14 Days New Zealand South Island Itinerary
It was finally time for our honeymoon trip! And also our first holiday since COVID 🥲 We've been saving miles for awhile now and finally redeemed them for return Business Class tickets to Christchurch. We were there for 2 weeks and spent the entire time in the South Island.
Plotted our main destinations on the map, but in reality N drove for 2552km in total while I was mostly napping or snacking (in that order lol).
A quick run down of the 14d trip and some things we did (or at least, planned to do), and marked with things we absolutely loved [Must do].
A quick run down of the 14d trip and some things we did (or at least, planned to do), and marked with things we absolutely loved [Must do].
Pro tips:
- Use bookme.co.nz for discounts, can be substantial up to 50% off.
- Weather is unpredictable, try to prioritize activities that are a must for you early on in case you need to postpone you can replan. We missed two key activities due to unexpected weather :(
Day 1:
- Use bookme.co.nz for discounts, can be substantial up to 50% off.
- Weather is unpredictable, try to prioritize activities that are a must for you early on in case you need to postpone you can replan. We missed two key activities due to unexpected weather :(
Day 1:
🚗 Christchurch Airport ⇢ Fairlie
Day 2/3:
Day 5/6:
At Wanaka
Day 11:
Day 12/13:
🚗 Oamaru ⇢ Christchurch
I personally am not a fan of Christchurch and did not enjoy our time there in the city. We made it a pitstop and took a day trip out to Akaroa as well.
Day 14: 🚗 Christchurch ⇢ Christchurch Airport
We made a pit stop and stayed near Fairlie and took it chill for the rest of the day.
At Fairlie:
‣ Fairlie Bakehouse (Famous and iconic pie house)
Day 2/3:
🚗 Fairlie ⇢ Aoraki
On the way:
‣ Lake Tekapo - Mt John Hike (Easy, 15 mins) |📍 Location
‣ Scenic Lookouts along the drive for great views
At Aoraki:
We spent 2 days at Aoraki, it's requires some driving to get to so we decided to stay a little longer to avoid rushing. Unfortunately weather was extremely poor and we had to cancel most of our activities and mostly spent the 2 days doing nothing much lol.
‣ Glacier Viewpoint Trek (Easy, 15 minutes)
‣ Hooker Valley Track (Intermediate, 3 hours) [Must do]
‣ Glacier Helihike (Guided tour along the glaciers. Cancelled for us due to bad weather - many providers available, just Google!)
Day 4:
Day 4:
🚗 Aoraki ⇢ Queenstown
On the way:
‣ Fresh Salmon Sashimi near Lake Pukaki - Salmon (📍 Location) or High Country Salmon (📍 Location)
‣ Oamaru Clay Cliffs (Natural rock formations. Closed when we visited) | 📍 Location
‣ AJ Hackett (Bungee jumping! We just watched lol) | 📍 Location
On the way:
‣ Fresh Salmon Sashimi near Lake Pukaki - Salmon (📍 Location) or High Country Salmon (📍 Location)
‣ Oamaru Clay Cliffs (Natural rock formations. Closed when we visited) | 📍 Location
‣ AJ Hackett (Bungee jumping! We just watched lol) | 📍 Location
Day 5/6:
At Queenstown:
There's actually plenty to do at Queentown and we spent almost 3 days there. If we had limited time and could only choose one thing it would be the hike.
‣ Beekeeping @ Buzz stop (Bee-related activities, gift shop with honey, mead etc.) | 📍 Location
‣ FLAME grill (NZ & South African-style restaurant) | 📍 Location
‣ Ben Lomond hike [Difficult, 6 hours] [Must do]
‣ Luge
‣ Remarkables Market (Open on select weekends only) | 📍 Location
‣ Queenstown Hill Track (Intermediate, 2-3 hours) | Route
‣ Fergburger (Everyone is going to ask you if you tried it, so just go lol) | 📍 Location
‣ Erik's Fish and Chips | 📍 Location
‣ Onsen Hot Pool | 📍 Location
🚗 Queenstown ⇢ Glenorchy ⇢ Te Anau (Pit stop for Milford Sound)
If limited time and skipping Milford Sound, skip to Day 9/10 and go straight from Queenstown to Wanaka.
At Glenorchy:
‣ Horse riding (Multiple providers available - call ahead)
Day 8:
🚗 Te Anau ⇢ Milford Sound ⇢ Te Anau
At Milford Sound
‣ Kayaking [Must do]
Day 9/10:
🚗 Te Anau ⇢ Wanaka
At Wanaka
‣ Isthmus Peak (Difficult, 6-8 hours) [Must do] (I'm on the fence for this one. The husband really enjoyed it)
‣ Roys Peak (Closed for lambing)
‣ Wanaka Tree (Are you even in Wanaka if you didn't see the tree? Haha)
‣ Lavender Farm
‣ Hook Wanaka Lake to Plate (Catch and eat your own salmon! Great in a big group, maybe not so much solo/couple as you need to pay for any fish you catch, even if it's a huge ass one. We skipped it as we didn't want to risk lugging leftover fish around...) | 📍 Location
Day 11:
‣ Wallaby Farm (We showed up but couldn't join as it's Cash Only :() | 📍 Location
‣ Blue Penguins (Skipped this due to time) | 📍 Location
‣ Oamaru Harborstreet (cute place to walk around for a bit) | 📍 Location
Day 12/13:
🚗 Oamaru ⇢ Christchurch
I personally am not a fan of Christchurch and did not enjoy our time there in the city. We made it a pitstop and took a day trip out to Akaroa as well.
At Christchurch:
‣ Tannery
‣ Riverside Market
At Akaroa:
At Akaroa:
‣ Swimming with Dolphin (We booked an experience via Klook, but were not informed it was cancelled due to poor weather until took hours to get there. Had a terrible experience with Klook, no apologies or anything ugh.) | 📍 Location
‣ Or Cruise to see dolphins
‣ Akaroa Fish & Chips (Popular Fish & Chips place) | 📍 Location
‣ Shamarra Alpaca Farm | 📍 Location
Day 14: 🚗 Christchurch ⇢ Christchurch Airport
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