Travel Guides & Map

We prepared our trip with one main guide book, but also bought a decent map and a second guide book on the way out there.

The Rough Guide we prepared our trip with was invaluable and comes highly recommended.

If you'd like to buy either of these books you can get them from most good booksellers, or you can help support this site, and get a good deal, by clicking the 'Buy It Now' option under each title that will take you to Amazon.

The Rough Guide to New Zealand
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This 1000+ page guide book is of a really high standard and was our invaluable guide to New Zealand.

These books have a small amount of colour photography, so you won't get much inspiration from those, but the detail and depth in the text is superb and more than makes up for it.

It covers all areas of New Zealand and will help you find activities, accommodation (from camping to motels and the most luxurious hotels), places to eat, transport, how to get there, arrival information, websites, health info, a when-to-go guide, and even history for most areas.

It also features many maps, including town maps, and occasionally includes something of interest from an area that could be mountain summit hikes or wine trails in a separate focus section.

A great tool is the regional highlights at the start of each region section. These highlights usually include about eight must-sees for each region—very handy when you're only going for a few weeks.

In all, a thoroughly exhaustive guide!

DK Eyewitness Travel Guide
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We bought the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide in the airport as we were leaving. It was colourful and attractive with some great photography, colourful maps, and also seemed to be laid out quite well.

It has a nice history section, and several guides covering things from the flora & fauna to food and wine, shopping, where to stay, and the practicalities.

It's a nice, inspirational book (mainly thanks to the photography) and does have many contacts for hotels and activities etc., but it never comes close to the shear depth of information and contacts you'll find in the Rough Guide.

I also felt that it was not as easy to find the relevant area or town sections as quickly as you can with the Rough Guide.

Globetrotter Travel Map - New Zealand
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A good 1:900,000 scale road map of both islands, one on each side of the fold out map.

This map will see you for general travel on all the main roads in New Zealand. It's clear, uncluttered, and includes a useful distance chart and a place name index with map grid reference.

Main towns/cities have their own town maps which, in the case of Auckland and Christchurch, come with their own street name index.

As long as your staying to the larger highways this map will be a perfect partner, and at £4.99 is a good price. If you need to see more detail you'd be better off with a full road atlas.