New Zealand North & South Islands ITINERARY 2 Weeks / 4 Weeks & More

I went to NZ for my 4th time there last year. Got ill on the plane and the first week was ruined as I was bed ridden. I was staying in hostels for 7 weeks, so I decided to say screw it and I redesigned the entire trip as I went, doing whatever I wanted each day, and I stayed in pretty luxury airbnb's all to myself, for a shortened 4 week trip. It was so peaceful and felt like I was just randomly exploring. So much nicer than the fixed trip I arranged. It turned out to not be much more expensive to do 4 weeks in houses to myself, instead of 7 weeks in busy, loud hostels.

🙂Thank You Karl & Jaime🙂❤💙👍Safe Travels👍

Thank you, fantastic advice.

Really helpful, and brilliant for the QR codes to be available.😊 Thanks

Kiwis and Canadians are soul brothers. Our values are similar and we just seem to relate.

Helpful and informative! I'm in the beginning of planning a NZ trip for December 2026! Hopefully your affiliate links are still active by then :)

Great video with some options. The places that I think you missed out on is: visiting the Hawkes Bay - Art Deco buildings, Wineries, the Ganet colony and the walks at Te Mata peak etc.
Or if you're a surfer, then Raglan, Kawhia or Surf Highway 45 in Taranaki.
A place that I still haven't been is the Catlins area via the coast road south of Dunedin to Invercargill.

Thank you! Again great information. 🎉

Much like your own trip Karl the glaciers tend to get cancelled quite often. I would therefore switch out the West Coast glaciers for a trip to Mount Cook and you can do a glacier heli hike there. Also if the weather isn’t great for a heli hike there is more to do in Mount Cook (hikes)or you can move on with your trip easier

..On the Tongariro Crossing, you can also take a route that takes you from the blue lakes around the eastern side of Ngauruhoe - there is a hut half way - and then back between Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu volcanoes to the Chateau area..

Great videos as always!! Went to New Zealand a couple months ago for 2 weeks and miss it so much! We LOVED the Pohara/Golden Bay area of the south island. Highly recommend. Lots of great beaches, hiking, kayaking and very few people. Wharariki Beach was one of our favorite places ever. Also was very surprised at how much I loved queenstown. Insane views driving up on the hillsides and so easy to walk everywhere, hike out your back door, incredible food, and the luge was a blast.

These videos are so helpful - thanks, Karl!

Thanks for the video, it brings up memories. I wish i can go back to NZ and use your tips.
I spent 3 months there in 2025 and looking back instead of 1 month in the north and 2 in the south, i would do only the south and cut the north to one week.

It sounds great but I would need either the whole road to myself or to have everyone in New Zealand drive on the other side of the road for me.

Highly reccomend wellington rafting, they have a helicopter rafting tour that's incredible.

How would you extend this plan to be 6 weeks? Especially if we want to include as many LOTR sites as possible?

Very informative. Would like a few family friendly alternatives because ppl with young kids can't really do things like kayaking and white water rafting.

How can I add mt. Cook and lake Tekapo but still doing the franz josef glacier ?

Hi everyone, hope you find this video useful! Remember all the links for accommodation and activities can be found in the description.

Budget video for the trip will be out in a few days, and there'll be lots of mini adventure videos in the coming weeks whilst I'm working on the next big documentary series of the Sri Lanka trip from February.