Australia, New Zealand & the South Pacific - Can't choose a NZ region to skip

Help! I'm trying to plan a holiday in New Zealand starting next week (6 March) and can't make the schedule work. Here's the best I've come up with so far.

FRI: arrive around midnight; stay in Auckland
SAT: tour Auckland, Waiheke Island; stay in Auckland
SUN: fly to Queenstown, tour Queenstown; stay in Queenstown
MON: day trip to Milford/Doubtful Sounds; stay in Queenstown
TUE: fly to Wellington, tour Te Papa museum; stay in Wellington
WED: ferry to Picton, tour wine country; stay in Nelson
THU: tour wine country, fly Nelson to Auckland; stay in Auckland
FRI: business meetings; stay in Auckland
SAT: drive to Rotorua or Taupo, tour hot springs; stay in Rotorua
SUN: tour Rotorua; drive to Auckland for flight out

I know everyone here will say "YOU'RE DOING TOO MUCH!" I already hate missing the glaciers. Now I don't know what else to cut.

I'm leaning toward skipping Wellington/Nelson and spending 2 extra nights in/near Queenstown. How would you fill those days?

Thanks for your help! I'm really stressing about something that's supposed to be fun! :)

David

Yup - waaaay too much. Flying back and forth uses up a lot of your precious time here. I'd stick with Queenstown region for the first part of the trip (until your meeting back in Auckland). Fly down the first Saturday (you have time enough to explore Auckland area after your meeting).

Yup - waaaay too much. Flying back and forth uses up a lot of your precious time here. I'd stick with Queenstown region for the first part of the trip (until your meeting back in Auckland). Fly down the first Saturday (you have time enough to explore Auckland area after your meeting).

I agree - I'd skip Wellington and/or Nelson, and spend more time in the Queenstown region (Otago and Southland). The ferry from Wellington to Picton will take half a day by itself.

Depending on the types of wine you like, you will encounter plenty of wineries around Queenstown and Waiheke Island. If you like the wines from Nelson and surrounds, I'd suggest skipping Wellington, spend an extra day in Queenstown, and go to Nelson from there. Then from Nelson, go straight to Auckland.

http://www.nzwine.com/regions/

Also, depending on when your departing flight from AKL is, driving from Taupo to Auckland can take 3+ hours, so making your visit to Taupo not much more than a lunch break.

Connect straight from AKL to ZQN; even idf a very short overnight stay.

Skip Waiheke - it's one of the better things going for AKL but much of NZ is far more interesting.

Are you specifically keen on one of the wineries, or do you just want to see a NZ winery or two? There is actually a phenomenal one (Amisfield (http://www.amisfield.co.nz/) - search this forum for threads about it) right outside Queenstown that can let you cross off that bit and not spend as much time trying to hop between all the cities you've got on your list. We had a great lunch there and bought a couple bottles to help keep up lubricated over the rest of our trip.

I'd fly to ZQN on Saturday morning as suggested above and then drive straight away to Te Anau. You can be there by noon and actually relax a bit and recover from the jetlag. Go to Milford on Sunday and then head back to Queenstown (and Amisfield) or even up to Wanaka - similar physical features without the over-development that I felt Queenstown had. Or do Amisfield on Saturday before going to Te Anau, but still Milford on Sunday.

And I'd do the glaciers instead of Wellington and Picton, but that is mostly because I absolutely LOVED the glaciers (http://www.wanderingaramean.com/2007/12/we-climbed-glacier-today.html), not because I have any knowledge of or experience in Wellington and Picton. If you spend the time over on the west coast there you can also hit up Gillespie's Beach (http://gallery.millerworks.net/keyword/gillespies+beach), which is also rather beautiful.

I'm not sure how the weather is going to be this time of year and if it will make a difference versus what I saw, but I really am a huge fan of the glacier area.

Such terrific advice -- thanks all! We'll skip the northern end of the South Island and focus instead on the Auckland area (by necessity) and the southern part of the South Island.

We'll definitely check out Amisfield since, you're right, we just want to see NZ wineries in general, not any specific ones (although I bought so much I feel like I helped pay Kim Crawford's mortgage over the summer).

Seems like we should play it by ear & go where the spirit moves us. Do you think we'll be OK without advance hotel reservations? I presume mid-week is less busy than weekends?

Thanks again,
David

Am not sure if March still hits the high season on south island, but I went once in February and found a pretty tight situation on lodgings wherever I went. The tourism office usually could come up with something (such as a room above a 100-year-old bar in Dunedin), but the supply/demand situation reminded me a bit of Alaska in summer.

March is shoulder, should be okay except for if events on.

Auckland boat show 5-8 Mar, cup (racing) week 28 Feb-7 Mar
Queenstown nz golf open 12-15 Mar