Your ultimate winter playground awaits. Whether you seek adventure or relaxation – or both, New Zealand’s North Island has everything for the winter traveller.
Wellington prides itself on being a foodie city. With more cafés per capita than New York and restaurants on every laneway, it has good reason to. What’s more, Wellingtonians claim to be the inventors of the flat white – but this is a hotly debated topic.
Try Prefab Eatery for coffee roasted on site and seriously delectable baked goods.
Hang out with Wellington’s trendiest people at the Night Flower, a cocktail bar specialising in cocktails from mid-1800s to 1930s. Insider tip: look up terms like syllabubs, possets, and milk punches before you go.
Dine at Wellington’s cutest little restaurant Boulcott Street Bistro. It is home to award-winning chef Rex Morgan, whose classic and contemporary French cuisine has become something of a Wellington institution.
Enter a subterranean labyrinth of tunnels and rivers, and discover enchanting little blue lights, twinkling like the night sky.
The lights are, of course, bioluminescent glow-worms hard at work. Collectively they produce an electric blue glow that no photograph has ever quite captured.
To see these amazing creatures for yourself, visit the world-famous Waitomo Caves. The guided boat tours are legendary, but if you’re feeling extra adventurous try a blackwater rafting tour. To find out why these tours have names like The Black Labyrinth and The Black Abyss, you’ll just have to go and see.
For skiing and snowboarding in the North Island, head to Mount Ruapehu. The mountain is home to three ski fields, which collectively provide 1,000 hectares of ridable slopes full of bowls, hits, and drops – natural features of volcanic terrain.
The two largest ski fields are Whakapapa and Tūroa. Whakapapa is well set up for beginners, while Tūroa’s claim to fame is a vertical descent of 722 metres – New Zealand’s longest drop. If you’d prefer something more low key, head to Tukino Skifield(opens in new window). This resort is owned by a ski club, so it doesn’t have the same facilities as the commercial fields, but it’s a great place to avoid the crowds – especially on a powder day.
Nestled at the foothills of the Remutaka Mountain Range is one of New Zealand’s grandest hotels, Wharekauhau Country Estate. The hotel’s remote location and views of the rugged Palliser Bay coastline make it the ultimate place to reinvigorate body and mind.
Tairoa Lodge, which is more of a Victorian villa than a lodge, is the epitome of friendly sophistication, offering tastefully decorated heritage accommodation surrounded by award-winning gardens. In short, it is perfect for a weekend getaway.
With a lake the size of Singapore and Mt Ruapehu on its doorstep, Taupō is perhaps one of New Zealand’s best kept secrets. Your first stop should be the Ngatoroirangi Māori Rock Carvings at Mine Bay. The carvings are only accessible by boat, which adds to the mystique of the experience. Next up should be the Huka Falls. The volume of water barrelling through this narrow ravine is genuinely mesmerising. Then head to Taupo DeBretts Hot Springs – it is the ultimate way to end a cold winter’s day.
Let’s face it, everybody finds comfort in good food – especially in winter. For cuisine that is unique to New Zealand try kai Māori, traditional Māori cooking.
Hiakai restaurant in Wellington uses native ingredients such as hākerekere blossom (flax), karamū berries, and tī kōuka (cabbage tree) to create delicious food that is worth taking a long-haul flight for. To complement the experience, service is given in a mixture of English and te reo Māori, the indigenous language of New Zealand.
If you’re in Auckland, head to the Blue Rose Café for a hāngī pie. Filled with smoky pork, pumpkin, potato and kumara, these pies are the ultimate comfort food.
If you’d like to have a go yourself, enroll at the Wild Food Cooking School at Treetops Lodge & Estate. You’ll learn how to prepare native plants and herbs, which you’ll get to sample at the end of the day when you sit down to a group feast.
