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 Traveller's Tales: Restaurants and eating places in New Zealand
Look for the best places to eat in New Zealand. You may read about recommended restaurants and food. Find out about local food and local dining customs. Also, you might want to read our
Auckland city guide,
Bay of Islands city guide,
Dunedin city guide,
Queenstown city guide,
and Wellington city guide.
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| S Chan |
26 May 2005 |
Stayed at Rydges Lakeland Resort Queenstown - Queenstown, New Zealand.
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For a little action, I tried bungy jumping at the Kawarau Bridge, and the Shotover Jet boat ride. Both were excellent and tons of fun. Rather expensive, but worth the money. For scenery, I booked the Nomad Safari LOTR tour. There are 2 tours to choose from and both cover different locations. I asked the booking desk to recommend and the 2 people who worked there both recommended the Glenorchy area saying that they've been there and it's extremely beautiful. Since we were going on a 4W drive, we expected a bumpy ride. But the ride going away from town was about 45 minutes to an hour and was on curvy roads. So if you get car sick, don't do this tour!!! Anyway, we did stop at Glenorchy, but only because the driver needed to go to the bathroom. Was it as beautiful as the booking desk ladies said? I'll never know because I only saw a small town restaurant and a public bathroom next to it. The major sites we stopped at was Isengard and the site where Sam cooked rabbit stew. It's just some dried bits of land but its background sceneries of the mountains are nice. We drove by some wooded area (which may have been the forest of Lothlorien, part of the tour), but never went through it, and I don't believe it was even mentioned. We did drive by miles of sheep farms and that was different and nice. For the money, I thought this tour was not worth it...and a waste of time. There were nice background sceneries, but you get these beautiful sceneries anywhere your head turns in Queenstown, and it's free. Also, definitely take the gondola up to the peak for wonderful views and there's no rush to go down. Try the luge ride, great for adults as well as kids. Nice little cafe there too. Food prices are unexpectedly reasonable as I always expect to get "robbed" when I'm at these type of tourist places.
As for food, I always like a good mix of higher end restaurants and affordable restaurants. One of my favorite "affordables" is the Express Diner. I believe it's on Shotover Street. Great wait staff, fair prices, and pretty good food. I went during low season and most of the restaurants are quite empty, except for the Express Diner. Don't let the name fool you. It's a few notches above the average diner in the United States.
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| J Guan |
24 December 2004 |
Stayed at Hotel Grand Chancellor Christchurch - Christchurch, New Zealand.
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Loved the coffee at the Yellow Rocket in Cathedral Square, and the organic Japanese food at Aiki in Colombo Street.
Punting on the Avon was very nice, and the kids loved the ducks in the river gardens.
The Aquarium and Kiwi House were an unexpected surprise and enjoyed by everyone, young and old.
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| G Douglas |
22 November 2004 |
Stayed at Christchurch YMCA - Christchurch, New Zealand.
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Recommend the Little India as a very good indian restaurant and Topkapi does wonderful Kebabs, both in dowtown Christchurch where you are spoilt for choice with restaurants.
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| M Minick |
19 November 2004 |
Stayed at Scenic Circle A-Line Hotel - Queenstown, New Zealand.
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Queenstown is a "must visit" if on the south island. One of the most beautiful locations on earth, rivaling Lucerne with a lake surrounded by mountains. It is the center for "adventure" travel.
It is also an expensive town, owing to both it's desirablity and remote location.
One dining surprise was Speight's, a brew-pub associated with Speight's ales. The beer was good (I particularly liked the Classic), and the food was both good and a bargain by local standards.
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| A Freyne |
20 April 2004 |
Stayed at Hyatt Regency Auckland - Auckland, New Zealand.
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We ate in a restaurant called Dolce Vitae, 10 minute walk from Hotel - lovely Italian Restaurant - good food and wine. We took the Harbour Cruise - good way to see the City.
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| W Purnell |
08 March 2004 |
Stayed at Carlton Hotel Auckland - Auckland, New Zealand.
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Food
Tony’s Steakhouse has good food. We would eat there again. Lots of food for the money and excellent management! New wait staff person brought dish with beans though we asked for No Beans. Dish was removed, a new one brought immediately and no charge for the new one. Only downside.... No cocktails.
Power
If you are traveling New Zealand from the US or Japan, you need a convertor for the power plugs. Borrow one from the hotel or purchase it in Auckland on Queen street near one of the Backpacker places. They're on $2.50 NZD there. They're $15-40 elsewhere in New Zealand and Australia!
Things to do
We just used Auckland as a starting point. I suppose there are things to see in just Auckland. The SkyTower is the highest point in the Southern Hemisphere. They have a tethered climb to the top of it you can do. A.J. Hackett has a bungy site on the Auckland Bridge. We drove up to the Bay of Islands area. Make sure you go early. From there you can swim with dolphins, whale watch, fishing, cruises, parasailing, etc. Cool place! Go early or stay overnight!
Driving
Just need a driver's license from somewhere! We have Japan and U.S. driver's licenses and either would have worked. The driving is on the left and roads are narrow and winding with high speed limits compared to Japan. 100 km/h on most roads. Still it takes forever to get anywhere in the North; not so much on the south island.
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| T Cullen |
25 February 2004 |
Stayed at Christchurch YMCA - Christchurch, New Zealand.
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We walked round Christchurch for the most part, taking the bus to go to the gondola. Enjoyed visiting the Cathedral for "evensong" one night. Had an excellent buffet dinner at "The Cabbage Tree".
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| S Johnson |
28 October 2003 |
Stayed at Te Pa Helios - Bay of Islands, New Zealand.
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Wonderful location, Sally Restaurant was very good.
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| P Taylor |
07 August 2003 |
Stayed at Christchurch YMCA - Christchurch, New Zealand.
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There is a great coffee house up the road a few metres that was brilliant for late night lattes and cakes, we also had a main meal there and it was brilliant also for $NZ15. We did the ride on the gondola/chair lift to the mountain peak, was foggy and no real views that day, make sure you go on a clear day! We also found a flyer in the YMCA for horse riding tours. We booked on their 24hr hotline and they picked up and dropped off for $NZ50 each, consisting of a 1hr ride and brief lesson, we had never ridden horses before and found it to be excellent for the beginner. We visited Christchuch in August and found it to be cold and you need a good jacket and thermal underwear. Around the gift stores as you will notice there are huge differences in prices from store to store, we held out buying clip on kiwis and found them for $10.80 at a smaller store compared to $22 at larger stores.
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| L Chiang |
22 June 2003 |
Stayed at Carlton Hotel Auckland - Auckland, New Zealand.
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The Auckland Museum (or War Memorial Museum) is an excellent museum, approximately 20-minute hike from the Carlton. Extensive Maori collection. Be sure to attend the Maori concert held at 11am & 1:30pm. Queen St. is the major street with lots stores & restaurants.
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