14 wonderful days of road trip to New Zealand

For most of us who are looking for a trip to see dynamic landscape and beautiful natural reserves, you wouldn’t be new to hear others mentioning “New Zealand”. I mean, it’s New Zealand. I don’t think anyone needs to try and sell you the idea of visiting this country, do you? And for me, visiting New Zealand was one of the best decision I’ve made. Perhaps, it will be for you as well soon.

I’ve always felt like, I belong there. That is where I want to be for good.

And it’s in the South Island of New Zealand, that exciting activities and beautiful landscapes await you to explore. Or has been waiting for you all this time, to take a look at her beauty. (Winks the eyes)

Tip: Fancy a sneak peek? Here, take a look at the below images. And if you’re interested, the album is free for you to download anyway!

In today’s note, I would like to share a particular itinerary that works out quite well for me that it became the future format of how I typically travel. It usually embodies experience wholeheartedly, living closer like the locals, travel by our own car or foot to transverse across great distance.

The overview of the trip

This itinerary covers 7 different locations in the South Island of New Zealand. Starting off from Christchurch, you will get to drive almost 5 hours down south along the coast to Dunedin…

Whoa whoa. Hang on. 5 hours you say?!

Yes, I said that. I’m coming to that later. Hold on your thoughts first, let me continue…

…for a few days before proceeding to Te Anau, at the far side of South Island.

The itinerary then moves you back to Wanaka for a long stay before ending the trip back at Christchurch. During the stay at Wanaka, it also served as the base to visit Lake Tekapo, Queenstown and Mount Cook.

Christchurch > Dunedin > Te Anau > Wanaka > Christchurch

The trip was really good for us and we absolutely had a blast. Just to give you an idea of the overall breakdown of the cost:

Complete itinerary cost breakdown

Wow. That’s for 2 persons? Are you serious?

Yes I am, I kid you not and that’s including air tickets! Why else would you be here reading the notes of my trip? I only craft itineraries – for myself or client – that are well within an affordable budget.

But yes, it also kind of depends on what you want to do, and how much you like to spend on miscellaneous stuffs like shopping and eating. I like good food. But in my own terms, good food means food cooked by yourself.

In a separate post on 3 things I learned during my travel, I talked a lot more about the things I learned while traveling (Psst… food too).

The planning of the itinerary

New Zealand was the grand finale for us in Asia. I never truly looked forward to anywhere else more than this place. I was mesmerised by their country, their people and the way it embodies freedom as a way of life.

Ahh… the pungent smell of fresh air and large open green pasture with the herd of sheep and cows. Such, is the life.

When we decided to go for a trip in the last quarter of the year, I started hunting and camping for the best priced airfare by using Skyscanner.

Booking your flights with Skyscanner

If you haven’t already know, Skyscanner is one of the best way to search for your airfare. Since I started using Skyscanner, it has made my entire trip planning and air tickets booking much easier.

Download and keep this app on your phone as it will come in handy when you start planning on your next trip soon!

Eventually, after weeks of waiting, I finally found one that is suitable for us with its timing and… somewhat it’s cost.

Oh yeah, flying to New Zealand *is* expensive. That’s one thing in the entire trip that I just can’t seem to reduce. But the good news is, I’ve spotted SGD 1100 per pax at Skyscanner before!

It’s there guys, it’s there. Just have to search harder and be patient.

Let me know if you found something cheaper!

If you managed to go for lower airfare, this entire trip would’ve cost you lesser, or allowed you to pick up 1 or 2 fancy things along the way (souvenirs or maybe a scenic flight in Queenstown? Anyone?)

You’re going in October. How’s the weather like there during that time?

I’ve picked to fly during early Oct because it’s really beautiful and quiet there. It’s past summer so it’s not hot, and you don’t get lots of rain too. The weather is really gorgeous and average temperature swings between 10 to 17 degrees.

Oh my that’s a little cold for me! Shall I bring my winter gears?

17 deg is not that cold. Haven’t you had enough of the heat back home? But that’s totally up to you. We brought. But we only used the fleece jacket sometimes. Mostly, we’re dressed in simply a shirt and jeans throughout. No inner wears or jackets.

My suggestion is to bring just the fleece jacket and a windbreaker. Not a killer on space but warm enough if needed.

Oh.. the wind. Oh my.

It’s windy. It can get *really* windy. That a problem? Nah, except that the winds are cold! But we usually try to embrace the windy chills that came at us straight on and go, “WOOHOO, hell yeah!”.

Try that. It’s surprisingly satisfying.

Start your road trip with the right car rental

The whole concept of this itinerary is a road trip. Without a car, it doesn’t work. So the next most important thing to ensure we get it right, is to go and get a car rented first.

Tight budget? No problem. New Zealand’s got your covered pal.

If you’re looking at a tight budget and simple mid-sized sedan, I can recommend going with Apex Car Rental. They offer really affordable cars at your disposal and my experience dealing with them had been very pleasant so far.

Apex car rental has a convenient pick up location near the city. For us, it was only just a short walk over and we thoroughly enjoyed that walk too. It’s one of the best way for you to see the city and the neighbourhood.

Wish to spoil yourself with a better, fancier ride?

Hertz is what I can think of. I’ve booked my car rentals with Hertz a couple of time and believe me, they are one of the best out there to help deliver that end of services and ensure you have a ride of a lifetime.

With over 10,000 locations internationally and is still operational in 150 countries, Hertz also offer a wide variety of cars, from common to luxurious and supercars too.

However, do bear in mind that they are typically more expensive than smaller car rental companies. But of course, it’s a trade off between trust and cost, and they offer loyalty programs or has a bit more promotions tied up with big brands like Singapore Airlines.

Still unsure? Yeah, that’s cause there are too many out there. Avis, Europcar and many more are competitive enough to give you second thoughts.

Tip: Always ensure you purchase car insurance and coverage. Really, it doesn’t hurt getting one. You never know what’s going to happen on a foreign road that you’re unfamiliar. In most cases, you can just buy directly from the car rental companies.

What are we doing and where do we stay?

One of the reason why New Zealand is so popular is because of its abundance of attractions. With that amount coupled with good research and planning, you can form multiple different itineraries that would deliver quite a varied experience. Not surprising at all, really.

It’s really really fun to try on different trips and adventures to New Zealand all the time.

From Christchurch, there‘re multiple routes you can depart from. And there’s no best route here as it all depends on what you’re looking for and where you’re heading to.

The route that worked out for us covers the major locations we will be sleeping over in. So that’s really important for us because we wouldn’t want to make a detour just for that.

The route goes something like this:

Christchurch > Dunedin > Te Anau > Wanaka > Christchurch

By covering these major rest points, it allowed us to explore the various attractions and activities such as Cadbury World, St Clair’s Beach, Wanaka Tree, Mount Cook Stargazing, Hooker Valley Trail, Milford Sound, Queenstown, Lake Tekapo and many more!

The stay over in Wanaka also then allows us to make a daily trip to Lake Tekapo and Queenstown. It’s entirely your own preferences, you may want to stay over in either locations instead.

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Just be aware that you will need to balance out how you stay in each location as that will alter the pace of your trip significantly. My suggestion is – if you’re going to stay in a location, always make sure it’s at least 3D2N.

But the reason why I decided on Wanaka is simply because Wanaka is quite centrally accessible between the 3 locations. Besides, in my case I had decided that the individual activities in those 2 locations are likely to be half a day only. So there’s enough time to head back to Wanaka.

Wait! I’ve heard about those beautiful drives in NZ! Are those included? I want that!

Of course it does! How could I miss those too? You’ve probably heard it elsewhere and plan on having them in your itineraries too. Well, glad you gave me a chance to share my experience!

Scenic drive is the main reason why you should opt for a road trip in New Zealand, as oppose to other forms of travel style. (Psst… camping/campervan works even better. Only if you like that. But that’s something else for other days…)

There are a lot of scenic drives in the South Island, New Zealand. Before you get all too excited about this, I should warn you that you can’t do all of them.

And you shouldn’t. Otherwise you would be on the road 90% of the time and not enjoy your trip at all.

You will have to pick a few of them and not get too ambitious about it. My suggestion is to do the most logical way – picking up drives that are along the route to your locations.

Because of the locations we’re covering, this itinerary managed to include 5 different scenic drives.

1. Milford road

2. Mount Cook road

3. Crown Range

4. Lindis Pass

5. Devil’s staircase

Yours may include more. In that case, good for you. Just make sure you balance it out from the tiredness and not being able to do any activities.

Trust me, driving 5 hours is no kidding. And it’s dangerous if you’re tired.

The nice thing about this itinerary is that it’s a complete route circling back to Christchurch without much of a detour. Except for Mount Cook because it’s deeper in and there’s no two ways around it.

If you managed to create an interesting route, do share in your comments below!

Stopping at Dunedin – St Clair’s Beach

A city famed for many things and is also the second most populous city in the South of New Zealand. But we’re there only for a few specific reasons. If you had extra time, I highly recommend you to check out this city, drive around for a bit. It’s really quite a unique city, I’m telling ya.

Ok I promised to talk about the 5 hours. In a bit. Hang on.

We wanted to check out Dunedin for its St Clair’s beach, Cadbury’s World and their Railway station and town hall. Oh, and our drive from the top of a hill down to the city was really quite spectacular too!

Yes, we’re lucky. Really. We chance upon a really really gorgeous Airbnb apartment with our friendly host, Joanna! Joanna was too kind to us, showed us around and spoke to us in length during our stay there. This pleasant interaction had allowed me to understand the locals a fair bit more and getting a perspective into their lives too.

Joanna’s house is located right at the top of a hill, with an overview of the entire gorge and the sunset. And I’m not kidding you. Chilling out at her balcony in the evening, is an amazing experience.

Dunedin is a huge city with plenty to see. We spend an entire day just visiting the various scenic locations and buying chocolates from Cadbury World. On a separate day, we went to St Clair’s beach in the evening hoping for a spectacular sunset, where I manage to snap this remarkably beautiful image.

I’ve created an album called Photographing The Remarkable Mountains of New Zealand, containing some of the most stunning images I’ve managed to create during my trip there. They are free.

Please support by subscribing to my blog and spread the word around! If you enjoy the works, do encourage others to subscribe and share with them too.

The incredible Te Anau – road to Milford Sound

The next stop in the itinerary is to head to the most western side where a small town called Te Anau is located. It is from there, that your journey up the gorge begins. Personally, it took me slightly more than 3 hours to reach the top because there’s just so many stops I’ve to make to catch the beautiful views!

As part of the itinerary, this is one of the 5 routes we’ve made in this trip. You will get to journey through bending mountain corners, uphill climbs and dark tunnels before reaching the destination.

The view up there is also incredibly beautiful. Lucky for us, we reached there at around 4-5pm and there’s virtually no crowd.

Even without sailing through the gorge, the scenic drive alone is worth the effort.

Bearing in mind of the the time taken to journey up there, my humble suggestion is to depart right after breakfast. In this way, you’ve plenty of time to take it easy and explore the area.

Another thing to note is, network coverage is really not fantastic in this region and they’ve also clearly stated that too.

The most obvious choices of stay would’ve been right in the heart of Te Anau. But what I would like to recommend to you is actually further into the neighbourhood of the residential area. It is here, you will find serenity, unparalleled view when you wake up in the morning. Each house is quite a distance apart, giving you the much needed privacy and quietness.

Just a short walk away, you get to enjoy an evening stroll along the coast, observe the sunset and feel the cool windy breeze brushing your skin and rejuvenating your soul.

Really, there’s no better way to recharge yourself than this.

We’re lucky during our trip to had the rare chance to stay at one of the most popular Airbnb house in Te Anau. Hosted by Toni, she’s also a local NZ tour guide that brings people around to experience the beauty of this country.

With a garage of your own, you can now easily load and unload stuffs from the car without having to carry it across a distance. Sheltered from the outside cold weather also helps make your early start of the day, easier.

I hated to have my butt cheeks freezing or feeling like being in a fridge.

Because the location is just too good to give it a miss, I woke up one early morning to catch the sunrise for a shot that I know will be incredibly beautiful.

P.S. you can see this shot being used in the host’s Airbnb image gallery too.

The famed Wanaka – Best central location

I would’ve thought Wanaka will be more crowded and busy. But I was wrong. It retained much of the quietness and peacefulness even when the town is famed for a particular attraction – The lone Wanaka Tree.

It’s amazingly beautiful. Go there in the evening for a much more vibrant and soft colour.

In Wanaka, a short 10 minutes walk will get you to the heart of the town where restaurants, supermarket and souvenir shops are located. It’s super convenient!

If you had intentions to wander off to places like Queenstown, Lake Tekapo, Arrowtown or some other nearby places, the centrally-located Wanaka makes it the perfect choice.

It makes visiting multiple locations an easy drive of within 2 hours one-way. It still works if you chose to stay elsewhere, but it just meant that you may have to change where you stay more often to cover the same areas.

You would find quite a good range of apartments to choose from, but if you would like a cheap lodge there’s one very near the centre. Booking.com or Airbnb offers big apartments stay at just SGD 200 per night.

We stayed over at Jeremy’s 2-floor villa and had the pleasure of staying at the upper level where there’s a balcony facing the mountain range. It is where I managed to take a close-up shot of the mountain’s peak in the early morning with the fog.

I mean, really early. Cause you know, the fog is good…

It was a really pleasant stay and I thoroughly enjoyed the spacious apartment. Sadly Jeremy wasn’t available to be there as he was away on a business trip, but he had been incredibly supportive and responsive to help us whenever needed.

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Wanaka was our last stop before we head back to Christchurch, so it was rather important for us to slow down, have ample rest and recharge. Being able to stay at this impressive villa really help made us feel more at home.

With 8 days, we split our time there quite equally between these locations:

2 days to Queenstown

2 days to Lake Tekapo

1 day to Shepherd of holy church

0.5 day to photograph Wanaka tree

As usual, we would slot an empty day in between activities to rest and recharge. Feel free to adjust the number of days according to your preference and activities.

Queenstown – Gondola for aerial view

A town that has gained increasing popularity over the last few years, Queenstown boasts major activities for both winter and non-winter Seasons. From Wanaka, it’s only an hour’s ride away and is also considered pretty centrally accessible with increased flights availability too.

Ranging from sightseeing at the Bob’s peaks, the view of the remarkable mountains and birdlife park, to exciting sports like the famed bungy jump, white water rafting, skiing, skydiving and many more.

With so many activities to do within a single location, you will have to make careful consideration on what you wish to do and not over extend yourself!

For sightseeing, if you could only pick 1 activity to do I would strongly recommend doing their skyline Gondola to go up Bob’s peaks at Ben Lomond.

Totally not strenuous at all, this activity is suitable for all ages and offers remarkable aerial views of Queenstown. What’s more, the tickets for the Gondola wasn’t even that costly!

At bob’s peaks, I managed to capture this stunning image. But trust me, it’s an easy shot for anyone. You just have to find the right angle and a spot for yourself (it’s crowded!).

Although we did not stay in Queenstown, you may wish to consider staying at this location if you are planning for more than 2 activities. It helps to reduce the fatigue of driving to and fro, allowing you to have ample rest along the way.

There’s a few hotels for your pick, but I definitely recommend an apartment because they are of the same pricing more or less. Or you could go with Airbnb too!

Lake Tekapo – Stunning turquoise lake, fresh tasty salmons and relaxing spa

Another worthy location to pick, this place offers crazy beautiful lake views! What’s amazing is the colour of the water is in bright crystal-clear turquoise colour! The water has a very distinct bright turquoise colour because they were freshly melted from the nearby glacier.

You can technically drink from it! I’m kidding…

Or maybe not. Ok, please don’t try it or do anything funny (don’t say I suggested anything). Point is, there’s hardly any water bodies in Asia that looks that good anymore. So this particular lake, really fascinated me a lot.

Let me share one secret. Well, not really a secret. But maybe you wouldn’t have noticed too.

There is a small town called Twizel is right in the middle of your journey to Lake Tekapo. Why do I mentioned this? Because they sell fresh Twizel Salmons there. And it’s insanely good! We bought a small packet of it and the salmon slice literally melted in your mouth.

Mouth-watering, soft and fresh salmons. What better can you get? It’s a must try!

The final activity we did was a wellness spa and it’s hot spring in Lake Tekapo. It’s a pretty popular spot and many of the locals frequent this place too.

A dip in this hot spring helps to keep the cold away and it’s always appreciated.

Mount Cook – A must go for everyone

Mount Cook, the highest mountain in New Zealand is one of the most popular tourist location and for mountain climbers alike. At this location, mountain climbers get to challenge themselves with 3 different summits from the South to the North.

The drive to Mount Cook was also one of the scenic drives that you should definitely do. While we’re driving through, there was a marathon going on and we get to see a huge number of participants jogging on that long stretch. The final point of the marathon is at the base of Mount Cook, Aoraki alpine hotel.

Come to think of it, we had plenty of good luck being able to book some of the best stays and encounter some of the interesting events!

Because of how fantastic this place is, we did something additional here – we decided to do a last minute lodging for 2D1N.

I didn’t know what to expect initially, so I didn’t book anything in advance. Now that I’ve been through it, I would most definitely suggest that you book at least a 3D2N for a really enjoyable time there.

URL: https://aorakialpinelodge.co.nz

If you want to keep the cost low, consider the alpine lodging there. Mount Cook Alpine lodging offers a relatively more affordable short stays as compared to Hermitage hotel. If you’re looking for greater comfortable and luxurious stay, Hermitage hotel would be the perfect place of choice. Below are some of the price comparison for you to consider.

Both are conveniently located close to one another, so distance and location wouldn’t be a concern here. Personally, I went for the Alpine lodging just to save up on the cost since it’s only a 1 night stay. I must say that it’s still very comfortable and clean stay and it doesn’t disappointment me at all. (Most of the lodges in New Zealand is pretty decent actually.)

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5 reasons why Mount Cook is a must visit in New Zealand and learn more about the activities you can do there!

Altogether, we did 4 activities here. Because we arrived early, it’s possible to put that many activities into 2D1N. We first did the glacier speedboat, where the guide explains the area to us and how the glacier has been melting for thousands of miles due to global warming. And we also get to see and touch the broken floating glaciers up close.

It hurts to see such a sight because of what we did. Can you imagine that 20 years ago, this same place looks even more majestic than this?

After the speedboat, there’s a small hike up a long flight of steps, where you will reach a peak to see this unparalleled view of the Tasman glaciers.

It is here, I created this powerful yet stunningly beautiful image.

P.S. you will have to brave the strong winds though. It’s absolutely windy up here.

By evening, we get ourselves rested well for tonight’s stargazing activity – the main reason why we’re here! But truth be told, I ended up loving all the activities just as much.

You must be wondering why didn’t I pan more to the right as the Milky Way seems to stretch that way?

Sadly, I couldn’t do that because that day itself was a full moon. The amount of light coming from the moon is too strong and it covers away the Milky Way.

The last activity we did was on the day we checked out from the lodge. Loading our backpacks into the car, we carried only what’s necessary for us on this trail.

Yes, the hooker valley trail was just right outside, near the camping site of Mount Cook. The trail was about 5km long but wasn’t really that difficult.

Don’t ask me why it’s called hooker’s valley. I know it sounds odd, but trust me, it’s nothing of that sort.

To be totally honest, I had a good but respectful laugh on the name itself. The first time I heard it, I actually self doubted if I had searched the right thing. Until I see those images, then I realised it’s likely because it was near Hooker’s lake or glacier.

Wait, that itself also sounded weird! Err…

Anyway, this trail is extremely popular and is suitable for all ages. Some elderly may find this challenging as it still does require some level of physique stamina and leg strength for the amount of climbing up and down. But this is one activity I highly, strongly, definitely recommend.

It’s unimaginably fulfilling and full of satisfaction when you complete the trail. The whole empowerment of being close to nature while putting your fitness to a test, is just so thoroughly enjoying.

And… you have to hike another 5km back. Ok, now we’re talking.

Right yes, this is no joke then. That 5km exhausted us, especially with myself carrying a near 10kg camera bag (and I talked about packing light.. ha!), and we’re really not sure how we’re going to make it back.

The bag was heavy only because New Zealand trip was the first ever that I took photography seriously. I had no clue and was just as ambitious as anyone else. So that 10kg, is just filled with a lot of things that I eventually don’t bring them nowadays too.

You will need at least a good 3 hours to complete the entire trail – that’s if you’re really fit and moves fast. It took us a good 5 hours before we’re back in front of our car. Thankfully, we started right in the morning, so there’s ample time to drive back now.

Oh. No. No no no, my legs are now… jelly! How am I gonna drive?!

Yeah, that’s my fair warning to you. My humble suggestion, if I may, to never do what I did back there. Unless you’re really confident and complete faith in your ability to do both hiking and driving for hours.

At least I know I wasn’t. But I didn’t have a choice. I went slow and steady, took multiple breaks in between. And that caused the drive to exceed my estimation of arrival time back in Christchurch.

So yeah, don’t do it.

An alternative route maybe?

The above itinerary is just one of my suggestion and it was planned around what we wanted to do. When it comes to a travel itinerary, there really isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. It’s all personal preferences and wants.

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Keeping the itinerary open-ended and non-bias feedbacks would allow you to have more customisation on your end. There are a few parts of the itinerary that you can swap out, replace or adjust it’s sequence to suite your own taste.

Have you thought about alternative route? Yes I did.

URL: https://www.foxguides.co.nz

The alternative route aims to visit one particular place. Most itineraries would usually have one “anchor” location that you create your route around it. In this alternative itinerary, I’m looking at Fox Glacier.

Yeah! Finally you’re mentioning that popular place!

Like I said, there’s too many. I wouldn’t try to be too ambitious in most of my trips. I like to take it slow and really, thoroughly enjoy each location before moving on.

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So here’s the thing. Fox glacier is indeed a tad bit out of the way. And since the focus is still a self-driven road trip, I still prefer doing a circular route so I can return the car back at the same location. But this will be difficult and takes a complete different route.

Gray’s tip: in most cases, you do end up saving a fair bit if you return in same location. Don’t say I didn’t tell you.

Most of us will still want Mt Cook in, and either a Lake Tekapo or Queenstown would be nice. Yeah?

Yeah, I thought so. I read your minds well huh…

Here’s the route I thought of, and per location the drive is shorter than my original itinerary.

Christchurch > Lake Tekapo > Mt Cook > Wanaka > Fox glacier > Greymouth > Christchurch

Take note of the bold ones, Lake Tekapo and Wanaka. These are 2 points where you can interchangeably swap around with Queenstown too. And if it’s too much, you may even wish to cut down on one location – in this case, I recommend losing Wanaka. Traveling to Mt Cook from Lake Tekapo is nearer.

With the inclusion of Fox glacier, you now have a couple more activities to choose from. If you would like me to make recommendations on where to stay, what to do, for this itinerary, please do comment below to let me know!

I’m also stoked to plan out this itinerary as I think it will deliver a completely different experience altogether! We shall see…

Final Verdict

The itinerary I had wasn’t perfect. But I’ve come to enjoy every bits of surprises and embrace changes along the way that just enhances the experience further. The route I took, while arduously long, was really really epic for me with plenty of sightseeing.

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Generally, the roads in New Zealand is pretty well maintained so the drives are thoroughly fun and enjoyable. One last piece of advice – be careful of wild animals that may try to cross the road.

They are harmless, but you could accidentally harm them. Go slow, stay safe and protect these animals.

In my trips, I like going slow, taking it easy and thoroughly enjoy a place before I moved on. And that means itineraries I create, tend to be more spaced out in between activities. If you would like a completely customised itinerary that fits your style and need, drop me an email and I’m sure we can work something out.

New Zealand offers diverse experiences and dramatic landscapes for all type of travelers. It’s amazing an island like this is situated just 7-8 hours away from Singapore. Well within our reach, what will your next adventure be like?

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