CENTRAL NI HOTELS
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4 star Oceanfront

Te Pania 4*

 

Oceanfront 5*

Oceanside Resort 5*

Pebble Beach Motor Inn

 

 

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Kiwi bird

North Island: Highlights

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Visit the award winning vineyards of Hawkes Bay

The sunny east coast...
Best known for its award-winning vineyards, the region will reward the visitor with a mild, sunny climate and superb sightseeing. From the Rotorua/Taupo region you have a choice of three routes, depending on how much time you have available. For the two northern-most routes, you travel via the beach resorts of Whakatane and Opotiki in the eastern Bay of Plenty, and then you have to decide whether to take Highway 35 around East Cape or Highway 2 directly through the ranges to Gisborne.

See EASTLAND - Gisborne

Eastland - Hawkes Bay - Wairarapa - Other North Island regions

Via Highway 35 from Opotiki, it is stunning coastal scenery for the next 205 miles/330 km around East Cape to Gisborne. This is ideal motorhome or camping country, where there are small villages selling provisions and gas. Opotiki to Gisborne via Highway 2 is only 90 miles/ 145km, less than half the distance of Highway 35. This road cuts through the ranges following the Waiocka River through the scenic Waiocka Gorge, approaching Gisborne through the area's vineyard country.

The carved meeting houses of Gisborne

Gisborne, a city of just over 30,000, is the presents beautiful main service center for the Eastland region. Its farmland. surf beaches and sunny, warm climate have long attracted New Zealanders on vacation. An area of high Maori population, some of the country's best surviving carved Maori meeting houses and churches are also found in the area.

Around 62 miles/10Okm south of Gisborne is Wairoa. It is here that Highway 38, the third route from the Rotorua region, meets Highway 2. It's 140 miles/ 226 km, from Rotorua to Wairoa on Highway 38, with the highlight of the route being sparkling Lake Waikaremoana, a gem set in the vast, remote, forested wilderness of the Te Urewera National Park, the largest untouched expanse of native forest in the North Island. There's excellent hiking and short walks througsh luxuriant forest, including the 30 miles/50 kin Lake Waikaremoana Track. It's also great for bird watching, hunting, fishing, canoeing and boating. Accommodation comprises a camping ground, cabins and a motel.
 

HAWKE'S BAY - Napier & Hastings

In common with other east coast areas, Hawke's Bay has long, sunny summers, well-suited to the long-established wine and fruit-growing industries for which the region is well known. The twin cities of Napier/Hastings have a combined population of 108,000. Both towns have a range of motels, also camping grounds and cabins, bed and breakfasts, homestays and farmstays.

The Art Deco heritage of Napier

Napier's man-made treasure is its glorious Art Deco buildings, all built in the early 1930s following a disastrous earthquake and fire which destroyed the city in 1931. A sightseeing must in Napier is the beautifully landscaped Marine Parade foreshore with its gardens and attractions.

The area's natural treasure is the famous gannet sanctuary at Cape Kidnappers, one of the few such colonies in the world. It's at its peak in summer (September - March), and can be reached by 4WD, tractor-trailer, or, at low tide, on foot. Hastings is the center of the region's orchards and vineyards, with many of the latter having fine cafes. A special treat for children is Fantasyland with fun rides and things to do.

How to get there: from Auckland, Rotorua is three hours drive direct from Auckland, or 45 minutes by plane. Both Mount Cook Airlines and New Zealand fly to Rotorua and coach services provide land transport. Many international chains are located in Rotorua, and there are also many excellent lodges, motels, guest houses, and hostels, as well as camping grounds.

How to get there

Coach services run daily from Rotorua and Wellington, also the Bay Express (train) runs daily from Wellington. Wellington - Napier takes 6 hrs; Rotorua - Napier takes around 4 hrs. Air NZ also runs a service from Wellington - the flight takes 50 min.

Click here to see Hawkes Bay Golf

WAIRARAPA

Masterton is the main center of a rich sheep-farming district. The town has hotels, motels, a motorhome park, and camping ground with cabins. About 12 miles/20 km north of Masterton is the Mount Bruce National Wildlife Center, where rare and endangered birds and other species are studied and bred. Here, you may observe the kiwi, New Zealand's unofficial national bird; the giant weta, one of the world's heaviest insects; native bats, our only native land mammals; also the takahe, a bird thought to be extinct until re-discovered in the 1950s.

In the ranges to the west are the Ruahine and Tararua forest parks, long used by the capital's city-dwellers for recreation. The parks are provided with a network of huts and trails which begin at the many road-end picnic spots and rise through mature forest to tussock-covered mountaintops. Near Martinborough, to the southeast, vineyards flourish in near-perfect classic grape-growing conditions and attract wine buffs from "over the hill" in the nation's capital-Wellington.

OTHER NORTH ISLAND REGIONS

New Plymouth - Wanganui - Mt Egmont (Taranaki)

MANAWATU - Palmerston North
 

Getting Around

Coach and air services operate from Auckland and Wellington and there is a railway service from Wellington. Self drivers, you can rent a mini-motorhome, 4wd or rental car.

SUGGESTED ADD-ON TOURS
We use & recommend local experienced
Kiwi tour operators for all add-on tours that we can include in your golf & leisure itinerary

Vacation NZ provides custom planned golf & leisure vacations

Vacation Australia's "Kangaroo Kelly" has comprehensively travelled both Islands in NZ. He not only knows the popular tourist regions but also knows the favourite places of the crafty locals.

Go to Enquiries & Quotation for your custom planned, competitively priced itinerary

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