AUCKLAND · NEW ZEALAND
Harbour sails, island wine, glowworms in the dark.
Hobbiton and the Waitomo glowworm caves, Waiheke’s island vineyards, cruises on the Waitemata and the black-sand surf of the west coast. Every adventure in Auckland, and every road out of it.
Only here
Three things you can only do here.
City tours and harbour cruises you can find anywhere. A boat under a roof of glowworms, a stroll through the real Shire and a ferry to your own wine island are New Zealand’s alone.
Underground galaxy
The Waitomo Glowworm Caves
Glide a boat through a limestone cavern in total silence while the ceiling glitters with thousands of tiny living lights. The glowworm that makes them, Arachnocampa luminosa, lives nowhere on earth but New Zealand. Two hours south of the city, it is the closest thing to drifting under your own private galaxy.
- 1 Waitomo: Glowworm Caves Guided Tour by Boat
- 2 Hobbiton & Waitomo Caves Guided Day Trip from Auckland incl lunch
- 3 From Auckland: Hobbiton & Waitomo Caves Day Trip with Lunch
Into Middle-earth
The Hobbiton Movie Set
The Shire was built on a green Waikato sheep farm for the films, and unlike every other set it was never torn down. You walk past 44 hobbit holes with their round doors and tended gardens, cross the bridge to the Green Dragon Inn and drink a cider brewed for the place. There is one Hobbiton, and it is an hour and a half from Auckland.
- 1 Hobbiton Movie Set: Guided Tour Ticket
- 2 Hobbiton & Waitomo Caves Guided Day Trip from Auckland incl lunch
- 3 From Auckland: Hobbiton & Waitomo Caves Day Trip with Lunch
Island of vines
Waiheke Island Wine
A 35-minute ferry from downtown drops you on an island of olive groves and cliff-top vineyards looking back across the Hauraki Gulf. You taste syrah and rose where it is grown, lunch on a terrace over the sea, and catch the boat home by dusk. Few cities have a wine country you reach by ferry on a whim.
- 1 From Auckland: Waiheke Island Wineries’ Tour
- 2 Waiheke Island: Zipline and Native Forest Adventure Trip
- 3 Waiheke Island: Wine Tour & Lunch at Award Winning Venue
Start here
The day trip almost everyone books first.
More Auckland trips are planned around this one day out than anything else on the list.
Where most people start
Auckland's Most Popular Tours
Hobbiton, the Waitomo caves, Waiheke’s wineries and a sail on the gulf. The days most travellers come to Auckland for.
Where to begin
The days an Auckland week is built around.
Hobbiton, the Waitomo caves, Waiheke’s wineries, geothermal Rotorua, a sail on the harbour and the wild west coast. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The big day south
Hobbiton, Waitomo, or both in a day.
The two unmissable day trips sit an hour and a half south of the city, close enough to pair. How you split them comes down to the hours you have and how early you can start.
Waiheke Island
A wine country you reach by ferry.
Thirty-five minutes across the Hauraki Gulf and the city is gone: olive terraces, white-sand bays and cliff-top vineyards pouring syrah and rose where it is grown. Spend the day cellar-door to cellar-door, lunch on a terrace over the water, and still be back in Auckland for dinner.
Read the guide: the best Waiheke wine tours →Three hours south
Where the ground steams and bubbles.
Rotorua is the North Island’s geothermal heart: geysers firing on cue, mud pools plopping, hot springs you can soak in and lakes that smell of sulphur. It is also the home of Maori culture, with hangi feasts and haka in the evening. Long as a day trip, worth every hour.
See the Rotorua day trips →City of Sails
Auckland was built to be seen from the water.
More boats per head than any city on earth, two harbours and a gulf full of islands. From the deck of a yacht or a ferry the Sky Tower lines up behind the masts, the volcanic cone of Rangitoto rises off the bow and the whole reason it is called the City of Sails finally makes sense. Half a day on the Waitemata is the easiest great decision you will make here.
Harbour cruises & sailing →Maori culture
The first culture of Aotearoa.
Long before the harbour had a name in English it was Tamaki Makaurau, prized by Maori for its two seas. A cultural tour opens that older Auckland: a powhiri welcome, the carved meeting house, the haka performed up close, and a hangi feast cooked in the ground. Many pair it with the geothermal villages of Rotorua to the south.
- 1 From Auckland: Rotorua Māori Village & Activity Combinations
- 2 Māori Cultural Experience & Auckland Museum General Admission
- 3 Māori Cultural Experience & Auckland Museum Admission
Match your nerve
Pick your adrenaline level.
Auckland does calm and it does heart-in-mouth. Cruise the gulf, paddle and climb your way through the middle, or throw yourself out of a plane. Three gears, your call.
Easy does it
Out on the water.A sail on the Waitemata, a ferry to Waiheke for the cellar doors, a whale and dolphin cruise on the gulf. Big views, no white knuckles.
Get the heart going
Paddle and climb.Sea-kayak across to the Rangitoto volcano, hike the black sand and bush of the west coast, or zip-line through the canopy. Active days that still leave you standing.
Full send
Jump and raft.Skydive over the Hauraki Gulf, black-water raft the underground rivers at Waitomo, or leap off the Sky Tower. The days you will still be talking about at home.
The wild west
Black sand, an hour from downtown.
Drive west through the Waitakere rainforest and the Tasman throws everything at the coast: the iron-black sand of Piha under Lion Rock, the gannet colony at Muriwai, surf breaks and bush tracks to hidden waterfalls. It is raw, wind-scoured and barely 40 minutes from the harbour bridge.
See all 25 west coast tours →By place
The city, and the roads out of it.
Auckland City for the Sky Tower and the harbour. Waiheke for the island wineries. Hobbiton for Middle-earth. Waitomo for the glowworm caves. Rotorua for geothermal country. The west coast for the black-sand surf.
By activity
Pick what kind of day you want.
A wine tour if you want to taste the islands. A cruise if you want the harbour. A kayak if you want to earn the view. Whale watching, walking tours, Maori culture and the rest.
Plan it
Three days that cover the essentials.
First time in Auckland? Here is how three days plays out without a wasted hour.
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