South Island Wildlife & Glaciers
| From Christchurch to Christchurch |
18 days |
View Prices |
Highlights:
- Kaikoura's whale watching and dolphins
- Rare hectors dolphins in Akaroa harbour
- Oamaru's blue penguin colony
- Albatross, penguins on Dunedin's Otago Peninsula
- The Catlins Coast, abundant with sea and birdlife
- Optional country farmstay on a traditional sheep farm
- Iconic Milford or Doubtful Sounds
- Wanaka's Mount Aspiring National Park
- Fox & Franz Josef glaciers, the spectacular Southern Alps
- Ancient West Coast rainforests, Christchurch city
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Your tour will be organised over the dates you require.
All tour itineraries may be amended for any duration to suit you.
Tours are suitable for 1-4 persons and children 12 years and over.
We will help you have the best self drive vacation possible!
Itinerary:
Day 1 - Arrive Christchurch
Welcome to the 'Garden City'.
You will be met by our representative on arrival and receive your travel documents before transferring to your central city accommodation.
The South Island's largest city, Christchurch is exceptionally beautiful with its stunning parks and gardens, the Avon River meandering through the city centre and its dramatic harbour within the flooded crater of an extinct volcano.
Take a punt ride, enjoy walks around the city, visit the Arts Centre boutique craft shops, experience life on the southern continent at the International Antarctic Centre and be entertained at the Court Theatre or brilliant Art Gallery.
Accommodation: Hotel
Day 2 - Christchurch - Kaikoura
(approx 3:00 hours driving time)
Your rental vehicle will be delivered this morning.
Drive through North Canterbury’s sheep and cattle farms into the Waipara Wine Region famous especially for its pinot noir. Tour the wineries and learn the secrets of fine wine making.
Then it’s on to the rugged Pacific Ocean coast. Here, sandwiched between the high mountains and the sea lies the marine playground of Kaikoura.
Take a scenic cruise or flight to view giant sperm whales up close in their rich feeding grounds just off the coast, swim with dolphins, walk to a seal colony, join a Maori tour to learn about ancient customs and culture.
Try fresh crayfish (lobster) for which the area is renowned. Enjoy the outstanding ocean panoramas on the scenic walkways.
Accommodation: Bed & Breakfast
Day 3 - Kaikoura
Accommodation: Bed & Breakfast
Day 4 - Kaikoura - Christchurch - Akaroa
(approx 4:20 hours driving time)
Return via the award wineries of the Waipara Valley Wine Region or take the inland route and stop in at the alpine village Hanmer Springs for a relaxing soak in the natural hot pools.
It’s a pleasant drive through undulating pastureland towards Christchurch with the distinctive landform of Banks Peninsula as its backdrop. Drive over the extinct volcanic crater rim which envelopes sparkling Akaroa harbour.
The seaside village of Akaroa is a delight with its distinctive French influences reflecting its fascinating colonial past.
Today, its time to board your nature cruise to view or swim with playful Hector dolphins, the world’s smallest and rarest. Other amazing sea and birdlife abounds including seals, blue penguins, mollymawks, five species of cormorant, oystercatchers and more. You’ll also see marine salmon and paua pearl farms.
Accommodation: Bed & Breakfast
Day 5 - Akaroa
Accommodation: Bed & Breakfast
Day 6 - Akaroa - Oamaru
(approx 4:50 hours driving time)
Leaving the sparkling waters of Akaroa Harbour, you’ll climb over the hill tops and descend across the wide Canterbury Plains down the east coast of the South Island. Passing numerous rural towns, you’ll cross several large braided rivers brimming with trout and salmon.
Arriving in Oamaru, you’ll be impressed by many outstanding Victorian buildings built of the locally quarried creamy limestone. Tonight you can visit a colony of Blue Penguins, the world’s smallest species, only seen after dark.
Accommodation: Bed & Breakfast
Day 7 - Oamaru - Dunedin
(approx 1:40 hours driving time)
Follow the scenic coastline to Moeraki and be fascinated by an ancient geological phenomenon, large stone spheres embedded in the beach. You may also be enchanted by glimpses of penguins in the surf.
Arriving in Dunedin in the afternoon, you may have time to visit classic Olveston, a Victorian home retained in period style.
The Otago Peninsula provides stunning vistas of the Southern Pacific Ocean and is renowned as the finest example of eco-tourism – haven to the only mainland breeding colony of Royal Albatross in the world, special nesting area of the yellow-eyed penguin (Hoiho), the worlds’s rarest, and home to colonies of New Zealand sea lions and fur seals which you can see up close.
Accommodation: Bed & Breakfast
Day 8 - Dunedin
Accommodation: Bed & Breakfast
Day 9 - Dunedin – Catlins Coast
(approx 4:30 hours driving time)
The scenery of the timeless Catlins is extraordinary, with sweeping beaches, forests alive with birdsong, formidable cliffs, sentinel lighthouses on rocky headlands, placid estuaries, serene lakes and plunging waterfalls.
Discover a fossilized Jurassic forest, vaulted sea caves and rock coastlines, home to New Zealand fur seals, Southern elephant seals, sea lions, sooty shearwaters, penguins and many other sea birds.
Accommodation: Bed & Breakfast
Day 10 - Catlins Coast
Accommodation: Bed & Breakfast
Day 11 - Catlins Coast - optional Country Farmstay or Te Anau
(approx 3:30 hours driving time)
Drive through the rich pastures of Southland enroute to your optional country farmstay or the township of Te Anau, gateway to Fiordland National Park and World Heritage Area.
A country farmstay will allow you the opportunity to enjoy traditional New Zealand hospitality and experience life on a typical South Island farm.
Accommodation: Bed & Breakfast
Day 12 - optional Country Farmstay - Te Anau - Milford - Te Anau
(approx 5:30 hours driving time)
Farewell your farm hosts and drive to Te Anau, then deep into the Fiordland National Park with its primeval beech forests and mirror lakes. Emerge from the carved Homer Tunnel into spectacular Milford Sound where mountains rise vertically from the sea floor 1.2 kilometres into the sky.
Take a cruise and view hanging valleys, plunging waterfalls and captivating bottlenose dolphins, seals and penguins surrounded by sheer mile-high mountain walls, before returning to Te Anau.
Accommodation: Bed & Breakfast
Day 13 - Te Anau - Wanaka
(approx 4:30 hours driving time)
Marvel at the magnificent native forests, lakes, waterfalls, towering mountains, rivers and high country landscapes as you travel to the lakeside resort of Wanaka, just a short distance from Queenstown.
Wanaka is the gateway to the Mount Aspiring National Park with its beautiful scenery, hiking trails and river adventures. Take a walk in the Park, enjoy a lake cruise, visit the Warbirds Warbirds Museum, get lost at Puzzling World.
Accommodation: Bed & Breakfast
Day 14 - Wanaka - Glacier Country
(approx 4:00 hours driving time)
Drive above the lake edge of dramatic Lake Hawea before crossing the isthmus and following the upper reaches of Lake Wanaka over the Haast Pass into the ancient rainforests of the timeless West Coast.
With bush clad mountains on one side and the Tasman Sea on the other, you enter the South West New Zealand World Heritage Area.
This is home to two ice-age glaciers, Fox and Franz Josef, which grind their way from the high snowfields of the Southern Alps through the rainforests almost to sea level. Take a guided walk onto the glacier or scenic helicopter flight.
Nearby at Lake Matheson, you may experience the classical reflections of New Zealand's two highest peaks in the mirrored waters.
Accommodation: Bed & Breakfast
Day 15 - Glacier Country
Accommodation: Bed & Breakfast
Day 16 - Glacier Country - Hokitika
(approx 3:00 hours driving time)
The scenery is dramatic and ever changing as you travel north through primeval forests, across racing torrents and past serene, bush clad lakes.
At Okarito take a boat tour through the white heron (kotuku) colony before arriving in the heritage town of Hokitika.
Formerly an 1860's gold rush setlement, Hokitika still has the feel of a frontier town, where you can find your own treasures of gold and jewellery in the cheerful shops.
Accommodation: Bed & Breakfast
Day 17 - Hokitika - Christchurch
(approx 4:40 hours driving time)
Visit picturesque Hokitika Gorge and then drive deep into the Southern Alps and up the dramatic Otira Gorge to the alpine village of Arthurs Pass.
Stop at the DOC Visitor Centre and learn the history of the early explorers, settlers and those who carved the outstanding mountain road and the rail link from east to west, before your descent onto the wide Canterbury Plains and Christchurch.
Accommodation: Hotel
Day 18 - Christchurch
Spend your last day in 'The Garden City' shopping for those last minute gifts and unique New Zealand products before you return your rental vehicle and catch your departure flight.
Tour Price (per person)
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| Style |
Quality |
Superior |
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Share Twin
(NZ$) |
Single
(NZ$) |
Share Twin
(NZ$) |
Single
(NZ$) |
| Car - Compact |
POA |
$6536 |
POA |
$9778 |
| Car - Intermediate |
$3488 |
$6712 |
$5196 |
$9954 |
| Car - Full Size |
$3750 |
POA |
$5460 |
POA |
| 4WD - Intermediate |
$3800 |
POA |
$5512 |
POA |
Prices are valid to 31 May 2011.
Whats Included:
- Meet & Greet and transfer to hotel on arrival
- Automatic compact, intermediate, full size car or intermediate 4WD
- Quality style - Quality Bed & Breakfasts/mid-range hotels
- Superior style - Superior Bed & Breakfasts/superior class hotels
- Optional country farmstay
- New Zealand touring information - distances, times and directions, map
Prices are in New Zealand dollars and include 15% GST (Government Goods & Services Tax). Click Here for an online currency converter to convert prices to your own currency (approximate only).
POA - Price on application.
Prices are available for three and four persons travelling together in an automatic full size car, intermediate 4WD or people mover/minivan. Please enquire.
A revision fee of NZ$40 per amended itinerary day is charged for any part of the itinerary which you require to be changed. Additional days in the arrival and departure cities do not incurr a revision fee.
Optional country farmstay dinner - NZ$60 per person, additional charge.
1 June 2011 - 31 May 2012 prices provided on request.
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