North Island Package

After breakfast at hotel.  You will be picked up from the hotel and driven to Auckland Ferry Terminal, from where you will board and enjoy a pleasant cruise through the Hauraki Gulf to Waiheke Island. Your first visit is to Stonyridge Vineyard, where you'll enjoy a tour and tastings, plus a sumptuous light lunch. You then depart for Rangihoua Estate, which introduces you to Waiheke’s olive growing industry (includes olive oil tasting). A stop at Wild on Waiheke offers optional beer tasting as well as wine, and the chance to sample home grown preserves and chutneys. Your tour is concluded with final tastings at the beautiful Mudbrick Vineyard before returning to the ferry terminal.

On arriving at ferry terminal, you will be picked up & transferred to Sky Tower for your short visit to Auckland’s Sky Tower. A truly captivating experience awaits visitors to Auckland's Sky Tower. At 328 metres, it is the tallest man-made structure in New Zealand and offers breathtaking views for up to 80 kilometres in every direction. Travel up in the glass-fronted lifts to one of the three spectacular viewing platforms. Total Tower Experience Pass Includes:186 metre Main Observation Level, 182 metre Sky Lounge café and bar, 220 metre Sky Deck. Overnight at hotel. 
 

After breakfast, self drive passengers will collect their rental car from Auckland city hertz depot and self drive whereas passengers in coach will be picked up from your hotel to travel south from Auckland, to the famous Waitomo Caves. On arrival, enjoy a comprehensive cave tour, where you will have the opportunity to view thousands of luminescent lights radiating from the unique Waitomo glowworms, as expert guides provide informative commentary on the Caves historical and geological significance. Enjoy the limestone shafts, stunning Cathedral cavern and then take a unique boat ride through the glowworm grotto. We continue our tour this afternoon by driving to Rotorua, including passing through the beautiful Fitzgerald Glade where the roadside trees arch overhead to form a tunnel of natural greenery. Overnight at hotel.

After having breakfast at hotel, self drive passengers will drive to Shire’s Rest (Matamata) while coach passengers will be picked up from their accommodation and will travel across the Kaimai Ranges to the picturesque 1,250 acre farm near Matamata where scenes from the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies were filmed. Experience the real Middle-earth with a visit to the Hobbiton Movie Set, the bucolic setting for The Shire that featured in the Peter Jackson directed films, The Lord of the Rings. Your guide will escort you through the ten-acre site recounting fascinating details of how the Hobbiton set was created. The Hobbit holes, Green Dragon Inn, Mill and other structures created for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films can be viewed and you will see how this beautiful piece of Waikato farmland was transformed into The Shire from Middle-earth.

In the evening on returning back to hotel you will journey with us to the outskirts of Rotorua, to a Maori village nestled in an ancient forest. There, after a formal and sacred ceremony, you’ll be welcomed through the fortifications and into the village. As fires blaze, the entire village comes to life. See and learn about Maori art forms and Maori traditions. See Maori weaponry displays, watch women weaving and making Maori crafts, listen to villagers tell stories of their ancestors and history, experience traditional Maori tattoo, ancient horticultural practices and so much more. Traditional songs and dances are also performed for you – experience the unique Poi dance, breath-taking harmonies and the famed, powerful Maori Haka. The Tamaki Rotorua Maori Village experience culminates in a sumptuous 3-course feast. Tamaki Maori Village Rotorua offers visitors an authentic Maori Hangi meal, steamed underground in the traditional way. Overnight at hotel.

After breakfast at hotel, self drive passengers will drive their rental car and return at Hertz depot at Rotorua airport, while seat in coach passengers will be picked up from their accommodation and transferred to Rotorua airport for their flight.