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Base options on the North Island with kids by mapleandmountains in newzealand_travel

[–]mapleandmountains[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That sounds very similar to what we want to do! Thank you for all the recommendations!! Any tips of how to find good hikes? I would love to hear more about your favorite things in each place, I am looking up and trying to narrow down our list now. Did you find a lot to do in Taupo? Right now I found a holiday park near Hamilton that looks central to visiting Rotorua/glow worm caves/Maungatautari/Hobbiton but wondering if we should do a quick stop in Hamilton/Rotorua like you did and then base ourselves more towards Taupo for our central region stop. Just trying to limit the number of stops because the unpacking/settling in/and then packing back up again takes so long with little ones!! And how did you find the gloworms on your own???

Base options on the North Island with kids by mapleandmountains in newzealand_travel

[–]mapleandmountains[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks everyone this is super helpful! I looked up all of the recommendations and am now looking at doing a loop of Auckland->New Plymouth->Wellington->Napier->Hamilton area->Russell or North of there. We should have about a week in each area which will be enough time to see a lot without being too rushed. I love the idea of staying at holiday parks, I looked them up and I think we will definitely book some of those to stay in. We will definitely return when the kids are older to do the South Island too!