With limited time in New Zealand, only five weeks in total, I decided to rent a car. I’ve been driving around the two Islands for the last few weeks and I can tell you that New Zealand is the best country for road trips.
The roads are okay; some roads are winding and narrow, but in good shape for the most part. Driving here takes a lot of time. On the North Island the traffic caused delays, especially around Auckland. On the South Island, the scenic views have you stop every 500 meters. It can take up to one hour to travel 20 kilometers because of this. Also, I thought I could drive over the mountains from Franz Josef to Mount Cook. No, I had to drive down to the coast and all around the mountains to get to Mount Cook. It took me almost 7 hours because I had to stop everywhere to take photos, or just to enjoy the amazing view.
The landscape is so beautiful on the South Island that it’s ridiculous. What really impressed me is the diversity. There are ocean, lakes, mountains, glaciers, volcanoes, geysers, rain forests, forest, palm trees and towns. New Zealand is a mix of Norway (the fjords) , Iceland (volcanoes, glaciers and geysers), England (architecture, infrastructure, culture), Switzerland/Austria (the alps and the lakes), and Brazil (rain forest, palm trees and the beaches).
My travel tip is don’t go to New Zealand. Why? You’ll feel stressed about the fact you won’t have time to see everything. You’ll meet other travelers who will say; you have to go here, see this, do that, go trek that mountain, spend time on that beach, go find jade stones, do activities etc. No matter how much time you spend in New Zealand you won’t have enough time to see it all.
The OneHundred Travel Blog 
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