Tour Description

Southern calling? This trip to New Zealand unites some of the country’s most fabled playgrounds – think adventure-filled Queenstown tours, a World Heritage listed Milford Sound/Piopiotahi tour and possible gem-like Franz Josef/Waiau tours – with some of its must off-the-radar pockets. Have you heard of the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks, or glimpsed the turquoise lakes outside Twizel?

Priced From:

$ 6152pp ^*

From: 2024-12-24

To: 2025-04-01

Start Location: Christchurch (Nz), New Zealand

End Location: Christchurch (Nz), New Zealand

Trip Type: Country Explorer

Tour Advisors

Tiffany McCrea-Lennon

Managing Director

Michelle Baldwin

Travel Specialist

Gaylyn Murdoch

Administration Manager

Russell Mein

Travel Specialist

Holly Skene

Travel Co-ordinator

Kim Thomas

Broker

Itinerary

Welcome to Christchurch

Day 1

Duration: 1

Accommodation: Distinction Christchurch Hotel

At once forward-thinking and fun, Christchurch is the kind of city you could lose yourself in for a week – or more. You have this afternoon, so make the most of it. Freshen up because it’s time to meet your fellow adventure-seekers over a couple of wines and local snacks at a Welcome Reception.

Christchurch - Twizel

Day 2

Duration: 1

Accommodation: Distinction Mackenzie Country Hotel Twizel

If you didn’t get your bearings yesterday, you certainly will on today’s Christchurch tour, taking in the city’s record-breaking Cardboard Cathedral – who knew you could build a church from cardboard and not much else? – as well as past the gilded library, gleaming like an architectural beacon. The buildings of the city fade into a patchwork of farms as you ease across the Canterbury Plains towards Lake Tekapo. Here, retired farmers Angie and Stan Taylor welcome you to their home with a slap-up Be My Guest afternoon tea and tales about life on the land. And this land is truly dramatic, backdropped by powdery mountains and cut with turquoise lakes, none quite as pretty as Lake Tekapo, on its banks the stone-hewn Church of the Good Shepherd. It’s like someone has taken the glasses off your nose and cleaned them for the first time.

Twizel - Dunedin

Day 3

Duration: 1

Accommodation: Scenic Hotel Southern Cross

Oamaru has a rich history and proud heritage, enriched by passionate and perhaps quirky locals. Explore the shops, galleries and traditional crafts within some of the Southern Hemisphere's most complete Victorian streetscapes. You’re en route to Dunedin, replete with rolling green meadows and a grand stone castle. It kind of feels like you’ve been transported to Scotland – small wonder it’s known as the ‘Edinburgh of the South’. Afternoon at your leisure, we recommend a visit to Speight’s Brewery – a New Zealand institution. And pretty much everything in between. There’s always that castle to explore… Larnach may not have the history of Scotland’s grand estates, but it’s just as pretty in our humble opinion. A NZ holiday must.

Dunedin - Te Anau

Day 4

Duration: 1

Accommodation: Distinction Te Anau Hotel and Villas

Leave Dunedin’s pastoral sheep-farming countryside behind as you venture into World Heritage listed Fiordland National Park, a place of yawning gorges and gem-like glaciers, and azure lakes so large they have their own islands. Case in point Pomona Island, where a charitable trust of passionate volunteers works to restore flora and fauna on this MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience. With your help. You'll take a thrilling jet boat ride down the Waiau River to Lake Manapouri and if that's not enough water for one day, you may choose to cruise to the iconic Glowworm Caves (own expense). Can we tempt you?

Te Anau - Queenstown

Day 5

Duration: 1

Accommodation: Millennium Hotel, Queenstown

Nature rules again today, from the moment you depart Te Anau and begin your journey deep into the heart of Fiordland National Park. Think native rainforests, beech forests, alluvial flats and meadows; Mirror Lakes perfectly reflecting mountain scenery; and precipitous lookouts holding guard over alpine rivers. And this is just the entrée. The main course is your Milford Sound/Piopiotahi tour, where you cruise in the company of fur seals that bask on the rocks, and gaze at misty escarpments so sheer they appear to cleave off the edge of the Earth. You’re in the company of a naturalist who knows every nook and cranny of this mighty cavern and will point out flora and fauna you would have never spotted on your own.

Queenstown Free Time

Day 6

Duration: 1

Accommodation: Millennium Hotel, Queenstown

Take today at your own pace. Like things fast and furious? Feel the wind in your hair on a high-octane jet boat ride, perhaps. Prefer wine to get your heart started? See why Central Otago makes some of the world’s most raved about cool-climate pinots on a cellar door tour. Wherever your Queenstown New Zealand tour wanderings take you, you'll reunite with your companions come dusk to glide across Lake Wakatipu aboard the historic TSS Earnslaw, your barbecue Highlight Dinner served on the grounds of Walter Peak High Country Farm. Trips to New Zealand don’t get much tastier than this.

Queenstown - Franz Josef/Waiau

Day 7

Duration: 1

Accommodation: Scenic Hotel Franz Josef Glacier

In the shadow of the Remarkables, Queenstown is pretty spectacular. But it has some stiff good-looks competition from neighbouring Arrowtown, with its movie-set tree-lined avenues and 19th-century buildings that once housed gold-rush fortune-seekers. Things grow well in this verdant countryside, from cherries to pinot grapes and all manner of stone fruit at a roadside stall run by the interminable Mrs Jones, a local institution. Prepare for a flavour explosion. The next explosion is a visual one as you arrive in the town of Franz Josef/Waiau, home to Franz Josef Glacier/Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere. Get some perspective of this immense ice fall on a scenic helicopter flight – you may even get to land on it (own expense).

Franz Josef/Waiau - Punakaiki

Day 8

Duration: 1

Accommodation: Scenic Hotel Punakaiki

Wandering Hokitika’s windswept shore on the West Coast feels a bit like you’ve discovered the end of the Earth. Then soak in the natural surroundings as you head to Punakaiki to view the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes, where waves thunder through cracks in the Earth. This is the soundtrack that lulls you to sleep at tonight’s eco-resort.

Punakaiki - Christchurch

Day 9

Duration: 1

Accommodation: Distinction Christchurch Hotel

Wine may steal the scene across much of New Zealand, but at legendary Monteith’s Brewery, beer rules. Sip your way through a tasting paddle of XPA, IPA, lager and pale ale because you’re not driving to the station where your TranzAlpine for your train trip across New Zealand’s South Island. Just as well lunch is included. This is one of those NZ holiday experiences where the journey matters just as much as the destination, as you sweep through tunnels and over viaducts with panoramic views of snow-capped peaks, icy rivers, beech forests, gorges and river valleys. What a way to end a day.

Farewell from Christchurch

Day 10

Duration: 1

The last 10 days of your NZ holiday flew by. Return home with new friends, a full SD card on your camera – and even more memories.

Dates & prices

Start Date: 2025-01-14

End Date: 2025-01-23

twin

Child Price: 6155

Adult Price: 6835

twinShare

Child Price:

Adult Price: 6835

single

Child Price: 6620

Adult Price: 8785

Start Date: 2025-01-28

End Date: 2025-02-06

twin

Child Price: 6497

Adult Price: 7177

twinShare

Child Price:

Adult Price: 7177

single

Child Price: 6820

Adult Price: 9224

Start Date: 2025-02-11

End Date: 2025-02-20

twin

Child Price: 6497

Adult Price: 7177

twinShare

Child Price:

Adult Price: 7177

single

Child Price: 6495

Adult Price: 9224

Start Date: 2025-02-25

End Date: 2025-03-06

twin

Child Price: 6497

Adult Price: 7177

twinShare

Child Price:

Adult Price: 7177

single

Child Price: 5846

Adult Price: 9224

Start Date: 2025-03-04

End Date: 2025-03-13

twin

Child Price: 5472

Adult Price: 6152

twinShare

Child Price:

Adult Price: 6152

single

Child Price: 6820

Adult Price: 7907

Start Date: 2025-03-18

End Date: 2025-03-27

twin

Child Price: 6155

Adult Price: 6835

twinShare

Child Price:

Adult Price: 6835

single

Child Price: 6495

Adult Price: 8785

Start Date: 2025-04-01

End Date: 2025-04-10

twin

Child Price: 5472

Adult Price: 6152

twinShare

Child Price:

Adult Price: 6152

single

Child Price: 6495

Adult Price: 7907

Southern Spectacular

Tour Advisors

Itinerary

Dates & prices