4 days in NZ
 

Hello all,

I hope some one can help me in making my plans for my trip to NZ. I have a business trip taking me to Christchurch in June this year. I have booked my out going flight from Auckland so that i get a chance to drive up to Auckland from Christchurch. I know i may have been too optimistic but i booked the flights without figuring my actual plans.

However i would like to see the Franz Josef Glaciers or Mount Cook before i start driving up. During winter which one would be a better choice. I understand if i drive this is going to be a 20-30 hr drive approx in 4 days depending on weather conditions and if i stop to look at something else.

What other spectacular locations can i view during my drive.

My plan at this point is to drive from ChristChurch to Franz Josef or Mount Cook depending on weather conditions and what would you travel enthusiasts consider a better site.
Then drive up through Greymouth and go to Kahurangi National Park if I have time.
Take the Ferry from Picton, spend some time in Wellington possibly see Weta Caves or Hobbiton
Go up to Waitomo Glow worm Caves and then drive to Auckland and fly home.

My question is

a) Is this possible during the month of June?
b) Are there any must sees that i can do during this drive up
c) How bad is the weather in North/South Islands especially around Mount Cook or by the Glaciers
d) which one should i see?


All the help will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you,

Zack

Hi Zack -

No offense, but I think your plans are wildly unrealistic.

The drive from Christchurch to Picton is conservatively five hours. The ferry crossing takes three hours. The drive from Wellington to Auckland takes about 7.5 hours.

Christchurch to the glaciers is conservatively five hours...in the opposite direction from Picton. Christchurch to Mt Cook is conservatively four hours and separated by a mountain range from the glaciers. Which is better depends on who you ask - I prefer the West Coast. Both can be pretty miserable in poor weather - think serious rain.

I just don't see this happening, especially in June when days are very short (gets light at 8 am and dark at 4:30 or so) and weather very unpredictable. Storms are common in the winter months and one of these can put the kibosh on plans in a heartbeat, as there are only so many roads in the first place.

Agree re very unrealistic. No chance of getting over to franz / fox glacier. and lake tekapo which looks towards mt cook is about 300km south of christchurch and tasman glacier another 2hr return drive past that.

My bet would be to head west from christchurch to methven / mt hutt and from here then return and start heading north. You could go via hamner springs if you have time for the detour. the coast road from christchurch to picton via kaikoura is picturesque.

North from Wellington to Auckland cross your fingers that its not snowing on desert road as if it is you're pretty screwed until the roads reopen. the detour would be massive. Through the central plateau (desert road) its pretty nice / baron but with the mountains as a back drop. Taupo will be a nice destination to stay a night before driving 3-3.5hrs north to auckland.

Check out the rental car agencies who let you return cars to auckland. They usually give you 48hrs per island…much cheaper..

Is there any way you can change your return flight to leave christchurch NOT auckland? The drive from Wellington to Auckland is very plain asides from the central plateau. If you did this it is realistic to get to lake tekapo / see mt cook…

Good luck

what you could do is to head over to Queenstown, spend your few days there, then fly to Auckland.

Thank you for your help and your feedback. It is confusing considering how Google Maps plans out the driving time. It looks a doable and then getting your feedback defintely makes me doubt what is possible.

based on Google Driving - i came up with this schedule

a) (1st day) drive from christchurch - go to Franz Joseph Glacier (stay the night)
b) (2nd) hike 1/2 of the day
c) (2nd) start drive to Picton; as much as possible / stay the night close to Picton
d) (3rd) Ferry in the morning across the Straits
e) (3rd) Spend some time in Wellington
f) (3rd) Drive up north to Waitomo Caves - some distance at least
g) (4th) Drive to Waitomo Caves - visit Waitomo
h) (4th) Drive to Auckland
i) (5th) spend time in Auckland and flyout that evening

Sounds stupid considering the amount of travel involved. BTW I am used to driving long distances and do have another driver as well.

The other option is that I may just stay in the south island and then fly one way to Wellington or Auckland if weather turns to worse.


Thanks in advance for your feedback

Zach

Sounds stupid considering the amount of travel involved.>>

not only sounds stupid, Zach, it IS stupid. Barmy, in fact.

we received a load of advice here about how long it takes to get from one place to another in NZ and thought that we had taken it into account, but a few days into our trip we realised that we had completely underestimated how tiring the driving would be [and there are two of us to share the driving too, and we are used to driving long distances both at home and abroad] so we took advantage of the free cancellation terms on our hotel bookings and changed our plans so as to cut back on it.

We were so glad that we did - i think that we would have been exhausted if we'd gone through with it all.

option 2 looks infinitely preferable.

Hi zac, I love driving too. Your plan is doable so long as you LOVE driving and the weather is good. As a local I am completely happy and grew up driving NZ roads so understand single lane roads, left hand side of road etc, hidden speed cameras etc...this can add time.

Franz go to lake Matheson first thing in the morning if it's a clear day then go to the glacier face. Make sure your drive to punakaiki is in sunlight and stop there for 30mins before continuing to picton (rest of the drive can be at night and hope it's not raining. Even as a local I was forced to stop and stay the night in reefton because it was raining so hard it was simply unsafe to continue.)

Plan to be driving at least 7-10hrs per day.

Still like the idea of staying in South Island and flying north...

i have now checked my trusty NZ Road Atlas pub. Pathfinders [bought for NZ$27 from a garage on our first day in NZ and worth every penny] which has a very handy map showing not just distances between major towns and cities but also driving times. I have found these to be pretty accurate, certainly not on the optimistic side, but that was in summer in generally good driving conditions.

so i have copied your itinerary with the appropriate driving times. i have also put all the activities on one day together so that you can really see what you are proposing to do on each day.


Day 1 drive from Christchurch [arrival time? time to pick up car?] - go to Franz Joseph Glacier - 7 hour drive (stay the night)

Day 2 - hike 1/2 of the day - takes you to at least noon and after your hike you might want something to eat. Say leave FJ at 1pm. start drive to Picton - 7 hours; as much as possible / stay the night close to Picton

Day 3 Ferry in the morning across the Straits [are you going to book this? if you don't know where you'll be staying you'll need to be conservative with the time you book. Crossing takes 2 1/2 hours plus time to unload, say 3 hours. expect not to be in Wellingtom until noon at the earliest. Spend some time in Wellington - "Drive up north to Waitomo Caves"

The only Waitomo caves i can seee on the map are near Otorohanga near Hamilton. if those are the ones, it looks like an 8 hour drive - so the most you'd be able to do I suggest is half of it, leaving another 4 hours for the next day. and this doesn't leave a lot of time for seeing Wellington.

Day 4 - Drive to Waitomo Caves, say 4 hours - visit Waitomo - Drive to Auckland - another 3 hours.

Day 5 - spend time in Auckland and flyout that evening

I honestly don't understand why you would want to inflict this upon yourselves.

<I honestly don't understand why you would want to inflict this upon yourselves.>

Me either.

Where are you arriving from Zack? Have you taken into consideration fatigue and jet lag? Are you familiar with driving on the left?

Melnq8 - you know that on our NZ tour last year, despite your excellent advice, [which we didn't take enough notice of] we still had what turned out to be an over-ambitious itinerary, which involved 2 back to back 6 hour drives - from Franz Joseph to Wanaka followed by Wanaka to Te Anau the next day. fortunately, after a couple of days driving in the NI we realised what a mistake we had made and ended up doing a day trip to Doubtful Sound and then Te Anau from QT which was much more manageable. And we only did that after 3 nights in Wanaka and another two in QT so we were well rested.

I cannot imagine doing all the driving that the OP has in mind even in a week let alone on consecutive days. Apart from anything else, it leaves no time for, well, anything else! and what's the point of that?

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

In saying this however the scenery for the drive is spectacular in most parts . I'm a little crazy and have happily taken a 2hr driving detour up Arthur's pass to the township while on my way to franz josef from westport. Also taken the detour up to mt cook / Tasman glacier when driving from queenstown to Christchurch so if you enjoy driving it is doable. Just depends on the motivation...

And yes waitomo caves are where you mentioned.

Check out bluebridge ferries to get across cook strait too. The interislander ferries have had lots of cancellations recently with propeller issues and staff sickness...

Just depends on the motivation..>>

and the weather, and number of daylight hours.

talking of ferry cancellations, we were booked on the interislander leaving at 2pm, but when we got there, they had postponed it for 3 hours; they didn't inform us, though they had our cell phone no, "as they only do that for OZ & NZ numbers". How much would a text cost them?

So we went back to Te Papa, explored the maritime museum, and pootled about until it was time to drive to the ferry again. Of course the delay meant that we didn't get off the ferry until about 8pm, and we still had to drive to Nelson where we were booked into a motel, where reception shut at, you've guessed it, 8pm. The very kind owner said he'd wait til we arrived, and advised us to take the longer but less circuitous route from Picton. Of course we took the other one, and whilst it may be scenic in the daytime, in the gathering dusk it was at best "interesting". This was in early December, in good weather conditions when we were not tired from driving as we'd spent the whole day in Wellington.

I cannot imagine doing that sort of driving at night in the winter after a day at the wheel.

I really greatful for all the advice i have received. Do i like to inflict such pain on myself, i guess i do. Let's just put it this way, this isn't my first crazy trip like this. I have planned similar trips in US, Europe, Australia and S. America in my travels for work. Have avoided driving myself in Asia though and opted for train/chauffeur driven taxis or vans. There will be no jet lag involved since i am going to be in Christchurch for a few days prior to my vacation. Planned dates of travel are June 7 to June 11.

Generally my goal is to see certain locations and enjoy the drive/view (stop to take it in) and then keep on driving. I love driving. Like i said before, i know it is stupid and i may be dealing with crappy weather, road closings and then we will change our plans accordingly. Hopefully it will work out. If it does not.......

Either way i will keep you all posted.

We all have different travel styles, so only you know what works for you. Please report back to let us know how it went. Drive safely Zack.

Drive safely Zack.

indeed!