New Zealand (North Island)

For our 25th anniversary, my husband and I visited the north island of New Zealand. It was a magical trip. Planning a great trip takes lots of research. I hope sharing our experiences and tips will help you, if you decide to visit New Zealand.

As of this post, Air New Zealand has nonstop flights from the U.S. to Auckland from San Francisco, Los Angeles and Houston. We took the 14.5 hour flight from Houston. 

We bought premium economy tickets. I'd done a lot of research about the differences between economy and premium economy on various airlines. With many airlines, the perks really aren't worth the price. But with Air New Zealand, premium economy is a big upgrade. The seats are larger. They recline farther. There is a foot rest. It's just all around a great spot to be. But, as great as it is, business class is even more luxurious with lay flat seats, more privacy and all sorts of little perks. 

We booked premium economy then used Air New Zealand's OneUp option to bid on seats in the next class up; business class. We found out five days before our flight that our bid was accepted. We loved flying in business class. The flight felt too short! You board the plane at night. You get dinner. Maybe watch a movie and go to sleep. When you wake up you are given breakfast and then you arrive in Auckland. On the way home we bid even more than the way out, because we really wanted to fly business class again, but this time our bids were not accepted. Factors that play into this are: how full the flight is, what other people are bidding (you won't know where your bid falls in relation to theirs) and how many people are in your group. But if you're willing to play the OneUp game, you could get a seat in a the next class up for far less that the full price ticket. For long haul flights, Air New Zealand is a great option.

We stayed at M Social in Auckland. This is a cool modern hotel in a great location near the water. It's within walking distance of many restaurants and the ferry that goes to Rangitoto and Waiheke Island. 

My husband and I enjoy working out. I'm a fan of Les Mills classes. It was a treat to visit their Auckland gym. It is massive and modern. 

A fun food to try in New Zealand is hokey pokey. It has a light, sort of crispy center covered with chocolate. 

From Auckland, we drove roughly three hours to Cook Beach in the Coromandel Peninsula. We stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast called 970 Lonely Bay. We were within walking distance of Cooks Beach. This is a long beautiful family-friendly beach. We hiked to Shakespeare Cliff where we took this photo of Cooks Beach (the long beach) and Lonely Bay (the smaller secluded beach). We also hiked down to Lonely Bay.

The rock formations on Lonely Bay are spectacular. We learned later, from a local, that this beach, because it is so secluded, has been known to be used as a nudist beach. But, thankfully, we did not see any of that while we were there!

Whitianga is a short (less than five minutes) ferry ride from the end of the road by Cooks Beach. In Whitianga we had a delicious dinner at Blue Lagoon Bar and Eatery. We sat outside looking at the water, the families playing at the park across the street and the impressive Norfolk Pines in the area. We also ate lunch at The House of Chang Thai. There we found good food, kind people and reasonable prices. 

For a better view of the coastline, we took a boat tour with Ocean Leopard Tours. Our guide grew up in the area. He gave us an interesting and enjoyable tour of the coastline by sharing facts and personal experiences.

Many people recognize Cathedral Cove from a scene in the Prince Caspian movie (a Narnia movie). It is a gorgeous place for photographs but increasingly difficult to get to. The path to the cove was damaged by a storm in 2023. This means the only way to the cove is by boat. Pieces of the rock fall from time to time, so it's also somewhat dangerous to spend time in the cove. And the water really is that beautiful!

We met so many friendly Kiwis! One lady recommended the Hive for a dinner spot. It's a fun indoor/outdoor setting. Kids ran around in the grass while adults relaxed at tables under the trees. The food was good but did take a while to come. Best to go before you're super hungry. 

From Cooks Beach, our next stop was Hobbiton, on the way to Rotorua. Whether you're a fan of the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movies or not, I think you'll find something to enjoy there. It exceeded our expectations. 

For one, Hobbiton is in a beautiful location. 

The tour was well run. Just be sure to book tickets ahead of time online as tours fill up in advance. We learned interesting facts about the making of the movies. 

We explored places we'd seen in the movies. I mentioned how beautiful this place is, right?!

But the most fun was when we went inside a hobbit hole/home. These homes were finished in Dec of 2023 so this experience is new for visitors. The details were remarkable. I can only imagine how much fun it must have been to create these spaces.

In Rotorua, we stayed at Quest Rotorua Central. We stayed here because it is within walking distance to restaurants, the gathering place for a tour we did and the spa we visited. The rooms are like small apartments. It was clean. But the smell from the lake is definitely something you will experience, even inside the hotel. It was worth paying for the parking package so we didn't have to fuss with the street parking. If you're in Rotorua on a Thursday night, they close down a main road for a couple of blocks and have a market. You can shop for souvenirs and dinner. 

The Redwoods of the Whakarewarewa Forest which is about 10 minutes outside of Rotorua. You can buy tickets for a day tour or a night tour. The tour includes crossing many hanging bridges between the giant Redwood trees. Information signs are on several platforms around the trees. In the day you'll see more of the forest. At night, you'll see the forest lit up by artistic light features. Although the night lights were cool, next time, I think we'd go during the day to get a feel for the size of the trees. Again, this is a tour you'll want to book ahead of time, especially for the night tour. There are long lines at night. You can skip that headache by booking in advance.

The Polynesian Spa is a unique place on the shore of Lake Rotorua. This spa has many different pools of varying temperatures and chemical properties that are supposed to help the body in different ways. By booking a package ahead of time you can take time to relax in the pools. We also had a couples massage, lunch and time in a private hot spring. This was a fun way to pamper ourselves on vacation. 

For a cultural experience, I highly recommend a visit to Te Pa Tu. Here we learned about the Maori people, their traditions, their music and their beliefs. It was a special night. It included a dinner. Again, book ahead online to assure yourself a spot on the tour.

From Rotorua, we drove south to Lake Taupo. It's only about an hour away. On the way there, we stopped at Wai-O-Tapu to check out the thermal pools. The gift shop is great. The colors of the different thermal pools are impressive. And so is the smell, but not in a good way!!! I may never fully recover from that smell!

Lake Taupo is beautiful. And it doesn't have a stinky smell! This is a place we wish we'd had more time to explore. Along the water is a road with many restaurants. We ate at Dixie Browns. We sat outside and had a nice view. 

I think my husband was most excited about seeing the coolest McDonalds in the world. Seriously. Check it out! There is a plane in the playground. 

For a big dose of adrenaline, we got in a HukaFalls jet boat. Again, book this in advance to avoid the long line when you arrive. This boat ride was like being in a James Bond movie! We zoomed around trees and rocks. We pulled several 360s. We went right up close to the roaring falls. The way back was the same with many more 360s! Our boys would have loved this. It's like a theme park ride without being on rails. 

Our skipper told us about a short hike on the Aratiatia Rapids track. We drove a few kilometers from the HukaFalls jet boat tour location to the parking area by the dam. From here we crossed the road and got on the path. The viewing spot was wonderful. This is where the scene from a Hobbit movie was filmed that had hobbits floating down a river in barrels. It's also a cool spot because every two hours during the day the dam opens releasing water that fills the ravine. That was fun to watch. 

Back in Auckland, we did an ebike tour with Power to the Pedal. We learned cool facts like the harbour in Auckland is the largest in the southern hemisphere. We rode to the top of Mt Eden. What a great view from up there. You can see the Tasman Sea on one side and the Pacific on the other. We saw cool parks and museums. It was a great way to get a feel for the city.

The north island has some black sand beaches on the west coast. We drove about 45 minutes from Auckland to Piha Beach. It's best to go early, particularly during the summer months, to get parking by the beach. We picked a spot by the Domain Motor Camp because it was a good middle point between the beach and the hike to Kitekite Falls. We visited the falls first. What a stunning hike! 

Next, we walked over to the beach. The black sand beach was so cool. It sparkled! It was full of families having a fun summer day together. It was fun to wander along the surf. We grabbed tacos from a food truck nearby. Pretty much a perfect day!

Just in case you're like me and you need to know where to find toilets near the hike/beach!

One last shout out to a place we spent way too much money: Honest Chocolat! Yum. Yum. Yum. 

Monsoon Poon deserves a thumbs up as well. My husband said this restaurant has the best naan he's ever eaten! Nice mocktails too. 

We loved New Zealand. The country was easy to navigate, once we got used to driving on the left side of the road! We felt safe wherever we went. We loved the beauty of the land as well as that of the people and the culture. 

One last tip: Tips are not expected in New Zealand. We'd read this but still felt uncomfortable not tipping. When we did tip a tour guide he informed us that tips are not done in New Zealand. And another guide seemed almost insulted by it or at least not comfortable with it and certainly was not expecting it. What we were told is that employees are paid a fair wage and do not expect tips as part of their compensation. I think this is one more reason New Zealand is an easy and fun place to travel in!

Disney World

Planning a trip to Disney World is a daunting challenge! Yes, there is a wealth of information online, but combing through all of it to find the answers to what you need takes so much time! Our family just returned from a trip to Disney World. I am not an expert after one trip, but I did learn some things that may be helpful to you.

Where to Stay

If you want to be sure to get on the most popular rides without waiting for hours, book your trip more than two months ahead of time and stay at a Disney World resort property. The biggest advantage to this is having a chance to book your three FastPasses 60 days in advance of your trip. With a family of six, and for our budget, we were going to have to book two rooms or squeeze into one room (with one bathroom!).

We chose to stay outside the parks. This meant we could book our FastPasses online 30 days before our trip. Because we are a timezone behind Florida I had to wake up and be online at 6am to book our passes. By 6:04 all the ones I wanted were taken! I had to move fast and have a plan for the rides we most cared about going on, along with some back up plans. Because all the people staying in a resort property had booked their FastPasses 30 days before us, rides like Avatar Flight of Passage, Slinky Dog Dash, Tower of Terror, The Seven Dwarfs Train Ride, Frozen Ever After and Test Track were all unavailable.

Booking FastPasses early seems to me to be the biggest advantage to staying in a resort property. Disney World is so large it’s not as though staying at the resort allows you to walk to each park. However, many people I’ve talked to love the atmosphere of staying in the resort and the extra hour to go early or stay late in the parks. These are also nice perks.

Which Park and When?

As for those early entry days, this helped me know which parks to avoid! Many people will only buy a base ticket which means going to a single park per day ticket (as opposed to a park hopper). So, if they have an option to go early they will go early to one park and stay there all day. That means those parks are often more crowded on those days. We chose to be in parks on days when they didn’t have early hours for this reason.

From a local we heard that September is the slowest month of the year in the parks. I’m not sure if that’s true, but it makes sense to me.

FastPass+ Info

When booking FastPasses you should know that every park but Magic Kingdom has a ride tier system. This means that certain rides (the more popular ones) are in tier 1. You are only allowed to get one FastPass+ at a time for a tier 1 ride. This means it’s a very good idea to make a list of the rides you want to do and prioritize them based on their tiers. To make this a little easier for you here is a list of some of the more popular rides and the tier they are in:

Tier 1:

Animal Kingdom: Avatar Flight of Passage, Na’avi River Journey

Epcot: Soarin’ Over the World, Frozen Ever After, Test Track

Hollywood Studios: Toy Story Mania, Slinky Dog Dash, Alien Swirling Saucers

Tier 2:

Animal Kingdom: Kilimanjaro Safari, Expedition Everest, Dinosaur, Kali River Rapids

Epcot: Spaceship Earth, Mission Space, Living with the Land, The Seas with Nemo and Friends

Hollywood Studios: Tower of Terror, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Voyage of the Little Mermaid

I did not include all rides or shows. We never needed a FastPass+ for a show.

Before going to the parks I read that you can use your first FastPass+ and immediately go and look for another pass to sign up for. I did not find this to be true. We had to use all three of our FastPasses and then we could see if there was another FastPass+ available for a ride. One day we used our passes early in the day and were able to get a couple more for later in the day (one at a time, of course) and that was great. This may influence what time of day you pick for your passes. We wanted to do the Kilimanjaro Safari at sunset because we read that this is when the most animals are active but that also meant we couldn’t try to get another FastPass+ until 8:30 that night! So you just have to weigh the pros and cons.

Are the FastPasses really a big deal? Yes! Using your FastPass+ can save you hours of waiting in line. When you go to the ride during the designated time of your FastPass+ you basically walk to the front of the line. You may have to wait a few minutes but it’s nothing like waiting in the standby line.

Line Tip

We did not have a FastPass+ for the Test Track ride. They have a single rider line and if everyone in your party can ride without you this is a great way to avoid waiting for a really long time! Doing this we experienced this ride twice in the time it would have taken to wait in the standby line. Our boys liked picking a car as their race car (you do this while waiting in line) and then seeing how theirs performed against the one they were in on the ride.

If you don’t get a FastPass+ for the ride you really want to go on I suggest getting to the park early and going directly to the ride you are interested in. In general, that is the time of day the line will be the shortest. You can get to the park early. You may not be allowed in early, but at least you will be ahead of the rest of the crowd when the rope drops!

Take Advantage of the App

Disney has done a great job with their Disney World app. You can find directions to your next ride, manage your FastPasses, find bathrooms, see show times and, most importantly, see wait times. If you see that a line gets shorter you might want to bolt over to that ride to maximize your time at the park that day.

You can go into the app and modify an existing FastPass+ choice, but the odds aren’t in your favor that the day you’re in the park you’ll improve what you already signed up for in advance. At least that’s what we found.

The app also includes dining options. You can view the menu and, with some restaurants, you have the option to order your food from the app. When you arrive at the restaurants that offer this online ordering option you have a different line to go to to pick up your food. It saved us time one day and we would do it again!

Stay Hydrated for Free!

Any dining location will give you cups of ice water. This was really nice because it was hot when we were there at the beginning of June.

Don’t Carry Heavy Bags!

Each person in our family had a fanny pack or cinch bag with items like a water bottle, snacks, sunblock, chapstick and phone. This worked out great! Each child had his own drink and snacks ready at any time. So even if we split up or were waiting in line forever the boys could eat or play on their devices because they were carrying their own items.

Considering that we averaged almost 9 miles each day in the parks we were SO GLAD we didn’t have heavy bags on our backs. We saw some adults with huge backpacks that must have weighed 20 pounds. That is not something I would want to carry around all day in the heat!

Plan to Rest

We found that we had to choose whether we were going to stay in the park late to watch fireworks or go home and get to bed early so we could get up early and be in the parks when they opened. And we didn’t even have little ones on this trip! The boys are all between 9-18. They can keep up with us walking around parks all day. But on days when we got there when the park opened we were all exhausted, hot and ready to go back to the hotel and cool down in the pool by mid afternoon. On days we wanted to stay late we let the kids sleep in longer and we went to the park later in the day. This worked well for us.

Eating

Disney allows you to bring food into the park. We packed a lunch one day and this saved us from waiting in yet another line. We watched a parade while we sat in the shade and ate. That was very convenient.

A few places we liked:

-Magic Kingdom: Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe. Fajitas, rice bowls and tacos

-Animal Kingdom: Yak and Yeti Local Food Cafes. Teriyaki beef bowl, honey sesame chicken, asian chicken wrap

-Epcot: Katsura Grill. Sushi, chicken, beef or shrimp teriyaki. Sunshine Seasons. This food court offers some great options. Our family had everything from salmon to an oak grilled chicken to a large (only portion that was large the whole week!) rotisserie turkey sandwich. And the air conditioning here was great!

-Hollywood Studios: Hollywood Studios doesn’t offer much in the way of healthy food. If you’re going to bring your own food one day you might want to do it the day you’re in Hollywood Studios. We ate at the ABC Commissary. Most of us got a club sandwich.

It’s often hot and humid in Orlando. When figuring out your food budget you may want to include an afternoon cold treat. In Magic Kingdom it’s fun to get a Dole Whip. You can find these in Adventureland in the Aloha Isle shop. Think pineapple and soft serve ice cream. The kids will want the frozen lemonades or Mickey shaped ice creams. At $5-6 per treat these can add up quickly!

Be prepared that the portion sizes aren’t huge! Our boys could have eaten two of the meals we bought them. Depending on where you come from you may feel like you’re paying twice as much as you normally would for half as much food. I knew this going in and figured it into the budget so I didn’t worry so much about it when I got there.

Transportation

I do not know all the options here but I do know that you cannot have an Uber driver drop you at the front gate to Magic Kingdom! This is good to know! I read that you can have your driver take you to the Contemporary resort and walk over from there. We tried this and found that Disney is not supportive of this. It’s better to be taken to the Tickets and Transportation location and catch the monorail to the front gates.

All the other parks are easier to get to. You can tell your driver to take you to Epcot, Animal Kingdom or Hollywood Studios and he/she can drop you off near the front. At these parks Disney has separate locations for buses and ride share companies to go to. If you are driving yourself you’ll follow the signs to the massive parking lots. Right now it’s $25/day for a regular car (not an RV or limo) so you’ll want to figure that into your overall trip budget. Even if you are staying at a resort property you will have to pay for parking if you bring your car. The fees range from $13-$24 per night.

We found it was going to be less expensive to take an Uber or Lyft where we needed to go than to rent a minivan (remember there are six of us!) and pay for parking/gas/tolls/etc. We never waited long to be picked up, we didn’t have to walk far from our car to the parks or deal with the headache of driving in an unfamiliar city. And, because our hotel was near a grocery store we could walk there for extra things we needed. It worked well for us.

Park Hopper?

One thing I wanted to know when buying tickets was should I get a park hopper ticket or a base ticket? For our first trip there I’m glad I bought the base ticket. Each park is huge. There is enough to do to keep you busy all day. Maybe, for a second or third trip and if I had less time to be there, I would get a hopper ticket. Now that I know which rides or shows are my favorite I might consider starting the day in one park and finishing the day in another park spending just enough time in each place to do my favorite things. But, it takes time to get from one park to the next so I’d really have to think about what I wanted to do.

Rides and Shows

We did not do every ride and every show, but we did do quite a few of them. Here are some of our thoughts about them:

The Monsters Inc Laugh Floor was a family favorite. One son went three times because he wanted to try and get chosen to answer a question in the show (and he got his wish!). It’s entertaining to see the monsters speak directly to the audience and include the audience in the fun. Plus, it’s inside and air conditioned!

We enjoyed the rides that were competitive. This is why we think Toy Story Mania (Hollywood Studios) and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin (Magic Kingdom) are fun. Both rides give you the chance to face off against others in your group to see who can get the highest score. The boys were very disappointed when I beat all of them in both of these rides!

The Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith in Hollywood Studios is the most exciting roller coaster in Disney World (according to us!). You are shot off at what feels like light speed into the darkness. You turn upside down, corkscrew and wind around a fun dark course. Those of us who tried it (the 9 year old wasn’t up for it) all loved it.

We also enjoyed the Slinky Dog Dash ride. And we were happy about that because waiting in that line was not fun. There is very little shade and we all melted waiting for this ride. Plus, it looks like a kiddy coaster and we weren’t sure it was going to be worth the wait. But it was longer and more fun than we expected. We appreciated that it was a nice smooth coaster ride.

Tom Sawyer Island in Magic Kingdom brought out the kid in us. We loved escaping through the underground paths and discovering caves, bridges and waterfalls. I believe the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail in Animal Kingdom has a similar feel but with animals to see along the way. I wish we’d had more energy to explore this area. I also would love to have seen the Tree of Life at night all lit up. But, with a very early start to the day to make it on the Flight of Passage ride, we didn’t make it all the way to closing!

The Flight of Passage ride is a great experience. Even the “waiting in line experience” is memorable. The floating islands are amazing. The laboratory is interesting to walk through. Seeing a Na’vi (the blue people in the movie) man floating in water was cool. The boys wanted to do the ride again just for the experience in the line! Don’t panic if you get there at opening and the line looks like it’s 10 miles long! This is still the shortest the line will be all day. And it takes time to get people to walk through what must be a mile of the standby line path.

Expedition Everest is at the top of our lists of fun rides. I don’t want to spoil the surprise so I’ll just say: make sure you try it!

Kilimanjaro Safari is an interesting and enjoyable experience. It’s also very long compared to the other rides. The kids loved seeing animals up close like giraffes, elephants and hippos.

In Animal Kingdom the Lion King performance is entertaining and definitely worth stopping for. There is a show every hour.

In Magic Kingdom the still-new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride always has a long line. While there are some fun things to do while waiting in line, it’s still a long line! It was a nice smooth coaster ride, but not super fast and certainly not long enough. We felt this way about the Kali River Rapids in Animal Kingdom; it wasn’t very long and it had a long slow line.

Rides we didn’t enjoy:

-Voyage of the Little Mermaid (Magic Kingdom) animatronics overload and boring

-Dinosaur (Animal Kingdom) it jostled us around and just wasn’t very fun

-Mission Space (Epcot) we only tried the easy version (not the “makes you queasy” one) and were not at all impressed

-Star Tours (Hollywood Studios) while we liked seeing characters from the newer Star Wars movies we all felt sick after this ride

If you are going to Hollywood Studios in 2019 it’s good to know that the Tower of Terror is being refurbished. One side of the tower is shut down. While we were there the other side that was supposed to be running broke down. There are extra long wait times right now. From what we heard they hope to be done by this fall when the new Star Wars area opens up.

Disney Springs

Disney Springs has a large movie theatre, shopping, shows, bowling, and several dining options.

Booking Online

Undercover Tourist was where I found the best ticket prices. Bookit provided a good package deal for airfare and hotel (but this will change based on so many factors so you’ll want to compare with Expedia, Costcotravel, Travelocity and others).

The rides are the stars of the show in the theme parks, but it’s good to remember that there are many other things to do while you’re there. There are live shows to watch, characters to meet, parades to see, countries to explore and fireworks to enjoy. It does take a lot of planning to get the most from your trip but once you’re there try to enjoy the magic of being there. Making memories by trying new experiences with your family or friends can be magical! I hope this helps you have fun at the “happiest place on earth.”