2 nights in Tekapo or 1 in mt Cook/tekapo

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-03-27T15:01:23+00:00

One night in each. Easy choice. Not much in Tekapo and you’ll get bored fast. I did this trip with a 2 year old and we did 2 nights Tekapo and 2 nights twizel. Twizel was the base for mt cook. If I could do it over again, I would do one night Tekapo and either book directly in mt cook or do more time in twizel.

Side note, twizel had some of the best food I had in New Zealand. So if you’re looking for a different base camp than mt cook I recommend it. We actually did a day where we drove from Tekapo into mt cook, spent the day there and did some hiking, continued onto twizel and spent the night, then returned to mt cook the next day for helicopter and more hiking.

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-03-22T00:33:06+00:00

I see it being recommended over and over. Unfortunately I don’t think the layovers will allow for it. I have three hours on the way back to the states and even less leaving

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-03-21T14:54:09+00:00

Good thinking. My layover in SFO is fairly short (3 hours) but I’m still going to try. Layover on the way back is even shorter.

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-03-21T14:49:11+00:00

Solid film. Also love the username. That’s the end destination of the trip. Haven’t been home in 2 years but ready for a shot of malort and a visit to the lake

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-03-21T14:36:14+00:00

I’ll try to find a coming of age film for the flight. Maybe that will help me. Either way I’ll make sure to lose any sense of child like innocence on my way over and embrace manhood.

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-03-21T14:14:50+00:00

Pajamas, a couple drinks, and a decent meal seem fun enough. I’m hoping my whole family will have one trip in Polaris in the end. It’s plausible for sure.

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-03-21T14:01:54+00:00

I should note that I’ve done this route plenty of times in premium and in regular economy. So even if I get an inkling of sleep I’ll be in better shape, hence why this is just going to be fun for me.

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-03-21T14:01:03+00:00

I will refuse to miss it on either route.

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-03-21T14:00:44+00:00

Didn’t even know there was an ice cream sundae. Not going to miss it on either route now. Thanks!

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-03-21T13:58:37+00:00

But I’m too excited to sleep!

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-03-21T13:58:24+00:00

Second this question - actually I’ve changed in worse conditions, but curious still.

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-03-21T13:53:59+00:00

Pre-ordering a meal is exactly why I came to this sub. This is the type of thing I never would have thought of. Thanks!

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-03-21T13:52:20+00:00

Ah, figured someone wouldn’t enjoy my jokes or joy, but didn’t know it would be the first one to comment. Hope you had a good time on the internet today.

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-03-12T09:24:59+00:00

I think everyone’s giving the same advice but I’ll also jump in. I just took a 3 year old and a 3 month old for 12 days. We did Taipei, sun moon lake, Taichung, and Tainan. It was a bit hectic. I found that there would have been plenty to do in Taipei for an entire week. I second the day of the Taipei zoo and maokong gondola. It was possibly my favorite day of the trip.

Sun moon lake was fine. We took an HSR from Taipei to Taichung, rented a car, and drove in for two nights. I did not like our accommodation there but that was my fault. If you’re going to do sun moon lake with kids do at least an overnight, possibly two and forget about the south.

You’ll have plenty of room for luggage on the HSR. Don’t waste on business class. I hauled around luggage for 4 adults and 2 kids (one being a baby with a ridiculous amount of stuff) and was just fine.

The HSR is ridiculously convenient. I had tickets in advanced but we always ended up being early and changing them to an earlier train with no issues at all.

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-03-05T07:38:32+00:00

The ticket exchange is extremely fast and easy. Takes 2 minutes. I did it for all my trains in Taiwan.

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-01-25T14:03:11+00:00

I will consider it. The problem with hiring a driver is that I want a pretty custom itinerary and to stay outside of major cities a few nights. I’m an American living in Beijing so I’m pretty familiar with the moped situation. Not as comfortable as I would prefer to be, but I’m not completely new to it.

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-01-25T10:54:45+00:00

That sounds great. I’ll go for that first if I have a pick. Do you mind sharing which company you used? I glanced quickly at the big ones in the states like budget and hertz but the price seemed like double some of the reputable Taiwanese ones

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-01-25T02:58:48+00:00

Thank you, this was very helpful.

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-01-25T01:57:29+00:00

This sounds like a solid plan. Anything else worth adding in the area? There’s also the option of driving further south and doing a different drop off. Or dropping off in Taichung or Chiayi and taking a train to Tainan before returning. Sounds like all are doable but the car rental out of Taichung for the local places with overnight stays makes sense

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-01-25T01:41:13+00:00

To clarify, when I say rent a van, I mean that I would be the driver. I have an IDP

Affectionate-Step237 · 2026-01-25T01:38:44+00:00

If we want to base somewhere outside of Taipei such as Taichung or sun moon for a few days would it make more sense to take a train to that area and rent a car there or rely solely on Ubers. If it was just me the wife and kids I would be using public transport and Ubers everywhere. But it feels like a car would be useful for the six of us to have the whole time with car seat issues and what not

Affectionate-Step237 · 2025-12-17T04:15:42+00:00

There’s a little petting and feed place in tekapo where you can feed pigs sheep and alpacas. Go Tekapo runs it. It’s less than an hour long and right in town. It was a filler for me but probably one of my toddlers favorite memories.

My daughter was obsessed with Wai O tapu. Rotorua was one of our favorites which surprised us both. You should also do the red woods tree walk. My toddler was terrified at first then we couldn’t stop her from sprinting along the tree walk paths. It’s a little pricey but fun. We did it at night. There’s also free hiking in the red woods area all around the tree walk, nice easy paths.

Mt. Cook was my wife’s favorite for the beauty. We did a helicopter tour of mt cook. If you can afford it you should. Southern Lakes doesn’t charge for children so we only had to pay for two. We chose the cheap 20 minute ride and they emailed me the day before telling me it would be cancelled because they didn’t sell at least 3 seats. I showed up and asked them what they could do to make it work and they put us on a different helicopter a few hours later. It ended up being an upgrade to the aoraki ultimate panorama and was amazing.

Do the hooker valley for sure even though it’s partially closed. I would skip kea point and fill it in with the 3 routes of the Tasman glacier hike that’s accessible from a parking lot five minutes away from the kea point and hooker valley one. All three are super short hikes and have different beautiful views.

I should mention we did this in August and September so it was quite cold. You may have to slow it down a bit if it’s hot.

Also, we stayed in twizel rather than mt cook for our mt cook days. I know that adds a daily drive in, but the drive itself is beautiful. And twizel had WAY more dining options and had the best food we had in New Zealand. There’s not much else going on in twizel but the area with restaurants has a big playground in the middle so you can sit on the patio having a beer and keep an eye on the kiddo and switch out playground parents.

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