Hi, How much time shold we allow for driving from Queenstown to Auckland comfortably allowing for stopovers of one or 2 nights along the way? We're going in early July. Hoping to get in a couple of days skiing in Queenstown then heading north via MtCook, Christchurch,Kaikoura, Picton - Wellington, Napier, Rotorua, Auckland where we hope to spend a couple of days before flying out. Would 12 days be enough?? Thanks

Corrib, sorry but your question is funny. You are driving from Queenstown to Auckland via a LOTTA stopovers. I guess it's the way you worded it that gave me a chuckle. Anyway it all depends on your travel style. I would allow 19 days for that route! It all depends on what you want to do.

I see what you mean! Glad to make you chuckle! what I meant is several stop overs of a day or two at each place! I'm open to suggestion!

hmm, 12 days does seem quite short. (btw everyday items like food, toiletries etc are _very_ expensive in queenstown as there is no major supermarket. take supplies if you can).
Each of your south island stop off points are maximum of 3.5 hours so thats not a major. however, assuming 2 days in say half of your south island destinations takes you up to 8 days already.

the ferry you will need to take from
picton to wellington takes approximately 5 hours from loading to unloading. i really like wellington but in July will be freeeezing. ok, most of the south island will be freezing too but wellington has this constant wind - they dont call it windy wellington for nothing - that just makes it feel like your ears are bleeding! take a big warm hat.

so two days in wellington and you are already on day 10. so you are kinda pushing it a bit i think. if you get up really early to do the driving at least you will get full days in most of the places you intend to visit but it will be a real flying visit.

perhaps someone else will post on driving in mid winter in the south island (where it snows, not so much of an issue in the north island) as this could affect your driving plans too.

personally if you had to skip things i;d skip mt cook, only go to picton for the ferry and probably skip napier as well but others may well disagree

for travel distances and times check out http://www.dayout.co.nz/maps_guides.asp

happy travels

Actually there are at least two large supermarkets in Queenstown - there's a New World near the airport (unless it's disappeared since I was there in 2005) and a Fresh Choice on the outskirts - we found some nice muffins there. The market right in the village is small and very expensive though.

oh ok. i knew friends who were in queenstown last month and they said the best advice they received was to do their food shopping in christchurch first. it is possible they didnt find the supermarket. definitely worth knowing where it is then i would imagine as they were quoting crazy prices for bread etc bought in town.

No I really do not think 12 days is enough to do all you want to do, including a few days skiing and a few days in Auckland.

Ok! thanks to everyone who contributed. Your info and advice is really helpful. One more question. Can avyone advise on travelling by camper van in NZ in winter? are all the Parks still open? Do people do it or is it too cold? The good news is, that by leaving Ireland earlier than planned, we now have 17 days In NZ!!! But that's 4 nights on Queenstown as our 16 year old son want's some snow boarding and we'll visit Milford sound on one of the days. That leaves 13 days for the rest. The only other place on Sth Island we'll spend 2 nights in is Kaikoura as I'd like to achieve a life dream of seeing a whale (weather permitting) so I think we might manage! Prior to landing in NZ we have 3 weeks in Aus which we just can't cut short. We'll be spending 11 days driving from Brisbane to Cairns in a camper van. Maybe we've bitten off a bit too much but it's the holiday of a lifetime and we want to see it all. we have experience of driving in Europe and that's on the right so NZ should be easier as it's the same as here, on the left. I booked it today so here goes .. roll on May 31st!

NZSophie. We're open to suggestions for a route on both Islands if you would be so kind as to assist? basically we don't have a clue and would be really grateful for any advice on best places to visit!! Thanks a mil