Tax Dude

Hi all,
I've been perusing the threads here and thought I'd seek some input and/or comments on a trip we're planning to NZ in Jan/Feb of next year. Right now I'm just working on our South Island itinerary.

We'll arrive Jan 27th at noon in Christchurch (YYZ-LAX-AKL-CHC) and want to get to Queenstown by the evening of the 30th for their Pinot Celebration. We'll spend our first night in Christchurch so that gives us only two days to get to Queenstown. I don't think we'll have time to see anything north of Christchurch so I'm planning to drive to the West Coast via Arthur's Pass, spend two days there seeing the glaciers and perhaps kayaking on the Okarito Lagoon. Might we be better off skipping staying in Christchurch and heading off somewhere else for our first night? And, reading some of the other threads here, would it be more interesting to get to Queenstown via Lake Tekapo?

We've got our time in Queenstown planned with the Pinot thing and a winery visit to Felton Road on Feb 2nd.

We'll leave the Queenstown area on the 3rd and we need to be in Dunedin on the morning of the 7th for our flight to AKL. I've been looking at cruises in Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound. There's also a 2-day kayaking/camping trip on Doubtful Sound that sounds pretty good. I've a feeling that we'll be needing a bit of exercise by that point. I'm not sure if we should spend all our time in the fiords, arriving late on the 6th in Dunedin or if we should head down there sooner.

Any comments or suggestions on any of the above, or is there some other "must-see" attraction that we could fit in?

Scrooge McDuck

I just made a cross-check at http://maps.aa.co.nz/ for distances and travel times. Giving the routing Christchurch - Hokitika - Wanaka- Queenstown which reflects the routing along the West Coast - gives me a distance of about 740 km and a driving time of over 9 hours. And that does not yet reflect that you will see curvy roads and hard to pass traffic (e.g. motorhomes) which will increase your driving time to well above 10 hours. That gives you really little room for anything to see or do - and there are lot of interesting things.

For comparision: The shortest distance is 500 km and something above 6 hours.

Tax Dude

My plan was to drive to somewhere on the West Coast on Tuesday, arriving early afternoon, staying two nights, then driving to Queenstown on Thursday arriving by 6 pm or so. What's Christchurch like these days? Although even if we skipped it, I don't think I'd be up to a long day of driving the day we arrive in the Southern Hemisphere.

Scrooge McDuck

OK. But consider that Christchurch - West Coast is well over 3 hours and contains crossing the Alps which means some mountain driving on the other side of the road in combination with a jet-lag. Are you sure?

kiwibigdave

Acknowledging Scrooge McDuck's concerns, I'd still skip Christchurch and head for Arthur's Pass on your first day. The first 60 kms to Springfield is really easy driving, and there are good accommodation options from there to the Waimakariri River and beyond. You could easily be settled into an overnight stop in time for dinner. But, for the last week in January, book in advance.
Perhaps, but then you'd miss the glaciers.
Consider the night of the 27th somewhere on the road through Arthur's Pass as above, the night of the 28th in one of the glacier townships or - better - as far South as Lake Paringa (book in advance), and the night of the 29th in Wanaka. Then you'll have a nice leisurely drive through to Queenstown on the 30th, having woken up every morning before then in a different place, each unique to NZ.

Tax Dude

Ah, _here's_ where I put this thread!

A belated thanks kiwibigdave. I don't think we'll have any trouble getting a couple of hours down the road on our first day - Arthur's Pass sounds like a great idea. As long as my passenger yells "left, left, left!" for the first little bit, I've got no problems driving on the "other" side of the road.

TravelinSperry

Skip Christchurch. I drove the eastern way down through Lake Tekapo. Simply gorgeous. Yes, you'll miss the glaciers. But if you have some time you can see the penguins come onshore in Oamaru and also see Lake Tekapo. And once in Queenstown - be sure to save time for swimming with the dolphins in the Fjords! NZ is heaven on earth!

Pausanias

I did a driving trip through NZ - both islands, though we only got as far as Auckland on the North Island. It took a month. While the roads are well maintained and relatively empty of traffic, even in the Jan-Feb high season, they are fairly slow. There are no freeways/motorways and the police are fairly aggressive in speed checks. It's a leisurely country and a bit of a time warp, which people like. You know the saying - "New Zealand is 12 hours ahead and 20 years behind."

A few tips on places and things to do:

Wellington is very pleasant, by far the nicest city, with a great museum and interesting architecture.

Dunedin is next best and the penguin/albatross colony is worth seeing.

Christchurch is very dull, and that's before the tragic earthquake struck.

Auckland is boring.

Fiordland is dramatic, especially if you've not been to Norway. Milford Sound can be seen from the jetty - it's all there, that iconic peak etc. Drive down there, see the view, and drive back. Doubtful Sound is far more beautiful and you should take a day cruise. This will take the best part of a day. Fiordland has unreliable weather, so if you want some nice photos, you need to spend at least 3 days there, preferably in the Te Anau area.

We avoided Queenstown which seems to be a big mass market tourist resort. Not our thing at all.

We stayed at Fox Glacier, had booked in for 2 nights and checked out a day early. Our least favourite area but we didn't do the touristy/adventure/hiking things.

Blenheim is a dump, Nelson is lovely and the surrounding winelands are wonderful. We did 4 nights up there, cooking for ourselves and drinking great wines.

Napier on the North Island gets raves from most people - it has some vaguely interesting art deco buildings and a lousy beach.

Rotorua - the geysers are dramatic but probably not if you've been to Yellowstone. We did just a night in this area and that was enough for us.

Tongariro is a wonderful drive-through park.

Way up north is the Bay of Islands area around the town of Russell. We went up here by ship en route to Vanuatu and the Solomons. We thought Russell was utterly delightful, but very touristy. Nevertheless we could easily send a week or two around these parts.

Our main memory of NZ is just driving around and the scenery. There really isn't a lot more to it. For instance, can you name a single building that's internationally famous? NZ is all about fields, flowers, mountains, the beaches, the ocean. I know many people will disagree with this . . . but I found it all a bit bland, anonymous. It doesn't say, This Is New Zealand in the way that America or Australia say it.

Hope these quick random thoughts on a cold and wet morning helps . . .

TravelinSperry

Agreed, Nelson is lovely... add it to your list if you can (but with limited time, it's hard since you have to go North, then back south again to Queenstown). And I disagree wholeheartedly with the prior poster, I found Queenstown to be one of the most beautiful cities I've seen (I've been to over 350 on this planet so far) and it is filled with plenty to do (although yes, there are some tourists buses around - but the same thing could be said for the fjords and glaciers).

SeriouslyLost

Have them yell "Driver at the center line!" at you. It works in every country & it's what I yell at myself on a near daily basis. Now I just have to stop the habit of getting into the wrong side of the car nearly every time...

brenrox

My five cents as a NZer...I wouldn't go out of my way to travel down the West Coast - The drive down the centre of the S.I (vi.a Lake Tekapo) is arguably the best in NZ. If you really want to see glaciers, head into Mt Cook village, you are surrounded by them and there is also the Tasman Glacier which is a 20min walk to view

antonknee

Fellow NZer here: this is 100% correct, excellent advice.

Kiwi Flyer

Depends on what you like. McKenzie country (taking east coast route) is big skies, open countryside, tussocky, blue/turquoise lakes, and big mountains as backdrop. But that is only the last bit. The first part - Canterbury plains - is boring, flat straight.

Whereas West Coast has lots of bush, lush farmland, dark lakes, wetlands, waterfalls, steep glaciers (east coast glaciers are generally flatter), cliffs, hills galore, wild coasts. For Christchurch to Queenstown you'd have 2 major alpine passes as well as lots of smaller passes/hills. It is a longer and slower road, but in my view much more interesting.

Tax Dude

Great input, thanks guys. Always nice to have the locals weighing in with differing opinions. We've decided to go with the West Coast route. It looks like we'll be able to fit in a few nice hikes along the way. I've booked our first night right in Arthur's Pass, Google Maps predicts under 2 hours so even doubling that makes it a pretty easy first day's drive as far as I'm concerned. The next two days before we need to arrive in Queenstown are still up in the air. I'm looking at kiwibigdave's suggestions, but leaning towards spending both nights in the same place.

I've also booked us the two day (one night) kayak trip in Doubtful Sound for our time after Queenstown. Looking forward to that, anticipating rain and/or sandflies.

Too many things to see, too little time!

Primenumber

Sorry for chiming in late, just saw the post.

Excellent decision to do the kayaking in Doubtful Sound - this is a truly magical place! Did the 3-day trip last year (Jan 2013) and greatly enjoyed it. Yes, there will be a lot of sandflies!

Don't know what your luxury level / price range of accommodation is, however, stayed at the "Lazy Dolphin" hostel in Curio Bay and can highly recommend that for your trip from Te Anau to Dunedin. Very friendly, comfortable and laid-back and you can swim with wild dolphins right there at the beach!

Enjoy your trip, it is a really beautiful country (will go there myself again in a couple of weeks).

Have safe travels

Primenumber