Comfortable places and had delightful meals in New Zealand

In addition to recommendations found in ITN, a good resource for planning a trip to NEW ZEALAND is the government’s well-organized website www.newzealand.travel, where you can choose what kind of accommodation you want (B&B, hotel, etc.) in your price range. A list of locations pops up with descriptions and contact information.

For our February-March ’09 trip, we stayed in comfortable places and had delightful meals. B&Bs ran between US$47 and $68 per night, including ample breakfasts. Here are some of the highlights.

• I would like to recommend the Keppoch Homestay (39 Grayburn Road, RD2 Ashburton; phone/fax +64 [03] 308 7818, www.keppoch.com), where the hostess had e-mailed to ask if we would like dinner there. We did, it was delicious and our total credit-card charge for bed, dinner and breakfast was US$46.69.

• In Akaroa, The Maples (158 Rue Jolie, Akaroa; phone/fax 03 3048767, www.themaplesakaroa.co.nz) was delightful. I’d read about the historic 1877 home in ITN (March ’06, pg. 84).

The price was NZ$140-$150 (US$85-$91) for the Garden Shed room, a double. The garden was gorgeous during our stay, and the breakfasts were great. We stayed two nights but wished we’d allowed more, as the Akaroa Peninsula, with its hills and bays, is beautiful.

• In Christchurch, the Camelot Cathedral Square Hotel (66 Cathedral Sq.; phone +64 [03] 365 2898, www.thecamelot.co.nz), right across the street from the cathedral, was clean and comfortable and only about US$55 a night.

• There are lots of good places to eat in Christchurch. Two we recommend are the Curator’s House Restaurant (7 Rolleston Ave., Botanic Gardens; phone +64 3 379 2252, fax 379 2258, www.curatorshouse.com), with its view of the Botanic Gardens (main courses, NZ$35), and Cook ’n’ With Gas (23 Worcester Blvd.; phone 03 377 9166, www.cooknwithgas.co.nz), opposite the Court Theatre and across from the Art Centre (main dishes, NZ$32-$40).

• On this, our first trip to New Zealand, we found the people friendly, the country clean, safe and scenic and the gardens spectacular.

In Dunedin, we took the advice of ITN Contributing Editor Dr. Wagenaar (Oct. ’07, pg. 97) and visited the Royal Albatross Reserve on Otago Peninsula. On the other side of the peninsula we saw the endangered yellow-eyed penguins. Both visits were worthwhile.

— NELL McCOMBS, Ventura, CA