travelling (we thank ourselves lucky in that department)...

Flew from Manchester airport with Singapore Airlines (fantastic company) to Auckland (3 nights), then collected Car Hire (http://www.omegarentalcars.com/) (excellent service) and stoped off at Tauranga (1 night), Rotorua (1 night), Taupo (1 night), Napier (1 night), Wellington (2 nights), pre-booked the ferry with car hire company and crossed over to Picton, then stopped off in Nelson (1 night), Greymouth (1 night), Haast (1 night), Queenstown (1 night), Te Anau (1 night) taking in Milford Sound, Invercargill (1 night), Dunedin (1 night), Timaru (1 night) & finally Christchurch (2 nights)... where we hope to settle.

There's some quite big distances to take on whilst travelling down the West Coast of the South Island, but plan your journey out beforehand and it's a great road to drive along.

We pre-booked all our accommodation with Trip Advisor (http://www.tripadvisor.com/) (highly recommended website) and can honestly say everything went according to plan... do your homework and it certainly makes life far more enjoyable :)

Other sources of information:

AA Travel (http://www.aatravel.co.nz/main/index.php)
Discover New Zealand (http://www.discovernewzealand.com/)

Hope it's been of some help... we really enjoyed surfing the net each evening, making notes of interest, organising the route and arranging matters.

It's an exciting time for you... enjoy and keep us posted how you get on :D :nice1

[NZduo]

Hi BB, we've just returned from our 3 wk honeymoon/recce, and just did the north island.
We used Omega car hire out of Auckland and drop off in Wellington - whom we found to be the cheapest....

Hope this helps :-)

[Red Devil]

... forgot to mention, OH is a nurse (Renal) and pre-arranged with the nursing agency she's signed up with for hospital visits at Rotorua & Christchurch, just to get an impression of how things are done.

We found our route had a good mixture of taking in major town and cities, whilst still seeing the breathtaking scenery that New Zealand has to offer... the difficult bit is deciding where to draw the line on areas to explore during a relatively short period of time (wish we had 4 weeks instead of 3 weeks)... but here's hoping we'll have an infinite period of time once we're over there!!!

[castleclan]

We managed to arrange our 3 week trip ourselves all on the net and everything went without a hitch. (more than can be said about things in UK)
Did a mixture of campervan (great fun for children), hotels (when I knew we would appreciate a good nights sleep!) and top 10 units as well as family in Welly. All were fine although found one of the hotels in ChCh noisy as no double glazing and on a junction!
Good luck with the plans.......... ohh I'm wanting to say blow it and do another visit again!:(