NZ Frenzy North Island New Zealand 3rd Edition

This is an essential guide for people who want to see more of a country than bars, clubs restaurants and fun parks. It is an insight into the things New Zealanders like to do, and shows the reader where and how to find all kind of remarkable places both with and away from the normal tourist routes. A brilliant book. Don't go to NZ without one!

This book is incredible!!! Absolutely a must have if you are an adventurer and not nervous to explore without a guide. The structure of this book is spot on. Extremely easy to follow and the author was precise with everything from popularity of a spot to directions to a location. This book saved me tons of money by allowing me to see many sights on my own vs. paying a guide or buying an unnecessary tour. Love love love!! Thank You Scott Cook for a truly awesome travel companion (the book). My favorite thing to do while travelling is to dig into local culture and this book helped me find my way. In my a opinion a must have. I get so excited to tell everyone about this book! Even the locals who don't always know particular spots in this great book! See for yourself. Also, the author doesn't give everything away. It was genius leaving some places with an element of surprise but he gave enough of a description that made you really want to check the place out. It was well worth it. I never did have the time to solve the riddle about the lady in Rotarua but would have loved to try. Such fun! Amazing job to the author! Truly! Well done!

In 2018 we visited New Zealand South Island, utilized the Frenzy South Island book and immediately upon return posted a glowing review of that book. (Take a look as I'm not repeating everything here). Just got back from our first trip to North Island, of course used the Frenzy North Island book, and are posting to let you know these books are still highly relevant for trip planning to either island. Don’t let the last publication date turn you away if you are planning a trip. Big picture, the North Island may be small in size but has seemingly endless nooks and crannies… that is beaches, bays, caves, coves, trails, falls, views, etc, etc. The author steers you to gems you wouldn’t likely find in “standard” guide books, by yourself, or even through today’s vast resources of the web. The LAST thing you need these days is a Fodors, Frommers, Lonely Planet and such that spend most of their ink on history, lodgings, restaurants, large museums and so forth that are readily available online, or the sights that the tour buses and cruise ships take their hordes to. I’ll now repeat verbatim what I said in my Frenzy South Island review as it pertains equally to Frenzy North Island… “You're likely going to spend several thousand dollars for a trip to New Zealand from the US. So spending $20 or whatever to find those special places that create really special memories?.... a no brainer.”

I can’t say enough nice things about these books that would repay Scott Cook for making our trip to NZ so wonderful. There wasn’t one place we chose to go out of these books (North and South) that wasn’t worth the time and effort. I used these books almost exclusively to plan the sights my husband and I would see on our extended stay in NZ (34 days). The choices of spots were obviously wonderful and off the beaten path as promised, the descriptions and pictures were helpful in narrowing down the choices we needed to make and there were enough options that all of our days were full including car travel days. This is the best travel book I have ever used. I wish I could find other similar books for other places we want to go, but I haven’t found any this good yet.

This is a great book for those who live and work in NZ and have all the time to hike and backpack. Otherwise its just too much info and very obscure and difficult to locate some hikes. A lot of time and effort went into creating the list of hikes but just not ideal for the vacationing tourist on limited time. Maybe you can pick a handful of these hikes on your vacation from this book but otherwise it's not as helpful. Writer also seems to dislike attractive popular spots and loves obscure areas.

I already own a copy of this authors book for the South Island, and found it very helpful when we went to New Zealand several years ago. Therefore, I decided to buy the one for the north island for the strip. He gives good directions and descriptions. One of the things I like is that he’s opinionated, and that helps decide which likes to take.