General: New Zealand

When we moved to Australia in the middle of last year, we made a list of places we planned to visit and I recall that New Zealand was pencilled in for year six. A few months later and with our appetite whetted through conversations with new colleagues, New Zealand was promoted to become our first planned holiday destination in the southern hemisphere.

Needless to say the journey was a nice easy one for us and without the daunting prospect of 24 hours on a plane we decided that a two week break would be adequate. Just as well as this was all the time we could spare. As we started to firm up our itinerary we realised that there is rather a lot to New Zealand so we decided this trip would be all about the South Island. Many people approved of our decision, declaring that the South Island was the more beautiful and if you had to choose one island to visit, this would be the one. Of course if coming from the UK this is a more difficult decision to make as a second trip to see the other island is far less likely.

Driving New Zealand seems to be the way to go. The roads are in good condition and very easy, we prebooked a Sat Nav but there really is no need, usually we put in our destination and the instructions went along the lines of:

“Drive 100m, turn left, drive 135km, turn right, arriving at destination”.

We didn’t drive everywhere, to give us more time in each of the key places we decided to stay at, we took an internal flight at the half way point.

We were advised that February was a good time to travel to New Zealand and as it fitted with work schedules this is what we did. It was welcome relief from the Australian sun, probably about 10 or 15 degrees cooler and averaging perhaps 20C. We had some cloudy and wet days but not enough to interfere with any plans. The rain is more like UK drizzle than the heavy stuff we get in Sydney.

QUEENSTOWN

We flew into Queenstown from Sydney. An easy 2.5 hour hop on the plane for us, but things did not get off to a great start at the airport. I believe that capacity has increased with more discount flights arriving in Queenstown than previously and the small airport seemed to be struggling. After an hour in the immigration queue, we retrieved our bags which were by this time dumped on the floor in the middle of a hallway. Our relief at being on our way was short lived when we saw the huge queue at customs caused by the requirement for every bag to be screened on the way out.
Finally we got to our hire car and made the easy 8km drive to our hotel in the centre of Queenstown. I had allowed three nights here, having read that this was plenty. We disagree. We loved Queenstown and either I read the wrong reviews or it is seriously under rated. We could have easily stayed longer, in fact we did end up changing our plans and spending one more night here but I will come to that later.

The town was bigger than I expected with plenty of restaurants to choose from and enough shops to while away a couple of hours browsing. But the main reason people come to Queenstown is for the activities. It is an extremely popular resort for winter sports but there is plenty to do in summer too. On the afternoon we arrived we settled for a leisurely cruise around the lake, the following day we opted for the more exciting jet boat ride. Some of these depart from the lakeside area, for others you have to drive up to a departure point.

Another day we took the skyline gondola up the mountain. There are of course the views to enjoy at the top and a bungee jump is in operation up here too; we observed a couple of people have a go. More to our liking was the luge (a bit like go karting). A chair lift ride takes you up to the start point and then there are two tracks to take back down to the chairlift. The beginners track is longer and windier, the advanced track is shorter and steeper. We had three of four goes, then had some coffee and cake and wrote postcards in the pleasant cafe at the top.

After another gondola ride back down to the bottom, we had planned to go to the Kiwi birdhouse which is close by, however it was about $40 each and we thought this was a little excessive. In fact we found most activities pricey, especially with the current exchange rate and as we tend to think in £ still.

Activities we did not try this time but might on another occasion include quad biking and the zipwire. We will definitely return to Queenstown and probably not in the too distant future.

TE ANAU

Next stop was Te Anau. We picked it as it seemed to be the most appropriate base for excursions to the Milford and Doubtful sounds. It took several hours to drive there from Queenstown but was no chore and we took our time with plenty of stops on the way for photos of the stunning landscape.

Arriving in Te Anau in the afternoon we had no plans other than to wander around the town on our first day. It took all of about 30 minutes, there is not a lot to do at Te Anau. Our plans had included an excursion the next day, then a free day and then another excursion the day after that. We quickly decided to make our excursions on consecutive days and then head back to Queenstown early, we needed to come back for our flight to Christchurch anyway. We had read that it was advisable to book excursions in advance but fortunately we had no trouble changing our trips at the last minute.

The excursions we took from Te Anau were to Doubtful Sound one day and the Milford Sound the next. We drove ourselves up to the departure point at Milford Sound, but getting to the Doubtful Sound cruise departure point involved a minibus ride, a ferry ride and a coach ride, so it is better to do an all inclusive trip for this one.

We did Doubtful Sound the first day, we opted for a small boat cruise. There were about six of us on board with two crew members and it was a fantastic day. Not only did we see this stunning scenery but we met some lovely people along the way. One of the strangest things about sailing along these peaceful, deep channels was that we saw no signs of life, we had thought there would be an abundance of birdlife but we saw none.

The next day we went to the Milford Sound. This time we were on a larger boat and the experience was less enjoyable, it was overcrowded and impersonal. Also to be honest, the scenery was very similar to that of the Doubtful Sound and with hindsight I would have done one or the other, not both. The Milford Sound trip is shorter, about 90 minutes and also easier to get to. The Doubtful Sound is a full and long day, with more travelling time and also a longer cruise time and I think this is the one I would recommend.

KAIKOURA

After returning to Queenstown, we spent one more night on the town and had a fabulous dinner at the Tatler’s restaurant. The next day we took a short flight to Christchurch, picked up another hire car at the airport and drove straight to our next destination, Kaikoura.

We were based 16km north of Kaikoura, I had found some fabulous treehouse
accommodation which deserves a review all of its own and will provide in due course. Arriving in the afternoon we decided to spend the day in our fabulous accommodation and around the swimming pool.

The two most popular activities in Kaikoura are whale watching tours and dolphin tours. These really should be booked in advance, I saw people that had turned up speculatively being turned away.

The whale watching boats were extremely modern and comfortable, they travel at high speed out to the open ocean and from site to site as they look for whales, it is necessary to sit inside for safety at this time. At the office departure point and at check in there were lots of warnings about sea sickness and although I had not been anxious beforehand I soon was. As we were about to go out onto our boat, another one returned and a couple staying with us at the tree houses told us that it was horrendous and nearly everybody had been seasick on their trip.

Fortunately, we were both absolutely fine and we only saw one person suffer. The trip is about 90 minutes and the crew are well equipped to track the whales, it still took some time for one to surface though. And in the end two did together. We watched them on the surface for a while and remained watching until they had both dived back into the deep and we had got our photos of the tail fin departing. As soon as the whales went a pod of dolphins approached our boat and swum alongside us for a while. Then it was back inside for the fast trip back to shore. There is a big TV screen and interesting and educational nature clips are shown for entertainment.

The following day we were booked on a swimming with dolphins trip. Again we were warned that there could be a risk of seasickness as we checked in and waited around. Finally our departure was called into the wet suit room to get kitted out and then we made our way to the briefing room. By this time the warnings were quite extreme, in fact we were told:

“if you normally suffer from sea sickness you are going to be sea sick and if you do not normally suffer from sea sickness you will very probably be seasick”.

Five minutes later, a crew member who had just returned from an earlier trip came to tell us that the trip had been cancelled for safety reasons. I went through so much to get zipped up in that wetsuit too.

Cue the mad rush back to the counter to get rebooked or refunded. We had to opt for the refund as it was our last day in Kaikoura. We spent the rest of the morning wandering around the little town centre and then went back to the very expensive tree house to make the most of it!

MARLBOROUGH

As my usual tipple is a Marlborough Sauvignon, this was a must for us. We drove up from Kaikoura in the morning, another great drive along stunning coastline this time. As lunchtime approached we came upon the highly recognisable Montana Estate so stopped here for a beautiful lunch in their gardens and a quick wine tasting afterwards.

One of the main tows in this area is called Blenheim and I had imagined it would be very picturesque, in fact it was an incredibly ugly town and I was very glad that I had not chosen accommodation here. We had chosen a place called the Marlborough Vintners Hotel which was outside the town of Renwick and perfectly located for visiting the wineries. On arrival day we drove up to the Cloudy Bay beach and then we just drove around the wineries taking pictures of the wine doors, it was getting a bit too late for tastings you see.

Next day was pencilled in for a full day of tasting. We wanted to take our own car rather than go around in a big group and it worked out OK. As designated driver my husband spat most of his out and I did not consume that much either, I literally just tasted and then tipped away. We loved seeing some of our favourite brands like Cloudy Bay and Villa Maria. We stopped for lunch at the Cloudy Bay winery, it is not as well set up for lunch as some of the other places (limited menu, not much space) but it was the one for us and we enjoyed our salad and a small glass in the pretty gardens.

CHRISTCHURCH

Christchurch was our final destination of the trip and we had booked our return flight from here. It was nice to be in a proper town after the quietness of some of our previous locations. But to be honest we did not find a whole lot to do and I came away thinking that it was unlikely I would make a repeat visit. We took the little tram ride on the first full morning, it takes 20 minutes to do one full circuit and the $17 fare seemed a bit much for what it was. It is possible we did not try hard enough to find things to do. We commented that the city looked to be in good shape after the earthquake in September (this is because the worse damage was in the outside town areas or was to the buildings’ internal). Sadly forty eight hours after we left another earthquake struck leaving the city devastated.

OVERALL

New Zealand had never been a real must go to place for me and I am not sure I would have ever got round to it had I still been living in the UK. But we thoroughly enjoyed our time there, we will certainly be taking weekend breaks in Queenstown again and we look forward to exploring the north island another time.

If coming from the UK, then it would be well worth trying to get more than two weeks so that you can visit both islands. And although the roads are quiet, virtually empty in fact, my recommendation is not to underestimate the distances or try to pack too much in. If you are constrained by time then do your research and pick carefully. It is a beautiful country and I think few would be disappointed by what it has to offer.