The South Island is nuts. Consistently gorgeous, wild, woolly (very sparsely populated) — if you have a vision from a helicopter in Lord of the Rings of incredible NZ, you’re imagining in the South Island. We can’t recommend it enough, especially Queenstown which we completely fell in love with.
The North Island is very attractive, and there are large swaths of it we didn’t see, especially the far north “Bay of Islands” which many travellers we met said was quite pretty, and quite a few people mentioned Coromandel only 1–2 hours from Auckland. That being said … it was a bit anticlimactic after the South. Wellington is a cute city; maybe Auckland has a charm, but mostly Auckland seems just kinda “big city” (with a great harbor to be sure, worth a day)
Trip Overview
| Day | Transit | Tours/Sites | Where We Slept | Fav Restaurants |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1–2 Christchurch | Arrive Christchurch morning of Day 1 (SFO non-stop) | LOTR Day tour to Edoras 9am-5pm. Totally excellent. | Christchurch (The George) | Manu one night — *AMAZING*, great bar. King of Snake was also excellent second night. |
| 3–4 Franz Josef | 755–1245 Train Christchurch to Greymouth Drive to Franz Josef (2.5 hours) | Lake Matheson hike — amazing Westland Tai Poutini NP guide (we did less of this) Okarito lagoon (kayak tour) — we hoped to do but weather stunk. | Franz Josef (Te Waonui) | Te Waonui for 630, 5 course- included — solid, not amazing. Blue Ice for another dinner — lots of “ok” places in town, nothing too amazing. It’s sorta a mountain village, with the food one would expect. |
| 5–8 Queenstown | 5:30 hour drive Christchurch to Queenstown | Rippon winery near Wanaka — amazing views Romantic Things to do in Queenstown 10:45am-430 Central Otago Wine Tour with Appellation Wine Tours 8:45am-2pm:: Queenstown - Air Milford New Zealand: Milford Sound Return Flight and Nature Cruise Lots of nerdy Lord of the Rings sightseeing — Queenstown heights, Ithilien, Glenorchy We skipped Shotover Jet and bungee jumping | Queenstown (Rosewood Matauri) | There are several Wanaka restaurants on lake for lunch en route: Tripadvisor Lake Bar; Wineglass cafe; Speights Ale House In Queenstown: Toast & Oak is new (2024?) and *amazing* |
| 9–10 Kaikoura | Morning flight (1:10) to Christchurch 2.5 hour drive to Kaikoura | Point Kean viewpoint along way (seals). AMAZING. Whale Watch Kaikoura — about 3 hours 230 Seal Kayak Kaikoura private tour | Kaikoura (Hapuku Lodge) | Dinner at hotel |
| 11–12 Abel Tasman | Drive to Windhover (3.5 hours) Visit Jens Hansen (ringmaker) on the way | 08:30am: Abel Tasman - Abel Tasman Sea Shuttle: Abel Tasman Cruise, Walk or Relax KT”s Takeaways in Motueka? TA Smoking Barrel for donuts on the way that morning | Windhover, was The Waters | Jellyfish and Apple Shed in Mapua were both lovely. |
| 13–15 Wellington | Drive to Nelson (45 mins) Flight to Wellington (40 mins) | Te Papa (NZ National Museum) — incredible, well worth it. Night tour: Wellington - Zealandia-Karori Sanctuary: Zealandia by Night Tour • Private Lord of the Rings Half Day Tour (we wouldn’t recommend our tour company) Harbourside market was fun One half day with Kaewa Tours: A Taste of Wairarapa - Wairarapa Wine Delights Tour | Ohtel Wellington | Charley Noble on the water -one of our most memorable meals of the trip. If you like steak, this is one of the best we’ve ever had. Ombra solid Ortega Fish Shack was very good. |
| 14–15 Rotorua | Flew Wellington to Rotorua | Taiao Adventures: Kayaking Glow Worm Tour Glow Worm Kayak Tour (TA) — we were supposed to do that, one of us was sick we do we didn’t. 11:00am: Rotorua - Waimangu Volcanic Valley: Waimangu Thermal Reserve Self Guided Walk and Boat Cruise — very worth it One evening: Rotorua - Te Puia: Te Po - Indigenous Evening Experience with Hangi Dinner Buffet | Rotorua Black Swan | We ate at hotel one night; the other was the “Indigenous Evening Buffet” at Te Puia |
| 16–18 Auckland | We drove from Rotorua to Auckland | Hobbiton on the way One day in Auckland: Waiheke Island - Ananda Tours: Private Gourmet Food & Wine Tour | Auckland - Hotel Britomart | The Grove 715 — outstanding dinner Baduzzi TA Hello Beasty 7:00. 12m walk |
| Day 19–22 | Auckland->Cooks | Pacific Resort Aitutaki |
Highlights
- Duration: 2025–01–01 to 2025–01–30
- Locations Visited: 11
- Best For: Adventure seekers, culture enthusiasts
Planning Your Trip
For questions/comments, email kevin.thompson@gmail.com.
This document can be found at https://bit.ly/4cD3jag.How We Did It
See these maps:
- Map — Kevin used this to get oriented on “things I might want to see”
- Sorta map of Southern Island Route
- Sorta map of Northern Island Route
- We loved this couple (I think from Auckland) and their YT videos, e.g. Daneger & Stacey South Island Top 10, and many others, esp in Queenstown. More informative, less “gosh my girlfriend looks hot in a bikini” than most YT travel videos.
We hired a company First Light Travel to “organize it”. I have no complaints per se — they scheduled a lot of it so it was less hassle for us, they had the hotels and ferries ready and picked very solid hotels — but I think we probably overpaid for it. The fact is, most of NZ you drive — things are spread out, our route from Christchurch to Auckland is like driving from Portland to San Diego, but on 2-lane (1 each way) roads where you’re driving 45 MPH not 70.
Our original itinerary had us driving “all” of it, except for the flight from Nelson (South Island) to Wellington (North). First Light said the ferry had been having lots of issues in recent years, and the weather was unpredictable — but we also have friends who recently did it and said the 3-hour trip was lovely. Not sure.
We also chose to be semi-lazy and fly 2 routes to save driving:
- From Queenstown to Christchurch — this was/is still controversial to us. We saved 6 hours driving this way, but missed Mt Cook area which may have been a mistake, given how much we came to realize how gorgeous the Southern Alps are. I wish I’d done the Hooker Valley track.
- We flew from Wellington to Rotorua, skipping a 5.5 hour drive. This one seems more worth “flying” — but we missed driving by Mt Doom, the volcanic park on the North Island. Not sure whether that was a big miss or not, but there’s plenty of driving.
- This of course also meant we rented a car 4 separate times on our trip — you may or may not decide that’s not worth saving some driving.
Explore each location below to learn more about our journey.
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