Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - NZ – South Island trip planning – itinerary possibilities

So after much deliberation, we’ve decided to focus our 7 to 9 days in NZ on the South Island. At this point, we know we’ll fly into Wellington to visit friends in Upper Hutt, rent a car, and then proceed via ferry to the South Island.

Once there, we have an idea of a general route, but any thoughts are appreciated. Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

Time: Feb, Mar or Apr, or some combination thereof. Any one better than the other – and part of our overall trip includes SYD, Heron Island and Silky Oaks Lodge in the Daintree.
Mild Adventure: Would love to go sea kayaking for an entire day (or two) in Abel Tasman NP and/or Marlborough Sound. Easy/moderate one or two hour hikes would be okay, and jet boats.
Wildlife: The more the better, but isn’t critical. Whales and dolphins sound good, but the unexpected also excite us.
Scenery: Well, let’s just say this is the principle reason we’re doing the south island.

That said, here’s our potential itinerary (to do in approx. 7 days), and assuming we’ll go from Picton to Nelson:

Nelson to Christchurch via Greymouth (and including Hanmer Springs)**
Christchurch to Mt. Cook
Mt. Cook to Queenstown
Queenstown to Te Anau
Te Anau to Milford Sound
Milford Sound to Dunedin (via Te Anau)**
Dunedin to Christchurch (via Oamaru)**
Drop off car and fly out of Christchurch to SYD (will car rental agencies allow a pickup in Wellington and drop off in CHC without charging an arm and a leg?)

Here are some options/alternatives to the above portions that have **:

Nelson to Christchurch via Blenheim and Kaikoura
Nelson to Christchurch via St. Arnaud and Hanmer Springs
Skip the portion of Te Anau – Dunedin – Oamaru – Christchurch and go back Te Anau – Queenstown – Christchurch. Replace that portion with Christchurch to Blenheim via Kaikoura and wrap up back in Wellington (for car rental purposes).


Thoughts? Anything I missed or should not miss along those routes?

Feb is best weather wise. April is usually quite unsettled although a chance of an indian summer. April will be cold on clear nights in the south and east of the south island. April has the disadvantage of being during school holidays. Feb (especially early Feb) is high tourist season.

So I'd look at late Feb for NZ.

May I suggest you dont rent a car in Wellington? It will cost a lot of money to take it across the ferry to the South Island. Public transport in Wellington is the best in NZ (although not so great to Upper Hutt) and if need be you could ask your friends to pick you up?

Abel Tasman is good for kayaking. Reasonably sheltered and some great beaches (real golden sand). Plenty of good swimming spots. You can easily do as a day trip if staying in Nelson - there is a bus that goes to Kaiteriteri and Marahau at the park entrance, or an hour and a half drive if driving yourself (allow more if you are visiting in holidays - see date thread on NZ forum - the last 10 miles are on a narrow winding road). Marlborough Sounds can be sheltered but can be rough depending on wind direction. Also in Queen Charlotte Sound you have ferry wake to contend with (fine in Pelorus Sound). Can do this as day trip based in Picton.

Both areas have good tracks, but I prefer Abel Tasman - more options (eg walk in boat out) and generally closer to the water. There are also good tracks (ranging from 1 hour up to several days) all around the Nelson region - some close to the city and others an hour or two's drive away.

Plenty of places to do jet boats. Queenstown is a good spot as the canyons (Shotover Canyon in particular) are quite spectacular.

Best places for whales and dolphins is at Kaikoura, although you may see dolphins in Wellington Harbour or crossing Cook Strait or in the Marlborough Sounds (they like to surf the ferry wake!). Penguins can be seen (sometimes) near Wellington, Abel Tasman, Oamaru and Otago Peninsula amongst others. Seals are on Wellington south coast and at Kaikoura (and others).

Hanmer Springs is out of your way if wanting to visit Greymouth - it is on the route between Nelson and Christchurch but Greymouth is farther down West Coast. The best wild coastal scenery is the far north of the west coast (not recommended as quite a detour for you) and south of Hokitika - you could go this way through to Queenstown and back through Christchurch although 7 days will be a rush.

Unless you are going hiking I would skip St Arnaud. It is nice area but not much different from other alpine areas and is a moderate detour. (While the map may show a road directly between St Arnaud and Hanmer Springs it is in reality a dirt track through the mountains suitable only for mountain bikes and 4WDs).

Will post some more shortly.

I would skip the far south section as you dont have enough time.

Let's see ...

Day 1 - ferry from Wellington, drive to Nelson. Short walk or whatever in remainder of day.
Day 2 - kayaking etc Abel Tasman.
Day 3 - Nelson to Hokitika.
Day 4 - Hokitika to Queenstown, visit glaciers en route.
Day 5 - in Queenstown.
Day 6 - Queenstown to Christchurch.
Day 7 - in Christchurch (maybe visit Akaroa?)

That is a fairly full schedule that lets you see a lot of the country and quite different scenery/wildlife.

Hope this helps.

The main problem with the original itinerary is that you'd spend all your time driving and little time at any place or doing stuff.

See AA traveling times (http://aatravel.co.nz/map/southisland_travellingtimesdistances.shtml). Note these times dont allow for stopping along the way to see/do stuff. Also add more time in bad weather, holiday periods (for traffic).

I would like to suggest perhaps a bit more time in Queenstown. yes, I love it so much I'l going back again next June! Tons of things to do there and best thing for me, city boy, is that clear waters of Lake Wakatipu ^

Yes could easily spend a week just in Queenstown area.

Thanks for the great info.

A couple of thoughts and some more questions. Most of these are in response direclty to KF, but also consider Keithl's comments on Queenstown:

1. Are the driving times at the AA site more realistic than this site?:
New Zealand Driving Routes (http://www.newzealand.com/travel/destinations/driving-routes/driving-routes-home.cfm)

2. I used to live in Alaska and have seen, skied on, landed on, walked on and cruised by enough glaciers to last a lifetime (unless I were a climatologist or geologist, which I'm not). Will Fox and Franz Josef glaciers and the route scenery be enough for us to warrant that route vs. getting from Greymouth to Queenstown via Christchurch and Mt. Cook? I'm curious - is the west coast perhaps better than Mt. Cook? I've also considered that your suggestions were taking into account # of days we have and travel times, so thanks again.

3. I've heard Te Anau and Milford are great sites to see, but I noticed that you said we wouldn't have enough time. Will I miss out on something great in Te Anau/Milford Sound that I should try to squeeze in another day?

4. Expand your thoughts on Akaroa and it's significance?

5. Finally, mountain passes and the roadways. Having tackled some high-mountain narrow roads on Tenerife in the Canaries (read: terrifying), one of us definitely doesn't do well on very narrow, high cliff-type roadways with hairpin turns. Granted, we'll be there in late summer, and driving on the left is no problem whatsoever - I recently drove throughout Namibia and South Africa on the left in cars with manual shifts. I'm thinking about Arthur's Pass Haast Pass, Lewis Pass, and any other mountainous roadways we could potentially travel on.

Thanks again. You guys are a fabulous wealth of information (and I include Leumas, number_6 and others who live or have traveled there)!

Will try to answer your questions.

I think your new link driving times are fine (perhaps a bit optimistic). Looking again at the aa link I posted some seem fine but others look like they allow for lunch stop.

The unique thing about the west coast glaciers is that they descend through bush clad valleys to fairly low levels. We are much closer to equator than Alaska.

The west coast scenery is generally more interesting than east coast (well IMHO) - lush rainforest (quite different type of trees etc than Alaska!), lakes, mountains. The first 100-200km from Canterbury (heading to Queenstown) is fairly boring plains and agriculture. MacKenzie Basin (near Mount Cook) and Central Otago (near Queenstown) is also interesting - plenty of tussock, rocky outcrops, glacial lakes (also used for hydroelectricity) etc.

Going via West Coast to Queenstown will take longer though - taking the mountain pass (Arthurs Pass) through to Christchurch and heading south shaves off 1/2 to 1 day.

Milford Sound is great and I would pick it over say Mount Cook. But you need to allow a full day to see it (a long day if driving or taking the bus, or can fly in from Queenstown). Maybe you could fly back from Queenstown instead of heading back up to Christchurch (there are ZQN-SYD and ZQN-AKL direct flights, or if already booked CHC-SYD there are plenty of ZQN-CHC). However, if the weather is lousy then there are no flights into Milford (although the numerous waterfalls are spectacular if you drive or bus). It rains over 300 days a year in Milford (about 7 metres of rain a year). There is a low risk of being stuck in Milford if slips or avalanche closes the road.

Akaroa is a quaint village on a harbour on Banks Peninsula (2 extinct volcanoes beside Christchurch). When NZ was first settled the british and french both raced out to NZ - the british got here first by only a week or so and claimed NZ. The french settled at Akaroa and the town has a french flavour ever since (including some street names are in french). It makes a nice short drive from Christchurch for 1/2 day or day.

The main highways are fine - generally only one lane in each direction with no separation. We drive on the left. Main roads in mountain or hilly areas there is usually passing lanes every 10km or so, or at worst somewhere that slower traffic can pullover.

Some minor roads arent as good but okay as long as go slower than the rural speed limit of 100. Examples include Queen Charlotte Drive (the short way between Picton and Nelson - longer way through Blenheim is faster), the road to Abel Tasman (being summer likely to encounter traffic towing boats and caravans), Milford Sound road. The southern portion of highway on the west coast has a lot of hills.

If you have a rental car you wont be covered for insurance if you drive on Skippers Canyon road (side road outside Queenstown). That is about the only road (including some hairy roads to skifields) that I have geniunely been scared driving over. There are plenty of tours with 4WDs that go up here - including the bunjy, jetboat, rafting, etc adventure operators.

I spent about 10 days on the South Island last fall and can offer a few suggestions. I loved Kaikoura (learned to dive there with New Zealand Sea Adventures). By the way, if you like to dive, try NZSA - they were great.

If you go Kaikoura to hang out with whales and dolphins, make sure you a) book your tour in advance (at least a week, if possible); and b) plan to spend at least 2 days there (because weather glitches sometimes result in cancellations). I stayed at the reasonably priced, newish, clean and comfortable Best Western Lobster Inn. I'm sure that there are more charming and luxurious places, but I loved the name (I didn't know that lobsters stayed in motels, or drove cars), it was beside my dive school and I was very impressed with the service. Also, the giant lobster should be back in place now. Try to eat at Mussel Boys at least once.

Christchurch didn't thrill me, but I was happy with my very inexpensive private room at the YMCA. It seemed that hotels in the city were very overpriced (and many fully booked) - so I decided to go cheap for my one-night stay. A very good value.

With the money I saved in Christchurch, I splurged on Larnach Castle in Dunedin. I had a good dinner and enjoyed going to sleep in my kitschy bed/wagon (very comfy bed located in a giant antique wagon - a gold rush-themed room) and bathing in the huge clawfoot tub. Beautiful views.

Consider for a moment that our entire trip includes SYD, Heron Island and the Daintree RF, the South Island of NZ, and we're contemplating going Feb/Mar 06.

Now the question: Since we're moving toward fall at that time, would it be best to start on the South Island of NZ in Feb and move toward Heron and the Daintree in Mar?

We want as much T-shirt weather (or light clothes) in NZ, but don't want to hit too much tropical moisture on Heron Island along the GBR during that time either, so let us know if we're taking chances with that in Feb/Mar.

I just got back from a 4-night visit to Heron Island (mid-November, so I can't answer your weather question) - and I loved it. Let me know if you have any questions.

Feb is usually the hottest month so any time Feb through mid March is fine temperature wise. Feb weather is usually drier and more settled.

Portions of the post that previously appeared in this space have been deleted. I would provide you with a reason why, but doing so would likely be against the TOS.

The walking tour of the NZ glaciers includes climbing up the face of the glacier. Probably didn't do that in Alaska (the insurance is a bit prohibitive for commercial operators). You put on crampons and use an ice axe to walk up a trail that the guides cut into the face of the glacier every morning (not quite ice climbing but surprisingly close). Great fun and much more thrilling than walking on the top of the glacier. Best I can tell only done in NZ. The setting of the glaciers is remarkably beautiful -- but then so is parts of Alaska. I thought it was worth the effort to get there (very much in the middle of nowhere).

The walking tour of the NZ glaciers includes climbing up the face of the glacier. Probably didn't do that in Alaska (the insurance is a bit prohibitive for commercial operators). You put on crampons and use an ice axe to walk up a trail that the guides cut into the face of the glacier every morning (not quite ice climbing but surprisingly close). Great fun and much more thrilling than walking on the top of the glacier. Best I can tell only done in NZ. The setting of the glaciers is remarkably beautiful -- but then so is parts of Alaska. I thought it was worth the effort to get there (very much in the middle of nowhere).
Actually, there are walking tours of both the Matanuska Glacier North of Anchorage and East of Palmer Alaska off the Glenallen Highway as well as another (can't recall the name) glacier just outside of Seward. Both without crampons. Both are toehead glaciers (end on land, not in water) and have incredible settings. Actually, my parents (both in their 60's) went walking on Matanuska Glacier when they came to visit once.

But we digress...

So aside from climbing the face of the NZ glaciers, I'll have to research some photos to better ascertain their appeal.

See http://www.glaciercountry.co.nz/default.asp for example

I've been to one glacier in AK (near ANC) and like NZ better (though Alaska is spectacular too). Whether it is worth going by the glaciers depends on your interest in being in the wilderness. Also depends on the weather (it is in a rain forest and there is a lot of rain along the west coast of NZ). I'm very glad that I drove Graymouth to Queenstown by way of the glaciers. Another consideration is how adventurous you are; on the quite expensive glacier walk (forget the price, but it was enough to make me wonder if it was worth it) there were many people (about 20% of my group) that didn't make it to the top -- which is the best part. It is perfectly safe but definitely an adventure and as close to climbing as I ever want to get. The crampons were essential, as was the ice axe. They do have other walks on the flat part that are much easier (but less fun).