5 days in New Zealand with a tour group:Topdeck review
An honest review of my experience with Topdeck New Zealand on a 5 day tour of the North Island
When I finally had the chance to visit New Zealand, my trip got cut from two months to two weeks unexpectedly so I wanted to see some highlights of country in a short amount of time without renting a car. I was also interested in the social aspect of joining a group of other budget minded travellers in my age range, so this 5-day ‘Sweet as North’ tour of the North Island with Topdeck seemed like a good way to do that.
I joined this 1 week tour of the North Island and had some great experiences like visiting the Hobbiton Movie Set, learning about Maori culture and history at an overnight homestay, hiking in Tongariro National Park or trying out some extreme sports like white water rafting.
I booked the tour in February 2018 and I paid for it myself, so this is a completely independent review.
You can read a detailed day-by-day summary of all the experiences I had on this tour or jump straight to the end where I share what I liked, what could have been better and my final recommendation.
Quick Overview of the Topdeck North Island tour
Destinations: Auckland, Rotorua, Tongariro, Taupo and Wellington, with brief stops in a few other other towns.
Highlights: visiting the Hobbiton movie set, going white water rafting for the first (and last) time, learning about Maori culture and history at an overnight homestay, hiking in Tongariro National Park. I also went to a cricket match in Wellington the day after the tour ended.
Who was on the trip: There were around 30 people, a lot of Australians, a few Canadians, Americans, a German, a Dane, some Scottish and British people, and a pretty wide range of backgrounds, a geologist, a lawyer, a childcare worker, an engineer, a construction worker, a few students, a few people on Commonwealth working visas and gap years. I would say around three quarters of the people were solo travellers. I believe this was an age limited 18-39 tour.
Who was the guide: We had a main guide and driver, then an additional guide who I think was in training. The main guide was fine, a bit average, but friendly and provided all info as expected, I didn’t have chance to get to know her that well in such a short time.
How did we travel: We had a full size coach bus but it felt like it had more room than the 50 person buses that are often used in Europe, since it only seemed to fit about 35 people.
Where did we stay: The accommodation ranged from a homestay experience in a large cabin with mattresses and sleeping bags, to a triple share budget hotel room and three and four share hostel style room with a bunkbed.
Recommended Luggage: Rolling luggage or duffle or a backpack would work, you just load it on the bus in the morning, we never went too far with the luggage ourselves, but you should be able to lift and move it easily yourself.
Arrival in Auckland
I always try to arrive a day early before a tour starts in case something goes wrong with the flight, because delays do happen. I flew into Auckland via Hawaii, which is a great place to have a stopover and that gave me one day to look around Auckland. I signed up for a walking tour with Auckland Free Walking Tours and spent a few hours getting oriented in the city, I also visited the New Zealand Maritime Museum, which, despite its name, covered a lot of NZ history and the story of immigration to the country.
The following morning, I joined a Topdeck Kiwi Encounter group who had already gone up to the Bay of Islands for two days, I would have preferred to do that as well, but I couldn’t get time off work early enough to meet the departure date.
I always recommend joining a tour right from the beginning whenever possible. It will usually be fine in terms of making friends and getting to know people if you do join later as part of a shorter tour, especially if you make the effort to be friendly and get to know people. But I also kind of think you will always be missing out on things that previously happened and context for jokes and friendships, and it can be harder to join groups that have already formed. (Just my opinion after having done 30 tours).
Auckland
I met the Topdeck NZ group at 12 noon in front of the departure hotel, and got my luggage loaded on the coach. Most people already had designated seats they had chosen so I took one of the last open ones next to a nice construction worker from Melbourne.
We started driving south towards our first stop at a cultural homestay called a "marae" which was run by a Maori family. In their culture it is respectful to offer a greeting in the form of a song so we practiced the "Friends" TV show theme song to sing upon arrival. While we were on the Topdeck bus, we also had the chance to sign up for optional activities for the next day, I chose white water rafting and the Hobbiton Movie Set visit.
When we arrived at the home stay, called ‘Te Takinga’ we did our song presentation and the host explained some history of Maori people in NZ and some of the beliefs, traditions (such as roles of men and women, themes in art etc.), current issues Maori people experience and then showed us the marae where we would be staying.
Marae Homestay
The marae is like a big open cabin style building decorated with traditional patterns and art, and you leave your shoes outside. Over the years I have met a few people on Topdeck Europe tours with some Maori ancestry and it was nice to gain such a better understanding of the history and role in NZ culture and society.
The was also a community centre building on the property and we all helped to make dinner. It was kind of like being at a summer camp, there was a BBQ dinner provided and as a vegetarian I had falafel and beetroot sauce.
Afterwards, there was a traditional dancing presentation and lesson with different dances for men and women, men learned the ‘haka’ and women did the ‘poi’ dance. I got to know some people better on the tour, and became friends with girls from Canada and Germany.
We were all sleeping in the marae building together with provided sleeping bags, and one person snored extremely loudly so a few people moved their sleeping bags outside because they couldn't sleep ( you might want to bring earplugs !).
Rotorua
Breakfast was provided at the homestay and we had packed up the bus the night before, as we couldn't bring our luggage into the marae building.
The extremely busy second day on this Topdeck New Zealand tour started in the area near the town of Rotorua with several optional activities. There are large boiling mud pools around the town, and the area is also known for white water rafting and being near the Hobbiton Movie Set.
I always thought white water rafting sounded really scary, but logically if I wanted to try it, I thought NZ was a good place because the water is clean and they have good safety standards.
Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to grab some athletic shorts or Lululemon leggings so I had to do the rafting in just bikini bottoms which was really uncomfortable.
I highly recommend you have something more to wear than bathing suit bottoms for this activity !
Pictures from photo package purchased from Kaituna Cascades.
White Water Rafting in Rotorua
We went rafting with a company called Kaituna Cascades, we had about 6 people per boat plus the guide, and another guide person following along in a kayak for safety. They had locker rooms on site and you leave everything there, they have a professional camera person following along with picture packages you can purchase afterwards (I did, since I don’t think I’ll be going rafting ever again.)
Rafting started off pretty calm and I thought everything would be ok, and maybe I even liked rafting ? Then we literally went down a vertical waterfall and my life flashed before my eyes and somehow our boat was the only one that didn't overturn. We also went directly into another small waterfall and the people at the front (me) went right under water and I literally felt like I couldn’t breathe.
I checked out the Kaituna Cascades website afterwards and apparently their rafting trip includes the “world’s highest rafted waterfall.” I may not have signed up if I had known that in advance. However, I am glad I tried something out of my comfort zone, but I am never doing that again.
Read More: 13 travel experiences to have in your 20s
Hobbiton Movie Set Tour
Back in the town of Rotorua, there was free time for lunch, then we started the bus ride to the Hobbiton Movie Set, which I realized I had been calling Hobbit-Town the entire time. It was an optional activity but I think 90% of the Topdeck NZ group chose to do it.
We had a few hours to just walk around, explore, take pictures and have a drink at the Green Dragon pub. It was quite busy, being such a popular attraction, and there were other groups there with us. It’s not super interactive and you can't really go inside the Hobbit Houses, but if you are a fan of the Lord of the Rings series, you will probably appreciate all the small details.
Back in Rotorua, we met the Topdeck guide and checked into triple share rooms. Dinner was free time as well, so I went with another Canadian and a German girl to a restaurant with a nice patio. A few of us went to a bar and some of the people from the rafting earlier in the day were there as well.
Taupo
The third day of the Topdeck NZ tour was a driving and activity day to reach Tongariro National Park. First stop was for "zorbing" which is the technical name for rolling down a hill in a giant plastic ball, not my idea of a good time. Next stop was for sightseeing at Huka Falls, which is the beautiful blue waterfall you can see in the profile picture for this review.
An additional stop was made for people to do bungee jumping or the "flying fox " swing, none of these things sounded fun to me so I took videos of other people doing it. A few people were bit shaken up after the bungy jumping. It seems very safe, just scary.
We had an hour and a bit in the town of Taupo for lunch, I went with the same girls from the previous day to a cafe and had avocado toast and they got some hiking equipment for the Tongariro Alpine Crossing hike the next day. The Topdeck bus also stopped later at a grocery store so we could get supplies for Tongariro and food if we wanted our own lunch or dinner at the lodge, which is a nice option for people who are watching their budget.
Tongariro
We arrived in Tongariro National Park just before dinner and stayed at a nice lodge near Whakapapa village with a mix of accommodation styles. Some of us got bunkbed hostel style rooms in the main building and some people were in these 4-5 person cottage cabins (I was in the hostel and would have preferred the cottage, I had the top bunk and as I was descending the ladder that night, my foot ended up directly in the German girl’s glass of red wine.)
We had a little bit of difficulty with the room sharing situation on this tour. Sometimes, the tour guide will make rooming lists for the accommodation and sometimes they send a paper around the bus you can fill in. Usually it works out fine because people will naturally form little groups with other travellers they get along with.
However, on this tour there were some girls who kept getting stuck with a person they didn't like and tour guide promised they wouldn't have to be together again and that mixed up the rooms for everyone else. I think the guide on this trip was trying her best with the situation, I’m not sure what else she could have done to keep people happy, usually this sort of thing works itself out.
There was an included BBQ that night at the lodge, and I will note that they were good on this tour about catering for vegetarians. Otherwise, people got to bed early and got ready to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing which is an 8 hour hike and actually a World Heritage site, you can learn more about it here. I chose not to participate, I just wasn’t feeling well and I had school work to catch up on.
Taranaki Falls Hike in Tongariro
So we were officially more than halfway through this Topdeck New Zealand tour today, probably two-thirds of the group had left early in the morning for the 8 hour Tongariro Alpine Crossing hike.
I went with the other girls who stayed behind and we did a shorter hike from the lodge about 2 hours to a waterfall on the Taranaki Falls Track, which you can read more about here . It was really beautiful with a variety of landscapes including a waterfall over an ancient lava flow from a volcano.
I think it was nice to have the option at Tongariro to either pay for the optional Alpine Crossing hike (which requires guides and proper equipment) , or do the shorter hike for free from the lodge, if you are less of an outdoors person.
I know it seems a bit like I missed out on not doing the big Tongariro Crossing hike, but I was so worried about university and I was just not in the right mindset for an activity like that. I really did end up have a nice afternoon with the other girls on the short hike and I still feel like we saw a lot, so don’t worry if you join this tour and don’t feel up to doing the big hike, the shorter hike is free and still has lots to experience.
Everyone else arrived back around dinnertime and there was another optional BBQ, or otherwise you could make your own food or buy something from the restaurant. A few other tour groups were actually in the lodge the night so there was a bit of party going on until about midnight.
Wellington
On the last day, there was a breakfast included at the lodge and we began the drive back into Wellington, where the shorter ‘Sweet as North’ portion of the Topdeck New Zealand tour would be finishing. There was a quick stop snacks in a small town and then also at the Mount Victoria lookout point with a view of the city. I had heard so much about New Zealand over the years from meeting people on tours of Europe, so it was exciting to actually see all these places in person after so many years of hearing about them.
We got dropped off at a hotel and I moved to the hostel where I was staying since my tour ended on arrival (I was on a student budget and couldn’t afford extra hotel nights). I made arrangements to meet up with the Topdeck group after their included dinner, for one last night out together, as it was a Friday in Wellington.
I spent a few hours in the afternoon at the Museum of New Zealand, they had a very informative First World War exhibit on and some beautiful art and stained glass as well, I highly recommend a visit. I also had some iced coffee at an outdoor café with some girls from the tour which was fun until we got attacked by a seagull.
Wellington
The hostel I was staying at was really cool, it had a women-only top floor featuring a rooftop deck with a view over the city. Unfortunately, when I went to get ready for the evening, I found that a can of bug spray had exploded in my luggage and absolutely destroyed a white dress I bought in Hawaii. I briefly considered trying to pass it off as a cool new tie-dye look, but gave up and managed to find an alternative outfit.
Travel Tip: anything that could spill or explode in your luggage belongs in a Ziplock bag.
I met up with the Topdeck NZ group one last time at a bar called Danger Danger that was playing lots of 90s and early 2000s throwback music and that was a nice way to finish off the week with that group. By chance, I also met up with a girl from my Intrepid Tasmania tour I took the previous year, who had moved to Wellington. You can read more about that Intrepid Tasmania tour here.
I had a tour of the South Island starting the next morning with a different company so I went home around midnight to be ready for the early flight, it was a bit sad to leave everyone, but I didn’t want to miss my next tour, that was the end of a very busy, very short visit to the North Island with Topdeck New Zealand !
Final Recommendation for the Topdeck New Zealand Tour
What I liked: I generally felt like we used all of our time efficiently, for such a short tour, we really had a range of experiences, between the nature/outdoor sports and activities and the cultural options like the Hobbiton Movie set and the marae stay, we also had a good mix of cities and more remote locations.
I liked that the bus didn’t feel as packed full of people as some of the 50 person coaches in Europe do. All the meals I had were good, and the accommodation was in line with what you would expect on a budget tour, with the homestay, hostel room and triple share hotel rooms that were all clean, and there was kitchen we could use in Tongariro.
Having the transportation to the remote areas like the marae stay and Tongariro was helpful as I had no interest in renting a car and the hop on hop off bus services don’t come often enough to visit all the places we did in such a short amount of time.
I really enjoyed the cultural homestay at the marae, that’s the kind of activity I don’t think I would have ended up doing by myself if I was just backpacking mostly in the cities and it presented Maori history and culture in a respectful way.
The pre-departure information and email communication was adequate, and I felt well prepared.
What could have better: A lot of time on this tour was taken up by optional activities, which isn’t necessarily an issue, you will just want to budget accordingly if you enjoy more extreme activities like the rafting, bungy jumping etc. as these costs could add up quickly, even though we got a group discount price at most places.
On the driving day through Taupo, I felt a little bit like I was waiting around watching other people do optional activities like Zorbing and Bungy jump because the entire bus stopped even for just a few people.
There was still beautiful scenery and other things to do, but if you weren’t planning on doing any optionals at all on this tour, you might want to check the itinerary and make sure that you would enjoy what is actually included.
Final Recommendation for the Topdeck New Zealand Tour: It did feel like a busy week and I think that has to be expected, this is a fast-paced, highlights focused tour of the North Island for people like me who were short on time or wanted a quick introduction to the country with the chance to do some popular activities.
In an ideal world, we would all have the time for slow travel, but in reality most people get a few weeks of vacation per year, so as much as I would have liked to spend a month on the North Island, I only had one week and I think I made the most of it by being on this North Island sector of the Topdeck Kiwi Encounter Tour.
This tour allowed me to see more of New Zealand than I could have on my own and provided access to activities that can be harder to book as an individual.
I think this tour is an option that would suit someone who enjoys being social, doesn’t mind travelling with a larger group, has very limited time to see New Zealand and is looking to do some outdoor or extreme sports activities and has budgeted for those optionals. Overall, the real value for me in this experience was being able to do a lot in a short amount of time and I think Topdeck provided the service they advertised on this North Island tour.
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