Hello! <BR>Two friends and I are going to spend 7 days in New Zealand (from September 15th to 21st). We know it is sort of a tight schedule, so we want to focus in the South Island, mainly Queenstown. We will reach New Zealand by there, coming from Brisbane, Australia. Our big concern is: our flight back to Brazil will depart from Auckland, on September 21st. <BR> <BR>We are looking for a reasonable and non-expensive way to reach Auckland. Someone could help us? <BR>Is it a good idea to rent a car? If so, how far and how many days can we expect to perform this road trip? <BR> <BR>Thanks a lot in advance! <BR>

you should fly directly from brisbane into queenstown, then rent a car, then fly from queenstown to auckland (about 1.5 hours by plane). otherwise you could spend all 7 days driving to auckland and not see anything!

Flying is the best option, it might be cheaper to fly into Dunedin or Christchurch and rent a car from there. It would take a day to drive from Auckland to Wellington,the ferry across to the South Island and the drive to Queenstown would be another 2 days. It would work out much cheaper and easier all round to fly. Check out www.freedomair.co.nz for the cheapest deals.

Hi Amauri <BR>You hae hd some good advise aleready but I would make a couple od suggestions. <BR>1.

Hi Amauri <BR>The system went down on my first attempt! <BR>You have had some good advise already but I would make a couple of suggestions. <BR>1.Do you have your trans-tasman flights booked yet, if so what is your NZ arrival point? This is very important in any planning. <BR>2. if you don't have flights then Freedom Air would be your cheapest option but they have limited flights from Brisbane weekly. Check out www.freedomair.co.nz Flights from Brisbane to Queenstown are expensive and it is usually cheaper to flight into Auckland and then take a cut-price fare to Christchurch and rental car from there. <BR>3. It is possible to drive from Auckland to Wellington in one day, takes about 7 hours nonstop driving at 100 km/hr. If you want to see anything then I would recommend 2 days with a stop at either National Park or Taupo and take the opportunity to see Tongariro National Park. <BR>4. To drive from Queenstown to Picton once again you can do it in one day nonstop but I would recommend that you took two days and enjoy the trip. Stop at Kaikoura the night and go whale watching the next day or visit the wineries of Blenheim before going to the ferry at Picton. <BR>5. If you have now taken up 4 days then the remaining 2/3 days will be plenty to spend round Queenstown. <BR>You will have seen a lot of NZ and had time to enjoy at least some of it. <BR>I hope that you enjoy our country and your holiday. <BR>Kerry