AmyM33

Our family of four (daughters age 14 and 16) has the following itinerary for a three-week vacation in NZ in December. I would love any suggestions. We eloped to Queenstown 20 years ago, so some of our plans are to revisit some places we visited then:

1. Fly to Auckland then to Christchurch - Dec. 10
2. Rent car and drive to Mt. Cook, stay two nights (stargazing tour, hike)
3. From Mt. Cook, do three-day bicycle trip on Alps to Ocean trail, ending up in Omarama, then pick up rental car in Twizel (where we parked it before the cycling tour), and drive to Queenstown.
4. Four nights in Queenstown, including:
a. one day doing the drive-cruise-fly tour of Milford Sound
b. one day doing the Dart River jet boat and kayak
c. Tour of Gibbston Valley winery (where we got married)

5. We want to skip the glaciers - bad idea?
6. Drive from Queenstown to Punakaiki (with stop in Hokitika for lunch and glowworms)
7. To Nelson (2 nights) with Abel Tasman kayak day
8. Fly to Auckland, then Karikari, rent car
9. Four nights on Bay of Islands (Pahia) over Christmas (dolphin swim)
10. Two nights in Auckland - fly home Dec. 28

We are wondering whether we should fly to Dunedin rather than Christchurch, then go to Queenstown, and head up to Mt. Cook after that? Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Amy

Diamantina

Just a clarification:
8. Auckland to Kerikeri (where the airport is, as opposed to Karikari Peninsula, which is also in Northland)

You meant Alps to Ocean to Omarama, not Oamaru, correct? Because Alps to Ocean goes from Mt. Cook to Oamaru, but Omarama (also on the Alps to Ocean route) is close to Twizel. Oamaru is more interesting (Victorian Precinct, Steampunk HQ, Blue Penguin Colony, Bushy Beach Yellow Eyed Penguin hide, Riverstone Kitchen, Whitestone Cheese Factory).

As of now, you plan on spending your first night in Christchurch, correct? Then drive to Mt. Cook the next day?

If your family enjoys viewing wildlife then they would enjoy Dunedin/the Otago Peninsula, however, it is often wet at that time of year. Great time for viewing wildlife, though. I live in Dunedin.

The drive from Dunedin to Mt. Cook takes just under 4 hours. But there are many places to stop along the way, such as Moeraki Boulders, Oamaru,
Elephant Rocks.

If you plan on driving from Q'town to Punakaiki (drive takes 7 hours, 30 minutes without stops), you should absolutely stop in Fox or Franz Josef for one or two nights. Glaciers, walks, Lake Matheson, Okarito Beach and wetlands, West Coast Wildlife Centre (kiwis) Okarito Forest (night kiwi walk).

The Q'town to the glaciers drive has many curvy, narrow portions. You'll have to take extra care and you'll want to make scenic stops. There are also short walks you can do along here.

The glowworms in the free glowworm dell in Hokitika are not visible during the day. It's just a few minutes walk from the main road.

If you overnight in Fox, there's the Minnehaha glow worm walk, or in Franz Josef the Terrace Walk. I've not done either, but you can read about them here:
http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-rec...innehaha-walk/
http://www.glaciercountry.co.nz/oper...Minnehaha_Walk
http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-rec.../terrace-walk/

But if you walk the above tracks at night, you'll need torches/flashlights or headlamps (but turn them off when you get to the glow worms). We also have glow worms in Dunedin. There are glow worms in Punakaiki as well.

Diamantina

Hokitika Gorge is very much worth seeing.

Melnq8

<<From Mount Cook, do three-day bicycle trip on Alps to Ocean trail, ending up in Omarama, then pick up rental car in Twizel (where we parked it before the cycling tour), and drive to Queenstown.<<

I'm confused about this as well, unless you have transport to/from Twizel?

mlgb

You can see glaciers in Aoraki/Mt. Cook, so I don't think the hike to the glaciers on the west coast is necessary. In fact I might drop the entire west coast since there are no guarantees about west coast weather. Plus the sandflies. (especially if it is just for the glowworm dell since they are elsewehre).

Not knowing your budget, but could you fly to Nelson? Or to Wellington and take the ferry over?

We did have a long discussion here on Dunedin recently and I do like it. If you're going to drive between Dunedin and Queenstown there are a lot of routings. I like both the Southern Scenic (with a stayover in the Catlins)or going via Moeraki and the Pigroot and usually ending in Clyde or Cromwell if the day is too long.

It doesn't take that long to drive from Auckland to Pahia (maybe 3 hours) so I'm wondering about the need to do another flight. I always liked driving up the east side one way, taking Hwy 12 across to visit the Kauri at Waipoua Forest and back down the west side to join up with 1 again. If you have more time you could also continue up to Doubtless Bay and the Karikari (not Kerikeri) peninsula. The beaches up there are gorgeous. I spend one night at Cable/Coopers Beach.

tasmangirl

Plan 8 -what is the date here? If you think of driving the keep in mind everyone heads out of the city on 26 December so traffic could be really heavy going north.
Flying is an option.
Book a rental car as soon as possible in Paihia as there's probably not a huge choice of rental places.
Queenstown to Punakaiki is a very very long drive and I wouldn't recommend it. The West Coast has narrow roads that wind and twist and you can't just zap along. Stop and enjoy the area.