Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Help with NZ 8 day itinerary

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Help with NZ 8 day itinerary

Help I am having problems with our itinerary for an 8 day south island tour of NZ. We are renting a car and I feel like if i had one more day I could make things work but that is not possible. So far I have: Day 1: Start in Christchurch and drive to Franz Josef Day 2: Explore Franz Josef then drive to Wanaka (Get up the next morning and head into Queenstown) Day 3: Stay overnight in Queenstown Day 4: Stay overnight in Queenstown (Get up early next day and head to Milford Sound) Day 5: stay in Te Anau Day 6:Drive from Te Anau to Dunedin Day 7: Drive from Dunedin to Oamaru Day 8: Spend night in Christchurch(We have to catch a tour to the North Island the next day) I am afraid this is to much driving even with stopping as we go. Is this Itinerary to much in a small time frame? Would it be better to go Te Anua to Queenstown to Twizel to Christchurch? Is there a route which will we can skip Dunedin and go straight to Oamaru? Any suggestions would be much appreciated. We want to see all we can but we also want time to explore and enjoy our time in the South Island!

With 8 days, I think this is good enuff. It will be a longish drive to Miflord from Te Anau but makes sense to base yourself there. Did the trip 5 years ago and did a similar route... Enjoy!

I assume that you are going to Franz Josef via Arthur’s Pass and on to Wanaka via Haast. I think that Day 4 will be your problem, it is a long drive from Queenstown to Milford and I think that you would arrive too late to achieve anything in Milford. I would suggest driving to Te Anau on Day 4. Then leave Te Anau early on day 5, “do” Milford and come back to Te Anau for the night. Unfortunately getting out of Te Anau involves some backtracking, but you don’t have to go to Dunedin. You could go back as far as Queenstown then head up to Mount Cook, spend the night of Day 6 at Lake Pukaki and have a pleasant dive back into Christchurch the next day. Alternatively you could go from Lumsden to Gore and then head north to Alexandra and through the Lindis Pass to Pukaki, which is what I would do. It would be a fairly long day but the scenery is stunning. Either route would comfortably get you back to Christchurch on day seven. That would leave day 8 free for Christchurch and surrounds – I would suggest Akoroa going via Motukarara and coming back round the port hills. If you are off shortly you will have very long days with daylight to 22:00 or later. Hope this helps, e-mail me if you have any queries.

Catie - That's a pretty ambitious itinerary for such a short trip. You'll be spending alot of your time driving - the drive from Christchurch to Franz Josef is some 265 miles. Have you considered flying to Queenstown or Dunedin first, so that you only go through Christchurch once? Air NZ has flights to Queenstown and Dunedin from several points within NZ. Queenstown and Wanaka are only 73 miles apart, so you can easily visit Wanaka without having to stay a night there, unless you just want to. The drive from Te Anau to Dunedin is about 180 miles - if you stay overnight in Dunedin, you can easily drive the 224 miles from Dunedin to Christchuch the following day and avoid a night in Oamaru. I'm a frequent visitor to the South Island and I'd be happy to help you with your itinerary - feel free to send me an e-mail directly. I'd be more helpful if I was clear on how many nights you have to work with, etc.

We recently spent 11 days on the South Island driving a motorhome and did basically the same drive you did, except we didn't go to Franz Josef and we also went up north to Abel Tasman. Don't think you will have a problem, and it really isn't that much driving. I agree that trying to get to Milford Sound from Queenstown in one day will be long, and you won't have much time to spend in Milford. We made our base in Te Anau and then drove to Milford for the day. You probably wouldn't be able to do any boat tours if you arrive so late. Lake Wanaka is beautiful. We enjoyed it much more than Queenstown. Not as crowded. We also enjoyed the route through Lake Tekapo and Twizel much more than the route through Dunedin and Omaru. Have fun NZ is beautiful!

Sorry I didn't make myself very clear. We are flying into Christchurch and spending that day in christchurch then the next morning we will be starting the Itenary I sent out at first. So the first day will be spent driving not sight seeing christchurch then driving. THanks for all your advice!

Hi Catie~ Here is my humble two cents worth. Arthur's Pass is not particularly pretty. The West Coast, while beautiful, is very depressed economically. Better to base out of Queenstown and also Te Anua and take a flight for the day to the glacier area if you really want to see that. However, if you have ever seen real glaciers, such as in Alaska, you are in for a real let down. The most incredibly beautiful part of New Zealand, again only my opinion, is the Dusty/Doubtful/Milford Sound areas. Also, the Coromundel area on the North Island is gorgeous! I liked Dunedin more than Christchurch, but again all depends on your likes and expectations. Kelly