Tour Description

New Zealand will set your heart racing, while you take the country’s pulse. From its unexpected city sights – who knew you could construct a church from cardboard? – to its culinary delights, this voyage is as thrilling as it is tasty. And then there are the natural wonders: gem-like glaciers, soaring fiords, snow-dusted mountains, and bubbling geysers among them. On this NZ holiday, drop in on Christchurch, soak your limbs in Rotorua, eat your way around Queenstown and feel the full force of nature at Milford Sound/Piopiotahi. Trips to New Zealand don’t get much better than this.

Priced From:

$ 7439pp ^*

From: 2024-11-22

To: 2025-03-28

Start Location: Auckland, New Zealand

End Location: Christchurch (Nz), New Zealand

Trip Type: Country Explorer

Tour Advisors

Tiffany McCrea-Lennon

Managing Director

Chris McKinnel

Travel Specialist

Gaylyn Murdoch

Administration Manager

Russell Mein

Travel Specialist

Holly Skene

Travel Co-ordinator

Kim Thomas

Broker

Itinerary

Welcome to Auckland

Day 1

Duration: 1

Accommodation: Horizon by SkyCity Auckland

New Zealand’s largest city is also one of its prettiest, as you’ll discover exploring at your leisure. Arrive early to linger in its hip harbourside precincts, where galleries and design-driven stores await. You’ll have worked up an appetite by the time you meet your fellow travel companions for a Welcome Reception and dinner at The Grill celebrating Aotearoa's culinary treasures. Expect the finest quality grassfed steaks, from 100% New Zealand owned and operated suppliers, and sustainable line-caught fish. Start your Auckland tour on a high, we say.

Auckland Sightseeing & Free Time

Day 2

Duration: 1

Accommodation: Horizon by SkyCity Auckland

If you didn’t get your city bearings yesterday, you will on an Auckland tour today. Have your camera poised as you reach Mission Bay, a dreamy waterside suburb where the blues patchwork to the horizon. Click! Then get snap happy once again at Bastion Point and the Michael Joseph Savage Memorial, offering epic vistas over Auckland and its harbours. Click, click, click! Want some tips on how to spend your free afternoon in New Zealand’s largest city? How about going behind the scenes of the All Blacks, arguably the world’s most legendary rugby team?

Auckland - Rotorua

Day 3

Duration: 1

Accommodation: Millennium Hotel Rotorua

You could be forgiven for thinking Rotorua’s landscapes are a sci-fi movie set. Mud pops and jettisons from bubbling geysers, and steam rushes skywards from cracks in the Earth. The surrounding forest is a fertile habitat for New Zealand’s national bird, being protected and bred at the National Kiwi Hatchery Aotearoa. The cute-as-a-button, cotton-ball kiwi is under threat in the wild; at the hatchery, passionate conservationists reveal how they are saving the population, one incubated egg at a time. Tonight, dive deep into Indigenous culture and traditions at Te Pā Tū Māori Experience. Enjoy a forest kai horotai (seasonal canapés) and chef choice aperitif, followed by a seasonal three-course dinner.

Rotorua - Auckland - Queenstown

Day 4

Duration: 1

Accommodation: Millennium Hotel, Queenstown

Leave Auckland behind and journey into the countryside for an exclusive family-style Be My Guest experience in the Red Barn on a working dairy farm. Over your farm to table morning tea prepared by the onsite chef, get a feel for country life as you're invited to roll up your sleeves and make your own butter - butter churners, tiny mason jars and all! The feel-good vibes that endure will follow you all the way to Queenstown, the self-proclaimed adventure capital of New Zealand. It makes perfect sense – there are ski fields, white-water river and bridges strapped with bungy cords wherever you turn. And then there’s the dining scene; Queenstown is home to some of the country’s most awarded restaurants. Whether you’re in the mood for bulging burgers or lakeside tapas, ask us for recommendations on this leg of your Queenstown New Zealand tour.

Milford Sound/Piopiotahi Cruise

Day 5

Duration: 1

Accommodation: Millennium Hotel, Queenstown

Bring your stamina and sense of adventure – things get a little wild today. Nature rules as you skirt Queenstown’s gleaming Lake Wakatipu, and traverse the Devil’s Staircase to Te Anau, the alpine gateway to UNESCO World Heritage listed Fiordland National Park. Once you’ve paused to admire the drama at Mirror Lakes, Knobs Flat, Hollyford Valley lookout and Cleddau Valley, you’ll begin to understand why Rudyard Kipling called this the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’. You haven’t even seen Bowen Falls or Milford Sound/Piopiotahi yet… Onboard your nature cruise, which includes a picnic lunch, enjoy commentary from your eagle-eyed Naturalist guide, who not only narrates on the immense geological history of the Fiord, but will point out fur seals and dolphins should they choose to come out to play.

Queenstown Free Time

Day 6

Duration: 1

Accommodation: Millennium Hotel, Queenstown

Take today’s Queenstown New Zealand tour at your own pace. Like things fast and furious? Feel the wind in your hair on a high-octane jet boat ride, perhaps. Prefer to be able to talk (and drink wine) while you cruise? Glide across Lake Wakatipu aboard the historic TSS Earnslaw to Walter Peak High Country Farm for a guided farm tour, including morning or afternoon tea, in a dreamy alpine setting (both own expanse). Wherever you wander, be sure to save space for tonight’s Highlight Dinner at Postmasters Café, a historic Arrowtown cottage replete with picket fence and Instagrammable gardens.

Queenstown - Lake Tekapo

Day 7

Duration: 1

Accommodation: Peppers Bluewater Resort Lake Tekapo

Whether pinot noir grapes or cherries, things grow well in the fertile Central Otago region of the South Island. Get a taste for the area’s plump stone fruit at the stall of a local orchard. Mountain drama is your backdrop en route to Lake Tekapo, with water so turquoise it looks like a Renaissance painting. This part of the country is ravishing and remote; the lack of light pollution means dazzling Southern Hemisphere stargazing at UNESCO World Heritage listed Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve. It may be a late night, but tonight's star gazing experience at a purpose-built observation crater with expert astronomy guides is bound to be a highlight. If there was ever a NZ experience that put life in perspective, this is it.

Lake Tekapo - Christchurch

Day 8

Duration: 1

Accommodation: Distinction Christchurch Hotel

The Canterbury region of the east coast is a rustic union of grassy plains, mirror-like lakes and snow-capped mountains, the kind of landscape that you might see on postcards. Arrive in the beautiful English city of Christchurch for a guided tour. The city is not only rebuilding itself after the devastating 2010/11 earthquakes, but is changing the way architects think about design. Case in point the mind-bending Transitional Cathedral, made largely of cardboard, and Turanga, the gold-clad central library.

Christchurch Sightseeing

Day 9

Duration: 1

Accommodation: Distinction Christchurch Hotel

Travel north through rolling countryside to Hurunui Hills, a hill country farm in North Canterbury. Enjoy warm Kiwi hospitality with the Bamford Family, who have been farming at Hurunui since 1884 with six generations focused on producing premium Merino sheep, wool and Angus cattle. Soak up stunning scenery while enjoying morning tea, meet the farm animals & discover what it is like to live off the land on this unique By My Guest experience. Continue to a local vineyard, Waipara Springs Winery, where it's time to relax and enjoy a platter-style lunch among the vines. A big day leads to a big evening joining your Travel Director and travel mates for a celebratory Farewell Dinner featuring produce from the Canterbury region.

Farewell from Christchurch

Day 10

Duration: 1

You’ve travelled hundreds of kilometres across two islands, likely taken thousands of photos, and made countless memories and new friends. The only thing left to do is plan your next trip to New Zealand.

Dates & prices

Start Date: 2024-12-06

End Date: 2024-12-15

twin

Child Price: 6654

Adult Price: 7439

twinShare

Child Price:

Adult Price: 7439

single

Child Price: 6843

Adult Price: 9328

Start Date: 2025-01-24

End Date: 2025-02-02

twin

Child Price: 7841

Adult Price: 8626

twinShare

Child Price:

Adult Price: 8626

single

Child Price: 6843

Adult Price: 10829

Start Date: 2025-02-07

End Date: 2025-02-16

twin

Child Price: 8236

Adult Price: 9021

twinShare

Child Price:

Adult Price: 9021

single

Child Price:

Adult Price: 11330

Start Date: 2025-02-21

End Date: 2025-03-02

twin

Child Price: 7841

Adult Price: 8626

twinShare

Child Price:

Adult Price: 8626

single

Child Price:

Adult Price: 10829

Start Date: 2025-03-14

End Date: 2025-03-23

twin

Child Price: 7841

Adult Price: 8626

twinShare

Child Price:

Adult Price: 8626

single

Child Price:

Adult Price: 10829

Start Date: 2025-03-21

End Date: 2025-03-30

twin

Child Price: 7445

Adult Price: 8230

twinShare

Child Price:

Adult Price: 8230

single

Child Price:

Adult Price: 10329

Start Date: 2025-03-28

End Date: 2025-04-06

twin

Child Price: 7841

Adult Price: 8626

twinShare

Child Price:

Adult Price: 8626

single

Child Price:

Adult Price: 10829

Contrasts of New Zealand

Tour Advisors

Itinerary

Dates & prices