NZ South Island Itinerary Review

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  KatieInAus on 28/12/2022 - 21:19

  +1

  I grew up over there so this is my backyard! 10 days is pretty good for that loop. If you want to do a hike, around the Milford Sound or Aoraki Mt Cook will be your best options in my personal opinion. Those are two of my favourite places on earth.
  Some of these can definitely be done multiple of in one day. Things like Fox/Franz dont take a lot of time unless youre stopping and doing a helicoptor tour of the glaciers. If youre heading up to Hokitika I would go the little bit further and go up to Punakaiki to see that.

  I would personally also look into Kaikoura, and Hanmer depending on if you are doing hot pools at Tekapo or not. The Hanmer hot springs are great but if youre going to do hot pools at tekapo I would just stick to that and look into Kaikoura for the whales, seals and seafood.

  Definitely look into the Dark Sky Project at Tekapo if you havent.

  Editing to say: 3 days in Queenstown is a ton. Unless you are spending it skiing (and at that time of year you wont) there is no point in spending so much time in such an expensive tourist trap :)

  • 

    lookingforTV on 28/12/2022 - 21:28

    Hey! Thank you so much for your comment! It's really helpful. We wouldn't do a helicopter tour or bungee jump of sorts. So based on your advise, would you say..

    1. Do 2 nights in Queenstown instead of 3 nights (we can change it still).

    2. Change the route to..

    • Hokitia
    • Greymouth
    • Punakaiki
    • Hanmer Spring
    • Christchurch

    If you don't mind me asking one more question, based on the edited Itinerary, how would you spread out your nights? Assuming we do both hikes in Mt Cook and Milford Sound, seems like a night each in these places is a good choice but not sure about the rest!

    • 

      KatieInAus on 28/12/2022 - 22:02

      +1

      Bare with me, its a long one.
      I would probably do 2/3 in Queenstown if you want to use it as a base while you do the Milford Sound hike. Wanaka is also only an hour away from there so that can also be done in that time.
      Queenstown - Haast - Fox - Franz is 5 hours’ worth of driving, it depends how long you want to stop and see things. If you’re not planning to do much here but sightseeing, you can leave early morning and meander up to Franz where I would stay a night there.
      From Franz to Hokitika is 2 hours, so you can spend mid-morning/lunch there. Heading up to Punakaiki is an hour so I would head up there, see the rocks/geysers etc and head back down through Greymouth. There’s honestly not a lot in Greymouth at all so you might be better off staying in Hokitika for a night so you can see the glow worms.
      Cut through Arthurs Pass from Hokitika and you'll be in Christchurch (where I am from specifically). Christchurch is a great place to use as a base for Hanmer or Kaikoura if you choose to go there too. We used to do day trips to both all the time, very handy. You could easily do 2-3 days in Christchurch, spending one going to Hanmer, one in Christchurch itself and then one to maybe go to Akaroa. Its just over the peninsula, famous for its tiny dolphins.
      Christchurch to Tekapo is 3-hour drive but you can base yourself there for the Mt Cook hike. You’d probably spend a couple of nights here, one for the hike in Mt Cook and the other doing Tekapo stuff (highly recommend Soak in the Stars).
      From there you could head back down to Queenstown and fly home.
      As a recap:
      2/3 Queenstown, 1 Franz, 1 Hokitika, 3 Christchurch, 2 Tekapo, 1 Queenstown if needed before flight.
      This gives you a couple of days extra to play with as well if you think you’ll like one area more than another. Happy to give other recommendations if you need, especially anything Christchurch related.

      • 

        lookingforTV on 28/12/2022 - 22:12

        Wow, I've been thinking incorrectly after hearing your advice. Maybe I should do 2 nights in Queenstown first instead of driving straight away if that's the case. I had no concept of using a place as a base, was thinking of motel/hotel of that particular town instead of driving back and forth. And, the base sounds so much better now I think about it.

        • Queenstown as base (3 nights) - do Milford Sound hike & Wanaka
        • Drive to Haast > Fox > Franz (1 night) - doing sight seeting
        • Franze > Hokitika > Punakaiki > back to Hokitika (1 night) (Glow worms)
        • Hokitika > Christchurch as base (3 nights) - do Hanmer on one day and Kaikoura on the other
        • Christchurch > Tekapo (2 nights) - hike in Mt Cook and Tekapo stuff
        • Back to Queenstown (x many nights depending on how the above went)

        Thank you so much!! This is fantastic! If we decide to stay in CHCH longer, what else would you recommend? :)

      • 

        lookingforTV on 25/01/2023 - 18:14

        +1

        @KatieInAus Hi Katie, me and my partner are going back home tomorrow after spending fabulous time following your suggestions. We would like to thank you again and would like to send a small gift voucher or something if you’d accept! Please PM me your email address ☺️

• 

  Remorhaz on 28/12/2022 - 22:05

  +1

  We just came back from a family holiday doing pretty much that loop in reverse (in two motorhomes)

  We flew in/out of Queenstown as well

  We did (places we stayed the night):

  Te Anau
  Milford
  Cromwell
  Mount Cook (we did the Hooker Lake walk (about 2.5-3hrs return - we actually ended up doing it later in the day we arrived and took a picnic dinner with us and ate a late dinner near the lake) and also the Tasman Lake walks the next morning)
  Lake Tekapo
  Lake Pearson (Arthurs Pass)
  Hokitika
  Fox Glacier
  Wanaka
  (near) Glenorchy

  So we didn't go across to Christchurch, nor up the east coast to say Hanmer/Kaikoura nor up the west coast to Punakaiki/Greymouth - we just couldn't see how we'd fit all that in and not be driving too much

  We did also spend a few hours at Arrowtown between Wanaka and Queenstown and also did half a day out to Glenorchy and back

  All up we spent 11 days doing the above (altho the first day (Queenstown -> Te Anau) was short since that was the day we flew in - we just picked up the motorhomes at the airport and headed to Te Anau so we could spend more time the next day stopping at multiple places on the way to Milford). Also at the end we spent 5 nights in Queenstown (which was probably much too long in hindsight) but I guess it was good to be able to relax a bit more after a busy 11 days travelling

  Note there's a fair bit of driving in even my more limited loop above (around 2200kms) and soooo many places you can stop and look on the way so do factor in time to do those things (e.g. some of them might be anywhere from 30mins to multiple hour walks, etc) - our longest driving day (Milford to Cromwell) was around 5 hours (and that was after doing the morning cruise on the sound) (Note for some trips Google Maps figures can't be trusted - it can take longer than it says - esp with lots of windy roads - then again we were driving motorhomes not cars - the roads however were all generally very good). The days are long too with sunset around 9:30PM

  • 

    lookingforTV on 28/12/2022 - 22:13

    Thank you so much for tips! How did you find the cruise on the sound? Was it worth it? What were your highlights that you'd recommend?

    • 

      Remorhaz on 28/12/2022 - 22:28

      The cruise was great - definitely worth it - there's at least half a dozen different companies that all base from the docks there - I'd recommend the ones with smaller boats (they have far less people crowded on board and can get closer to shore and under the waterfalls) - and apparently the early morning cruises are better than the midday ones - we used Mitre Peak Cruises (which had an 8:45AM cruise (also less crowded probably because the day trippers from Queenstown and Te Anau go on the midday cruise) - but that's only useful if you're staying at Milford overnight)

      Mount Cook was also fantastic (and we stayed the night there and a few of us got up early and walked into Tasman Lake before sunrise)

      The mountains, lakes and rivers are all quite amazing but you do get a little immune to them after 10 days of busy travelling

      Alas we had a LOT of rain for almost two days when we were on the west coast so the glaciers and Haast were a bust for us

• 

  RockyRaccoon on 29/12/2022 - 08:53

  If you havent booked accommodation, then make sure you have a vehicle that you can sleep in. The smaller Tarago type vans are ideal. We traveled in Autumn, and like you didn't want fixed accommodation limiting us if we found things better/worse etc. However we found accommodation hard to find in some places when we hadn't booked, so we could stop and sleep in various roadside places rather than stress out. Given its holiday time this may be harder than we found.

  Van rentals were very similar to car rental prices, although the van was probably a bit older. Great for Milford Sound where there are some camping grounds near the entrance, which meant we could do early morning boat ride, which as Remorhaz says was far better than midday when crowds arrive. Plus no hassles with travellers on road going back.

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  jean claude reuille on 13/01/2023 - 14:04

  I did this exact loop in 2004 in 10 days on a camper van. Plenty of time time to stop every few kilometers as this is indeed an amazingly beautiful journey. Enjoy !