5 Best Kept Secrets in New Zealand

This beautiful land has been scoured by content creators for well over a decade, so calling anything a “best kept secret” or “hidden gem” in New Zealand is dubious and we know it. However…

Our pre-journey research was downright titanic and in hindsight some of our favorite stops didn’t receive nearly as much hullabaloo as they deserve.

In this short article we’re gonna touch on a few experiences we had that are a bit off the well-worn travel circuit around the most stunning nation on earth. We hope you enjoy!

1. Mount Maunganui

While no secret to locals, Mount Maunganui is not bursting at the top of must-do lists from travel bloggers. It would seem New Zealanders have mostly kept this one to themselves. We found a couple of websites saying nice things, and only one really gushed over it. Well, add us to the list of Mount Maunganui gushers!

Imagine a volcano covered in hiking trails towering above one of the finest strips of sand in New Zealand. Now picture a clean and bustling holiday town with shops and restaurants galore. Sprinkle in an active culture of hikers and surfers, some good sand and waves, a little island to explore, and an RV park right on the shores. The place is downright heavenly.

We stayed here 6 of our 38 nights in New Zealand, more than any other location. It was our most relaxing stop, but we were far from stagnant. The Mount has good day trip access to Hobbiton and Waitomo Glowworm Caves, so if those sites are on your to-do list then there you go!

We know it’s out of the way for some travelers, but we wouldn’t skip it. Mount Maunganui is *almost* worth the trip to New Zealand all by itself.

2. Arthur’s Pass National Park

I didn’t read a single detailed review about this “drive-through” National Park. In fact, if I hadn’t clicked on an impressive waterfall while scouring googlemaps we would have driven a different route and missed it.

Thankfully we decided to spend the extra 2.5 hours to take Arthur’s Pass to the western coast before heading north to Abel Tasman National Park. It would have been much quicker to just head north from Christchurch.

So what makes Arthur Pass so great? For one, the windshield viewing is rich in variety and grandeur. One minute you’ll be winding through rounded, cloud-topped hills; a few miles later you’ll be cruising across a massive river valley surrounded by kraggy peaks.

For us, the highlight of the drive was the Castle Hill Rocks, which we did not know existed. We noticed the landscape was changing and then we saw a tour bus pull into a parking lot and voila! The Castle Hill Rocks were unbelievably cool.

The other highlight we’ll mention was the Devil’s Punchbowl Waterfall. The hike was a bit of a huffer, but the payoff was pretty special.

If you love to travel, we have something we would like to give you. It is our professionally designed e-book and it is FREE of charge. We think it’s pretty great, and we’re hopeful you’ll like it, too. It’s called, “Cultivating a Lifetime of Travel”. Click HERE. and we’ll send it on over!

3. Kaiteriteri — Best Kept Secrets in New Zealand

Kaiteriteri is considered a jumping-off point to Abel Tasman National Park and seldom is it mentioned by name. Frankly put, this cozy little holiday “town” might be better than anything Abel Tasman has to offer. Now I know that will be sacrilege to zealots, but hear me out.

Abel Tasman surely boasts pristine and isolated blue-water beaches at the base of spectacular hills. And some of those bays are knock-your-socks-off gorgeous, so I’m not bagging on the national park one bit.

But Kaiteriteri is another one of the best kept secrets in New Zealand because the locals know how amazing it is! The beach has soft, robust sand you want to sink your feet in, and has an unusual shape that is pleasing to the eye. There is a sandbar right out front, and when the tide is out you can walk around the point of a cliff to another perfect beach with even fewer patrons.

Then there’s the back bay, that is some kind of marvel. When the tide flows into the channel, it fills a lake way back in the distance. This tidal flow creates a perfect oversized kiddie-pool where all the children play. It has a deep green hue and it’s filled with oysters and other shellfish. Then, as the tide rolls back out, the lake surges back to the sea, creating a temporary river that can be rafted (with care).

Beyond that there’s a huge RV Park, a general store, couple of restaurants, and a few lucky residential homes. It is quiet and relaxing and the whole place begs to be explored. Kaiteriteri is the perfect family getaway and worth a few days of your time. Plus it’s a great place to book a bout tour of Abel Tasman.

4. Hokitika — Best Kept Secrets in New Zealand

When you take the Arthur’s Pass Highway from east to west, you’ll arrive at the tropical shores of the Tasman Sea. Another 12 miles south on the glorious #6 highway is the seaside town of Hokitika.

Hokitika is certainly a beach town, with shops and restaurants to your heart’s content. We have never seen more driftwood in our entire lives! There are so many driftwood structures constructed all along the beach that you will be simply amazed.

Head toward the mountains and you will quickly see that Hokitika is more than just a beach town. The farmland is exquisitely beautiful between the shore and the snow-capped range, and it rolls for miles and miles. Eventually you can find your way to the Hokitika gorge, a well-understood hotspot that attracts an abundance of travelers.

The river is about as cold as anything you could immerse yourself in without an instant death. I mean, you have to jump in just for the bragging rights.

The trail along the river is pleasant, but the locus at the end is what makes this place truly special. Beware the mosquitos that arrive after sunset because they will murder you faster than the 35 degree mint blue ice water.

Of all the places we visited, this was the one that made us wish we had more time. When we come back to New Zealand someday we will set aside a handful of days for Hokitika.

5. Cape Farewell

Oh, they’ll holler from the mountaintops to visit Wharariki Beach. It’s one of the best beaches on earth, they’ll say in chorus across the blogosphere. They aren’t wrong per say, if you take the totality of the area and label it “the beach”.

But the sandy shore part of Wharariki is a bit underwhelming. And the cave photo we all know from Microsoft is impossible to recreate in a swarm of self-absorbed, 19-year-old, drunk college girls — or otherwise, I mean, is it even a real photo? Just how in the hell do you get this shot?

So the best kept secret in New Zealand at Wharariki Beach is the Cape Farewell Track that begins toward the back corner of the beach, far away from the inane teenage madness in that stupid cave. It’s a challenge to even find the trailhead, but you can do it. One way to find it is to take a hard right as soon as you get to the beach (there’s a 20 minute walk from the car park). Just keep heading into that back-right corner.

From there you will climb high into the hills above the sand. And as you push onward you will crest hill after grassy hill in the company of sheep and the occasional hiker. A few miles later you will arrive at a lookout (photo above) that will blow your friggin’ mind.

The lonely trail and the twisted landscape makes it feel like you’ve arrived at the end of the earth. I’ve never seen countryside like this in my life. New Zealand has the knack to produce topography that appears to have been created supernaturally. Perhaps none was more stunning than here.

An Honest Conclusion for Best Kept Secrets in New Zealand

Well, there you have it, our five best kept secrets in New Zealand. Like we said in the intro, nothing is truly a secret here — it’s a landscape too special to not crawl every inch of it.

Nonetheless, when you find yourself immersed in the crowds of Queenstown, Milford Sound, Wanaka, Wellington, etc. — that are justifiably crowded because they are spectacular — you can always retreat to the quieter corners of New Zealand for an equally magnificent experience.

And here’s the secret ending… four of the five places we’ve named in this article are close enough in proximity that you could easily visit all of them as part of your South Island tour. In fact, we would absolutely recommend it!

Thank you for stopping by our website! We are the Hoffmann family, a full-time RV family that has split residence in Seattle, Washington and San Antonio, Texas. We have special needs children that we homeschool, and work travel assignments for the Veteran Affairs Hospital. If you would like to learn more about us, check out our Start Here and Biography pages. In the meantime, God bless and travel happy!

Recent Posts

• 5 Best Kept Secrets in New Zealand
• 20 Tips for Driving a Motorhome in New Zealand
• On Saying Goodbye to a Home on Wheels
• The 50 Best Things We Did: Year Four
• 50 Best Things to do in Middle America