Kids Ora!!!

I am so excited about visiting New Zealand but wow, there are just so many options on things to do and see. We are planning our first trip to NZ in March with another couple and are trying to finalize the South Island portion. We are flying in and out of Auckland at his point, will be doing some of the north island wine regions, then planning to fly from Wellington to either Nelson or Blenheim. We have friends of friends in Blenheim that we could stay with for a few days but that would mean a very different itinerary after that.

If we do go to Blenheim, then I guess we would just cut out Nelson, Punakaiki and that side of the west coast? Would it be silly to miss that? Honestly, I don’t care as much about seeing the Marlborough wine region as I do some of the smaller more boutique wine regions.

Please let me know if you think this itinerary below is too much or if you have idea how we could incorporate a visit to Blenheim.

South Island (Top of South & West Coast)

- Wellington (~1 hr) – Fly to Nelson (~1 hr) – 2 nights

- day trip to Albe Tasman

- Nelson → Punakaiki (~3.5 hrs, 161 miles) – 1 night

- Punakaiki → Hokitika (~1.5 hrs, 52 miles) – 1 night

- Hokitika → Timaru, (~ 4.5 hrs, 220 miles) – 2 nts ( we have a friend there)



Southern Lakes & Fiordland

- Timaru → Lake Tekapo/Mt Cook (~1.5 hrs, 65 miles) – 1 night

- Lake Tekapo→ Wanaka (~2 hrs, 125 miles) – 2 nights

- Wanaka → Queenstown (~1.5 hrs, 46 miles) – 4 nights

- Day trip/tour → Milford Sound and more wine tasting, hiking



We love NZ wine, good food, hiking, fly fishing, birding and beautifully scenery. We have spent loads of time boating so whales and sea life are not our top priority while in NZ but I do love penguins!



Thanks for any insight you might have!

It sounds like an amazing first trip! If you already have lodging in Blenheim, I would use it as a base for a few days. Nelson and Abel Tasman are only a 1.5-hour drive away, so you don't have to completely avoid them. After that, you could travel south down the West Coast to Hokitika, but to keep things easy, you might make one overnight stop.

Why are you planning on spending only one night at Mt. Cook? Are you planning on hiking the Hooker Valley Track? We spent 3 nights at Mt. Cook in November 2024. Our goal was to hike the Hooker Valley Track, which is magnificent. It's one of the highlights of our trip. It was smart planning on my part to spend 3 nights at Mt. Cook because it rained the entire first day we were there. Luckily, our second day we had glorious sunshine. If you have 2 good days of hiking weather, there are other tracks you can hike as well. So I would spend 3 nights at Mt. Cook to allow for a possible rainy day.

Keep in mind that a daytrip from Queenstown to Milford Sound is a very, very long day. You spend about 8 hours on the bus roundtrip. I recommend spending at least 2 nights in Te Anau, and taking a Milford Sound cruise from there. It's a much more enjoyable day. The drive to Milford Sound from Te Anau is about 2 hours one way, so you spend 4 hours on a small van instead of 8 hours on a bus.

You can click on my name to read my TR from last November.

Hi Karen,

Thanks for the info… I will def look at your trip report. We are doing fly fishing trip with a guide out of Fairle and visiting a friend in Timaru for a few days so that is taking up some time in that region. We won’t have a lot of time in MT Cook unfortunately but I can look at adjusting some time else where.

We booked a small van trip with Luxe tours to go to Milford Sound as opposed to driving to Te Anu and back or staying there. Since this will be at the end of our trip, we thought it might be nice to be somewhere for 4 nights. Plus no one has to make the drive.

I guess one night at Mt. Cook would work depending on what time of day you arrive at Mt. Cook. And how much energy you have. Would you arrive early enough so that you could hike the Hooker Valley Track that same day? Or would you have the energy to do the hike the next morning, and then drive to your next destination? The drawback is that you don't have a buffer day in case of rain. Admittedly, I base my suggestions on our age (70's) and how much I know we can do in one day. For example, the hike took us 4 1/4 hours. The website says it can be done in 3 hours. But we are older and it took us longer.

The second bridge on the Hooker Valley Track is still closed. Repairs _may_ be finished by the time of your visit in March. At present, people on another forum are reporting that the shortened walk takes them about an hour and a half.

Hooker Valley Track DOC info

It sounds like you already have a solid plan, and March is such a beautiful time to explore the South Island. Your current itinerary is definitely doable, but it will feel quite fast-paced, especially on the West Coast where distances look short on paper but the roads are slower and very scenic.

If you choose to stay with friends in Blenheim, it does change things a bit, but it definitely wouldn’t be “silly” to skip Nelson and Punakaiki. Many travelers do a loop focused around Marlborough, Kaikoura, and then across to the Southern Alps instead. Marlborough might be more commercial than some of the boutique regions you prefer, but the smaller cellar doors in Renwick or the Awatere Valley might still hit the mark for you.

If you want to incorporate Blenheim without rushing, you could consider this adjustment:

• Wellington to Blenheim (fly or take the ferry, which is gorgeous)
• 2 to 3 nights in Blenheim for wine, food, and a relaxed start
• Drive to Kaikoura for 1 night if you want wildlife or coastal scenery
• Continue through Arthur’s Pass to Hokitika, skipping the Nelson loop entirely
• From there, continue with your original Hokitika → Timaru → Tekapo plan

This keeps the pacing similar but avoids backtracking.

Your Southern Lakes and Fiordland plan looks great. Wanaka and Queenstown are perfect for hiking, amazing food, and wine. If you love penguins, watch for the little blue penguins near Oamaru or even the occasional Fiordland crested penguins on the West Coast.

I see that Luxe offers a return flight option.

We were at Mt Cook for two nights last weekend. The Hooker valley track bridge referenced above appears to be closed until April according to signs posted. Still a pleasant hike albeit rocky sometimes. Weather can be rainy and very windy and forecasts unreliable. We arrived at the Heritage hotel from Omaru in the early afternoon and did the Hooker track in partly cloudy weather. The next day was cloudy and forecast for rains and heavy winds in the afternoon so we did the Tasman glacier view in the morning then drove to Lake Tepako for the afternoon to hike around the lake. Weather at Tepako was sunny and mildy windy. Drove back an hour or so to Mt Cook and it was cloudy and very windy. I think if we had to do it again we would rent a Airbnb at Lake Tepako as there seemed to several new ones near town and just drive to my Cook for the day. Heritage hotel was fine but quite pricey for what you get and food options were expensive or not very good.

So if you only stay one night at Mt Cook you may or may not have decent weather to hike in March depending on how much of the day you have before and after one night's stay.
Seems it rains about half of the days in March but not necessarily all day.

Yeah, that sounds about right