Just some ideas :)

Hi Guys and Gals,

Even tho I sadly wont be joining you, I thought I would give you some ideas on what you can do in some of the cities as well as try and offer my help with accommodation.

Christchurch - Botanical gardens, port hills at night (really beautiful), arts centre, go on the paddle boats down the river, cookie time factory hehe.

Dunedin - Chinese gardens, lanarch castle, butterfly museum (really cool, the butterflies fly on to you).

Queenstown - There is just too much to do here, I did the Luge which was heaps of fun and an amazing view, shot over jet i heard is really good. Unfortunately there wont be any snow, but the mountains are beautiful, its just surrounded by mountains!

Nelson - Wearable arts museum, local markets.

Hanmer - You gotta go to the hot pools, this town is like a mini Queenstown lots of adventure activities.

In terms of accommodation, I may be able to get you my friends rate of $110 per room, but depends as it is peak season then. The room would be a room with two queen beds in Queenstown & Christchurch, in Nelson which would be a queen and 1 single bed, Hanmer would be a queen and a sofa bed. Let me know if I can help in this way, will try my best.

Nancy

Flight Plans and Itinerary

We can fly down to Christchurch on the 1st or 2nd - Cost: $70-$100
Stay in Christchurch for 2 nights
Stay in Dunedin for 1 night
Stay in Invercargill for 1 night
Stay in Queenstown for 2 nights
Stay in Westport for 1 night
Stay in Nelson for 1 night
We fly out from Nelson some 8 nights later - Cost $90-$120
(alternative route out is to drive back to Christchurch and fly back to Auckland)

Christchurch Ticket Prices

Fly to Christchurch, drive down south, then back up

Let me know what you think of this.

Fly down to Christchurch 2nd Jan.  Spend a night or two there.

Christchurch is the biggest city, and I hear there are lots of nice buildings to look at.

Its a good idea to fly to and from here as it will be the cheapest!

Drive down to Dunedin. 5 and a half hours drive.  Spend 1 night there.

Check out the university, visit friends, anything else?

Drive down to Invercargill.  2 hours 50 minutes.  Stay for 1 night?

Whats there to do here??

Same day we should drive down to the Bluff, the southern most point of NZ.  Hope its as good as Cape Reinga!  Its just half an hour away.

Drive up to Queenstown!  Drive 2 hours and 30 min.  Stay 1 or 2 nights.

Do we have any ski or snowboarders?

I'm keen to check out the national parks.  Maybe go for a tramp?

Next, a long drive to Greymouth, along the marvelous West Coast of the South Island.  Google Maps says it will take 7 hours, it may take us more if we are scenic drivers.

This is still up for consideration but I hear its good.

Will need to stay the night there after the long drive.

And if we want to go right to the top, we head up to Westport, again another beautiful drive along the west coast.  Its just 1.5 hours away.

We then drive through rough terrain to get to Picton.  Whats there?  I don't know but people come here to catch the ferry to Wellington.





Its 4.5 hours drive.  Its likely we would prefer to stay in Nelson for the night though.

From Picton back down to Christchurch, its 4.5 hours away.  If we didn't spend a night here at the start, we can spend more time here.

Alternatively we could shedule to spend more time here at the end.

At some point we need to go to Hanmer Springs, as you can see on the map, just 1-2 hours north of Christchurch.  Great for spa-activities.

Road Trip to the South Island

Hi everyone!

This blog is for all of us to to discuss where we want to go, and what we want to do!

The general plan is to fly to the South Island and drive all around.

My original plan was to get a one way ticket and fly to Invercargill. Then starting from the Bluff, drive all the way back to Picton, ferry over to Wellington, then back to Auckland.

Plan B, is to fly to Christchurch, drive south down to Invercargill, then back up to Picton, then down to Christchurch where we fly off back to Aucks.

More details comming soon!