This guest blog is written by Lonneke, she is living in the Netherlands with her husband Marcel and two sons Thije and Hidde . Lonneke tells us about the amazing trip she made with her family to New Zealand when the boys were 2,5 and 4 years old.
The flight
YES! We booked our flight! Our next trip together will be New Zealand with kids. We booked our flight with China Airlines, having a stopover in Taiwan. As it is a long trip, we booked a hotel for the day, to be able to sleep and relax a little.
As the flight are long I am wondering how the kids will handle it. We fly from Amsterdam to Bangkok to Taipei. In Taipei we have a 10 hour stopover. After this little break we continue our flight to Brisbane, switching planes for our final lap to Auckland. I guess all four of us will be very tired after all these flights…. Therefore we gave ourselves the first 2 days in Auckland “off”. We hope to pick up the camper the third day. Time to look into the best RV deals now!
The RV
After hours of searching the web we found our RV; a 4 berth budget. The budget part means we pay €3.500 for 26 days. Still a lot of money, nevertheless this is a really good deal! This way we will have more money to spend on all kinds of cool things during our trip. The only downside of a budget RV in the fact that the RV can be a little older; fine by us! We have already told the boys the flight to New Zealand will be very long, giving them enough time to get used to the idea. With the flight and the RV booked, it’s time to look at the route. We are planning to do a round trip from Auckland. Other wishes are to spend one night on a farm, go bike riding through a vineyard and of course see all the big highlights.
Hotel Auckland
As we start and finish in Auckland, we want to book our hotel there first. One of our favourites is the Scenic Hotel. Very central, apartment style accommodation with two bedrooms and a small kitchen. A good choice when you expect to wake up in the middle of the night due to jetlag ;). We want to look a little further before we make the reservation… Love to keep on exploring New Zealand through the web and prepare for our trip to New Zealand with kids.
The route
We started planning our route last weekend. In the one month we have for this trip, we want to visit the Southern and Northern island. As we are travelling in the peak season we want to book campgrounds in advance. Down side on booking ahead is we aren’t as flexible as we would have liked to be.Our first nights will be in a hotel in Auckland. Day three we will pick up the RV to start our road trip.We are planning to visit Coromandel, Rotorua, Taupo, Hawkes Bay (wineries) and Wellington. We are planning to spend two nights in every new place before heading to the Southern island.This is the first draft of our travel plan. I am so excited for our trip to New Zealand with kids! We applied for a Top 10 discount card. This cards gives you discounts on campgrounds, excursions, activities and so on. Coming week we will look at our route on Southern island.
Already love New Zealand with kids!
TO BE CONTINUED…..
Tips & Tricks
Make sure you check several websites to be sure you have the best deal possible on your RV
Apply online for your Top 10 Discount Card
Start prepping the kids months in advance by telling the about the upcoming trip, long flight and beauty of the destination; show them photos and Video
