North Island

The North Island of New Zealand is warm, with scenery ranging from sandy beaches, through rolling farmland to active volcanic peaks. Although it is smaller than the South Island, it is more populous, with half of the New Zealand population living north of Lake Taupo, in the middle of the island.

Regions

• Northland
• Auckland Region (also Auckland metro)
• Hauraki Gulf Islands
• Waikato-King Country
• Coromandel
• Bay of Plenty
• Central North Island
• East Coast
• Hawkes Bay
• Wairarapa
• Taranaki
• Manawatu
• Wanganui
• Horowhenua
• Wellington Region (also Wellington metro)

Cities

• Whangarei - The central and only city in Northland
• Auckland - The largest and most populated NZ city and the largest city in Polynesia.
• Hamilton - home of the Waikato River.
• Tauranga - In the Bay of Plenty.
• Rotorua - Famous for geysers and hot pools... and that funny sulphuric smell! (smells like eggs!)
• Hastings and Napier - Art Deco and wine in the sunny Hawkes Bay.
• New Plymouth -
• Wanganui - Once a port town, now gateway to the Whanganui river
• Palmerston North - Knowledge capital of New Zealand, has over 70 educational institutes, that roughly one per 1000 population
• Wellington - The national capital - home of the Parliament and the Beehive. The Windy city (and its not hot air).

Other Destinations

• Hokianga, pristine, unspoilt, untouched, untamed
• Bay of Islands
• Lake Taupo - and its trout
• Tongariro National Park and the Mount Ruapehu skifields.
• Elsthorpe Quintessentially rural North Island
• Havelock North Trendy shopping near Hastings

Culture and History

Talk

Travel to North Island - Visa Requirements

• Auckland - Is the primary arrival point for most people in New Zealand a large majority of those coming in through the Auckland International Airport (IATA: AKL, ICAO: NZAA) which handles 70% of all tourist air travel and is serviced by most major Airlines. A significant number of people also arrive in Auckland by cruise ship.

Tours and Getting around North Island

The North Island is adequately serviced by many national bus companies.

• Newmans Coach Lines operates a premium sightseeing tours throughout the North Island.

• InterCity Coachlines is New Zealand's national coach company and operates over 150 services to more than 600 destinations nationwide.

• nakedbus.com is the cheap alternative to Intercity with tickets starting from $1 - book early and get bargin bus travel. They do not have quite as many routes or services as Intercity but are catching up fast.

North Island tourist attractions and sightseeing

• Koutu Boulders — biggest concretions in the world in Koutu Hokianga
• Mangungu Mission House (Historic Site) — site of the biggest signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in Horeke Hokianga
• Mt Bruce National Wildlife Center. This DOC center is a good place to see Kiwis and Kaka (kind of "bush perrot"), and also plenty of other native birds. 20 min drive from Masterton on the way of Palmerston North.
• Wairere Boulders (Nature Park) — an enormous basalt flow just south of Horeke Hokianga
• Sand Dunes (Top Sculptures) — windblown sculptures on top of sand dunes across the harbour from OpononiHokianga

North Island city tours

North Island Restaurants: cheap, moderate and expensive

North Island nightlife, bars, clubs and pubs

Stay safe

Get out

Destinations in North Island:

• Auckland Region
• Bay of Plenty
• Central North Island
• Coromandel
• East Coast (New Zealand)
• Greater Wellington
• Hawkes Bay
• Horowhenua
• Manawatu
• Northland
• Porirua
• Rotorua
• Taranaki
• Waikato
• Wairarapa

This page was last edited by Jani Patokallio. Based on work by Felix Schaad, Ryan Holliday, Todd VerBeek and Andrew Haggard, Wikitravel user(s) Texugo and Episteme, Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel and others. - Content on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0 license