Best meal (cooked by us in the van):

Really not many to choose from here as we tended to live off instant noodles/soup as the van wasn't up to high levels of cooking. So Thomas' birthday breakfast which was fruit, some banana slices I had made before leaving the apartment and giant marshmallows (healthy start to the day.) 

Worst meal (cooked by us in the van):

The previously mentioned soup that we practically lived off was our least favourite food by the end of our trip. 

Best meal: 

Fergburger (Queenstown)

No other burger can quite beat this. If you ever go to Queenstown suck up the massive queues and get one of these. There is a reason for the queue.

Close second - the ice cream we were given at Foxton beach

Whoever was serving us we are immensely grateful for you handing us icecreams the size of Jupiter and that we're supremely tasty (rum/raisin and caramel fudge combo is awesome) 

Worst meal:

We love bakery type food - cakes, pastries, pasties. You name it we will have tried it but every time we got one of these from any New Zealand bakery we were disappointed. New Zealander's just have no idea how bakeries should be done. Sorry New Zealand.

Best beach:

Thomas would say Back beach in New Plymouth. This was a beautiful beach full of surfers (I think thomas liked it purely for the surfing reason.) For me, St Kilda beach in Dunedin was slightly more beautiful although maybe it was because we were very lucky with the weather here giving us beautiful blue sea and golden sands.

Worst beach:

There was a 'beach' in Kaikoura (which was more like a brown sludgy swamp water with rocks and branches everywhere and full of bees just waiting to sting you.) This was definitely not a good beach (although it had good surfing but why you would want to surf somewhere that looked like there could easily be some sharks/crocodiles/the Loch Ness monster hiding under the waters is beyond me) 

Best tourist attraction:

The Luge (Rotorua)

Real life mario kart can't really be beaten. The one in Rotorua is better than the one in queenstown as you can go faster and the track lasts longer. 

Worst tourist attraction:

Kayaking (Abel Tasman) 

This one was hard but if we had to redo our trip I would probably leave out the kayaking we did in Abel Tasman or maybe hire a kayak ourselves. It was way too expensive for what you got and kayaking in a water with no current doesn't really require much skill so a guide isn't too necessary. We also picked to do this on a day when it was cold and grey which maybe wasn't the best idea.

Best natural site (we couldn't pick one so we have three.) 

Mount Cook/Glaciers 

This area of New Zealand is known as the southern alps and with the snow covered mountains is classic picture postcard New Zealand. 

Tongrario 

This mountain was true lots of the rings country and was awesome to walk across. Although the walk itself was very busy and quite strenuous it is 100% worth it. 

Kaikoura mountain (I don't think this was as impressive but was overruled)

The uniqueness of Kaikoura comes from the fact that the ocean sits practically right next to some snow covered mountains but was it as amazing as Tongrario or Mount Cook (in my opinion not quite)

Worst natural site:

Lake Tekapo 

Seriously what's the hype about this lake? There were far more impressive lakes in New Zealand that were nowhere near as touristy. Don't bother going here.

Best city:

Dunedin

This was one of the biggest surprises for us. Neither of us had even heard of Dunedin before arriving in New Zealand but we were impressed right from the start. It was fun, quirky, had the ocean right on the doorstep and some beautiful surrounding landscape (the otago peninsula) filled with wildlife. What more could you ask for? 

Worst city:

Christchurch

Maybe Christchurch had a bit more personality before it was sadly hit by an earthquake in 2011 but it still feels kind of depressed and forlorn (and a little bit creepy.) 

Best surf:

Kaikoura/Dunedin

Although I couldn't venture into the water in Kaikoura (as I no longer had a surfboard at this point) Thomas raved about it and judging by the huge amount of people in Kaikoura to surf I think his feeling here is probably correct. Dunedin also gets a thumbs up here. 

Worst surf:

Greymouth

I can still picture thomas' little face as he stood on the edge of the sea and watched these perfect waves that had a current too strong to actually get to.

Best campsite:

Waiinu campsite (South Taranaki)

Beautiful views. Right on the beach and practically deserted (at least in low season.) Really good facilities and only $5 per site. No downsides here. 

Worst campsite: 

Kapiti Coast 

After paying $16 (way too much) for what we thought was a fairly average campsite we soon realised it was overrun by sandflies and didn't leave the van for the rest of the evening. Sandflies are evil. 

Best thing we did before travels:

Hobbiton (near Hamilton)

Who actually goes to New Zealand and doesn't go here? And why do they do this? Best day trip ever.

Top 3 overall locations:

Raglan 

This surfer town is very cool (even if you're not a surfer) and has excellent surf for those that do want to surf (from beginner to pro level.) 

Dunedin 

Biggest (good) surprise of the trip. Has a little bit of everything and has more personality than a lot of New Zealand cities. 

Queenstown 

Very touristy city but Queenstown is proof that not all touristy locations are bad. It is full of things to do (you could spend a couple of weeks here easily) and full of the best food in New Zealand. Although be prepared to spend a lot (it's just what happens here.) 

Worst 3 overall locations:

Tekapo

As previously stated it's just really boring, really touristy and with far better locations in New Zealand why would you choose to stay here?

Kapiti coast

There weren't many bad locations in New Zealand and this one wasn't exactly bad but it was a little boring. We got fed up after a couple of days and couldn't find much to do. (Although the giant icecream was from here so that's a massive reason to go here) 

Christchurch

Not too much to do here although it's still worth a visit but the city just feels a bit sad and doesn't have too much atmosphere.