Jed

We 2 senior couples have air tickets for an (almost) 3 week visit to NZ for next March. We enjoy both seeing the cities and mild nature activities. We would appreciate your opinions and advice for this itinerary:

Day 1 -March 22 (Tuesday) arrive in Auckland early, take the next flight to Christchurch. This is for 2 reasons: it is the week before Easter, and I worry that Auckland will be too crowded. Also, we will be arriving so early, and may have problem getting into our rooms. I know we will be tired, but I have a feeling this will work out better.
Day 1,2 - Christchurch 2 nights; the first day will be mostly at rest;
Day 3 - early tranzalpine to Greymouth, get car, drive to Franz Joseph,1 night;
Day 4,5 -hopefully walk the glaciers, drive to Wilderness Lodge Moerecki, 2 nights;
Day 6,7,8 - drive to Queenstown (long), 3 nights;
Day 9- drive to Doubtful Sound, overnight on boat;
Day 10 - see Te Anau caves in the PM, then drive to Invercargill, 1 night;
Day 11,12 - drive Southern Scenic Route to Catlins Wildlife Trackers, 2 nights;
Day 13 - drive to Dunedin, 1 night;
Day 14,15 - fly to Rotorua, 2 nights;
Day 16 - drive to Waitomo, stay at framstay, 1 night;
Day 17,18,19 - see Waitomo caves, drive to Auckland, 3 nights.
Day 20 - fly home.

I have spent a lot of time on this, but I wonder if there is something I am overlooking. Only one day has a long drive, and I believe the connections are reasonable. Any opinions?

marg

Sounds good to me. Last time we were in the South Island, we had morning coffee at Franz Josef and got into Queenstown by about 4 pm so not too long a day. Are you booking accommodation ahead or just winging it?
If you are garden lovers and it is not out of your way en route from Rotorua to Waitomo (can't find my NZ map at the moment) the gardens in Hamilton are really beautiful and well worth a visit.
We were in Rotorua earlier this year and had a very pleasant evening at a restaurant overlooking the town - can't remember the name but you need to take a gondala to the top of the hill. I think we paid about $48 NZ for a very good meal, the gondala trip plus extra gondala tickets to come back the next day and see the view by daylight.
Another good but cheaper thing to do in Auckland is to take the ferry across to Devonport and walk up the hill - great views over Auckland and the harbour and a very pretty little town to visit.
Hope you have a great holiday.

Jed

I plan to book ahead for most, except CHC, QTN, AKL. I am not sure about INV, DUN. I hope to get good deals for these on wotif, and I can only pray that these places are not crowded at that time.

Hamilton is on the way from Waitomo to AKL, so we can stop there then. Thanks for the info.

dugi_otok

Jed
Just returned from a similar trip(2 seniors who enjoy similar activities). You are setting yourself up for a late arrival at the wilderness lodge. If you arrive early you can participate in another days worth of activities, 2 days instead of 1.You might do this by dropping the 3rd night in Auk and adding a second night in Franzjoseph.

Other comments:
1. In CC stay in the central city near the cathedral. We stayed at the Heritage on Cathedral Square. There is a terrific walking tour, $10NZ, which starts on the square. Forget the Gondola. A terrific dinner at Pedros.
2.A helicopter landing on the glacier at Franz or Fox may be better if you want a mild activity. The one pub in town has good food.
3. Deer Park in QT for terrific views. Jetboat in Glenorchy. Great dinner at Solera Vino. Good dinner at Boardwalk.
4.We did Doubtful and Milford and stayed at the best farmstay in New Zealand-John and Florence Pine's " Crown Lea Farmstay" 20 min from Manapouri, 30 min from Te Anau, see at www.fiordland.org, phone 64-3-249-8598. [email protected]. B & D to die for, great rooms, great dinner conversation.
5.Dunedin is worth 2 nights. Stay on the Peninsula and take in the activities there. If you splurge on staying at the castle, great views, DO NOT eat there. We had our best NZ dinner at Cow Called Berta.
6. Rotorua. Great lamb dinner at Poppy's Villa. Hangi at Tamaki Moari Village was fun, Waiotapu for geothermals, got rained out of Mount Tarawera and settled for Bath House Museum. Liked Waitomo glow worm caves.
7. You might find senior hotel rates on the internet, esp Heritage hotels to be cheaper than wotif for CHC,AUK, and QTN.

Enjoy your vacation

Gary

Jed

Gary - Many thanks for your thoughts.

I figure that we will get to Wilderness in the afternoon, and may miss some activities. That is why I decided on a second night there. But I may decide to take your advice and stay in FJ another night to get to Wilderness earlier. Worth a thought.

Indeed, after much searching, I felt that the Heritage in CC was my first choice. Especially if I can get the 3 bedroom suite in the old part, so as to get a second bathroom. In which part did you stay? We 2 couples have traveled together many times, but it was just suggested to me that a 2-3BR, 2 bath suite has more room at a reasonable rate. My second choice in CC is the Chateau Blanc suites.

As for the glacier, 3 out of us 4 are good walkers/hikers. We may just drag the other along.

Thanks for the other advice on places/activities/ restaurants.

When time comes to put my reservation where my thoughts are, I will take your suggestion to check out the senior rates at the Heritage site, which is the only place I have seen senior rates for NZ.

dugi_otok

Jed
You are doing what it takes for a successful vacation, good pre planning.

Another suggestion is to see Punakaiki Rocks(addl 1.5-2 hrs elapsed time over driving directly to FJ) north of Greysmouth before driving to Franzjoseph.They are something special. This would be good if you decide on 2 nights in FJ. Also, 2 nights in FJ would allow you to see the Fox G area and it also gives you a second chance of a good weather day at the glaciers.
It takes 2 hrs to walk to the glacier face, 4+ hrs to spend some time on the glacier.

Suites do work out good for traveling with friends, especially if you can get 2 bathrooms. We stayed at Heritage Hotels in CC(new section),QT, and Auk(free upgrade to an apt). Actually I booked them through Travelocity after having difficulties with their website. They also had laundry facilities, either in the room or nearby. The Heritage Queenstown is out of the city center,shuttles to/from town every 25 min(could walk it-lakeside walk, we did it once), views of the lake from every room.
The Wilderness Lodge also had convenient laundry facilities.There are walking trails and free and for fee activities.Free "safe" canoeing. So if you are paying the price to stay there it is worth getting your moneys worth by arriving early.
Another thought. I would guess that after an all nighter on Doubtful Sound you may not want to drive out of the way to see the caves at Te Anau, so don't buy your tickets ahead of time.You will see the most famous glow worm cave later.

Gary

marg

We were in NZ in February this year. We booked ahead for our first night on arrival and just found accommodation when and where we needed it. We had no trouble getting into motels.