Discover New Zealand

Itinerary

• Days 1 & 2

  Fly to Auckland, New Zealand.

• Day 3

  Upon arrival you will be met and transferred to your hotel for a two-night stay.

  Meals - Dinner

• Day 4 - Auckland Sightseeing

  This morning, we experience a highlights tour of Auckland, the ‘City of Sails’, exploring the lively waterfront area and the base of New Zealand’s America’s Cup Challenge. Enjoy the relaxing views along Tamaki Drive, which runs east past peaceful sheltered bays to Auckland's most expensive real estate. Drive through the Auckland Domain Gardens and visit Auckland Museum for an excellent introduction to the people of the Pacific and New Zealand and the remarkable flora, fauna and geography of the area. We also visit Auckland’s Sky Tower – at 328m tall, it is one of the tallest buildings in the Southern Hemisphere offering you outstanding views of the Auckland Central Business District and surrounding area.

  Meals - Breakfast

• Day 5 - Bay of Islands

  Departing Auckland we travel north over the Auckland Harbour Bridge to first of all visit the Parry Kauri Park. Here we will view some fine examples of Giant Kauri Trees. Continuing our journey, we then visit the Matakohe Kauri Museum. Here, we will gain an insight to the early New Zealand Pioneer History, which helped form the New Zealand that we see today. Continuing our journey, we reach Paihia in the beautiful Bay of Islands, where you’ll take a guided tour of the Waitangi Treaty House where New Zealand’s history began. Stay for two nights in the Bay of Islands.

  Meals - Breakfast, Dinner

• Day 6 - Free Time - Bay of Islands

  Enjoy a day at leisure for personal exploration.

  Meals - Breakfast

• Day 7 - Cape Brett

  This morning, board a luxury catamaran to cruise the Bay of Islands to Cape Brett before making a passage through the Hole in the Rock (weather permitting). Afterwards, we travel south, following the Twin Coast Discovery Highway to arrive back in Auckland for one night.

  Meals - Breakfast, Dinner

• Day 8 - Waitomo

  We travel south, crossing the Bombay Hills through the Dairy Rich Waikato Countryside to arrive at the famous Waitomo Caves. Here, a guide will take you underground to view the amazing limestone caves featuring stalagmites and stalactites, then you will board a small boat to view the glow-worm grotto – an underground cavern featuring millions of glow-worms.

  From Waitomo, we travel to the thermal wonderland of Rotorua, the Sulphur City. Rotorua has the most energetic thermal activity in the country with bubbling mud pools, gushing geysers, beautiful coloured hot springs and terrace formations created by mineral water. Stay for two nights in Rotorua.

  Meals - Breakfast, Dinner

• Day 9 - Rotorua

  Day at leisure in Rotorua, which has a large Maori population. This evening you will be treated to a traditional Hangi (feast) and Maori Concert at the Tamaki Maori Village. Experience the warmth of the Maori people during an evening of ceremonial rituals, powerful cultural performance, storytelling & hangi feasting. Enter the pre-European Maori village, witness the earth being scraped carefully away from the hangi pit and enter their ancestral Meeting House to relax, as their family entertain you with a powerful cultural performance, before dining on the traditional hangi buffet dinner (Maori feast) cooked the traditional Maori way in an earth oven.

  Meals - Breakfast, Dinner

• Day 10 - Wairakei Tourist Park

  This morning visit Te Puia – The New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute and Whakarewarewa Thermal Valley featuring the famous Pohutu Geyser. Departing Rotorua we travel via New Zealand’s largest pine tree forests to Taupo. En route, we make a visit to the Wairakei Geothermal Steam Field. Continuing our journey, we view the mighty Huka Falls. Huka in Maori translates to 'snow', as the water here has the appearance of snow falling as it is forced along from Lake Taupo through the falls on its journey along the Waikato River. This afternoon, we continue to the ‘Fruit Bowl’ of New Zealand, Hawkes Bay, Napier, for one night.

  Meals - Breakfast, Dinner

• Day 11 - Napier

  Guided city tour of Napier, featuring beautiful Art Deco buildings, before we continue south to Wellington for an informative sightseeing tour, including a visit to Te Papa (Our Place), New Zealand’s national museum. Stay at Wellington for one night.

  Meals - Breakfast, Dinner

• Day 12 - Nelson

  We cruise across the Cook Strait, through picturesque Queen Charlotte Sound and into Picton on South Island, then continue through to Pelorous Bridge. Here, you can walk through the Beech and Podocarp Forest, as well as view the many sculptured boulders in the Pelorous River. We continue on for a tour of Nelson – this being the first city of New Zealand. Stay overnight at Nelson.

  Meals - Breakfast, Dinner

• Day 13 - Christchurch

  We travel through the Golden Downs Forest to Murchison, through the Maruia Forest and Lewis Pass and into Hanmer Springs, a lovely alpine village, then on to Christchurch, where we enjoy the sights of the ‘Garden City’, also known as 'the most English city outside of England', staying one night.

  Meals - Breakfast, Dinner

• Day 14 - Franz Josef

  From Christchurch, we traverse the Southern Alps aboard the famous Tranz-Alpine railway to Arthurs Pass. From your carriage, you will see the fields of the Canterbury Plains and farmland, followed by the spectacular gorges and river valleys of the Waimakariri River. Your train then climbs into the Southern Alps. From the village of Arthurs Pass, continue our journey to the West Coast, stopping in Hokitika, where a visit is made to the Greenstone and glass-blowing factories. Further south, we tour the Westland National Park, the home of Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers. Stay overnight near Franz Josef.

  Meals - Breakfast, Dinner

• Day 15 - Queenstown

  Driving towards the southern end of the South Island’s West Coast Road, there is a strong sense of entering a primeval land, and a feeling of total isolation. Arriving at Haast, you are surrounded by a landscape of rainforest, wetlands, sand dunes and surf-pounded shingle beaches. From the Westland National Park, we travel through the Haast River valleys and over the Haast Pass to Makaroa and on to the upper reaches of Lake Wanaka. This afternoon, we travel via Cromwell following the Kawerau Gorge Road into Queenstown. Stay for two nights.

  Meals - Breakfast

• Day 16 - Free Time in Queenstown

  Free time in Queenstown. This evening, we take a cruise across Lake Wakatipu on the steamer TSS Earnslaw to Walter Peak Station to dine at the Colonel’s Homestead.

  Meals - Breakfast, Dinner

• Day 17 - Milford Sound

  Leaving Queenstown, we skirt the shores of Lake Wakatipu, then through the beautiful Eglinton Valley, climbing to Homer Tunnel, before descending through the spectacular Cleddau Canyon to reach Milford Sound, where we enjoy a cruise of the Sound. The Sound is dominated by the grandeur of Mitre Peak and the Bowen Falls. From Milford Sound, we head to Te Anau for an overnight stay.

  Meals - Breakfast, Dinner

• Day 18 - Dunedin

  Departing Te Anau we travel through some of New Zealand’s most populated sheep country to Dunedin, 'the Edinburgh of the South'. Here, you can join an optional scenic train ride on the Taieri Gorge Train excursion from the historic Dunedin Railway Station into the spectacular Taieri Gorge to Pukerangi and back again. (Only available to those who have pre-booked.) Stay for one night in Dunedin.

  Meals - Breakfast, Dinner

• Day 19 - Omarama

  This morning, we visit Olveston House, an impressive turn-of-the-century house that is still home to all the lavish furnishings and art collections that have been collected from all corners of the world. We take in the sights of this old Scottish City before travelling onto Oamaru, where we have time to look at the ‘White Stone City’, where the old buildings have been constructed with local limestone. Travelling inland through Benmore and Otematata, through Sailors Cutting we arrive at Omarama, for an overnight stay.

  Meals - Breakfast, Dinner

• Day 20 - Christchurch

  A day for spectacular sights. We head north to skirt the shore of Lake Pukaki to Mount Cook, New Zealand’s highest mountain. Travelling to Tekapo, we witness the magnificent blue waters of Lake Tekapo. Here, we visit the Church of the Good Shepherd and the statue of the Collie dog, before travelling the vast Mackenzie Basin, over Burke’s Pass and across the Canterbury Plains into Christchurch. Stay overnight in Christchurch.

  Meals - Breakfast, Dinner

• Days 21 & 22

  Transfer to the airport to connect with your homeward bound flight.

  Meals - Breakfast day 21

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Accommodation

You will stay for two nights at the Grand Millenium Hotel, Auckland; two nights at the Scenic Hotel, Paihia; one night at the Grand Millenium Hotel, Auckland; two nights at the Distinction Hotel Rotorua; one night at the Scenic Hotel, Napier; one night at the James Cook Hotel, Wellington; one night at the Rutherford Heritage Hotel; one night at the Quality Elms Hotel, Christchurch; one night at the Scenic Hotel, Franz Josef; two nights at the Copthorne Hotel, Queenstown; one night at the Distinction Luxmore Hotel, Lake Te Anau; one night at the Scenic Hotel, Dunedin; one night at the Heritage Gateway Hotel, Omarama and one night at the Quality Elms Hotel, Christchurch. Back to top