Destination guide
Visiting Hobbiton on a Private Tour: What It Is Really Like
Coach tours get you to Matamata. A private tour gets you there on your own schedule, with a driver who waits while you take your time.
6 min read
Waikato Touring Guides
Local knowledge from behind the wheel. Guides to the region’s best destinations, written by the people who drive them every week.
All Guides
Destination guide
Waitomo Caves Scenic Day Trips: A Local's Guide
Most people see the glowworms and leave. The Waitomo Valley above ground is just as good, and almost nobody stops for it.
7 min read
Classic cars
Classic American Cars in New Zealand: Why They Ended Up Here
A 1955 Thunderbird on a Waikato back road is an unlikely sight. The story of how it got there is better than you would expect.
6 min read
Destination guide
Raglan Beach Travel Guide: Black Sand, Big Surf and Bridal Veil Falls
Forty minutes from Hamilton and it feels like another country. Here is how to spend a day in Raglan without wasting half of it.
7 min read
Trip planning
Waikato vs Rotorua: Which Should You Choose?
They are ninety minutes apart and they are not competing for the same visitor. Here is how to tell which one you actually want.
7 min read
Weddings
The Classic Car Wedding Hire Guide: What to Book and What to Ask
Wedding car hire is one of the last things couples book and one of the easiest to get wrong. A short guide to getting it right.
8 min read
Destination guide
Blue Spring and the Te Waihou Walkway: The Complete Guide
Water that took a century to filter through a volcanic plateau, and a walkway most people start from the wrong end.
6 min read
Destination guide
Okoroire Hot Springs: A Soak, a Meal and an 1889 Hotel
No water slides, no wave pool, no queue. Just stone-lined thermal pools under the trees and a country hotel that has been there since 1889.
5 min read
Motorbike touring
Honda Goldwing Touring in New Zealand: Riding Pillion Through the Waikato
You do not need a licence, a jacket collection or twenty years of riding. You need a seat on the back and a good road.
6 min read
Trip planning
Unique Things to Do in the Waikato (Beyond Hobbiton and Waitomo)
Everyone does Hobbiton and the glowworms. Here is what is worth your time once those are ticked off.
9 min read
Destination guide
Bridal Veil Falls, Raglan: The Complete Visitor's Guide
Fifty-five metres of water over a basalt cliff, ten minutes from the car park. One of the best short walks in the North Island.
6 min read
Destination guide
Is the Otorohanga Kiwi House Worth Visiting?
It is one of the few places in the country where you will reliably see a kiwi awake and moving. That is rarer than it sounds.
6 min read
Trip planning
Hamilton to Hobbiton: The Best Ways to Get There
Sixty-five kilometres and about an hour. The question is not how far, it is which of the four ways to do it suits you.
6 min read
Destination guide
Things to Do in Pirongia: Mountain, Forest and Village
An extinct volcano covered in native forest, twenty-five minutes from Hamilton, and most people drive straight past the turn-off.
5 min read
Trip planning
The Best Day Trips from Hamilton
Hamilton's real advantage is what surrounds it. Almost everything worth seeing in the upper North Island is inside ninety minutes.
8 min read
Weddings
How Much Does Wedding Car Hire Cost in New Zealand?
Hourly rates, minimum bookings and a few charges that catch couples out. A straight answer with our own prices on the table.
6 min read
Destination guide
Things to Do in Te Awamutu and the Waipā
The Rosetown is a working Waikato town rather than a tourist stop, and it is a very good base for everything around it.
6 min read
Don't Just Read About It. Go.
Every destination in these guides features on one of our chauffeur-driven day tours.