NZ Itenary ideas Apr 2010
 

My husband, son (10 years) and me are planning to travel to NZ for 2 weeks starting Apr 2010. The only thing booked so far is flights to Christchurch and leave from Auckland. Need ideas for the itenary for 2 weeks.

Just a heads up to let you know that NZ school holidays run between April 1-19 and the long Easter weekend (April 2-5) will be VERY busy. You'll want to book accommodation well in advance if you're going to be in NZ at this time.

As far as itineraries...there are loads of ideas here on Fodor's, just do a search.

Alternatively, if you let us know your interests, we can be of more assistance.

I highly suggest the international Antarctic Center just outside the airport in Christchurch, be sure to experience the haugglund ride. http://www.iceberg.co.nz/default.asp If you get to Queenstown definitely do the Shotover River ride.
Other things we did was take the Trans Alpine train across the southern Alps to Greymouth and then learned to drive on the left side in a less congested area. On the western side of NZ you can see the 2 glaciers Franz Joseph and Fox. They are both located near each other and you can just drive up, park your car and walk up to the glaciers.
We spent 4 weeks touring both islands and drove 3000 miles. If you would like any other ideas on things we did I will be happy to share our experiences. New Zealand's website is the best I have ever used to plan a trip, highly recommend using it.

If you click on my name, you can read my trip report from April 2004. We spent 10 days on the North Island.

What are your interests?

Lee Ann

Just a heads up to let you know that NZ school holidays run between April 1-19 and the long Easter weekend (April 2-5) will be VERY busy. You'll want to book accommodation well in advance if you're going to be in NZ at this time. (from above)

I strongly agree with this comment. Hi I live I'm from Auckland :) OK so your coming over in autumn. The weather will definitely be better up here in Auckland than Christchurch, I'm not sure if you are just landing in AKL and going straight to Christchurch? If you have any questions let me know? :)

Hang on a minute, l_t_d. The autumn weather in Christchurch, and elsewhere in the South Island, can be pretty darned good as well! (Snorts indignantly.)

I'm sure our weather is warmer this time of year Christchurch however in this time is beautiful gardens in full bloom - Hence the name The Garden City ;-)

The plan is to fly into Christchurch and eventually head upto Auckland, spending 2 weeks.

THanks for letting me know about the school holidays. Our tickets are booked already. Need to work on the car hire and accomodation once i have an iternary planned.

jgh1944- yes please i would like ideas. We are keen to go to Queenstown and see the glaciers and start driving from there north along the scenic routes.

Since we land in Cristchurch, was wondering if there was an overnight coach to Queenstown? The idea being we could use the coach to reach there and then hire a car in Queenstown. This way we are not driving both ways.

I've become familiar with the coaches from Christchurch while planning my upcoming trip. I've only been looking at day schedules, but you can find most all online.

I used Atomic Shuttles last trip:
http://www.atomictravel.co.nz/
and Intercity lists Newmans and GreatSights as well
http://www.intercity.co.nz/
Southern Link
http://southernlinkkbus.co.nz/home.aspx

There are several other "backpacker" hop-on buses (not reserved) that I have not used as I don't usually have the flexibility to go "stand by"
Stray, Naked, etc.

Been reading all the various trip reports and have figured, probably better to drive from Christchurch- Mt Cook- Queenstown- Te Anau and the back along the west coast- Franz Josef- Fox Glacier toawrds wellington, Roturua and finally to catch the flight back to Auckland.

Some questions...
Whats the Glacier tour from Mt Cook? Is that different from Fox Glacier?
And Franz Josef- how does one get there is there a tour doing that glacier?

O just read that Fox and Franz are 45 mins apart... Which one would you guys suggest to visit as we have a 10 year old with us and thus probably can just manage one of the two

BUKU, actually Franz Josef and Fox Glacier villages are barely 30 mins away from each other. We visited both, and found Fox Glacier to be prettier, but I am sure many posters think the reverse. Actually, you can visit either, and I don't think you would miss out on anything.

I think you are referring to the "Glacier Explorer Tour" at Mt Cook, which is actually a boat ride in a lake formed by glacier melt, with lots of icebergs floating around in it. We did take that tour and really enjoyed it (please book in advance as the tour fills up early !!).

The above is totally different from a hike on either Franz Josef or Fox glaciers, where you actually walk on the glacier. It is pretty awesome. I hope your ten-year old is reasonably fit, as there is a somewhat tiring walk that precedes the walk on the glacier.

My itenary coming into shape a bit now..
Still some questions half way through
2 weeks in all
Day 1 christchurch
Day 2 Drive to Mt Cook Village and do the Glacier Explorer tour before retiring at Twizel
Day 3 Drive from Twizel to Te Anau stopping along route
Day 4 Miflord Sound and night at Twizel
Day 5 Queenstown
Day 6 Queenstown
Day 7 Drive to Franz Josef
Day 8 Franz Josef
Day 9---- Now the dilema should I go back to Christchurch and fly to Roturua for 2 nights 1 ngiht Auckland which gives me 2 days spare to maybe spend more time in South Islan

or should we drive from Franz Josef onto Nelson- wellington and Roturua and spend the 2-3 days that way??

Will i miss much if i choose the first option?

To start driving from Franz Josef and do Nelson, Wellington and Rotorua in 2-3 days (including driving time) is pretty ambitious, to put it mildly. Do not even think along those lines.
Instead of going to Christchurch (which you have already covered), you could consider driving to Nelson, spending a day there, flying to Rotorua, and spending a day there. However, even that would be too rushed. It would be much better to drive slowly from Franz Josef to Nelson, stopping for a night in between at Hokitika or Punakaiki or somewhere, and then on to Nelson. Spend a couple of days at Nelson. Skip Rotorua completely, as you simply don't have the time for it.

Ok thanks indiancouple

<Day 4 Miflord Sound and night at Twizel>

Hi BAKU - I assume you mean night at Te Anau? Twizel doesn't make sense here.

Yes sorry that was supposed to be Te ANau

Milford Sound cruise.... Which one is the one to take? Want to do a day one.... Can someone tell me who the good providers are

They're all pretty similar BUKU, same sound, same route. The main difference is boat size and perhaps choice of snacks or meals offered on board. We've taken Real Journeys, The Red Boat and Mitre Peak. We liked Mitre Peak the best, due to the small boat size and the time of day - we took the last cruise of the day and the sound was deserted as all the other boats had already completed their cruises for the day. There were only 12 people on our boat and it was perfect.

Another vote for the Mitre Peak cruise. Everyone on this forum had recommended this one, and it was fabulous. On Fodorites recommendations, we took the 1:50 pm sailing, which turned out to be excellent : very few people, avoided the tour groups, and very good light in the afternoon.