AUCKLAND · NEW ZEALAND
Sails on the harbour, wonders up the road.
A city of two harbours and fifty volcanoes, and the gateway to New Zealand’s most famous days out. Waiheke wine, west-coast surf and harbour cruises, plus Hobbiton, the Waitomo glowworm caves and Rotorua, all a morning up the road.
Only in New Zealand
Three wonders the rest of the world flies in for.
Glowworm caves, the real Middle-earth and a valley of firing geysers. Singular places that exist nowhere else on the planet, and the city is the morning you set out from.
The film set
Walk into Middle-earth.
Hobbiton is the only place on earth you can do this. The Shire was built on a working farm near Matamata for the Lord of the Rings films and then kept: forty-four hobbit holes, the Green Dragon Inn and the Party Tree, tended exactly as they were filmed. Two hours south of the city.
- 1 Hobbiton & Waitomo Caves Guided Day Trip from Auckland incl lunch
- 2 From Auckland: Hobbiton & Waitomo Caves Day Trip with Lunch
- 3 Auckland: Hobbiton Movie Set Day Trip with Festive Lunch
Living light
Drift beneath a living galaxy.
The glowworm Arachnocampa luminosa lives only in New Zealand, and it lights the roof of the Waitomo caves like a low constellation. You float the underground river by boat in silence, thousands of tiny lights overhead, through limestone hollowed out over thirty million years.
- 1 Hobbiton & Waitomo Caves Small-Group Tour W Lunch from Auckland
- 2 Hobbiton & Waitomo Caves Guided Tour from Auckland with Lunch
- 3 From Auckland: Waitomo & Hobbiton Bus Tour with Lunch
Geothermal heart
Geysers, steam and living Māori culture.
Rotorua sits on a thin crust of the earth: geysers fire, mud pools boil and the ground steams between the streets. It is also the heartland of Māori culture, where the carving, the haka and the earth-cooked hangi are the real thing, not a show put on for the road.
- 1 Waitomo Caves & Rotorua – Te Puia Small-Group Tour from Auckland
- 2 Auckland: Hobbiton, Rotorua and Wai-O-Tapu Day Tour
- 3 Hobbiton & Rotorua including Wai-O-Tapu – Small Group Tour from Auckland
Start with the favourite
The day more travellers book than any other.
Of every experience that runs from Auckland, this is the one the most people choose.
The favourites
Auckland's Most Popular Experiences
Waiheke's vineyards, the Hobbiton and Waitomo run, the harbour wildlife cruises and the Sky Tower. The days most travellers come for.
Where to begin
The experiences an Auckland trip is built around.
Hobbiton and the glowworm caves, Waiheke’s vineyards, the harbour and the gulf, the Sky Tower and the wild west-coast beaches. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The big days out
How to do the famous day trips.
The wonders are all a couple of hours from the city, so the real question is which to pair. Three ways to spend a day on the road from Auckland.
Waiheke Island
An island of vineyards, forty minutes out.
The ferry across the Hauraki Gulf lands on an island of cellar doors, olive groves and white-sand bays. Around thirty boutique vineyards pour syrah and chardonnay, lunch runs long over the water, and the road between a tasting and a swim is a short one.
Read the guide: the best Waiheke wine tours →The West Coast
Black sand and rainforest, an hour from town.
Over the Waitākere Ranges the land turns wild. Piha’s black iron-sand beach and Lion Rock take the full weight of the Tasman, kauri trails run through the rainforest behind, and the surf is the serious kind. A different island from the harbour side of the city.
See the west-coast tours →City of Sails
More boats than almost any harbour on earth.
They call it the City of Sails for good reason. The Waitematā fills with yachts every summer weekend, this is two-time America’s Cup water, and the harbour bridge, the ferries and the perfect cone of Rangitoto frame the whole scene. Get out on it by sail, by launch or by ferry.
Harbour cruises & sailing →The Sky Tower
The whole city, from 328 metres up.
The Sky Tower is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere, and on a clear day the observation decks lay out both harbours, the gulf islands and the volcanic cones at once. The brave walk the open-air rim around the top, or jump off it on a wire.
- 1 Auckland Sky Tower General Admission Ticket
- 2 Auckland: Sky Tower SkyWalk – 192m High Edge Walk
- 3 Auckland: SkyJump with Sky Tower Entry Ticket
The Hauraki Gulf
Dolphins, whales and a volcano off the bow.
The gulf on the city's doorstep is a marine park, and the eco-cruises out of the downtown wharves find bottlenose dolphins, Bryde's whales and the odd pod of orca through the year, with the 600-year-old cone of Rangitoto rising the whole way out. The most-loved half-day on the water.
See all 29 harbour & gulf cruises →By place
Pick where the day takes you.
The city and harbour to start. Waiheke for the wine. Piha for the surf. Hobbiton for Middle-earth. Waitomo for the caves. Rotorua for the geysers.
By activity
Or pick how you spend it.
On the water if you came for the harbour. A vineyard if you came to taste. Walk the waterfront, ride the coast, watch for dolphins, or hand the driving to someone else.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in town? A long weekend that takes in the harbour, an island and a wonder up the road, with no wasted hours.
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