My husband, 3-year old daughter (good traveler) and I are taking advantage of a business trip that my husband has to make to Wellington over the Chinese New Year and are turning it into a family trip for 12 days.

At one point, we will be staying in Dunedin and will drive to Queenstown. Our plan is to drive the Southern Scenic Route to Invercargill and then up to Queenstown on #6 in a (full) day. We know that we can't make many stops along the way but thought that it would be nice to drive it anyway. This would be the only long drive that we would have during our trip.

On paper it looks doable, but I would be grateful to hear from anyone with suggestions on how to make the drive an enjoyable and successful one or, if this truly is not a good idea, I guess that I need to hear that as well.

Thank you.

We drove from Invercargill to Dunedin via the SSR, but we stopped over.

I believe that your plan can be done in a day, and I would say you should go for it since you want to do it so much.

I imagine that you know that the driving distances as listed on sites such as: http://www.accommodationz.co.nz/distances2.html most likely take you via Mataura.

I would suggest that you pick out the 3 top spots you would want to see on the SSR, but realize that actually stopping would depend on your progress, and how the 3 yr old is doing at that time.

I found these notes from my trip report:

It took about 5 hours to drive from Invercargill to Dunedin along the Catlins Coastal heritage route (gravel) and Southern Scenic route (paved). Minimal stops due to cold winds (this was in December a year ago).

You would then need to add the time from Invercargill to Queenstown.

Almost all of the viewpoints in the Catlins require getting off the paved roads and taking a detour to the coast. The roads are good, they will just slow you down. Also often you need to walk a distance to the viewing area.

I'm wondering if it is really worthwhile to do this with a 3-year old. You might want to consider going inland (a nice route goes via Ranfurly, Alexandra, Cromwell, and Arrowtown). You could spend the night in Arrowtown or Clyde rather than trying to make it all the way to Queenstown on that day.

We drove this route one year, but spent three nights in Invercargill on the way. My notes indicate that the drive from QT to Invercargill took us 2.5 hours (187 km) and that the drive from Invercargill to Dunedin via the Catlins was 245 km.

We didn't stop much between Invercargill and Dunedin because it was windy and absolutely freezing the day we drove through.

You don't say what time of year you're traveling - if it's during NZ's summer months, the days will be long, and you'll have more daylight to work with.

We plan to spend three nights in the Catlins this year, but we'll be driving from CHC to Oamaru on our arrival day from Singapore, spending a night there, then driving from Oamaru to the Catlins via Dunedin the following day. I estimate this drive to be 325 km and that it will take between 4.5 - 5 hours.

Good luck with your plans and enjoy NZ - it's a beautiful place!

Thank you all for your advice. We are still leaning toward driving the scenic route (thank you, Jed, for your encouragement) but will get info on the scenic route as well as the inland route that mlgb suggested. I am used to keeping our daughter happy on long-haul flights, so I will dig into my bag of tricks for this long car ride. Melnq8, we will go to NZ in just a couple of weeks during the Chinese New Year holiday (we live in Hong Kong), so it is summer there. We are very excited about this trip.

Sorry, missed your reference to Chinese New Year in your first post.

Have a good trip.

To be honest, I don't think it is worth doing Dn/Qtn via the Southern Scenic route. You would spend the whole day driving, and not have time to enjoy the things for which the SSR is famous (Penguins Seals, beaches etc.)
If you want a taste of the SSR you could drive Dunedin to Balclutha, and make a short side trip to Kaka Point, then cut though the gravel road to Owaka and have a look at Pounawea and Jack's Bay, then return via Owaka to Balclutha, and continue on to Gore where you take Hwy 94 to Lumsden and then Hwy 6 to Queenstown.
Most of the things on the SSR involve taking side roads and spending time, which you won't have if you try to do it in one day.

Okay, after more research, I finally understand what you all have been trying to tell me, and we have decided to spend time in the Caitlins. We have already booked 3 nights in Dunedin and 4 nights in Queenstown. But we are now thinking of revising our itinerary as follows - 2 nights in Dunedin, then drive down and explore Nugget Point/The Caitlins. Stay overnight, possibly 2, in Papatowai area (will book ahead - McLean Falls Eco Holiday Park?). Then drive on to Fortrose/ Gore/ Lumsden/ Queenstown, making stops as we desire. Then spend 3-4 nights in Queenstown. I am still working out our Queenstown activities, but will save that for a separate post if needed.

I greatly appreciate your comments thus far and would be grateful for any input on this revised itinerary.

Good Choice. Holidays are supposed to be relaxing, no use burning yourself out