Elaine

In March, my husband and I will be spending 17 days (including the day of arrival) in New Zealand before going on to Australia. Because it is the beginning of fall with possibly cooler temperatures, I thought that in order to follow the weather, we should tour the South Island first, beginning with Christchurch, working our way down the east coast and back up the west coast before crossing over to the North Island and then on to Sydney. I would really appreciate some itinerary advice on this. <BR> <BR>Also, I would love to stay at a sheep farm somewhere along the way and would like to know of a good one (for under NZ$150 per night, if possible). <BR> <BR>If anyone can recommend some good bed and breakfasts both in the South Island, and in or around Rotorura, I would be most grateful for that information too. Thank you vey much.

Elaine

Elaine: Run a search on New Zealand posts as I have put a number of them up which give quite a few details of a recommend intinerary. Here, briefly, is my recommendation. Spend two days in Christchurch touring the city, the botanical gardens, and the Antarctic center at the airport. I would then rent a car and drive the Mt. Cook and spend a night there. If you like to ski, try skiing the Tasman Glacier or go heliskiing (both with Alpine Guides) or, if you are not skiiers, I would spend the day hiking and taking a helicopter flight up to the glacier. I would recommend staying at the Hermitage Hotel run by South Pacific Hotels and ask for a room in the 800 wing as they have the best views. After Mt. Cook I would drive to Queenstown and plan on spending three days there. One day should be spent doing a day trip to Milford Sound. I would recommend going with Fiordland Travel and taking their bus/boat/plane trip which includes a beautifl drive to the sound (with a brief stop in Te Anau), then a cruise on the sound and then you fly back from the sound to Queenstown over the southern alps. The next day I would spend taking advantage of the many outdoor activities--I would recommend the triple challenge of jetboatr on the Shotover River, taking a helicpoter ride and then hoping into a white water raft--it's blast! If you are little crazy, you can do the bungee jump as well. The final day I would spend partly in the small town of Arrowtwon (an old mining village) and then in Queenstown itself. After Queenstown, I would back track a little and head over the mountains to Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. Although not as majestic as the Tasman glacier at Mount Cook--it is very interesting to be able to hike right up to the face of the galcier and to see it. (you can also hike on the galciers with Alpine Guides. After a night in Franz Josef, I would head north through Hokitika to Abel Tasman Nationa Park for an evening and then to Picton and take the ferry to Wellington (you can pick up a car on the other side.) I would spend a day in Wellington and then start driving north to Lake Taupo. We enjoyed the national parks around lake Taupo as well as the Huka Falls. A nice day trip is to Napier which has a wonderful collection of Art Deco buildings and many wineries. I would then head up the road to Rotorua. WE found Rotorua to be incredibly overrated and overrun with tourists--nonetheless, there are some interesting sites including the theramal reserve. We did a homestay outsidde of Rotorua at a wonderful place called Te Ana. The owners were Brian and Heather Oberer. The have a regular house with a cottage in the back and they have their own farm. They are very gracious hosts and Brian will be plesaed to show you around the farm (which has sheep among other things.) Heather's home cooking is wonderful--we had venison and lamb and both were fantasic. I wil try to locate their number and address for you. I would also plan on a day in Auckland checking out the Auckland Museum, Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World and Antarctic Experience and the other sites in the city. If you have any time left, you might want to consider a day or tow in Pahia up north in the Bay of Islands for some wonderful sailing or maybe the Cormandal Penninsula which is closer to Auckland. In addition to a month in New Zealand, we also travelled for a month is Australia visiting Sydeny, Canberra, Ciarns, Alice Springs, Ayer's Rock, Adelaide, Kangaroo Island, Melbourne and Tasmania so if you have any questions about Australia or any other questions about N.Z. (i.e. places to stay etc.) feel free to do a follow up posting here or e-mail me directly. N.Z. is one of the most spectacular palces on earth (Australia's not too shabby either!) so have a wonderful trip! Hans

Sharon

Elaine, <BR>Hans had a great time obvioulsy - can I suggest that you can spend a couple of days in the Coromandel Peninsula - 2 hours south east of Auckland - following part of the Pacific Coast Highway from which ever direction you are coming from. <BR>South Island has best Autum Colours - so my thoughts would be travel the other way N Is then S Is - just pack good warm jacket and some warm underwear that you can layer on and off - as the weather can change every 5 minutes in NZ. <BR>Will email you direct with a couple of ideas as no advertising allowed on this site - which I respect. My email is <BR>[email protected] <BR>Regards <BR>Sharon

Denise Campbell

Elaine, <BR> <BR>Hans suggestions are excellent, although obviously you may need to fine tune it based on what your interests are. You may like to visit : <BR>www.experiencenz.com and use the "itinerary planner" to get an idea of which regions will cater for your interests. <BR>I have a number of suggestions that come to mind for accommodation in the way of Farmstays/Homestays, and would be more than happy to assist you with your arrangements. <BR>Regards <BR>Denise Campbell <BR> <BR>

jennifer

A comment on one of the posts - we just got back from NZ south island, and did stop at the Antarctic museum. If I had to do over, wouldn't spend the time doing this. Otherwise, many of the tips look interesting. We did a loop around the island - Christchurch (see the Botanical gardens -- fantastic), to Kaikoura (seal watching), to Puntakaiki (pancake rocks and blowholes on the ocean, really beautiful), to Franz Josef glaciers, to Wanaka (Mt. Aspiring park has a beautiful 3-4 hour roundtrip hike to the Rob roy glacier), to Queenstown for a day (see the bungee jumpers, tour a winery), to Milford Sound (can take a boat trip or do sea kayaking in the sound), to Mt. Cook (after seeing all the other alpine scenery, Mt. Cook was pretty , but unremarkable). We stayed at a beatiful spot called Braemar Station right on a turquoise lake about and hour or 2 from Mt. Cook. Ended up again in Christchurch. Good luck on your trip!

Elaine

Thanks Jennifer. Was the seal watching tour in Kaikoura worth taking? Did you also see dolphins? I have been debating the merits of taking a side trip from Christchurch for that, before we head across to Mt. cook and then down to Dunedin.

Jo

Hi Elaine, <BR>For accommodation in Queenstown, have a look at http://www.zqn.co.nz/index.html <BR>or around New Zealand, http://www.friars.co.nz. <BR>Regarding Milford Sound, the coach/cruise/fly option is the most expensive, and can turn into a very long day of sitting if the weather prevents you flying out of Milford - you leave Queenstown at 7am and wouldn't return on the bus until 7.30pm. We often recommend our guests take the Milford Scenic Flights trip, which combines a flight to Te Anau, 2 hour bus ride to Milford, cruise on the Sound, then flight out of Milford again. <BR>Happy planning, <BR>Jo

Jennifer

Elaine, I guess its a matter of preference about the seals. I enjoyed it, and it was interesting, but I don't know if its worth the drive up there and back just to do it. There is a park of sorts on the coastline, and you can walk out on the rocks, and the seals are out there also on the rocks, so you can get quite close to them. We didn't see any dolphins. There may be other ways of seeing the seals, such as boat trips, etc., where you'd also see the dolphins, but we didn't do it because of time constraints. It was a very pretty area, however, and I liked that fact that it was not real "touristy". I have a picture of the coast there with one of the seals I could email you (if I can get my scanner to scan a slide) if that would help. If you do go, there is a great restaurant in Kaikoura called Finz. It overlooks the harbor, and had delicious meals, reasonably priced.

Kevin

Great posts! We just saw the article in the November Conde Nast on "Great Drives", which had the Christchurch/South Island loop as #1 in the world. So we have changed our 17 days in Australia in January to include 5 days on the south island... and the drive is basically the loop mentioned by Hans and company.

Hans

Kevin--smart decision! I saw the same article. The only additional suggestion would be to try to fit at least a day in Queenstown into the trip. Although it is touristy as indicated in the article, it is a lot of fun and a great palce to takein some of the extreme sports available in N.Z. If you need specific recommendations, feel free to post a follow up or e-mail me directly. Have a great trip! Hans

Alexandra

Hi, <BR> <BR>We just came back from NZ and had a great time. <BR> <BR>We stayed in Kaikoura at a great B&B. The hostess is a very nice woman (Judith) The B&B is called Nikau - Inn with a View, and it truly has a great view of the Mountain Range, she also bakes fresh bread every morning and has homemade jams! (You can find her website by searching the internet) <BR>Going back to the reason of my post: I enjoyed the visit to Kaikoura very much. Specially because it is not very "touristy". We took the "swim with the dolphins tour" and it was great. We saw about 30 dolphins, some of them with babies. Unfortunately they didn't get close enough to the boat for us to swim with them, but we had the opportunity to see them swimming around. The whale watching was also great! <BR>I think that if you are interested in marine mammals is a nice place to go. They have 2 dolphin tours per day and about 3 or 4 whale watching tours per day so could fit both tours in one day. <BR>You can also take a walk trhough a path next to the town and go to the seal colony which is on the beach. <BR>There is also dolphin watching from Greymouth (West Coast) and a few seal colonies in other places. We saw a seal colony and Yellow Crested Penguins in Martin's Bay at the end of the Hollyford Track (Which was the best thing we did in NZ!!) We also stayed at a FarmStay in the Franz Josef Glacier and took the Full day hike. You should take the full day or the heli-hike in the glaciers, the half day is too much effort for little reward... <BR> <BR>We reserved our farmstay through one of the Department of Conservation tourist info centers (which are located in every tourist town or attraction). <BR> <BR>Enjoy your trip! <BR> <BR>Alexandra