shefgab

Hi!

I need a bit of destination advice for NZ North Island. Next month I had two separate mini trips within a trip.

Background: I have been to NZ before, visiting Rotorua, Wellington, Auckland, Taupo, Napier, but it was a while ago (2003). My interests include walking (day hikes, up to ~4 hours) and looking at pretty scenery. Living in London, I’m happy to see both sea and mountain!

Trip 1

48 hours between Wellington and Whakatane, 3pm to 3pm. I’ve got a one way car rental through Hertz, which was very well priced. The direct route takes you through the middle of the North Island, past Lake Taupo. I’d like to do an easyish day hike on the middle day, maybe in the Te Urewera NP, but haven’t found any specific walks, and not sure the best place to spend the night. A mountain retreat would be great (although not stuipd prices).

Trip 2

I have 66 hours (Day 1 6pm, to Day 4 noon) car hire from Auckland Airport. I like the idea of driving up to Cape Reinga, just to say i’ve been to the top of NZ. It looks pretty too. However, this is 440km (270 miles) each way, which would eat up a lot of my time (Google says ~6 hours total each way).

I’m thinking:
Day 1 – Pick car up at 6pm, drive 2 hours (140km) or so north of AKL, then stop for the night somewhere around Waipu.
Day 2 - drive further north, following the East coast. Stop at Whangarei Falls & Paihia (could do a half day boat trip), stopping for the night somewhere at the bottom of the Ninety Mile Beach. (total 3 hrs, 220km)
Day 3 - drive up to the Cape, then head back down about half the way to AKL (maybe around Dargaville). (total 6 hours, 400km)
Day 4 - head back to AKL, dropping off car by noon (200km, 2.5 hours)

There should be around 14 hours daylight when i’m there, so some nice long days (sunrise around 6am, sunset around 8pm).

Oh, and finally, I wanted some reassurance about bringing food into NZ. I’ll have some tic tacs, cereal bars (some with peanuts, some with raisins), some popcorn and some Pepsi Max with me (I know, an eclectic mix! With the falling Pound, i’m stocking up my snacks in the UK!), all commercially packaged. There shouldn't’ be any problems bringing them in (of course, I’ll declare them)? If anything isn’t welcome, then i’ll leave it at home. I found the NZ Customs page quite unhelpful. At least I know now that I can’t bring in Iranian warheads, children's nightwear or dog semen.

Any suggestions?

Amelorn

While lugging snacks (particularly the Pepsi) seems like my idea of a nightmare, I have generally never had a problem with the odd packaged food item in my bag. Of course, I declared it to the customs people and had it ready at hand if they were curious.

They're generally much more concerned with fresh fruit, meat, and honey.

I would recommend flying to the Bay of Islands and hiring a car there rather than driving up from Auckland if your time is this limited. If you do drive, I'd just go straight to Paihia.

Te Urewera is...very remote and driving faster than 30 km/h is going to be putting yourself at risk.

narvik

If you go SH4 instead of SH1 it would take you [somewhat] past Whakapapa Village where there's The Chateau (the Mt. Ruapehu area has TONS of walks)
Slightly further north in Taumarunui there's a relatively new and well-liked attraction, where you can take a converted golf cart on a disused railway track: https://forgottenworldadventures.co.nz/

cavemanzk

https://www.mpi.govt.nz/travel-and-r...ms-to-declare/

You'll need to refer to MPI (Ministry for Primary Industries) for what you can/cannot bring into the country for Food Items.

Customs and MPI are to seperate entities on arrival into New Zealand, they work together. Although you'll have to do through both of there process on arrival.

Once you Cleared Customs, then collected your bags you'll then line up for MPI and show your arrival card. They will probably ask you an quick question about what you're declared, then send you down like 1 of 10 lanes.

shefgab

That's good to hear. No fresh produce. The Pepsi is really a ploy to ensure that my bag goes out at max weight and capacity, and will empty soon after arrival.

I actually booked my car a while ago, so that's already sorted. I'll check out Paihia

Noted!

Thanks, I'll check that out!

shefgab

Thanks, I looked at that site, but it just says stuff like "Any food – cooked, uncooked, fresh, preserved, packaged or dried", which really doesn't help answer my question. I started to watch their "Declare or dispose" video, but it was mostly an animation exercise to amuse children so I gave up after 15 seconds. I don't want to watch a cartoon dog try and get the camera into focus.

trooper

Just declare ALL of it.... that's the critical part.

If ANY of your commercially packaged foods are not allowed (and Id be surprised) they'll be confiscated... but as long as you DECLARE it all you can NOT run into any real problems.

SuperDudley

I recently bookmarked this link as I am also wanting to bring some food into NZ with me.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopi...w_Zealand.html

List:
OK - as promised here is a follow-up/list on what they allowed thru customs:

Mountain House Breakfast Skillet

Mountain House Spaghetti

Mountain House Chicken and Noodles

Mountain House Fajita Chicken

Tuna packs

Peanut M&Ms

Peanut Butter

Jelly

Gatorade (powder)

Babybel Cheese

Tea packets

Coffee packets

Hot chocolate

Taco Bell Hot Sauce

Crushed Red pepper packets

Olive oil packets

Pringles

What they didn't allow - packaged salami

narvik

For completeness I'd like to mention that although those mentioned food items above are non-heating, airlines will generally NOT allow the transportation of MREs as they can include the self-heating system. FYI.

knoydart

Slightly O/T but for those playing along at home there is a large 24 hour Countdown Supermarket - Like an Asda / Safeway on the Auckland airport campus, about 60 seconds drive from either terminal if the lights are in your favour.

So if your imports do get confiscated by MPI, you can at least restock straight away. If you are really lucky, the food detector dogs find a banana skin in your carry on and you end up on "Border Security".

narvik

Good suggestion; and it is always my "mandatory" first stop after getting the rental car.

I do believe they stopped being open 24 hours though. Noticed on my last visit.

Added:
Yep, just checked, and it is now listed as:Opening HoursMon - Sun, 6am - 12 midnight
Alcohol trading hours 7am - 11pm

SuperDudley

Good to know. We're dehydrating most of our own food, primarily vegetables, and bringing them in. We were also intending on bringing in some sealed commercial dehydrated beef, which I hear is okay as long as it's sealed and still has shelf life. We'll see what happens. Hoping to avoid purchasing pre-made meals, for the Milford Track, while we are there.

shefgab

OP here....no problems at all with any of my food that I brought in. However, both times I entered they gave my hiking boots a wash (I'm apparently no good at washing them!).

Regards my trips, I spent 2 nights in Turangi, spending the full day white water rafting and hiking. Trip 2, I drove to the Cape and back...I enjoyed the Cape more than a lot of the coastline. The drive was long, and some of the roads were not suitable for those of a nervous disposition, but I had fun!

I ended up at PAK'nSAVE in Mangere, which was next to my car rental place, and very close to the airport too. They seemed pretty cheap, and at least their bananas were by far the cheapest (almost half) of what I found elsewhere in NZ. Depressing shop otherwise, and their self service petrol station refused to accept any of my credit cards.

knoydart

Yes biosecurity does like to make sure things are well scrubbed. The first world problem is afterwards with trying carrying the boots onwards in the big plastic bag whist wet and you can't easily store them back in your luggage.


Pak n Save (or Pak n Slave as I've heard it called by some) is definitely the Asda of the NZ supermarket eco system. Saying that its a duopoly here so be thankful you only experience it for a short time.

Glad the trip worked out, it sounds like you missed out on the goings on after the quake at the start of the week.

iluvdoco

I plan on staying in Auckland for a few days and would love to visit Cape Reinga, ideally as a day trip. I would prefer not to rent a car.

Unfortunately it seems that most of the tour groups and buses leave from Paihia. I was unable to find any leaving directly from Auckland.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks!