New Zealand South Island: Itinerary and tips- for people planning a trip

1.       Christchurch and Banks Peninsula

I spent two weeks on the South Island.  If you want to splurge, look up little river cabin on air bnb. It’s on the banks peninsula outside of Christchurch. It’s a cabin in the bush, and you get a delicious breakfast and hear the birds like crazy and can hike around their property. I loved it!! It cost around 100 dollars for the night.  I went at the end of my trip when I just needed some rest, peace and quiet.  Then I took a day trip out to the French Village there called Akaroa and went on a little blue penguin tour. They are so cute! But if you have seen little penguins elsewhere, then don’t bother with a penguin tour. Bottom line if you want a kind of out in the bush, romantic/pamper yourself experience, book the little river cabin on the banks peninsula. Going out onto the peninsula is not a must see, as you will see plenty of ocean elsewhere on your trip. You can also do penguin tours out of Dunedin or other coastal areas.

I flew in and out of Christchurch. I went to the quake city museum and just checked out the botanical gardens and buildinging in their town square, all within walking distance of each other. I spent only a morning in Christchurch. You can skip it altogether if time is an issue.

Then I drove over arthurs pass to Hokitika. It was a scenic drive, you can do short hikes but not any particular hike that was a must see. I would say if you plan to drive that way to get to the west coast, stop at castle hill and get out and explore. It’s between Christchurch and Arthur’s pass. It was used for filming some of Narnia. If you rock climb you can even boulder on the boulders themselves.

2.       West Coast

The only reason I headed over to the west coast was to see the Franz Josef glacier. It wasn’t just any old glacier. The setting is stunning, unlike what you would see in our rockies! It is set on a stark contrast of black rock with multiple waterfalls along your hike in to see it. The other glacier in the area is Fox Glacier, which I did not see due to landslides over the trail.  Check the status of access and trails to the glaciers beforehand.

3.       Queenstown

Then I cut back inland to Queenstown. I love Queenstown!! It is my favourite “city” in New Zealand. I put city in parenthesis because it is a tourist town like Banff, but with a very different vibe from Banff. Its adventure capita. There are lots of trendy shops and place to eat. Buy a Ferberger, seriously the best burger I have ever had. I’m not a big burger person but loved their stuff! I highly recommed a ride on the shotover jet. i think its 90 dollars but its generously long 1/2 ride at high speed in a canyon, with 360 degree spins. Just be careful if u have back problems cause it’s a pretty rough ride. I just made sure to really brace myself against the floor and the hand rail when he did spins. I did souvenir shopping here as well as a few hikes in the area.

The hikes I did were recommended by my air bnb hosts whom are hard core into hiking themselves.

·         As a half day hike, actually I went in the evening for sunset, I hiked up to a ridge on The Remarkables Range. You drive up to the remarkables ski field first. The drive itself gives you awesome views of Queenstown in the valley. Then you hike up to lake Alta, from the lake just scramble up to the ridge until you get a view. To summit the actual remarkables peak you have to have ropes and climb.

·         A full day hike was the McIntosh-McIntyre Huts loop. It is meant as an overnighter to
a hut, but you can turn any of the
overnighters into a long day trip. There is a
river crossing, so be weary of water levels,
as it was plenty high and strong when I
crossed and I questioned crossing it at all.
The views are awesome, you can see into
the dart valley, Glenorchy area to the north.
This trail is not well used, so have an idea
of where you are going before hand

·         Ben Lommond Peak I highly recommend as it is super accessible and not a bad ¾ of a day hike. I took the gondola up to the view point over Queenstown, the trail begins at the top of that. Great views once again, and saw lots of Kea (mountain parrots) on the summit.  This will likely be a very popular one due to greater accessibility, still I did not find it over run.

I would also drive up to Glennorchy when in Queenstown as is just a nice scenic drive along the lake. you end up in dart river country which is where a lot of lord of the rings was filmed. I’m pretty cheesy about lord of the rings so I did a tour and horse ride at dart stables combined with a 4 wheel ride movie tour,  but unnecessary.

If you have a car, when going into Queenstown to check it out, just park at the Man Street Car Park, and you will be in walking distance to everything. If you want to buy a ticket to the Gondola and there is a big line up, then just go into the indoor mall, close to the mcdonalds and there is a place they sell tickets where there will be no line up, then you bring your ticket back to the gondola and skip the line. You cannot bring pre-bought tickets from online, you will still have to stand in line if this is all you have.

4.       Wanaka

Wanaka is the smaller mountain town just an hour from Queenstown. Again, I did some hikes there, Rob Roy Glacier, and Roys peak.

·         Roys peak is killer if its sunny as there is no shade at all. I was just surprised at how long of a slog it was as I thought every tourist was doing it, it must be easy! But again, worth it for a view of the area and to get that classis Roy’s peak Instagram shot.

·          Roby Roy glacier is not bad, just have to drive a gravel road to get there but I just had a car and forded the rivers with it, despite the information center telling me I should not take a rental car on it. That was early spring tho so should be dry now.

Wanaka itself has nothing to do there. A few stores and a few restaurants. The lake is nice, but nothing we don’t have back home.

One thing I will say about their information centers, don’t trust everything you hear there. I would ask a local whenever possible. For example you can ask your hostel host or air bnb host  and they will know a lot about the area.

5.       Milford Sound

I stayed in Te Anau and did a day trip into milford sound. It’s a few hours drive,  but the drive is the experience.  The scenery is stunning.  I took a milford sound cruise.  This is definitely a must do. There’s not much else u can do there if u don’t get out on the water. If you decide to tour into Milford as Te Anau as a base, just be aware there is nothing in Te Anau, even wifi is come and go. So have your food bought ahead of time for this part of your trip. I was surprised by how isolated it was.

6.       Alpine Lakes Area

The alpine lakes area was my other favourite area on the south island. That includes lake Tekapo
and Lake Pukaki. You just drive by lake Pukaki,
no hiking necessary. It is a light vibrant blue. So amazing!!! Lake Tekapo you also drive to. It is
not as stunning but a close second. You can shop, eat out etc. at lake Tekapo. I went to their hot springs facility. To access all these areas I stayed
in Twizel. It is an hours drive to Tekapo and an hours drive into mount cook national park from Twizel. I found this a manageable drive for day trip to the areas. Twizel itself does not have much as a tourist attraction, but has grocery stores and resturaunts.  I cannot emphasize enough how beautiful these lakes are though. I just drove to them and had a look, but I know there are hikes to view points you can do in those areas as well.

7.       Mount cook National Park

Go into Mount Cook park and definitely go to the Tasman glacier. It’s a ten minute walk and the view blew my mind!  If u run into rainy weather in Mount Cook park, there is an alpine center that shows short films all day, which I enjoyed on a very rainy day. There are a few hikes in the area, due to weather I only did one.

·         Mueller Hut hike. I did this hike as a day trip up to the hut and back down. Even if you hike only to Sealy Tarns, which is on the way up, I think that is worth is as you can see multiple glaciers and lakes from up there. From Sealy Tarns you can even see the whole Hooker Valley track and the lake it ends up at. Hooker Valley track would have been the next hike on my list if I had more rain-free days.  The appeal of Mueller Hut for me was in hopes of doing Mount Olivia, which is the first peak Sir Edmmund Hillary scrambled in the area. Due to a complete white out I was unable to summit. Note that none of the huts I went to had a place to build an indoor fire, so once you are wet and cold you are kind of hooped.

8.       South Eastern Coast

Now that brings me back to the east coast. I drove down to Dunedin then all the way back up to Christchurch.  There is nothing special to see in Dunedin, except the Cadbury Chocolate factory! I went  to the area because i was driving that far south to find an ancestors grave anyways, but if u aren’t driving that far south don’t go out of your way. It is an area rich with immigrant history, specifically of Scottish Heritage, which I am, and so that was the particular appeal to me.

That being said, I did love a town on the east coast called Oamuru. They have stylized it to look Victorian era and steam punk. A few hours is enough time there, so only go If it makes sense as part of the loop you are driving. I went to the steam punk museum and went in this psychedelic light show they have there called the portal. It was strangely awesome, so if you are in the area, pay the 10 dollars to go to the seam punk museum and go into the portal.  I’m not a steam punker but I loved it because it was so quirky. There are lots of local artist shops, fudge, bakery type stores.

Another scenic stop is the Moereki Boulders, is you are diving along the east coast. They are a neat geological formation worth a stop.

Other General Tips and Links:

·         For Car Rentals, from all of my research I found ACE car rentals were the cheapest.

·         For Food: they don’t have a lot of special food to eat there, just buy groceries. I fell in love with anything Hokey Pokey. Hokey Pokey is what they call a honey comb crunch they put in ice cream and chocolate bars.

·         Gas is more expensive on the south island than the north island. It was 1.7 to 2 dollars on average

·         The websites for local trails are: http://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/things-to-do/walking-and-tramping/

·         Hiking is called: Tramping or sometimes a Bush Walk

·         The department of Conservation link above, from there you can find all the trails. However, note that condition reports can be months behind and their hour/time estimation on hikes is not accurate. The problem is for some hikes it was, for others it was way off. I was told by a local that funding for the department is so low, and staff numbers so low, that is why things aren’t up to date. Again, try to ask locals and use your own experience and judgement, as the department officials you meet at information centers do not necessarily have any special training of information.

·         I used primarily Lonely Planet’s New Zealand book for my planning, I like it a lot.

·         The other tip I have for planning is, follow some New Zealand travel on Instagram. I literally would just scroll through my Instagram and write down places I saw I thought I would like to see and then googled about them.

·         If you are into bagging peaks, climbing and scrambling, here is a website with a good comprehensive list. I found it hard to find good information on scrambles, no books that I could find. http://peakbagging.co.nz/wp/complete-list/