Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Peak season attraction and hotel booking trends

Hello all,

sorry for the general question, but we have a 8 day trip planned for Auckland and Queenstown for this coming January 2009. As it is peak season I wanted to check with you locals and knowledgeable experts of when I need to be booking my tours/attraction tickets and my hotels by: some are award and some will be paid. Are there any tours/hotels in particular that must be booked extremely early? I'm not looking for anything too specific, but just wanted a rough range of when we need to start making decisions by.

Thanks!

Auckland shouldn't be too much of a problem as low season for business travel, but some popular hotels might sell out (think the few chain hotels eg Westin).

Queenstown is now quite busy in January, especially early in the month. Book accommodation well in advance, as well as any domestic flights.

Auckland shouldn't be too much of a problem as low season for business travel, but some popular hotels might sell out (think the few chain hotels eg Westin).

Queenstown is now quite busy in January, especially early in the month. Book accommodation well in advance, as well as any domestic flights.

Thanks for the response KiwI! When you say well in advance are we talking 2 months out? 4 months out? 6 months out?

6 months is a bit silly unless you have a very specific hotel/lodge in mind and don't want to stay anywhere else, but in that case I'd book as soon as your plans are set.

Perhaps 3 or 4 months? A bit earlier if January includes New Years Eve and the following few days.

Sounds good! Thanks again :)

Time to start hunting around for things to do. We're excited to go bungy jumping and seeing the Milford Sound.