Originally Posted by
poisonsag
We might not visit NZ anytime soon so wanted to cover everything that we could in 12 days, but looks like south island is much better than north side so i am planning just to tackle hobbitown and rotorua and head to south after that.
This is a very very common mode of thinking for a first-timer to NZ. I was also convinced to see both islands on my first trip, and trimmed it down to just the south island. Since then i've been back to NZ many times and seen beautiful spots on the north island... but I'm still glad I focused on the south island for my first trip. As nice as the north island is, the south island is just a lot more epic. Plus, it is easier to do 1 or 2 day trips from AKL as part of another adventure, say to Australia or a Pacific island. The south island is more time intensive, so you really need a longer trip for it.
I've never been to Rotorua or Hobbitown. All the advice I've seen (particularly by kiwis) is to give Rotorua a pass.