Here is an interesting alternative itinerary. Airfare from QT to Nelson is only ~ $110 per person with reason flight times. Soooo ...

Day1 - Arrive Chch
Day2 - Chch
Day3 - Drive to glaciers via Authur Pass (1st long drive, too long? This won't allow us to enjoy the sights along the way, so an option can be to shave a day from QT and stop in Hokitika)
Day4 - Glacier tour
Day5 - Drive to Wanaka
Day6 - Drive to QT
Day7 - QT
Day8 - QT
Day9 - Drive to Te Anau
Day10 - Te Anau
Day11 - Te Anau
Day12 - Drive to QT, take afternoon flight to Nelson
Day13 - Abel Tasman
Day14 - Abel Tasman
Day15 - Drive to Chch (2nd long drive, but late flight allows it)

This allows us to see West, South, North, with multiple days at the key stops and minimal added cost (haven't calculated extra rental car cost for splitting up the trip).

Thoughts? Thanks again.

you could avoid breaking up your time in QT by driving straight from Wanaka to Te Anau.

It's not too far for a day and you'll be coming back to QT so you won't need to stop there.

This might free up a night to stay in Wanaka which will be well worth it - it turned out to be one of our favourite places in NZ.

the trip, from Day 5, would then look like this:

Day5 - Drive to Wanaka
Day6 - Wanaka
Day7 - Drive to Te Anau
Day8 - Te Anau
Day9 -Te Anau
Day10 -Drive to QT
Day11 - QT
Day 12 - QT - take afternoon flight to Nelson
Day13 - Abel Tasman
Day14 - Abel Tasman
Day15 - Drive to Chch (2nd long drive, but late flight allows it)

you would still have one whole day and 2 half days in QT, only slightly less than with your original itinerary.

Much better!

Does that QT-Nelson flight stop in Christchurch? Just curious.

Day 3 is doable, including a side trip to Punakaiki, if you get an early start. It'll take all day, but it's doable. You'll not have much time to explore Arthur's Pass (walks), but you'll see Otira Viaduct and have time for the Visitor's Center there, which is worth a stop. Keep your eyes peeled for Keas, NZ's cheeky alpine parrot.

The drive from Christchurch to Franz Josef is about five hours...add 90 minutes to get to Punakaiki and back, plus some time spent at Pancake Rocks - best done at high tide, check tide charts.

Long daylight hours in February!

Annhig took the words right out of my mouth regarding Wanaka, then Te Anau, then QT. This will prevent breaking up the QT stay and makes more logistic sense.

Yeah, good idea annhig and melnq8. Wanaka to Te Anau makes more sense. And yes, the flight stops in Christchurch with a 55min layover. Normally I would shy away from a less than 1 hr layout, but I figure on these island hoppers that it's not a big deal. Agree?

BTW, I hate to keep going on and on like this, but we are also now debating melnq8's suggestion to cut out Nelson for this trip. So it will be the above itinerary with the flight to Nelson versus this one with no Nelson. We will make our final decision in the next couple days so that we can start booking everything.

Day1 - Arrive Chch
Day2 - Chch
Day3 - Drive to Mt Cook
Day4 - Drive to QT
Day5 - QT
Day6 - QT
Day7 - Drive to Te Anau
Day8 - TA
Day9 - TA
Day10 - Drive to Wanaka
Day11 - Wanaka
Day12 - Drive to Fox/FJ
Day13 - Fox/FJ
Day14 - Drive to Hokitika
Day15 - Drive to Chch, evening flight out

Obviously there's more variant opportunities in there with shifting days around depending on what we plan to see.

This final decision will be a hard one. :)

that looks like a much more relaxing trip, paulg, with still quite a lot of driving.

as we discovered, it's hard to fit in both Nelson and the Glaciers - we did it with 13 nights but it was hard work. The way we did it was to drop staying in Te Anau completely and just doing it as a day trip from QT which was very easy; we decided on seeing Doubtful Sound as it required no driving after we'd got to Te Anau whereas to see Milford Sound you have to drive some more after you get there. consequently we missed all the interesting things that Mel says there are to see on the road to Milford sound but we were very happy with our choice, despite the gloomy weather that we had in the Sound itself.

As you say, all these decisions are hard ones but unless you have unlimited time, they have to be made.

<<but I figure on these island hoppers that it's not a big deal. Agree?>>

Agree.

I think either of your last two itineraries will work, it's just a matter of what you most want to see/do.

We've decided we're doing option #2 (skipping Nelson). More motivation to go back another time I guess. Now the fun part of booking everything.

Thanks again for the input.

sounds great paulg.

have a wonderful time.

Have fun. You won't regret taking a slower pace.

Happy to help with accommodation if need be.

Thanks to you both. It looks like we are finding the accomodations we like so far, melnq8, but I'll let you know if I have any more specific questions.