New Zealand

Anyone here who lives there or have been there?

Me and my husband are going to New Zealand on our honeymoon. We are really looking forward to the trip and I wonder how on earth we are going to make it, to see all things there are to see in only 4 weeks.

If you know about the best places to see and things to do, please tell me. I would like to hear all about NZ that a tourist should know.
Maybe you have places to recommend were we can stay over night.

So far we have planned to arrive in Auckland December 22 and are going to stay there to rest a couple of days over Christmas. Then we will rent a car and drive down to Wellington and be there for New Years. After that we are thinking about going to the south island for about a week.
We are flying home again January 18.

Two things we do not want to miss are Rotorua, with the volcanoes and the hot springs, and swimming with dolphins near Kaikoura. Or is there better places to swim with dolphins?
Where is the best place to go Jet-Boating, white-water rafting and black-water rafting?

I would like to know everything worth to know about NZ, so please tell me.

Great choice to come to NZ!!! ^_^

Rent a campervan to go round the south island! It's a great way to travel and you'll find lots of places to hire them (New Zealand is like, campervan paradise! ) A great place for adventure-tourism is Queenstown - there, you can do jet-boating, bungy-jumping and lots of adventure sports like that. I'm not sure if there's white water rafting in Queenstown but there's a website where you can find out where to white-water raft. http://www.nz-rafting.co.nz/

I'd say, go to Kaikoura (it is the best place to swim with dolphins and watch whales) then down to Hamner where there is a wonderful hot-springs pool resort. Then go over to the west coast by the Lewis Pass and if you want, visit Punakaiki which is a special rock formation and you walk through some native bush and see the blowholes, it's really nice there.
Then, down by the glaciers, then back over the Haast Pass and go to Queenstown, back round Mt Cook national park, back to Christchurch where you can fly back to wherever you're going back from. If you're interested, I can show you the route on a map, or you can plan it yourselves.

The South Island is way more interesting than the North Island. If you can, spend some more time in the South Island!!! Lots of people I know who have come on holiday say the only thing they regret is not spending more time in the South Island.

Some things about New Zealand - you're going in Summer, which is a great time to visit. I'm not sure what the roads are like in Sweden, but here they are very curvy and winding, that means it takes longer to get places than you think! But, pretty much every road is very scenic and beautiful.

It's a horribly cold winter this year so we'll probably get a nice hot summer. ^_^

Sorry to advertise the bad things but...
If you do go to the West Coast, it's very beautiful, but you must watch out for Sandflies!! Get insect repellent! They are small biting black flies that are not painful when you get the bite, but after a few minutes they begin to ITCH LIKE CRAZY! If you scratch them, they swell up. Often I have scratched mine until they bleed, because it's less painful to have a scab than a closed bite!

There are no snakes in NZ but there is one poisonous spider, the White-Tail. There are not many, but they give a nasty bite. They are quite big, an hourglass-shaped body with a small white spot on the tail.

That's all I can think of right now. If you have any more questions, just ask! My mum is an expert on travelling New Zealand, so I can answer your questions well.

u r not allowed to bring any sort of food (dried n even canned) to NZ or else they will b seized...

Ditto to what enkeli-kitten said!
Obviously, you want to see some of the North Island too, but I'd spend the bulk of it in the South.
I think driving down from Auckland to Wellington will be an awesome drive. You will love the volcanic plateau, the scenery is amazing.
Kaikoura is the place for whale watching & swimming wiht the dolphins.
Definitely Queenstown for the adventure tourism stuff you want to do - they have it all down there.
Hamner is great, but if you're pressed for time, then maybe skip it and stop for a night at Maruia Springs in the Lewis Pass instead. You'll be driving past anyway, and they have a lovely little Japanese-style hot pool.
The drive down the West Coast to Punakaiki has got to be one of the most spectacular drives anywhere, in my biased opinon!
You'll find you just don't have time to do everything, but you'll still be having an awesome holiday if you just concentrate on the highlights. And next time you'll want to come back for longer!

^up^
Isn't there anyone more who have something to add?

enkeli-kitten: That sound good. We definitly have to think about staying on the south island for more then a week.

About the spider you mentioned, how common is it and how poisonous is it? Do you have to seek medical care immediately if bitten?

You also mentioned hireing campervan. Do you know any firm that have campervans for hire that are relatively cheap? The ones we found by the internet costs around 2500 NZD for the period we are interested in. From December 26 to Januari 17. We think that is a little to much.

Wow, that is quite expensive. I'm not sure what the cheapest ones are, but there is a good site that lists heaps of New Zealand campervan rentals and you can book there, etc. It shouldn't be too hard to find the cheapest option.
http://www.kiwitravelnzrentals.co.nz/index.php

The white-tail is painful, but not usually dangerous (some people are allergic to them and it's much worse then), however you can get an infection in the bite and then you need to see a doctor. But it's not a huge problem, I've lived here all my life and never been bitten, and I only know one person who has. So don't worry!! ^_^

E-kitten, where abouts in New Zealand do you live?

I live in New Zealand too. Wellington to be exact and I've never been affected by a white tail spider so don't worry too much about that. I've lived here my whole life and haven't been to Roto-Vegas yet. I'm going June next year!

Are you flying from Auckland to Wellington? In Wellington definitly take a geez at Te Papa.

Eeeww... I was unpacking some boxes I had in storage at my friend's attic. I carried a tea chest downstairs and put it on the floor, and a HUGE white tail came running out from the corner of the box!! Eek! They freak me out. So weird looking.

As for prices of camper vans, we found them to be very expensive. When my husband & I went to NZ for 3 months, we ended up buying a car because it was cheaper than renting.
It's a pretty expensive country compared to North America, I don't know how it compares to Sweden.

I live in Christchurch.