I found this thread very useful when planning earlier this year, so just wanted to add a few points with some recent experience (November 2017) on travelling in NZ, with 13 nights on the ground (and the long journey to and from Europe on either side). I haven’t included details of any bars or restaurants in any of the places below, but happy to do so if anyone is looking for a recommendation, we had lots of great meals over the two weeks.

The full itinerary (for completeness) was LHR-OSL (BA Y)/OSL-DOH-AKL (QR J)/AKL-BHE (NZ Y)/Ferry to Wellington/WLG-ZQN (NZ Y)/ZQN-AKL (JQ Y)/AKL-DOH-OSL (QR J)/OSL-LHR (BA J)

Some general thoughts:

• We jumped around the islands in our travelling a little, based on what we wanted to see; internal flights are plentiful and can be had for reasonable cost and the domestic terminals are very calm and relaxed (and there is no liquids screening etc for domestic flights, so super easy if your hand luggage is full of wine…!).
• NZ is not a cheap destination. I found hotels consistently expensive, flights were a mixed bag – we could probably have travelled at slightly less convenient times at a lower cost, but we went for convenience and paid accordingly. We booked car hire relatively late so it wasn’t particularly cheap, but all the major chains are present so I am sure there are deals and offers to be had.
• Food and drinks felt in line with European prices, so may read as expensive for US visitors. Conversely there isn’t an expectation of tipping, so the price you see is the price you pay etc.

We found the itinerary below very workable and didn’t feel like we were overloaded with travel:

• Upon arrival in AKL we connected straight away to Blenheim/BHE in Marlborough (north of the South Island), where we spent 4 nights visiting wineries and enjoying the local scenery – stayed in the Marlborough Vintners Hotel (2 nights), the Hotel d’Urville in Blenheim town (1 night) and then an expensive but special night in the cottage on property at Hans Herzog vineyard, along with dinner in their restaurant. I’d happily return to all of those.
• We then took the ferry back to North Island from Picton to Wellington; as noted you leave your hire car in Picton, but this is very straightforward. It’s a 3-4 hour trip, with nice scenic views, but in bad weather I can’t imagine it is much fun (luck of the draw I think; we had clear skies and sunshine)
• We spent 5 nights in Wellington, as I have a friend who lives there – otherwise I would say 3 nights would be plenty of time, it’s a charming city with lots of nice bars and restaurants. We spent the final 2 nights in the Grand Mercure, which was quite cheap in comparison to other options as it is slightly out of the way, but really only a 10 minute walk to Cuba Street and it has recently been expensively refurbished so was a pleasant stay
• From Wellington/WLG we flew down to Queenstown/ZQN, where we spent 3 nights – stayed at the Hilton in Frankton, which I was a little apprehensive about re location but I needn’t have been. It was nice to be out of the madness of Queenstown itself, the property is very nice and there is a small café, a pub (which does pizzas, burgers, salads etc) and a normal restaurant on site (good food, only ok service). To get to town there is both a water taxi (NZD10 per person each way) and a hotel shuttle bus (free, but need to book your slot in the morning) – last shuttle back is at 11pm, which worked well for us. We booked in a sale but otherwise it seemed to consistently be very expensive, as are other properties around Queenstown. There is a Doubletree in the same complex providing another Hhonors option.
• We then flew back to Auckland for a final night, on Jetstar (other internal flights were on AirNZ); what I hadn’t realised was the fare including a checked bag that I booked also included a NZD10 per person voucher to spend onboard, which covered a drink and snack for the flight up to Auckland (the crew know about this via the iPad they use in flight, we didn’t get a paper voucher). Jetstar is an LCC but it was a perfectly pleasant and easy experience; AirNZ also operates a single cabin for their domestic routes, so I’d only particularly go with AirNZ if a *G to get lounge access, but the principal airports are all quite nice in any case with good coffee shop options in all of the ones we visited, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that.
• For our last night in Auckland we stayed in the Sofitel Viaduct Harbour, which was nice and in line with the standard I expect of Sofitels, but it was jam-packed full of cruise ship joiners and leavers as far as I can tell, which made it a bit manic. It’s also not in a very interesting location (it’s a newer office district) but it’s not a long walk to the downtown area with bars and restaurants, or take an Uber or taxi (taxis are expensive in NZ however). I expect the Hilton Auckland is not dissimilar to the Sofitel so may be worth staying in a more boutique style property to get a better feel for the city (I had booked Hotel deBrett, which looked interesting, and cost the same as the Sofitel). For us, on our last night in the country, it didn’t really matter too much.