amdillon

We are planning a trip to New Zealand for about 3 weeks in November 2014. Both in our early 60's. Interests mainly beautiful scenery and photo ops, walks, to see whales, penguins, birds etc. We don't want to be rushing around from 1 place to another and would like to be able to get a sense of the areas we visit. I have read, with gratitude, several wonderful suggestions to others on this forum and would like your thoughts on this itinerary. Melnq8 suggested the trip from Christchurch on one response but I can't find that again. This is the area (CC to Mt. Cook) where I don't have a good sense of how many days to allow.

Day 1 - flying from San Francisco to Auckland (should be able to sleep) and then drive/fly to Rotorua staying there 3 nights
Day 4 - drive to Wellington via Lake Taupo - stay there 3 nights
Day 7 - Here is a question - one option is to take the ferry to Picton and then drive to Kaikoura for whale watching and the Peninsula Walkway and then on to Christchurch area taking probably 2 days to do this, OR should we fly from Wellington to Christchurch (rent car there) and possibly take a day trip to Kaikoura if we cannot get in whale watching etc elsewhere?

Christchurch - I was thinking of staying somewhere in or around CC and do a few 1 day trips: Banks Peninsula and Akaroa one day and the Arthur Pass another day (how far would you recommend we go to see and experience the main sights of the Pass - all the way or part-ways?)

Then according to Melnq8's suggestion fr wonderful scenery we would drive via Geraldine to Lake Tekapo and Mt Cook - how long should we allow?
Then to Wanaka for 2 nights
To Te Anau and Milford Sound for 2 nights
To Queenstown/Arrowtown/Glenorchy - probably stay in Arrowtown for 2 or 3 nights
To Oamaru to see the penguins and the Moreaki Boulders - 2 nights
(in other itineraries some of you recommended 3 nights in a few of these places - what do you think?)

Finally drive to airport in Christchurch stopping at the Trevor Griffith Gardens in Timaru

I appreciate any help/comments. Hopefully we are not too late to book hotels/ B&Bs etc.

Mary

dottyp

Hi, amdillon. Two suggestions re Arthur's Pass - you can take the Tranz Alpine train across to Greymouth and return, all in the same day, or you can drive (on the lefthand side of the road) to Greymouth. I would probably stay over night, perhaps drive up to Punakaiki to look at the Pancake Rocks, and maybe stay there. Then you can drive back to Christchurch through the Lewis Pass.

Melnq8

Hi Mary -

Lucky you for being able to sleep on the plane!

Further to dotty's suggestion, you can also take the TranzAlpine to Greymouth (one way) and rent a car in Greymouth, then continue working your way down the West Coast.

Christchurch to Kaikoura and back is too long for a day trip IMO. It's a 2.5 hour drive each way. If Kaikoura is a priority for you, I suggest you see it on the way to/from somewhere else.

I'm not sure what specific suggestion of mine you're referring to. We personally choose to stay in Geraldine following an overnight flight to CHC. This limits our driving while tired and gives us a head start on our drive south. We're seasoned left side drivers though. I don't recommend that anyone unaccustomed to driving on the left get into a car upon arrival after an overnight flight.

You can reach Mt Cook from Christchurch in a day, making stops in Geraldine and Lake Tekapo en route.

Two weeks on the SI will give you enough time to hit the highlights, but you won't be able to fit everything in.

If it were me, to save time and to fit in most of what's on your list, I'd suggest flying from Wellington to Christchurch, collecting your rental car and then heading south from there.

As Timaru is a draw for you, from Christchurch you'd need to drive down the east coast and bypass the turn off to Geraldine. IMO the east coast is the least scenic of the entire of the SI, but that's the way you need to go if you want to visit Timaru, Oamaru (penguins) and the Moeraki boulders. You could then turn inland towards Ranfurly, but it's not a particularly pretty drive either.

You have a long wish list, but not a whole lot of time.

I suggest you start by narrowing down what you really, really want to do and go from there.

Melnq8

Here's a possible driving itinerary that includes most of what’s on your list plus the ferry:

Ferry from Wellington to Picton

Drive Picton to Kaikoura (two hour drive)

Drive Kaikoura to Akaroa (four hour drive)

Drive Akarra to Timaru (3:20)

Drive Timaru to Oamaru (1:20)

Drive Oamaru to Mount Cook (~three hour drive)

Drive Mount Cook to Wanaka (~three hour drive)

Drive Wanaka to Te Anau (3:20)

Visit Milford as a day trip from Te Anau (~two hour drive each way)

Drive Te Anau to Queenstown (two hour drive)

Visit Arrowtown and Glenorchy from Queenstown base, or vice versa

Depart Queenstown, fly to Christchurch or fly directly back to Auckland

This includes everything but Arthur’s Pass (and the entire West Coast which you haven't mentioned).

Keep in mind that these drive times don’t take into account any stops to explore en route.

Regarding time allotment, I suggest something like this:

Kaikoura – two nights

Akarora – two nights

Timaru – one night if needed to see the gardens, if not forge on to Oamaru

Oamaru – one night if needed to see the penguins, if not forge on to Mt Cook

Mount Cook – two nights

Wanaka – two nights

Te Anau – two nights, which allows one full day to explore Milford

Queenstown – 3-4 nights

Personally, I prefer three nights in a given location, as two nights to me feels rushed. Likewise, I dislike one night stays immensely, but sometimes they’re hard to avoid and make more sense than overspending precious time in a place like Timaru

osteorach

Hi there,

After you arrive in Auckland are you planning to drive straight to rotorua? Are you familiar with driving on the left? It will take ~3hrs without stops so I just want to make sure you are rested for this drive - it's not the most fantastic road either if you are tired and driving on the left for the first time.

Also, your drive from rotorua to Wellington via taupo will be a long one - 450km and about 5-6hrs without stops.

Both doable but just want to make you aware,

Your South Island seems to be coming along well

amdillon

Thank you everyone. I am so amazed that you have taken the time to respond so quickly and greatly appreciate all your suggestions.

Melnq8 - I must have misread your previous posting and it would take me some time to find it again to accurately represent it but I recalled it to say that the east coast in that area south of CC was the nicer so that is why I thought of this itinerary. It did strike me that virtually every other response was talking about the west coast but by that stage I was cross-eyed from reading so I thought I would get my questions off and go from there! Thanks for setting me straight. I will go back to the other responses you and others have made and rethink our trip. I like the suggestions made to jrjcollins for example and so I will see if that will work for us.

I am from Ireland and go back there every 6 months so the left hand driving and narrow, windy roads should be ok! However I don't want to be stupid so I will rethink that first day too. It is always good to be told not to overdo things but to focus on enjoying the areas visited and that is our goal. Both my husband and I prefer to stay a few days per location rather than rushing from 1 place to another so back to the drawing board.

Thanks again!

Melnq8

Hi again Mary -

You might be thinking of references I've made to taking the back roads from Christchurch to Geraldine via 73/77/72/79, which is a very scenic alternative to driving from Christchurch via SH 6.

If your goal is Timaru and Oamaru, the most direct route is SH 6, although if you've got the time, you could very well drive the back roads to Geraldine and then cross over to SH 6 for the remainder of the drive to Timaru. The stretch of road between Timaru and Oamaru isn't very pretty, but it's only a little over an hour's drive.