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New Zealand Travel Times

New Zealand Travel times are ideal any time of year…there really are no blackout seasons!   Tourism means a great deal to New Zealanders, so services and facilities are some of the best in the world, including their travel pass New Zealand. The variety of accommodations and restaurants along with easy access to tourist information makes this country a super-enjoyable destination. Look for Department of Conservation offices for reliable travel info, and if you plan to ask locals for info, keep in mind you’ll need to know at least a little English to communicate.

Many of the best things to see and do in New Zealand are free…beaches, national parks in particular. The best time to go is almost anytime…Spring Summer or Fall, and even Winter if you wand to ski. Spring Summer and Fall are from September to April…seasons are in reverse in the Southern Hemisphere country.

To figure New Zealand travel times, New Zealand is twelve hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.  The locals follow daylight savings time from October to March.

Visas aren’t required for citizens from 50 countries with with New Zealand has visa waiver agreements. To check on your country, visit the New Zealand immigration website.

Along with tourism, agriculture is important to New Zealanders, and Customs is very careful about introduced pests and diseases that could put the farms and orchards at risk. Any fruit, meat, plant or animals must be declared upon entry to New Zealand, and the fines are stiff if you don’t.

For a quick summary of New Zealand Travel Times, here’s a handy list:

  • twelve hour flight from Los Angeles, California
  • three hour flight from Sydney, Australia
  • more than twenty hours from Europe!

As you can see, folks flying from Europe have some of the longest New Zealand travel times in the world.

Egmont National Park

Visit this park to see Mount Taranaki, a dormant volacano which towers over the city of New Plymouth.  It’s very easy to get to, and has excellent hiking trails on which you can climb, ski, hike or walk.  The trails come in all sizes and types: from 30 minute treks starting at higher-up elevations to several hours to the summit from lower down.  There’s even the “Around the Mountain Circuit” which takes up to five days, if you’re a hiker who’s not into summits.

Mount Taranaki/Egmont is 8,261 feet tall and always covererd in ice and snow on its upper parts.  It’s simply beautiful, and the Maoris consider it to be sacred.  It’s been dormant since the late 1700′s, so don’t worry about frequent volcanic action.  There’s a Visitors Center which can show you all about the park and the mountain and you can stop in the cafe to gear up your energy for the 93 miles of trails.

If you’re super interested in flora and fauna and things like model displays of volcanoes, you can geek out at the Dawson Falls Display Center, located south of the main visitor’s center.

Waipoua Forest

Waipoua Forest is on the northern end of the North Island, on the west coast.  This is a good place to go if you’re interested in getting close to some of the largest and oldest trees in the world, the Kauris.

It’s warm here, which Kauris love, as do the other 300 species of trees, ferns and palms found here at Waipoua.   There’s a special tree here, that’s been named by the Maori people, Tane Mahuta, or “the god of the forest”.  Tane Mahuta is the largest living kauri tree, at 168 feet high and 46 feet around.

It’s easy to get to just off the main road through the park, and it’s about 1,500 years old.  There are four other giant trees here at Waipoua, all over one thousand years old.

Miranda Shorebird Centre

On the North Island there’s a coastal area of intertidal flats that attracts thousands of migratory birds each year.  Open every day except Christmas, they ask for only a donation, in exchange for the chance to view these migratory wading birds on the coast of the Firth of Thames.