Hi

We are planning to make a recce trip over in July. We have 3 weeks to hopefully travel around North Island and hop over to visit a friend in Nelson for a couple of days. I have been looking at a few self-drive tour websites and noting their routes etc. , to give us a rough guide, as we will be organising accomodation ourselves.

I have found a route which appears to tour all around North Island, with 1 or 2 nights stay in each place. However, I am not sure though whether we are biting off more than we can chew. I have looked into travelling time between each area, but was wondering if anyone could advise us as to whether we could stay in one area for longer, whilst travelling out for days to visit other places on the list.

We are hoping to stay in houses/apartments preferably, as we are a family of 5 and I would need to keep up with the washing!!!! We also want to cater for ourselves to compare cost of living etc.

The route is as follows:
Auckland - Coromandel - Rotorua - Napier - Martinborough - Wellington - Nelson(stay with friends) - Wellington - Wangami (we have friends in Palmerston North) - New Plymouth - Hamilton/Cambridge - Auckland.

Apologies in advance if I am being completely naive in this tour!!!

Thanks
Jo