Lonely Planet New Zealand 15th Ed.: 15th Edition [Paperback]

If you're going to New Zealand - and want to enjoy the country to the fullest - DO NOT LEAVE WITHOUT THE LONELY PLANET GUIDE! I embarked on a 6-week long trip with 'Lonely Planet New Zealand' and fate as my only guides. I was impressed to the max! The only other guide I needed was a road atlas I picked up at the airport in Auckland (and since I was touring some of the Lord of the Rings film locations, Ian Brodie's lovely 'Lord of the Rings: Location Guidebook'). I do recommend renting a vehicle - as someone under 25 years old, Budget was a good bet for rental. Just remember, "Left, left left." It's a cinch! With the US dollar exchange rate favorable, we cheaply rented a top notch 4WD SUV for the entire time based on the recommendation of this book. I love the Lonely Planet series for the sheer fact that it gives you pointers on fantastic locations that may be slightly off the beaten path while at the same time informing you of the best of the best in those tourist meccas. It's a lovely balance. My only regret is that 6-weeks is far too short a time to see everything there is to see in New Zealand!

The top 5 places you shouldn't miss on the North and South Islands:

North Island

1) Take the short ferry ride from Auckland to Rangitoto Island and hike to the summit - otherwordly!

2) Do a touristy bus tour to Cape Reinga out of Paihia - on the bus to Cape Reinga you'll get to: learn a lot about the Maori culture, hug a Kauri tree, stop and surf down sand dunes, wonder in awe at the northern most point of the North Island where untouched white beaches are visible as the Tasman and Pacific Ocean meet and clash (an amazing scene), and to top it all off you'll cruise down 90-mile beach as waves lap the wheels of the bus (yeah, the beach is actually a registered roadway).

3) Drive around the gorgeous Coromandel Peninsula - leave the Thames area just before sunrise and the landscape will just take your breath away! You will come to understand the meaning of Aotearoa/New Zealand: land of the long white cloud.

4) Wander the volcantic parks of Rotorua - Wai-ti-pau was a highlight! Don't forget to sign-up for a traditional Maori concert and haka at the Tamaki Maori Village for a cool cultural experience!

5) Cruise Cuba Street in Wellington for food and shops, and don't forget to visit Te Papa - the national museum of Wellington.

South Island

1) Plan a kayaking trip out of Motueka: the Tonga Island wildlife option is cool - we saw wild Orca and New Zealand Fur Seals up close and personal and then lunched on a secluded beach reached only by kayak!

2) Take a helicopter ride up to Fox Glacier and do an afternoon hike - see where semi-tropical rainforest meets glacier meets the Tasman Sea.

3) Go white water rafting on the Shotover River in Queenstown (be sure you get an option with the Oxenbridge Tunnel)! Then go jet boating, then bungy jumping, you name, it they do it there! Don't miss Deer Park Heights either - say hello to the free roaming buffalo for me!

4) Head to the beautiful city of Kaikoura for whale watching and a dolphin swim.

5) If you love wildlife - head to Dunedin and take a tour out to the Otago Peninsula (you'll see albatross, fur seals, sea lions, yellow-eyed penguins and a variety of bird life up close and personal - by up close I mean walking on the beach less than 10 feet away from a Hooker Seal Lion twice your size). While in Dunedin, visit Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world, and don't miss the Cadbury Factory! It's well worth the admission price!

There is so much more to see and do that I haven't listed - and this guide helped me find it all and point me in the right direction every step of the way. The only thing the guide failed to mention was the abundance of rainbows in this enchanted country - I don't know about you, but where I come from rainbows are a special once in a great while occurance. In New Zealand you see them on a daily basis. I guarantee that with the help of this guide you will leave New Zealand with enough fantastic memories to last a lifetime. Kia ora.

I have used over 50 Lonely Planet guidebooks since 1988, and I still usually take one with me wherever I travel. However, I found the New Zealand book (Sept, 2004 edition) to be a large step below Rough Guide New Zealand. LP has improved its graphics through the years, and the Highlights map and photo section are excellent. The city maps are also the best of any guidebook, and the layout is well-organized and easy to follow.

The major shortcoming is the brevity of descriptions in comparison to Rough Guide. During a 1500-mile road trip I was constantly referring to RG & LP as my wife drove, so in effect I was constantly comparing the two books' descriptions for the southern half of South Island. There was absolutely no question which guidebook did a better job....Rough Guide. We would have missed several places if we had relied on Lonely Planet alone, and I felt like we gained much more insight about places from RG.

Lonely Planet NZ is about 300 pages shorter than Rough Guide NZ, so it is a little easier to carry if you have only one guidebook. Personally, I think Rough Guide New Zealand and DK New Zealand are the best pair of guidebooks to travel with in NZ. Add Lonely Planet Tramping in New Zealand (a very impressive LP work) if you're keen on hiking.

Rough Guide to NZ & Lonely Planet's Tramping NZ are also worth buying. LP is smaller if you are backpacking, but lacks some of the information in RG.

For such a small country (just a bit bigger than the UK), New Zealand has so much to see, so it's hard to get everything in one book.

It is the one place you must visit in your lifetime. But, I warn you, once you've been you'll want to go back and back like us. I found helpful, friendly people there, a great budget campervan & car rental company Thomlinson Rentals, and we now we always rent a campervan, allowing us to stay off the beaten track.

Visit the NZ Department of Conservation Website www.doc.gov.nz and the tramping website http://www.enzed.com/tramp.html

We would recommend Bay of Islands, taking a cruise around Waitemata (Auckland) Harbour, signing up for a day's free sailing as crew at one of the sailing/yacht clubs around Auckland - great fun on the Rum races. Must see is Rotorua, Huka Falls, Waitomo Caves, Milford Track and West Coast of South Island. Actually just about everywhere is breathtakingly beautiful and the people very friendly. There are also good tourist information centres in NZ.

Pieces of Advice:

Don't take any food other than candy into NZ. Meat, vegetable/fruit or dairy products will get you a huge fine. When you get off the airplane, sniffer dogs go all over your hand luggage as well as suitcases looking for food as well as drugs.

If you have been hiking/walking in other countries before NZ, make sure your boots/shoes and all equipment is thoroughly cleaned. NZ is an agricultural country,and relatively clear of pests and they want to keep it that way.

If you are on a budget in money and time, you can rent Campervans and cars at a low cost. You can start in Auckland and leave them in Christchurch.