2024 SAVINGS!
Save up to 15% on selected 2024 departures!
Please call for the best price and availability.
________________
Expand All
Collapse All
Your Itinerary
Day 1 - Welcome to Auckland
Welcome to Auckland, New Zealand’s City of Sails. Flights can arrive any time prior to 4.00pm; you will be transferred from the airport to your hotel. After check-in, you can explore Auckland. Take a walk down Queen Street, to the main shopping precinct or take a bus (leaves from outside the hotel) down to the Viaduct Harbour and the Auckland Waterfront region. This recently developed area of central Auckland has cafes and restaurants galore. Take a seat in the sunshine, enjoy a glass of one of New Zealand’s famous Sauvignon Blanc’s and watch the maritime activity on Waitemata Harbour. This evening, meet your fellow travelling companions and your AAT Kings Travel Director at a welcome reception back at your hotel.
Hotel: Holiday Inn Express
Day 2 - Bay of Islands
Your journey north on a Bay of Islands tour from Auckland is not short of drama – discover 140 droplets of land ringed by turquoise sea at the top of the country. It’s undeniably beautiful, but it also holds a special historical secret: this is where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840, between Captain William Hobson and Māori chiefs. Your guide, likely an ancestor of one of the original signatories, will explain the significance of the site, while pointing out the world’s largest ceremonial war canoe and a carved meeting house.
Hotel: Copthorne Resort Bay of Islands, Garden Room
Meals: Breakfast and dinner
Day 3 - Bay of Islands
If there’s a travel destination that inspires wanderlust, the Bay of Islands is it. And today, you can do just that. At your leisure, venture up to Cape Reinga/Te Rerenga Wairua, the very top of New Zealand, via idyllic Ninety Mile Beach. Or glide around on an historic tall ship, enjoy local drops on a wine tour of the region, or join a tour of Russell and learn more about the settling of the Bay of Islands. The choice is yours.
Hotel: Copthorne Resort Bay of Islands, Garden Rooms
Meals: Breakfast
Day 4 - Auckland
Northern exposure is a thing today, when you journey toward the top of the country to visit Whangarei – NZ’s northern-most city, and a place where waterfalls meet beaches, galleries meet museums. It’s like the country in a tantalising snapshot – a union of nature and forward-thinking culture. Explore at your leisure before sinking back into your seat for the mesmerising commute back to Auckland.
Hotel: Holiday Inn Express
Meals: Breakfast
Day 5 - Rotorua
There’s no bad day in Auckland – today, your Auckland tour is filled with expeditions to the War Memorial Museum and Waitemata Harbour, before you set your GPS for the Waikato River and a Waitomo Caves tour. This place is radiant – quite literally. While cruising cavernous waterways, your route is cast in a magical light by thousands of glowworms. It’s a landscape almost as otherworldly as Rotorua, where mud pops and jettisons from bubbling geysers, and steam rushes skywards from cracks in the Earth. Tonight, delve deep into Maori culture and traditions at Te Puia. Your dinner, a hangi cooked underground, is served while you overlook the spectacular geothermal valley. The highlight is a Maori cultural performance in the beautifully carved meeting house, Te Aronui a Rua.
Hotel: Ibis Rotorua
Meals: Breakfast and highlight dinner
Day 6 - Rotorua
Explore at your own pace today, but with plenty of tips from your Travel Director. Want a bit of down time? We wouldn’t blame you for simply blissing out at in the steamy thermal springs at Rotorua’s Polynesian Spa. Animal lover? Go behind the scenes on a working kiwi nursery and hatchery. Hobbit fans will want to take advantage of the opportunity to tour the sights featured in The Lord of the Rings movies at Hobbiton. These beautiful landscapes are not only a bucket list tour for Hobbit fans, but a gorgeous countryside getaway.
Hotel: Ibis Rotorua
Meals: Breakfast
Day 7 - Wellington
You’ll hear Huka Falls well before you see it – at this natural wonder, a staggering 220,000 litres of water thunder over an 11-metre-high waterfall every second. The road ahead unfolds in a broad panorama of Lake Taupo, its waters so vivid and blue you’ll think someone has taken the glasses off your nose and cleaned them for the first time. Traverse the Kapiti Coast to New Zealand’s cool little capital, Wellington, where there are so many restaurants and bars to choose from, you’ll need a guidebook. Wait, you have an in-the-know Travel Director to talk to.
Hotel: Travelodge Wellington
Meals: Breakfast
Day 8 - Farewell from Wellington
The best way to begin a Wellington day? With a coffee. The city is known for its uber-cool cafés, designed to fuel you through a session at Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand. Unfortunately it’s time to bid farewell to your NZ crew.
Meals: Breakfast and lunch
8 day Escorted Tour - from £2275 £2045
With flights from £3295
Save up to 15% on selected 2024 departures!
OPTIONS
- Add extra nights in Auckland or Wellington, before or after your tour
- Extend your holiday with a South Island self drive
- Add a stopover to New Zealand in Singapore, Dubai or other destination
- Choose to fly Economy, Premium, Business or First Class
