A perfectly paced New Zealand tour, providing unique accommodation and small group day excursions and excellent local guides. This trip can be further customized to reduce or add days/nights, New Zealand destinations.
Trip is inclusive of Auckland, Rotorua, Maori experiences, Queenstown, nature walks, Milford Sound, Christchurch, and the Tranz Alpine Train and Southern Alps. We can add to this trip any way to suit your travel interests.
Depart ANY DAY. This is an independent tour that includes transfers, accommodations, touring and sightseeing.
Day 1 DEPART HOMETOWN any day. Day 2 Cross International Dateline
Day 3 ARRIVE AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND TAHUTI MAI!
Breakfast inflight before you touch down at sunrise at Auckland. You are met on arrival outside of Customs and transferred to your hotel. Your room is ready for immediate occupancy, so settle in, freshen up with a hot shower and fresh clothes - you're a new person...
9am: you have a private tour of Auckland sights with an excellent local guide, paced to your interests.
Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, is known as the City of Sails. Sprawling between two harbours (the Waitemata and the Manukau) and nestling around the beautiful island-dotted Hauraki Golf, Auckland provides residents and visitors with one of the most beautiful aquatic playgrounds in the world. Auckland contains nearly a quarter of the country’s population and is the largest Polynesian city in the Southern Hemisphere. It is the country’s business and industrial centre.
A quick bite of lunch before you set off to the magnificent Black Sand beaches of Waitakere with a guide. Forest and beach walks, a study of some of the flora and fauna, afternoon tea...and back to your hotel well deserving of a light supper and early to bed, tired yet rejuvenated.
Day 4 AUCKLAND/ROTORUA (B/box lunch)
Sunrise over the Pacific as you breakfast at the hotel.
8am: You are collected from the front of your hotel by your coach driver and set off on a scenic drive south out of the city, into rich farmlands and through cottage vineyards, arriving into Waitomo mid morning. Join a ranger-guided tour into the famous caves to see the glowworm grotto, millions of tiny glowworms lighting up a deep cavern. Return “topside” and continue on to Rotorua, enjoying a box lunch on the way with your fellow travelers. Rotorua - heart of Maori culture and a magnificent thermal region.
Settle into your hotel across from the Polynesian Pools.
The evening is free - you might relax in the warm thermal waters at the nearby pools, shop or visit the Maori arts and crafts institute. A spa treatment is a fantastic way to appreciate the healing waters and geothermal mud of this famous region (we can make arrangments) particularly after a day of travel.
Day 5 ROTORUA, Maori culture and thermal areas (B/D)
Breakfast at the hotel.
8.30am: You are collected by your local guide and travel with a small group. Experience the amazing geothermal activity, gushing geysers, boiling mud pools and the many colours of every tint and hue displayed in pools, lakes, craters, steaming vents and mineral terraces of Wai-O-Tapu Thermal region.
Day 6 to QUEENSTOWN (B)
Breakfast at the hotel before being transferred to the airport for a morning flight to Queenstown, the “Aspen of New Zealand”. Transfer to your accommodation.
Enjoy lunch and a cold drink in one of the pubs or cafes, stroll through the shops and people watch along the waterfront.
4pm: Gain an insight into Queenstown’s unique heritage with this fascinating excursion.Cruise across Lake Wakatipu on the TSS Earnslaw accompanied by an onboard historian. As you cruise you’ll learn about the steamship’s early cargo-carrying days serving the remote farms on the shores of the lake.
Disembark at Walter Peak High Country Station for a guided tour of the Colonel’s Homestead and its beautifully presented gardens. Your guide will show you around the homestead and collection of photographs and memorabilia of the pioneering farming families.
Then relax in the idyllic rural surroundings and enjoy a central Otago wine and cheese tasting, accompanied by an antipasto platter.
Afterwards, stroll around the farmyard or simply relax in the gorgeous surrounds over a glass of Sauvignon Blanc or rich Pinot Noir before cruising back to Queenstown arriving at 7pm.
Day 7 Milford Sound (B/L)
Breakfast at the hotel.
Flying over the Southern Alps between Queenstown and Milford is the ultimate way to experience southern New Zealand’s dramatic alpine scenery.
A hidden landscape unfolds below, revealing glacial lakes, waterfalls, deep valleys and cloud-piercing summits.
Our aircraft are specially selected for the mountainous terrain of Fiordland and Mount Aspiring National Parks. All our pilots are specifically trained for alpine flying and provide an informative commentary along the way.
On landing at the Milford Sound airstrip you are transferred to the harbour where you board your selected cruise, either a scenic on a spacious, modern vessel or join a specialist nature guide on a relaxed, extended nature cruise (your choice). Lunch is on board. You return to Queenstown by air and are transferred to your hotel.
Note that this trip is weather dependent. Alternatively, you can travel one or both ways by touring coach, a 4 hour drive in each direction. Note that an overnight on Milford Sound or Doubtful Sound can be arranged at time of booking.
Day 8 Wilderness Jetboat Safari (B)
Breakfast at the hotel.
Today’s wilderness safari combines a 1 ½ hours jet boating, with forest and nature walks and a glorious back road journey through paradise. Take plenty of film.....
You are picked up this morning and travel up the scenic road to Glenorchy where you board your jetboat. Travel up the Dart River on these wonderful and manipulative boats, skimming by the nearby shore, turning on a dime. Stops are made for photos and short walks, and morning tea is enjoyed along the banks of the river. The Dart River is mainly inaccessible except by jetboat, so the setting is quiet and serene and absent of people but yourselves. A beautiful morning. Return to Queenstown about 1PM.
In summer months sunscreen, sunglasses and sunhat are essential and insect repellent is recommended. Bring very warm clothes in winter or if the weather is cool. Eyewear is essential along with warm hat and gloves, a fleece jacket and windproof outer jacket.
Afternoon is at leisure to enjoy shopping, river rafting, horse riding, golf, or people watching. Or, take the ride to Bob’s Peak on the Gondola and watch the film Kiwi Magic with an exciting or scenic return by Luge.
Day 9 to CHRISTCHURCH (B)
Breakfast at the hotel.
You are transferred to the airport and fly to Christchurch – a short flight to the ‘most English city outside of England’. Note: you may elect to travel to Mt. Cook this morning for overnight. OR travel this day by touring coach, which is an 8 hour scenic coach journey with 2 hour stop at Mt. Cook for flight seeing, alpine hiking and lunch. Either option must be arranged at time of booking.
Christchurch, the “Garden City” is very famous for its home gardens. In early February, there is the judging of the finest home garden which must be maintained solely by the home owners – no outside help, and the city is literally ‘in bloom’.
Christchurch is also a city of Parks, gardens, gothic architecture and art galleries, as well as sophisticated cafes and restaurants. There are festivals, theatre, live music and great shopping. You may like to visit Cathedral Square in the heart of the City, the Canterbury Museum, take a tram ride around the city, explore the Arts Centre, go punting along the picturesque Avon river, or visit the Antarctic Centre (near the airport).
You have an afternoon tour for an afternoon in and around Christchurch including local history, architecture, gardens and wildlife. Return to your hotel later afternoon.
Day 10 CHRISTCHURCH, full day touring Southern Alps (B/L)
Breakfast at hotel.
You spend today within some of the most magnificent New Zealand scenery, traveling by road through the Canterbury Plains to Kowhai Bush in the Waimakariri Gorge in the foothills of the rugged Southern Alps. Board a jet boat for an exciting 45 minute ride and travel upstream into the canyon to areas otherwise inaccessible, past a 75 metre high train viaduct, a waterfall and thick beech forest. On return to Kowhai Bush board a 4x4 and travel on a tour on Torlesse Station while viewing the spectacular alpine scenery. Following lunch in Springfield, travel on to Arthur’s Pass National Park where you join the TranzAlpine train for the return journey to Christchurch. The TranzAlpine is renowned as one of the top ten scenic rail journeys in the world. Return to your hotel this afternoon.
Day 11 Depart New Zealand (B)
Cost: Standard $2771.00 USD per person, twin share First Class: $3591.00 USD per person, twin share
Plus applicable airfares which we can arrange for you if needed.
Deposit: $350.00 per person (non refundable) Balance: due 42 days prior to U.S. departure
Costs are estimated and based on availability of services and fluctuation of the U.S. vs NZ dollar.
Bookings and Inquiries: Destinations Downunder, Specialists in travel to Australia and New Zealand Mail: 3712 N. Broadway, PMB #251 Chicago, Il. 60657 USA Ph: (773)832 1699 E: travel@koalakiwi.com
