10 Day south island Honemoon Itenary
 

We are planning our honeymoon for 10 days in the south islands. We came up with the itenary as per the link http://www.newzealand.com/int/trips-...-christchurch/
We need to know if this is perfect or shall we change/modify something. We do not want it to be to hectic but at the same time want to see best of NZ. Please suggest.

Hello - great you have picked NZ for your honeymoon. It's not perfect as it's too fast with a lot of 1 night stays and a lot of driving. 14 days is better for this South Island loop trip.
Check the drive times on maps.aa.co.nz. Google has no idea of road conditions here and they are always underestimated.
Day 1 Christchurch
Day 2 Tranz Alpine train night in Greymouth, hire car
Day 3 Greymouth to Franz Josef
Day 4 Explore the glaciers/heli hike FJ overnight
Day 5 Franz Josef to Wanaka
Day 6 Wanaka to Queenstown
Day 7 Explore Queenstown
Day 8 Milford Sound organised tour -stay Queenstown
Day 9 Explore more of Queenstown
Day 10 fly back to Christchurch
This misses out Mt Cook but with 10 days you may have to chose between Mt Cook or the West Coast/glaciers.
If you do an organised tour of Milford Sound all the stress is removed for you. It's a very long drive.
There's such a lot to do in Queenstown - romantic walks in the Gardens, steamship lake cruise, Gondola ride and wonderful wineries and restaurants it would be a lovely area for a honeymoon rather than spending all day in the car driving.

It's a very fast paced itinerary and leaves absolutely no wiggle room for bad weather or contingencies (don't let those spectacular photos on that link fool you, the South Island's weather is quite unpredictable).

One night stays are a pain in the butt - by the time you get sorted, it's time to pack up and leave. One night stays don't allow you even a full day to explore an area as you'll be driving between locations on the same day.

You don't mention where you're traveling from, what time of year you plan to visit or if you plan on driving yourself.

If coming a fair distance (which most people do) you need to factor in things like jet lag and travel fatigue.

If you plan to drive and you're unfamiliar with driving on the left, you need to factor that in as well. The last thing you want to do in get off a long flight and hop into a car to drive on the left in an unfamiliar country.

I wouldn't stay in Greymouth. Punakaiki or Hokitika are better options. The train goes through several tunnels, driving is more scenic plus you'll save on the car rental.

What time of year are you coming?

that itinerary is a bit weird, for example on Day 9 it has you driving from QT to Mount Cook via Oamaru in about 3 hours; in fact it clearly [and sensibly] goes nowhere near Oamaru at all. [not because it's not a nice place but because it's a very long way!]

I think you can do a lot better planning it yourself with help from people like Mel.

I am travelling to Christchurch on 23rd Jan and leaving on 2nd Feb Morning. I am from India so left side drive is no problem for me. I researched about it more and this is what I came up with:
Day 1: Spend in Christchurch.
Day 2: Transalpine train to Greymouth and then pick car and travel to Fox Glacier.
Day 3: Spend day in Fox glacier and Franz joseph.
Day 4: Drive to Wanaka and spend night there.
Day 5: Drive from Wanaka to Queenstown.
Day 6: Queenstown - Milford Sound - Queenstown cruise package.
Day 7: Queenstown (activities and relaxing)
Day 8: Drive to Mount cook and spend night for star gazing.
Day 9: spend day in mount cook.
Day 10: Start early and drive to Christchurch via Lake Tekapo.

Is it more reasonable or can I tweak it more? I want it to be balanced with not to much rush and tiring but at the same time cover best of NZ. I also wish to cover Hanmer Springs..anyway I can add it?

>>>on Day 9 it has you driving from QT to Mount Cook via Oamaru<<<

I don't see Oamaru, but I do see Omarama in the description for that day. And you do pass Omarama via the shortest/quickest route.

deSchenke - my bad. blame the fact that I was watching the rugby and posting at the same time.