Two nights in the geothermal country of the North Island, then south for Queenstown, a day on Milford Sound, and the drive back over the Alps to Christchurch. One internal flight joins the two halves.
FromUS$1,365per person, twin share — eight nights' hotel with breakfast and all guided touring. Budget separately for the internal flight, which we quote with your dates. Compare the three hotel tiers
Fly into Auckland (AKL) and out of Christchurch (CHC). This is an open-jaw ticket and usually prices close to a return; most long-haul routes connect through Auckland in both directions anyway.
Confirmation
Book at least 14 days before departure. Milford cruises, the internal flight and Queenstown hotels all tighten together in summer. We confirm within 24 hours of your deposit, and refund in full if we cannot secure your dates.
The South Island half is driven rather than flown, because the driving is the point: the Crown Range, the Lindis Pass and the road down the Mackenzie basin are among the best in the world.
The trip at a glance
The North Island
Days 1–3 · 3 nights
01
Arrival
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Arrival in Auckland AT LEISURE
Arrive at Auckland Airport. Make your own way in — the transfer is not included — the city is 21 km north and about 40 minutes away.
Check in and rest. Nearly every long-haul flight lands in the early morning, so plan on a slow first day.
Late afternoon on the Auckland waterfront — a city built across two harbours and fifty-three volcanic cones, with more boats per head than anywhere on earth.
Dinner in the Viaduct or Britomart. Kitchens here close early; 21:00 is late.
Biosecurity at the border is serious. Declare all food, and clean the soil off any hiking boots before you pack them — they will be inspected, and they will be confiscated if they are dirty.
02
Rotorua
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Hobbiton & Te Puia GUIDED
South from Auckland to Hobbiton, on a working sheep farm near Matamata — forty-four hobbit holes, rebuilt permanently in 2011 and the only set of its kind still standing.
On to Rotorua, a town sitting directly on an active geothermal field. The sulphur smell is real, and you genuinely stop noticing it within an hour.
Te Puia in the afternoon: the Pōhutu geyser, which goes up to thirty metres as often as twenty times a day, and the national carving and weaving schools beside it.
A Māori cultural evening — a welcome onto the marae, a hāngī cooked in the ground, and a performance. This is included, and it is the cultural centre of the whole trip rather than a floor show.
The pōwhiri has protocol. Your guide will brief you on it beforehand; follow it, and do not photograph during the welcome itself.
In your price today — with your guide
Hobbiton Movie Set tour from Rotorua
03
Geothermal
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Wai-O-Tapu & the Redwoods AT LEISURE
Morning at Wai-O-Tapu — a collapsed crater field of springs coloured by mineral deposits. The Champagne Pool is orange with antimony and arsenic, and sits at 74°C.
Stay on the marked paths. The crust is thin in places and the water is hot enough to be fatal — this is not a managed park with railings everywhere.
Afternoon in the Redwoods: Californian trees planted in 1901, now sixty metres tall, with a walkway strung through the canopy on swing bridges.
A soak in a geothermal pool before dinner. Rotorua is the one place where the sulphur is the amenity.
Take your silver jewellery off in the geothermal areas — hydrogen sulphide tarnishes it black in a single afternoon, and it does not come back.
Queenstown & Fiordland
Days 4–6 · 3 nights
04
Queenstown
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South to the Lake AT LEISURE
Fly south to Queenstown via Auckland. The approach is one of the most spectacular in commercial aviation, threading between mountains onto the valley floor — take a window seat.
Check in at Queenstown, a town of sixteen thousand on Lake Wakatipu under the Remarkables, and the place commercial bungy jumping was invented in 1988.
Up the Skyline gondola to Bob’s Peak — the steepest cable car lift in the southern hemisphere, 450 m up, looking down the length of the lake.
Dinner in town. Queenstown eats better than a town this size has any right to.
Tomorrow is a long day — a 07:00 departure for Milford and back after dark. Pack for it tonight.
Add to this day — approximate gate prices
Flight, Rotorua → Queenstown via AucklandAbout US$90–180We book itWe book this with your tour and quote it once your dates are fixed. The fare swings widely by season, which is why it sits here rather than in the headline price.
We can book any of these with your tour. Tell us which you want when you confirm and the tickets travel with your documents.
05
Milford
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Milford Sound GUIDED
Early start south through Te Anau, the last town before Fiordland, then up the Eglinton valley with stops at the Mirror Lakes.
Through the Homer Tunnel — 1.2 km hand-cut through the Darran range from 1935, on a one-way light, dropping into the Cleddau valley on the far side. Keas work the car park and will strip the rubber from your car if you let them.
A cruise the length of Milford Sound, under Mitre Peak rising 1,692 m straight out of the water, to the Tasman Sea and back.
It rains here 182 days a year, and it is better in the rain — every cliff face turns into a waterfall. Do not reschedule for weather; come anyway.
Back to Queenstown by evening. It is a twelve-hour day and around 600 km, and the reason we build in a slower day after it.
In your price today — with your guide
Milford Sound coach and nature cruise
06
Gold country
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Arrowtown & Gibbston AT LEISURE
A slower day. Arrowtown first — an 1862 gold-rush village with its miners’ cottages and Chinese settlement preserved along the creek.
The autumn colour here in April and May is the best in the country, and the reason half of New Zealand photographs this street.
On to the Gibbston Valley, where the world’s southernmost commercial pinot noir grows, for a tasting and lunch.
The original Kawarau bungy bridge is in the same gorge and still operating. Watching is free, and for most people sufficient.
Queenstown is the adventure capital and almost none of it is included — bungy, jet boat, skydive, paraglide, canyon swing. Tell us what you want and we will book it around this day rather than instead of it.
Add to this day — approximate gate prices
BungyNZ$205Kawarau Bridge, the original 43m jump — NZ$205 including photos, video, T-shirt and return transport. The Nevis at 134m costs considerably more.
Shotover jet boatNZ$169Canyon walls at 85km/h. Half an hour, and it is the half hour people remember. Children about NZ$109.
We can book any of these with your tour. Tell us which you want when you confirm and the tickets travel with your documents.
Over the Southern Alps
Days 7–9 · 2 nights
07
Aoraki
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Wānaka & Aoraki / Mount Cook AT LEISURE
Over the Crown Range — the highest sealed road in New Zealand — to Wānaka, a quieter lake town with the much-photographed willow standing in the shallows.
North through the Lindis Pass into the Mackenzie basin: tussock country, almost no buildings, and the Alps rising along the western edge of it.
Into the valley under Aoraki / Mount Cook, the highest peak in the country at 3,724 m. Sir Edmund Hillary trained here before Everest.
The Hooker Valley track is three hours return, almost flat, crosses three swing bridges and finishes at a glacial lake with icebergs in it. It is the single best short walk in New Zealand.
Alpine weather turns fast. Take a windproof layer even on a clear morning, and check the forecast at the visitor centre rather than on your phone.
08
Tekapo
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Lake Tekapo & Christchurch AT LEISURE
Morning at Lake Tekapo, turned opaque turquoise by glacial rock flour ground finer than sand and held in suspension.
The Church of the Good Shepherd sits on the shore and is the most photographed building in the country. Get there early or accept the crowd.
This is an International Dark Sky Reserve — one of the largest on earth. If you are staying the night, the observatory tour at Mount John is the best stargazing most people will ever do.
Afternoon across the Canterbury Plains to Christchurch, rebuilt over fifteen years since the 2011 earthquake.
The transitional cathedral, built of cardboard tubes, and the 185 white chairs standing empty for those who died. Both are worth the hour.
Add to this day — approximate gate prices
Scenic flight or glacier landingFrom about NZ$375Book aheadA Franz Josef helicopter flight with a snow landing runs from about NZ$375 for roughly an hour. The single best thing you can spend money on in New Zealand — and the first thing cancelled in cloud, so keep a spare day.
We can book any of these with your tour. Tell us which you want when you confirm and the tickets travel with your documents.
09
Departure
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Departure AT LEISURE
Breakfast, check out, and leave your bags with the concierge.
A last morning in the botanic gardens, or punting on the Avon, which is exactly as improbable as it sounds and rather good.
Transfer to Christchurch Airport, 12 km from the centre. Allow 3 hours for an international departure.
Clean your boots again before you fly home if your own country asks — several do, and Australia in particular will inspect them.
Departing late? A day-use room or late checkout is easy to arrange. Just ask us before you travel.
Your Hotels
Eight nights — one in Auckland, two in Rotorua, three in Queenstown, one at Aoraki or Tekapo and one in Christchurch, always with daily breakfast. In New Zealand the view from the room is a real variable, and it is most of what separates these tiers.
Comfort · 3–4★
Central, well-run, and walkable to dinner in every townSolid mid-range hotels and lodges rated 8.5 or above by recent guests, with breakfast throughout. New Zealand’s mid-market is genuinely good — small, owner-run and clean — and this tier is not a compromise the way it is in some countries.
Deluxe · 4–5★
Lake-facing in Queenstown and Tekapo, where the view is the pointA room looking at Lake Wakatipu, and alpine views in the Mackenzie. In Rotorua it buys a geothermal pool on site. This is the tier most people should take here — the scenery is the product and you are in it for two more hours a day.
Luxury · lodges
New Zealand’s luxury lodges, which are a category of their ownSmall, remote, owner-hosted properties with a handful of rooms, dinner included and staff who arrange your day around the weather. The country does this better than almost anywhere, and at this tier the lodge becomes a destination rather than a bed.
You will know exactly where you are staying before you pay a balance. We name the property in your confirmation, in writing, as soon as the room is held — and if it is ever unavailable for your dates we substitute at the same tier or better, never below it.
Restaurants worth trying
Breakfast is in the price. Every other meal is yours to choose, so here is where we would eat. We do not arrange any of these and you would pay for them yourself. They are simply places we rate, near where the trip goes. Tick any you like and they appear on the map.
Suggested, not included. Opening hours and prices are theirs, not ours — and a place that is busy at eight will be busy whether or not you booked through us.
Tour Price
All prices are per person, twin share, in US dollars — the figure below is what you pay us. It covers eight nights' hotel with breakfast, the internal flight, Hobbiton, Te Puia with the cultural evening, Wai-O-Tapu, the full Milford Sound day with the cruise, the Skyline gondola, all South Island driving with a guide-driver and every transfer. Travelling alone is possible; the single supplement covers sole use of the room.
Hotel tier
Per person, twin share
Single supplement
Comfort — 3–4★ hotels, twin share
from US$1,365
+US$715
Deluxe — 4–5★ lake-facing, twin share
from US$1,775
+US$1,020
Luxury — luxury lodges, twin share
from US$2,875
+US$1,850
Included
8 nights' accommodation with daily breakfast, in the hotel tier you choose · Hobbiton and Te Puia with a Māori cultural evening · Wai-O-Tapu · the full Milford Sound day with the fiord cruise · the Skyline gondola · all South Island driving with a guide-driver · the Aoraki and Tekapo day
Not included
Airport transfers, which we exclude on every tour to keep the headline price honest — we will quote them with your booking · the Rotorua–Queenstown flight via Auckland, about US$90–180 depending on the date — we book it for you and quote it with your dates · Bungy, jet boat, skydiving and other Queenstown adventure activities · scenic flights and glacier landings · international flights · the NZeTA and visitor levy · lunches and dinners other than the cultural evening · travel insurance · tips
How the flexi tour works. Choose any departure date and a hotel tier → we confirm availability and the exact price within 24 hours → pay a deposit to hold it → your final documents and vouchers arrive by email a week before you fly. There is no group to join and no fixed departure day.
Seasonal pricing. The figures above are the cheapest months to do this trip. No single month is low season everywhere on it — Queenstown's quiet weeks are Auckland's dearest, and its winter is ski season — so this window is the floor for the itinerary as a whole. December to February is summer and high season, costing substantially more, with Queenstown at Christmas higher again. March to May is the value window — stable weather, autumn colour in Arrowtown, and half the crowds. Winter turns Queenstown into a ski town and prices rise again; the Milford road can close for snow, which we plan around.
Budget separately for: Queenstown adventure activities (bungy from about NZ$220, jet boat about NZ$160), scenic flights and glacier landings from about NZ$450, the NZeTA at NZ$23 plus the NZ$100 International Visitor Levy, international flights, most lunches and dinners, and travel insurance.
Start your booking
Tell us who you are and when you want to go.
We’ll reply within a business day with the price and what’s available.
A deposit holds it, and comes back in full if we can’t get your dates.
✓
That is with us
If you do not hear from us, email
info@dltravel.net and we will pick it up.