2 weeks in South island?
 

We've been to NZ twice before and are itching to get back. But the most time we can take this summer (their winter,. I know...we had snow in Dunedin 3 years ago) is two weeks. I know that no one can sat it "worth it" or not for us. but if we just went to the south island, and revisited a few spots we loved - Christchurch, Akaroa, Nelson, Oamaru, Milford Sound - is this really doable or would we be rushing around too much. We don't care about Mt Cook, the glaciers or Queenstown.

Thanks for any input.

mztery,

I am no expert on NZ to be sure, but I do have some input for you. We are on the last day of our 2 week trip to the South Island (first trip to NZ), and have visited 3 of the 5 places on your list. And we are here in their winter, the same time you would be, and for the same amount of time.

Our itinerary was:

-- fly ACK to Q'Town
-- drive to Wanaka for 2 days
-- drive to Dunedin (actually Otago Peninsula) for 2 days
-- drive to Oamaru for 2 days
-- drive to CC for 1 day (see note below)
-- drive to Akaroa for 2 days
-- drive to Kaikoura for 2 days
-- drive to Blenheim for 3 days
-- fly back to ACK

NOTE: we stayed in CC for 1 night because the road to Akaroa was washed out due to flooding).

Here's what we found: way too much driving! Even though we scheduled 2 nights in each place to break up the "forced march" pace, some of those drives were near 6 hours in bad weather. That is of course, because we wanted to take pics and stop for some sights along the way. But nonetheless, that's a lot of car time.

I'm giving you our itinerary so you can see we tried to cover less territory than you are suggesting. Some of your hops might be covered by flying, but that has its own delays associated with the time of year as well. (as a matter of fact, our flight from ACK to Q'Town was delayed 5 hours due to a volcanic eruption).

So I think you would be served to try to do fewer locations, and enjoy each one more deeply. And be prepared for all weather conditions. For example, we did a very nice bike ride yesterday in the rain (with our rain gear--served us for hiking in the rain as well).

The upside of traveling this time of year is that you have the place to yourself! Many of the places we stayed were vacant except for us. Many of the often-crowded tourist spots (example: seals in Kaikoura) were empty and gorgeous.

I hope that gives you some useful info.

Happy travels,

LisaG

yeah I thought we had too many places. The decision will be whether to wait another year and take the 3 weeks. We love all the places on our list and I might feel too much like the airfare etc wasn't worth it to cut so many out,

mztery -

On our latest trip to the SI (also in winter), we spent three weeks, covering as far north as Nelson and as far south as the Catlins. We logged over 4,000 kms, spent anywhere from one to three nights in each location and....felt it was too much driving and not enough DOING. We should have known better as it was our 10th visit to the SI, but like everyone else, we wanted to cover as much ground as possible.

You can see all on your wish list with two weeks, but it may not be at the pace you'd like. Trimming Nelson (the point furthest north on your itinerary) would help tremendously, as the other places on your wish list are in the same general direction.

PS - Te Anau makes an ideal base for Milford and whole region

good points melnq8. We shortshrifted nelson last time and may have to skip it this time. And I'd forgotten, we stayed in Te Anau last trip and loved it.

Believe me, I understand the temptation to re-visit places you like, but since time is limited, how about skipping the places you visited before, and concentrating on new areas this trip?

If you regret giving short shrift to Nelson, maybe go back that way and explore Nelson/Abel Tasman/Motueka/Golden Bay/Marlborough Sounds, etc.

You could make a loop from Christchurch up SH 6 to Kaikoura, Blenheim, Picton/Marlborough Sounds, Nelson, then take SH 60 to Motueka, Golden Bay, then back down SH 60/6 to Murchison, Westport, Punakaiki and Greymouth, then across Arthur's Pass back to Christchurch and Akaroa.

What did you miss last time that you'd like to see, anything?

we actually missed Kaikoura both times due to weather.ARGGH. But I'm not sure i care about that.