Me and my gf decided to go to Wellington for a night just to get out and travel.
There was a nice special deal for flights between Christchurch and Wellington at 29$ per one way ticket. Since I always wanted to do the scenic route between CHC and WLG we decided to take the train to Picton then the ferry to Wellington, stay a night and come back by plane using one of the cheap fares.

First off, the train and ferry is quite expensive coming in at 99$ one way.
The trip started early morning (7:30) and we finally arrived in WLG at 16:30 (vs 45 minutes to do it by plane) so it's not for people in a hurry. The scenery however was very very nice to watch go by and I took quite a lot of pictures. Food service (at decent prices) were available on both the train and on the ferry it was a bit more expensive. Both will accept credit cards for payments.

On the way the train manager informed of the various sights we could see and it was a quite informative trip.

I would recommend it for people that want to see the landscape and that don't have anything to do for a day. The ride is quite enjoyable and relaxing. However I probably won't do it again unless it's a cheaper alternative then taking the plane as it is quite a long trip.

Avoid the coffee in the train station at CHC, it tasted like vomit.

On the way back I got a deal at 29$ on Qantas (after airNZ said that you have to be a NZ resident). The flight was 45minute and we got hot chicken pies and water. They also offered seconds which I declined. 733, nothing spectacular, bumpy ride as usual.

The gallery is available there:

http://snell.darklands.cx/gallery/nz04

When the Amazing Race was on in the U.S. two years ago, they did a segment where the travelers had to take their motorhomes on the ferry between Wellington and Picton. The scenery looked spectacular, so that was one thing I wanted to do when I was over in 2002. I just did it as a day trip out from Wellington, turning around about an hour after I got there, as I was visiting with friends in Wellington (he's the manager of the Ibis there). Where did you stay the one night? Have you been to the world-class Te Papa museum there before? I hope to get back there next year and do some serious touring.

We stayed at the Wildlife House hostel (been there in August 2003 too) and it was quite alright. As for the Te Papa, we did go separately before we met and didn't see the point of going again. It is a good museum, but we're not into museum. We would have gone if the weather was bad, but it was sunny and *gasp* not windy.

I'd suggest to do the Wellington-Christchurch trip on ferry/train instead of chc/wlg as the schedule is better, but we couldn't find cheap fares on the plane to go to wlg on the dates we needed.

Good report! I did the daytime trip from AKL WLG which was enjoyable but wouldn�t bother doing again. The scenery in the South Island is just spectacular.

About the only people who travel by train these days are overseas tourists with air travel internally just so affordable. Train travel is not that cheap!

Good report Nuitari ^ ^

Agree the train/ferry thing is good to see some nice countryside - as you point out at a price more than air and of course much longer.

I think you were misled on Air NZ specials only being for NZers. They wont put them on the same itinerary as an international ticket so you wont get any benefit of rebooking if there are delays affecting the inbound/outbound international sectors, but AFAIK you can still purchase separately.

There are nice bakeries/cafes in Picton near the ferry terminal if you want to avoid paying higher rates on the ferry.

For those in WLG (Wellington) just wanting to experience the ferry, there is a day trip option which includes a nice wine tour in Marlborough - which I've sampled before, hic, very nice.

The train between AKL and WLG is much longer and while some bits have interesting scenery is generally not as good as the CHC to Picton (or CHC to Greymouth) route(s).

I did the AKL-WLG train last August and enjoyed it immensely

http://snell.darklands.cx/gallery/NZ <-- some pictures of that trip.


When I tried to book the website refused my Canadian credit card and told me to do the booking on the USA/Canada website. I forgot up to how much it went, but right now the airnz.co.nz site is at 55$/way. On the Canadian website the cheapest is 277.88$.

I wanted to do AKL-ROT by train, but it's discontinued and I don't like going by bus. I'll probably just take the plane direct from CHC, but flights are only on Friday and Monday :/

New Zealand is one my favorite places in the world, your report brings back fond memories.


When I was in NZ last year I bought several domestic tickets on Air New Zealand. Some of them were restricted to NZ citizens but I had no problem buying them on www.airnz.co.nz with a US credit card.