Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Queenstown in Winter: 5 days/4 nights or is 4 days/3 nights enough

My RTW honeymoon is just hemorrhaging days and I need to cut some days here or there. Queenstown is one possible place to cut a day. Originally planned 5 days, 4 nights. The cut would bring it down to 4 days, 3 nights. Arrival/Departure on the once-daily QF from AKL. Timing is roughly the third or fourth week of July.

So how much is there to do in the winter?

First afternoon maybe exploring the area? Jetboating (in the winter???)
Second day (first full day) maybe skiing or snowboarding followed by night out around town.
Third day (second full day) maybe day-trip to Milford Sound.
Fourth day probably just a matter of getting up and going to the airport.

Am I missing something I should seriously consider, that would require leaving it at 5 days, 4 nights?

Thanks.

Queenstown does have lots to do even if you are not into winter stuff.

Be aware you cannot count on having any available time on the day of arrival, because if the weather is bad you'll be bused in from either Christchurch or Invercargill.

Similarly, a day trip to Milford Sound cannot be guaranteed on any particular date. Especially if you want to fly - you need to allow several days and hope at least one will be clear enough at Milford Sound to allow flights. Driving or busing isn't so bad, but obviously snow can close the road for a day.

Adventure stuff - jetboating, bungy, 4wd, etc runs year around.
If you are into winter stuff note there are several fields close to Queenstown so you may want to allow multiple days.
Wanaka is nice and worth a day trip if you have time.

I love Queenstown in winter and spend as much time there as possible. But this is only because I really enjoy skiing and wine. There's some great ski fields and many wineries (particularly good Pinot Noir) so if it's good weather I'll ski and if it's not so good we'll drive around the wineries and replenish our stocks of wine.

If you aren't into either of these then maybe you could remove a day. You do want a good day to goto Milford Sound and the weather can be a little variable so a couple of days to choose from would improve your odds (Arrowtown is a good option for a dull weather day).

There are plenty of adventure sports available year round - Bungy Jumping (if you aren't that adventurous there's a bungy-swing too), Jet boating is good, quad biking (or snowmobiles in winter).

My favourite restaurant there is the Bunker and I really like the Sofitel if you're looking for accomodation (not a great view but stunning rooms).

PS Try and fly on NZ rather than QF - QF seems to divert flights to ZQN at the hint of a cloud in winter.

I love Queenstown in winter and spend as much time there as possible. But this is only because I really enjoy skiing and wine. There's some great ski fields and many wineries (particularly good Pinot Noir) so if it's good weather I'll ski and if it's not so good we'll drive around the wineries and replenish our stocks of wine.

If you aren't into either of these then maybe you could remove a day. You do want a good day to goto Milford Sound and the weather can be a little variable so a couple of days to choose from would improve your odds (Arrowtown is a good option for a dull weather day).

There are plenty of adventure sports available year round - Bungy Jumping (if you aren't that adventurous there's a bungy-swing too), Jet boating is good, quad biking (or snowmobiles in winter).

My favourite restaurant there is the Bunker and I really like the Sofitel if you're looking for accomodation (not a great view but stunning rooms).

PS Try and fly on NZ rather than QF - QF seems to divert flights to ZQN at the hint of a cloud in winter.

Thanks for all the advice. I was able to keep it at 5 days, 4 nights. I would like to do a day trip to Milford. Skiing or snowboarding would be fun, but we're trying to figure out how to get our equipment there as this is part of a RTW trip and we don't want to lug things like our gloves and goggles around the world for one day of skiing in ZQN. We may send the stuff from home to the hotel so it's waiting there for us. Wine tasting/tours is right up our alley! Any particular places you recommend?

Thanks for the hotel advice, but I'm leaning toward the Queenstown Park Hotel. The reviews on Trip Advisor make it sound wonderful, and it is not too costly.

Big thanks for the advice on airlines. ^ I was contemplating QF to get the miles, but it's not worth the hassle if QF is unreliable. The AKL-ZQN flights are nested within the AONE5 and not a part of it, so I don't want to deal with a canceled flight. I have a little buffer on either end, so not cutting it close, but I still just don't want to be bothered by it. I suppose I'll just go with NZ.

If you're not using your equipment anywhere other than ZQN it likely more cost effective to simply hire stuff when you are there. Cheaper than excess baggage fees/shipping, insurance etc and without the hassle of lugging them everywhere with you.

There are several different wine tours out of Queenstown, generally half day. Most do around the Gibbstown area.

I second the advice to select NZ over QF. I've flown into Queenstown a couple of dozen times on both airlines - NZ has never had a problem other than minor delays, QF I've ended up in IVC once, narrowly avoided the same fate a few times by offloading myself at CHC, declined their offer of a bus ride from CHC a couple of times, failed to get out of Auckland a couple of times, been locked into the gate area at ZQN for a few hours once, and on time several times. QF in winter has an atrocious record for ZQN flights.

My two favourite topics - skiing and wine :D

Firstly skiing - There's 3 main ski fields around Queenstown. To get to them you can either drive a rental car upto the carparks or catch the buses that leave from Queenstown. The closest fields are Remarkables and Coronet Peak. Coronet Peak offers night skiing but is probably the most challenging of the 3 fields as it's quite steep. Remarkable park is on the mountain just behind the airport so is easy to get too and has some long beginner and intermediate runs.

The furthest one away from Queenstown is Cadrona (closer to Wanaka). It's a big wide park with the full range of runs but it does take a while to get there! If you go there finish the day as we always do with a mulled wine at the Speights Ale House in the town of Cadrona.

You can rent gear either on the mountains or from the shops in Queenstown. If you're looking for current season high performance ski's goto Brown's otherwise just pick any shop and see if you like what they've got. Ski quality is usually pretty decent so you shouldn't have too much trouble. Ski fields get excellent snow bases so you don't get the badly damaged ski's that you find in some other countries.

Wine - Pick up a local wine map from your hotel so you know where you're going. The wineries stretch from just outside Queenstown out to Cromwell and south of Alexandra. If you've got a rental car it's a beautiful drive around and worth the effort as the wines are good. Personal favourites from the area are Pinot Noir's and big classic oaked Chardonnay's. Some of my favourite vineyards are Peregrine, Chard Farm, Rockburn and Bald Hills.

If you're not using your equipment anywhere other than ZQN it likely more cost effective to simply hire stuff when you are there.

I should clarify. Will rent equipment, I was talking about clothing. This is part of 8-week RTW honeymoon across all climates (the coldest being Queenstown in July, second-coldest is Sydney in August). So, things like heavier winter hats, gloves, pants... all the stuff you use on a ski slope but perhaps not in Sydney when it is 40 degrees. Those are the things we don't have room for on our trip and would want to ship.

My two favourite topics - skiing and wine :D

Firstly skiing - There's 3 main ski fields around Queenstown. To get to them you can either drive a rental car upto the carparks or catch the buses that leave from Queenstown. The closest fields are Remarkables and Coronet Peak. Coronet Peak offers night skiing but is probably the most challenging of the 3 fields as it's quite steep. Remarkable park is on the mountain just behind the airport so is easy to get too and has some long beginner and intermediate runs.

Wine - Pick up a local wine map from your hotel so you know where you're going. The wineries stretch from just outside Queenstown out to Cromwell and south of Alexandra. If you've got a rental car it's a beautiful drive around and worth the effort as the wines are good. Personal favourites from the area are Pinot Noir's and big classic oaked Chardonnay's. Some of my favourite vineyards are Peregrine, Chard Farm, Rockburn and Bald Hills.

Remarkables sounds better because we are beginners at skiing and snowboarding and will stick to the easiest slopes. Also, as of right now we don't plan to rent a car (but we're not set in stone on that one).

While I'm milking you guys for all your wonderful information, any specific recommendations for a full-day trip to Milford? Certain carriers, providers, etc?

Thanks for this wealth of information.