For a lot of people trip to New Zealand is one in a lifetime and they want to make the most of it! Planning it correctly makes a big difference. Everyone prefers different type of travels and depending on that you might want to come in a different time of the year as well. So what is the best time to travel New Zealand?
We have been living in New Zealand for almost ten years now. We came as tourists, traveled the whole country, settled in Queenstown, had kids. Having children is not stopping us from traveling – it’s actually the other way round. We love New Zealand and its nature. And we want our children to see all the beauty too!
We have done lot of different ways of traveling around the country! First year low-cost backpacking, later on usually shorter trips since we had full time jobs. In a rented motor home with parents and our latest trip was in a caravan we bought. And in this post we are going to share with you what is the best time to travel New Zealand according to the way of traveling you choose.
Coming as a backpacker for a low-cost traveling
If your budget is tight you should definitely skip the high-peak season over Christmas and New Years. Probably even couple months right after that.
Christmas is usually the start of Summer season and with that you see prices of everything tourism related skyrocketing! Queenstown is a unique place. It’s even more extreme than other places but just to give you an example, the price for accommodation in Queenstown can be 10x higher in the peak season than in a low season.
Not only accommodation is much more expensive but also prices for different activities you might want to do. Huts on different tracks are cheaper out of season as well.
October is a good time to come. Spring is beautiful all around the country when everything is in bloom, you see lot of lambs and other baby animals around which is super cute. It’s still off-season so activities and accommodation is cheaper, not too many tourists around, places like Hobbiton should still have some spaces available even if you don’t book in advance.
Caravanning around New Zealand
When you plan on coming to New Zealand and buy or rent a motor home or caravan and travel all around the country, then I think it does not really matter what time of the year you choose. I suppose it really depends on what you prefer. I would not do a trip like that in the winter but that’s only because I don’t really like winter.
Caravans and motor homes are usually easy to heat up so there is no problem with cold. Holiday parks where you can park and plug-in your home on the wheels are pretty much everywhere as well. Prices will vary according to the time of the year as well – as mentioned above Christmas and New Years will be the most expensive and you will have to plan this a bit in advance as lot of them will be booked out.
We have done a caravanning trip over Christmas and New Years last year. We have chosen that time of the year purely because that’s the time when Jan has time off work. And my parents, who have also arrived and joined us on this trip, have time off work too. We didn’t have any parks booked in advance but whenever we were driving somewhere we tried to find a place with vacancy prior to our arrival. Sometimes we had to drive shorter or longer distances as there was no free space available for us anymore wherever we wanted to go. But if you are flexible like that than it shouldn’t be a big problem.
If you have a set schedule and a plan to what you wanna see and do then I would recommend to either book everything in advance if you wanna come in the peak season or come in spring or end of summer/autumn.
North or South Island of New Zealand
New Zealand is approximately 1600km long from north to south which means that the weather will be absolutely different in the very north to the very south.
Depending on what you want to see and where you want to travel there might be different times when it is the best to come to New Zealand as well.
South of South Island is in general much colder than north of North island. Northland area can have around 15 degrees over the winter months (July, August) when in Queenstown for example it will be freezing in the same time. This can be good point for taking into consideration when you plan your holiday.
Summer in the north can be a bit tropical, when it rains it can keep raining for weeks. But it’s warmer. In the south we don’t have that many rains, mainly in autumn. Winters are cold but usually very sunny. Snow is mostly only up on the mountains. Summers are warm but don’t forget to take some warmer layers with you as well because when the sun is down it can get quite cold sometimes too!
Anytime is good!
I guess anytime is good to visit New Zealand. Because it is so large, you can find here everything. And then it depends on what you want to see and do here.
If you want to come for skiing, then winter is the best time of course. If you want to travel all around but are not interested in bumping into other tourists on every corner then I’d recommend spring probably. Summer is great but it can be super busy on different places.
Autumn can be a bit rainy, but there is nothing more beautiful than Central Otago in Autumn. You can read my post about that here 🙂
If you are planning a trip to New Zealand and are not sure about anything please don’t hesitate to contact us. We will be more than happy to give you any answers!
I have always heard great things about New Zealand. This article brings home that it is true. I have known many people that have traveled there, and everyone has positive things to say about it. My niece studied there for a year, and she, like you fell in love with it. When I was in the US Navy, I put a request in to be transferred there, but because of limited billets, it was denied. It is on my bucket list however to at least spend a few days there. Thanks for sharing all the NZ info. Tom
https://howtobuyforeclosedhome.com/5-best-towns-in-the-us-to-live/
NZ certainly is beautiful and worth the time spent here! Once you come only couple of days wont be enough, so plan longer 😉
Wow! Thank you for this very informative post. I’ve never been to New Zealand but hoping someday I could see it. Thanks for the tips. They’re helpful for someone planning to go there. Looks like NZ is a world of its own. Very interesting indeed.
You really can call it a world on its own. It is beautiful here that for sure!
I particularly love travelling in the summertime.
To see the great outdoors in the beautiful sunlight that New Zealand boasts!
Plus its usually at Christmas time which is perfect to get away with the family for a summer vacation
The only negative about Christmas time is that it is very busy everywhere and you need to plan in advance because lot of places get booked out. Other than that it is really beautiful to travel around in Xmas time and around New Years!
It is extremely valuable find information of this kind! Thank you!
I have five years planning to go to New Zealand but I always found an excuse to put it off.
You’ve inspired me with the beauty definition that you’ve given us in your site.
I love skiing so I think winter will be a great time to do it!
But I love animals too and the idea to see some lambs inspires me too.
I will come to here to find more valuable information.
Thank you again!
There is always enough excuses for anything for anything, isn’t it? 😉 But there is not enough time, so just go and do it! You won’t regret it I am prett sure! If you need more info about something just reach out!
Martina, for many years I have been in the travel industry, for the last few it was as a cruise consultant, NZ is possibly the most sought after location it is diverse and utterly beguiling, if I had access then to your blog I would have headed them to it.
An informative and interesting site.
I love how real you have made it and also love the use of family visuals.
You should be very proud you live in a beautiful part of the world
Thank you so much for your beautiful words Cordelia. Your feedback is much appreciated! And motivats us to write more 🙂
What a nice post you wrote! I really enjoyed reading it and I could not be silent about your post so I decided to leave my comment here and say Thank You! For sharing this quality post with others.
Actually this is exactly the information that I was looking for information about the best time to travel to new zealand and when I landed on your website and read this post, it answered all my questions in details.
So I’m happy that you decided to write about this topic and share it with people. It’s very useful and can definitely be used as a great source for everyone who is interested in this topic.
I will come back to your website again for sure and I’m looking forward to reading your new posts.)
Thanks!
Thank you, Ali! Im super happy you found this article helpful.
Hey, I took the family to New Zealand during January this year. We didn’t do much travelling as we had one place to stay and did heaps of day trips in the hired car and did lots of the touristy things in Rotorua and surrounds. It really was beautiful and we enjoyed our time in NZ. We did notice how many caravans, campervans and motorhomes driving past on our way to the various stops we did and have decided the next time we go to NZ we will definitely hire a motorhome. The number of places available for vans were so reassuring to know we wouldn’t have much of a problem finding somewhere to stay for the night. Our next visit will likely be the south island. But I would recommend the north island as it’s stunning in it’s own way. Thanks for the post.
Lately, all I hear is New Zeland, New Zeland, New Zeland. I’m looking forward to traveling to your amazing country. Caravanning could be my cup of tea. I want to see it all. How long would it take to drive through both islands?
Hello Ivan, I suppose the world is opening to people in general and distant countries are more accessable than before. New Zealand is absolutely beautiful and definitely worth visiting!
It really depends what is your intention to do when you arrive. If you just want to drive through, about a month could be enough. If you want to spend some time in different places, do some hikes etc. then I would recommend a month for each island. You would have enough time for stops and to enjoy it all. If you start planning your visit, let me know I can help!