A North Island Road Trip
This is not a route we would design. It is the one we took. Our own North Island road trip — three weeks in 2026, written up at the end of each day, with seven consecutive nights in one small place near the end because we stopped wanting to move. No itinerary page would ever publish that. We are publishing it because it is what actually happened, and because it scores better against our own tests than anything we have since designed.
You may want the other page
We publish two North Island routes — a designed fortnight and this North Island road trip — and they do different jobs. It is worth thirty seconds to work out which one you are after.
If you are planning a trip
Read the North Island in two weeks. It is a designed route: seven bases, seven moves, every distance measured against our 350 km cap, and it reaches Waitangi, Rotorua, the Tongariro Crossing and Wellington in a fortnight.
It is the one to copy.
If you want to know what it is like
Stay here. This page has a week in one village, a day that was far too long, a Hobbiton booking we failed to get, and accommodation that closed on us a week before we arrived.
It is the one to read the night before you book anything.
Nine stays in twenty-one nights
Auckland → Whitianga → Rotorua → New Plymouth → Hamilton → Matakohe → Opua → Mangawhai → Auckland. A loop out to the east, back through the middle, and then a second loop north — which is why it is really a figure of eight.
| Days | Base | Nights | What it was for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Auckland | 2 | Getting over the flight, and the volcanic cones |
| 3 | Whitianga | 1 | The Coromandel coast road. One of only two single nights |
| 4–5 | Rotorua | 2 | Cathedral Cove and Hot Water Beach on the way in. Not enough time once there |
| 6–7 | New Plymouth | 2 | The Forgotten World Highway, and Taranaki. The day we would split |
| 8–9 | Hamilton | 2 | The gardens, the river paths, and the Hobbiton tickets we did not get |
| 10 | Matakohe | 1 | The Kauri Museum, and a staging night for the forest |
| 11–17 | Opua | 7 | Waitangi, Kerikeri, a coast-to-coast ride, and fishing. We stopped moving |
| 18–19 | Mangawhai | 2 | The heads, the beaches, and a market by the tavern |
| 20–21 | Auckland | 2 | Souvenirs, the city centre, and going home |
Nine stays. Eight places. Eight moves. Two single nights. 2.3 nights a base. Set that against the routes we have since designed — 1.4 for both islands in a fortnight, 1.6 for the South Island, 1.9 for the North Island, 1.7 for three weeks — and this is comfortably the most relaxed trip on the site. It is also the only one nobody planned. Make of that what you will; we have.
Our North Island road trip, as it went
What we would change. The Forgotten World Highway is a destination, not a transit. Doing Rotorua to New Plymouth by that road in one day meant arriving tired and seeing it through a windscreen. Break it at Taumarunui or Whakapapa and give SH43 its own morning. It is the single change we would make to these three weeks.
Go to Waitangi early in your trip if you can. We did it in the third week and spent the rest of the time re-reading things we had already seen. The guided tour is worth the money: the difference between the English and Māori texts of the Treaty is not a footnote, it is the argument the country is still having, and an hour with someone who can explain it changes what every marae, carving and place name afterwards means.
Our own trip, marked against our own five tests
We audit other people’s itineraries against five tests, and we mark every route we design against the same five. It would be cowardly to exempt the one we actually took.
| Test | How we did |
|---|---|
| Does your rental allow the Cook Strait crossing? | Not applicable. North Island only, and the car was a friend’s |
| How many beds, in how many nights? | Passes, and better than anything we have designed. Nine stays in twenty-one nights — 2.3 a base, two single nights, and one stay of seven |
| What is your longest driving day? | Fails. Rotorua to New Plymouth by the Forgotten World Highway is one day too long for the road it uses. We would split it |
| Is Northland on the itinerary? | Passes emphatically. Seven nights at Opua. Of thirty-six published both-islands fortnights we later read, exactly one reached the Bay of Islands at all |
| Is Milford a self-drive day from Queenstown? | Not applicable — and worth saying that no part of the South Island appears here |
Four out of five, with one clear failure. That is a better score than we expected when we ran it, and the reason is not skill — it is that we were not trying to fit a country into a fortnight. The trips that fail the beds test are the ones with something to prove.
Three things we would do differently
Split day six
The Forgotten World Highway is worth a day of its own, not the back half of a long transit. Break at Taumarunui, drive SH43 in the morning, and arrive at New Plymouth able to see it.
Three nights at Rotorua
Two was not enough and we knew it at the time — the geothermal parks went undone. Everything else on this trip had room. This did not.
Nothing about the week at Opua
It is the thing a planner would cut first and the thing we would defend hardest. If you have three weeks, spend one of them not moving. Anywhere. It does not have to be Opua.
What we learned doing it
Self-driving is the only realistic way. There is little or no public transport between these places. We borrowed a friend’s vehicle; Auckland Airport has every rental company you would expect.
Book accommodation ahead. We did, through the usual channels, and the only problem was accommodation in Rotorua closing a week before we were due to arrive — the booking platform was helpful in finding an alternative, but it is a reminder that a confirmation is not a guarantee.
Book Hobbiton before anything else. Weeks in advance. We did not, and we did not get in.
The roads in this part of New Zealand are narrow and subject to slips. We met a good deal of roadworks and they extended journey times every time. Our getting-around page measures eight routes against what the map claims, and the gap is real.
The diary
These three weeks were part of a much longer journey, and every day of the New Zealand leg was written up the evening it happened. The whole run is linked from the country page — twenty-three posts, numbered from our first day in the country.
They are not tidy. There is a day that was entirely rain, a day the road slipped, and a day spent fishing that produced nothing. The last one is called Too much to see, so little time.
A final word on the circle
Take the designed route if you are planning. Take one week of your three and do not move, whichever route you take. It is the only advice on this site we would give without knowing anything about you.
Andrew + Margaret
- North Island itinerary Fourteen days, designed
- New Zealand in three weeks Both islands
- New Zealand in two weeks Both islands, faster
- South Island itinerary The other fortnight
- Test your own itinerary The five tests
- Visiting New Zealand Start here
- Paihia and the Bay of Islands Seven nights
- Rotorua Give it three
- The kauri trees Waipoua
- Mount Taranaki New Plymouth
- Mangawhai The last two nights
- Cathedral Cove Day four
Should I copy this itinerary?
Not exactly. It has a day that is too long and a week in one village that no planner would sanction. Our designed North Island route fixes the first and keeps the spirit of the second — seven bases in a fortnight, everything measured. Read this one for what a real trip looks like, and that one for what to book.
Is seven nights in one place too many on a three-week trip?
On paper, obviously. In practice it was the best decision we made, and the trip scores better against our own beds test than anything we have since designed. If you have three weeks, spend one of them not moving — it does not have to be the Bay of Islands.
What would you change?
Three things. Split the Rotorua to New Plymouth day — the Forgotten World Highway deserves a morning of its own rather than the back half of a transit. Give Rotorua three nights instead of two; the geothermal parks went undone. And go to Waitangi early rather than in the third week, because it changes how you read everything afterwards.
Do I need to book Hobbiton in advance?
Yes, and before you book the rest of the trip. It was sold out weeks ahead and we did not get in. If it matters to you, fix that date first and build the itinerary around it.
Is the Forgotten World Highway worth driving?
Yes, but not as part of a long transit day. It is a twisting road through the Moki Tunnel with Mount Taranaki appearing at the end of it, and it deserves a morning rather than an afternoon at the end of five hours. Break the journey at Taumarunui.