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Busman's holiday in New Zealand,
January and February 2001

The following trip was conceived out of a desire to exchange the normal cold, rainy weather of northern France in winter with something more clement, and to meet other folks who do the same thing we do (that's what 'busman's holiday' means, more or less). We chose New Zealand because two sets of guests last year made such an outstanding case for the place that once the decision to take a vacation was made (the first since starting our B&B three years ago), the destination was never in doubt.

If we learned one thing it is you cannot count on the web to find the best places to stay in New Zealand. Although we did a fair amount of web browsing for B&B's while planning our trip in France, we depended on three traditional guide books when we got there at the moment of truth (over lunch) to find a place for that evening. Those guides in order of their usefulness to us were:

• The Travelwise Bed & Breakfast in New Zealand, 2001: Homestays, Farmstays, Lodges, Inns and Boutique Accommodation. NZ$19.95. A relatively new guide. Beautiful photos illustrate each place, well written descriptions, good maps. A pleasure to use. www.travelwise.co.nz
• The New Zealand Bed & Breakfast Book 2001: Homestays, Farmstays, B&B Inns, Self contained accommodation. NZ$19.95. Otherwise known as the "black guide" after the color of its cover. Having been around for much longer than Travelwise, it contains a vast choice of up to four places per page but descriptions are minimal and photos of marginal quality. Still it is a good back up for cross checking TW listings. www.bnb.co.nz
• Off The Beaten Track in New Zealand: The Accommodation Guide. "More than just a place to stay." Greenstone Press, 1999.   Small guide with 'alternative' orientation. It helped confirm two of our choices. www.greenstone.co.nz
• Friars' Guide to New Zealand Accommodation for the Discerning Traveller - 2001. Is pricier at NZ 24.95, and some lodgings run up beyond NZ$1000 per night. We were not discerning enough to buy it but frequently consulted it in the bookstores. We did, however, buy their companion guide to New Zealand Gardens (also NZ$24.95. Since the gardens represented in the book "bought" their page to entice you to come visit and pay their entry fee it's more a random than objective selection. But if you are a garden nut like Meredith you should have it.

Although I never got around to providing the commentaries these fine B&Bs merit you will not be disappointed by any. Bear in mind however that our trip was in 2001 so some links may be outdated.

    Bill Graham  frenchbnb@gmail.com

North Island

January 10-11, arrived Auckland. Ascot Parnell, B&B/Inn of Bart and Therese Blommaert. The only lodging we found on the web before arriving. Good place for evacuating jetlag. Website: www.AscotParnell.com Email: info@AscotParnell.com BBBp88

Bart and Therese are real pros at juggling guests without guests ever feeling "juggled". If "location, location, location" is everything their B&B has it all. Wonderful breakfasts, cooked if you wish. They are in Auckland's well-to-do suburb of Parnell where the nearby shopping street is full of little restaurant-bistros. The morning before hitting the road I bought a pair of glasses for the computer (left mine on the plane to Auckland, and left the new ones on the plane back to Paris - no luck, hey, though Meredith says it was something else). I also bought a splendid pair of sandals from a Timberland boutique in Parnell that looked like it needed my business. I'm a sucker for helping out little companies in need. To give Timberland a plug, those sandals are the best I've ever had. And I can tell you, when I got back to Champagne where it was below freezing and I wore them shopping in the local supermarket, they sure got lots of looks! Probably because I was wearing them with socks.

Bart and Therese's first email response to your query may contain a great deal of boiler-plate information about planes, taxis, rental cars etc. This is a very practical system which I will imitate as soon as I get around to writing it up. One thing they offer is to arrange a rental car from their friend Russell Lipscombe of Russell's Rentals. This is indeed a homey transaction conducted over breakfast in the inn to which Russell has brought the car, in our case a vintage Toyota Corolla. Or maybe a Corona. Started with a "C" anyway. I offered to drop him back at his shop and he said, "No need", pointing to a dour looking lady sitting in another "C" type Toyota across the street. Yes, a family business.

Another word about car rentals in New Zealand. Renting a vehicle was the one thing I most deliberated over before coming. I say "I" because Meredith doesn't drive. From the front seat anyway. One basic decision was whether to hire a car or an RV / camper type of vehicle. Because of New Zealand's many beautiful places to pull over and make the sunset your own, the latter option was tempting. In actually driving the often narrow NZ roads however, and inevitably being stuck behind an RV chugging up the slightest incline I was glad it was not me incurring the wrath of a string of vehicles behind me. But that's a personal thing. Some folks like to be the center of attention. The camper/car decision was made at a distance. Since staying in B&B's, meeting Kiwis and learning about their country first hand was a prime objective of our trip we thought that showing up at a B&B in a largish RV was a tad superfluous, if not overbearing. We know how large our parking area is and figured other B&Bs might have the same space constraints.

Once the RV / camper decision was made there was the question of where to rent our car. On the web many outfits propose vehicles, often at spectacular off season rates. In January/February we knew we would have to pay prime rates. The choice runs from Rent-a-Dent up to Avis/Hertz and back down again. After sending a couple emails to different companies and getting (or not) replies I thought, what the heck, check back with Bart and Therese. Within two hours I had a Russell Toyota. Simple as that. And were we returning and only needing a car for the North Island we would not hesitate to call Russell first, at Russell's Rentals, Auckland, tel (64).836.3309, fax (64).836.0170 (maybe Russell will have his wife up to speed on email by the time you are reading this, in the meantime contact Bart and Therese at AscotParnell@compuserve.com).

I'd like to tell you the car rental story ends there, because I know this is going on too long. There is one other consideration. If you are covering both North and South Islands, as we were on this first exploratory trip, you will most likely want to meander south from Auckland to Wellington at the southern tip of the North Island. From Wellington most people take a ferry to the South Island village of Picton instead of backtracking up to Auckland and flying to the South Island. The three hour Wellington-Picton ferry with a car is expensive. Thus the strategy of renting one car for the North Island, and picking up a second one for the South Island is very common but requires a large rental company with many agencies.

I only picked up on this idea after getting to NZ and signing up with Russell for three weeks. But unlike the bigger companies with agencies on both islands who offer this service, Russell is very much a one agency man (and woman). I gave him four days notice that I was reducing my three week rental to eight days. For the rest of the trip I chose Pegasus.Rental Cars. Russell was a good sport and even came over to the Pegasus office near Auckland Airport to pick up his car. I didn't see the missus. Pegasus has vintage cars, good prices and 17 offices all over both islands, including Picton. Let's move on and list the B&Bs we stayed at. Sorry there is not more detail but some things in life get left for mañana.

January12-17, north three or four hours to Kerikeri on Bay of Islands. Wai-Tui Lodge, lodging next to home of Jean and Ian Dunn. We went for two nights, stayed for six. Email: waituilodge@actrix.co.nz. TWp31, BBBp19

January 18, an hour or so south of Auckland to near Huntly. Parnassus Farm & Garden, farm of Sharon and David Payne. A dynamic family Email: parnassus@extra.co.nz  TWp65, BBBp117

January 19, east an hour or so to Katikati near Bay of Plenty. Cotswold Lodge, home of Jan and Graham Taylor. Email: cotswold@ihug.co.nz  TWp68, BBBp161

January 20-21, two hours south to Rotorua. Lynmore Homestay, home of Leonie and Paul Kibblewhite. Email: kible@xtra.co.nz  TW p82, BBBp196

January 22, two or three hours southwest to Tongariro National Park. Chateau Hotel. Phone 07-892-3809

January 23-25, two hours south to the Wanganui River. Operiki, farm of Trissa and Peter McIntyre. We were there three days, will make it at least a week next year. Phone 06-342-8159. TWp107, BBBp234

January 26-27, three or four hours south to bottom of the North Island where we left our rental car at Wellington before taking ferry to Picton on South Island. Seaview Homestay, home of Margo and Len Frost. Email: seaview@paradise.net  TWp124

South Island

January 28, Picton ferry port at northern part of the South Island where we picked up another rental car. House of Glenora, home of Birgite Armstrong. Website: www.glenora.co.nz  Email: glenora.house@clear.net.nz  TWp148, BBBp326

January 29-30, southwest a bit to Nelson. Drumduan, home of Helen and George Dixon. Phone/fax: 03-545-0090. TWp146.

January 31, two hours south to Murchison on the Buller River. Awapriti, farm of Irene and David Free. Email: free@paradise.net.nz  TWp146

February 1, three hours south along west coast to Greymouth. Rosewood, B&B of Ian and Margaret. Website: www.nzhomestay.co.nz/rosewood.html  Email: rosewoodnz@xtra.co.nz BBBp400

February 2-3, hour and a half south along coast to Harihari. Carrickfergus, self-contained lodging next to home of Catherine and Lindsay. Website: www.carrickfergus.co.nz Email: carrickfergus@actrix.co.nz  TW p159, BBBp407

February 4, an hour south to Fox Glacier. Roaring Billy Lodge, home of Kathy and Billy. Website: www.geocities.co.nz/roaringbilly_homestay Email: billy@xtra.co.nz  BBBp412, OBTp131

February 5, three hours south to Makarora. Self-contained lodging next to home of Andrea Larrivee. Email: andra_larrivee@hotmail.com  BBBp499, OBTp134

February 6, three hours south to Queenstown. Bush Creek Health Retreat, home of Ileen Mutch. Phone 03.442.7260, fax ...50. TWp205, BBBp515

February 7, three plus hours south to Te Anau. Tapua Farm of Dorothy and Donald Cromb. Email: cromb@xtra.co.nz  TWp214

February 8, second night in Te Anau. The Croft, self-contained lodging next to home of Jane and Ross McEwan. Website: www.webnz.co.nz/bbnz/thecroft.htm  BBBp555

February 9, an hour to Milford Sound. Stayed overnight on the Milford Mariner, boat run by Fiordland Travel.

February 10, two hours south to Invercargill. Southern Home Hospitality, home of Margaret and Alan Thomson. Website: www.nzhomestay.co.nz/thomson.html  Email: home_hosp@hotmail.com  TWp233, BBBp565

February 11-12, two hours north to Dunedin (Port Chalmers). Atanui, home of Bob and Betty Melville. Email: atanui@actrix.gen.nz  TWp219, BBBp529

February 13, two hours north to Timaru. Mountain View, home of Mary and Graeme Bell. Website: www.nzhomestay.co.nz/mgbell.htm  Email: mvhomestay@xtra.co.nz  BBBp485

February 14-16, two hours north to Christchurch. Stayed with Barbara and Lew McIvor, friends from their previous visit to our bed and breakfast in Champagne.