Just following up on my original post to provide a long overdue trip report. The original post below:

We ended up doing both islands in 7 days, and it was great - we never felt rushed, saw a bunch of great sights, hit a lot of fantastic restaurants and wineries and did not feel like we missed out on anything (other than heli-hiking Fox Glacier which we had budgeted time for, but not for foggy weather that canceled the first tour of the day... more on that later). We were wary that we would feel rushed and exhausted but that didn't turn out to be the case at all. It was a very relaxing, scenic trip and the pace was perfect for us. You actually see a lot of the gorgeous scenery as you drive from one place to the next, and no drive was over 3 hours. Most of the drives were generally a couple hours with stops in between to admire the scenery or explore waterfalls etc. The only thing is that Fox Glacier weather can be unpredictable, so if you only have a day there, you are taking a chance on the weather being good enough to do the heli-hike on the glacier (apparently Fox Glacier can get quite foggy in which case the heli-hikes are canceled at the time of the scheduled departure). There are heli-hikes every hour, so if there is availability, you can get on the next one, but in our case they were sold out until the next morning. The tour that was an hour later (2nd slot of the day) than our booking (1st slot of the day) was fine to depart as the skies by then had cleared up. So much for the guidebooks' advice to take the early morning tours (esp the 1st slot) for the best weather!

So the final itinerary was Option #1 above as outlined, with further details/commentary below:

April 4: Arrive ZQN 3:15pm (luggage retrieval was super fast but customs was much longer than expected as they make sure everyone's shoes are brushed down before entering the country); got rental car and drove 20 min to Milbrook Resort (gorgeous & bucolic like wine country + mountains + lake), checked in, explored the grounds (beautiful, with many restaurants - all fully booked!), drove to Arrowtown town center and walked around town (get a reservation for dinner - the town is small and the restaurants get booked up!), overnighted Arrowtown/Milbrook Resort. Some of the restaurants on property at Milbrook Resort are supposed to be amazing but we didn’t book far enough in advance and weren’t lucky enough to get a table even though we stayed at the property. Lake Hayes is gorgeous and would be a nice place to spend an afternoon.

April 5: 11:30am lunch at Amisfield Winery on 10 Lake Hayes Road near Arrowtown. Amisfield is an absolute must - was a fantastic meal, among the top we found in NZ. We did the tasting menu (same menu/pricing for lunch/dinner so it was a big meal for lunch) – NZ$70 for four courses, NZ$120 w/ 4 wines and dessert. This was definitely one of the top dining highlights of our trip in terms of the quality of the food, the presentation and the yum factor. The white wines were outstanding and the reds were only so-so (although we didn’t have a chance to taste their reserve red), and we’re red wine people, so that’s saying something that we found the whites to be impressive. The food is done family-style for the most part and is meant to be shared, and portions were good-sized. We were tempted to go back for lunch again the next day…. Just 7 min drive from Milbrook Resort but easy to miss (signage to Amisfield winery is somewhat discreet). 1:45pm left Amisfield to drive to Wanaka (via Crown Range Rd - very windy and must drive slowly given lots of blind turns and oftentimes no road barriers keeping you from falling off the side of the mountain - and we are used to mountain driving where we live in the States!).

It was a 50-55 min drive to Wanaka town center (including photo stops around gorgeous Lake Hayes as were leaving Amisfield), and drove around Wanaka a bit to get a feel for the town (as we were early for our 3pm B&B check-in), and arrived 3pm at Websters Lodge in Wanaka. Explored Wanaka the rest of the afternoon - the town is like Tahoe / Alaskan town / small beach town all in one. Went to big New World supermarket in town center. Really enjoyed our dinner at Bistro Gentil and went back the next day for lunch. Highly recommend the smoked duck breast salad at lunch, and the duck confit if they have it. Nice thing about going at lunch is that you get some incredible scenery of the mountains and lake, and there’s nice comfy shaded outdoor seating. Super relaxing and excellent food. Overnight in Wanaka at Websters Lodge - super friendly & helpful proprietors.

April 6: Fabulous breakfast spread (eggs made to order, homemade jams/honey, fresh fruit salad & whole fruit, bacon & sausage made to order, charcuterie & cheese platter, toast & pastries) prepared by the owners of Websters Lodge. Did morning hike in Wanaka; also got a 1.5 hour massage at the local fitness center (arranged for by Websters Lodge). Then checked out of Websters Lodge, had a nice leisurely lunch at Bistro Gentil at 12:15pm (it was pretty empty so the service was fast, and we were done with lunch by 1:15pm - and that was at a leisurely, comfortable pace and not rushed at all). From there we hit the road to drive to Fox Glacier. The drive around the Lake Hawea area is breathtaking – gorgeous majestic mountain scenery (we thought the best mountain scenery in all of NZ).
Continuing north to Fox, the drive is like being in Hawaii with dense vegetation – Thunder Falls was great (you can see it from the road). Drove from 1:20-4:40pm to Fox (it rained from 4-4:20pm, so we had to drive slowly and also included short, "couple minute" pit stops like Thunder Falls). Had dinner at Heartland Hotel's White Pub (11 Cook Flat Road) - the Indian chef there is amazing and the food was as good as the Travelocity/TripAdvisor reviews said it would be. We couldn't figure out what the chef was doing in a place like this! It looks like a total dive pub, but don’t let the looks fool you – the food is really good, hearty portions and very flavorful. We went there after seeing the good reviews on Travelocity and we weren’t disappointed. The service can be a bit slow though. Overnighted in Fox (place called Misty Peaks - meh, just stayed there because super closer to the heli-hike departure point).

April 7: 7:50am Heli-hike Fox Glacier. 1st one of the day got canceled and the rest were sold out, so instead did a self-guided hike along the main hiking route (it's all mapped out every morning by the Park rangers) up to the face of Fox and back down from 10:30-11:45am. It's all gravel and quite steep, so not suitable for people who have trouble walking, but the reason it's mapped out by the Park rangers is that there are ad hoc streams (some quite large) that pop up or change course and also areas at risk for mudslides (as the mountain is towering right over you). We were a bit disturbed by the signage during one particularly steep slope warning people not to stop and to keep moving for the next 400m of the trail due to landslide risk. We then drove from 11:45-12:15 to check out the Fox lookout point, and then continued on to Hokitika. We drove in rain & fog the whole time to HOK (it took just under 1:45 hrs) and arrive a bit before 2pm. After checking in, we explored the town on foot, did a beach walk, and went to Hokitika Gorge (one of the main attractions according to locals). Had dinner at Stumpers, followed by a fantastic after-dinner wine tasting at West Coast Wine Bar where we had run of the wine bar. At 9pm, we headed back out to do the glowworm dell by the side of the highway. We would not recommend it - it was like a scene out of a horror movie. We went by way of the top of the hill where there is a hostel and parking lot full of campers. Strangely, there was no one out and it was eerily quiet. A couple of twenty-something girls were trying to figure out how to get to the glowworm dell and they were staying at the hostel (apparently they were the only ones there, and the hostel used to be a mental institution and run by an eccentric old lady) - they were clearly freaked out and wondering if they should trust the directions given by the old lady (ie, go to the far end / back of the lot by the edge of the cliff, there will be some narrow stairs hidden by the brush going down the hill, take the stairs down and it will take you to the dell). Honestly, we would not have gone if they weren't with us. And it was not a well marked trail - we were having to cling to the sides of the hills and strike away heavy brush as we zigzagged down the trail. When we made it to the dell, it was neat in some sense (you could see faint twinkles as it was pitch black) - until one of the girls screamed. She had bumped her leg against someone who was crouched on the ground. We immediately turned on our flashlights and shined them over to her direction and indeed saw a man crouched on the ground. Turned out he was taking photos shooting upward into the tree branches hanging over us where the glowworm strings were. It would have been nice (er, appropriate) for him to have said something when he heard us and knew we were there to alert us to the fact that he was there rather than give everyone a heart attack.

April 8: Flight from Hokitika 7am to ROT (was foggy when we left our hotel at 6am). We didn't believe the locals when they said we could arrive at HOK airport just 10-15 min before scheduled flight departure time. We thought they were nuts. When we got there at 6:15am, we finally understood why. It looks nothing like an airport. There is no gate. There is no security check. You just drive up to this hangar, check in and walk onto the runway (which looks like a parking lot) and board the plane. This is the smallest airport we've ever been to, and we've been to FBOs. This is sort of like an FBO but even smaller. Our flight arrived in Rotorua at 11:30am, and we had our checked luggage and rental car before 12pm! We drove around downtown ROT, had lunch at Urbano Bistro (the best fries ever!), checked into the Holiday Inn (very conveniently located), checked out the Blue & Green Lakes, Hell's Gate and had an excellent dinner at The Brook. Overnighted in Rotorua.

April 9: Rained all day. Explored Rotorua & Taupo; overnighting in Taupo. 9:30-11am shopped at the Warehouse, pharmacy & Countdown (supermarket), drove 30 min in the rain to Waiotapu where we spent 75 minutes exploring, then did some calls, then drove 30 min to Wairakei Resort for lunch at 2pm, then did Huka Falls (both lookouts), Craters of moon, and arrived at our hotel by 3:30pm. We then explored the Taupo town center on foot for the rest of the afternoon. Had a fabulous dinner at The Bistro in Taupo - highly recommend it, great food, good value, excellent & friendly service.

April 10: Had a nice, inexpensive breakfast at a locals diner - Café Zest - in Taupo by our hotel. Checked out of hotel and walked around town. Had lunch at Suncourt Sushi - hit the spot as we were craving some seafood and something lighter for lunch. At a bit before 1pm, we hit the road to start our drive to Napier (during which we encountered hard rain). It is worth noting we lost cell coverage 20 minutes into the drive and did not have any coverage for the next hour after that. In Napier, it was sunny. After checking into Crown Hotel in Napier (the hotel is away from city center but has nice bay views), we explored the Napier Port and hung out at the Bluff Hill Lookout. We then drove to Hastings & Haverlock North (as they were on our way to Black Barn winery where we were having dinner), and walked around both the Hastings & Haverlock North town center. Both neat towns that are completely Art Deco and worth an afternoon's exploration. 6:30pm dinner at Black Barn winery (cellar unfortunately closes at 5pm - we knew that, so we didn't do the wine tasting as we weren't about to wait around for 1.5 hrs until our dinner reservation - so spent all our time exploring Hastings & Haverlock North). Had a fabulous dinner at Black Barn - although if we had to rank, we would rank Amisfield higher in terms of the food quality/flavor/presentation. Still very good and would recommend. It is also very chic in terms of the scene, ambiance and people watching. We then went back to Napier where we overnighted at the Crown.

April 11: Explored Napier, Cape Kidnappers, then 11am Elephant Hill winery tasting (not impressed with any of the whites, nor the Pinot, Merlot Malbec was flat, nor the Syrah). Then had a 3-course lunch there (reservation at 12pm) and were done by 12:45pm. We then hit the road and were at NPE airport at 1:20pm, with plenty of time to drop off the rental car with Hertz, check in for our 2:05pm flight to AKL, which landed 2:55pm, was great that it was only a 15-min walk from the domestic to int'l terminal and you can push the luggage cart/trolley the whole way, all the way into the AKL Novotel Airport hotel! At a little after 3pm, we took a 30-min cab ride into AKL city center ($40 discount taxi, $45 w/ credit card), walked around the downtown area, relaxed at the Langham lounge for a bit (the Langham conveniently has hotel shuttles that run every 15 minutes). We moved our 8:30pm dinner reservation at Number 5 restaurant to 6pm. Overnighted at the Novotel airport hotel, before catching a flight out the next morning back to the US.

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