Where to Visit South Island new Zealand
South Island New Zealand VisitsAs you explore each area on this website, you can see video and images showing the breathtaking landscape and landmarks of each area, its varied nature features and tourism options such as river riding, canoeing, trampling on one of New Zealand's many great walking trails, game viewing in a beautiful setting, swimming with wildlife, etc,
Explore Maori civilization, handicrafts, wellness, speleology and much more. Must Do New Zealand's website is a great way to schedule your New Zealand vacation with over 101 Must Do's that you can enjoy and offers some of the best rides and things you can do while you explore New Zealand.
How to Visit the South Island of New Zealand
To know how long you should stay in the South Island, this article should help you, as I sketch each and every one of the cities and regions and suggest how many extra day you can stay in each and every one of them, as well as some choices and alternative ways if you don't have much spare tiredness....
And now that we've clarified this, welcome to New Zealand, the country of the kiwis, the kiwis and the fruit of the kiwis! What is the number of nights I should stay on the South Island? Usually two week is the amount of times a person plans to see all of New Zealand!
Do not many have the luxuries of two weeks only on the South Island, but for the sake of this mail I suppose that you have plenty of spare moment (or could come back), or that you are not trying to see a land the greatness of Great Britain or California in a single weekend!
In this article I have provided a guideline on how many likely to be the least amount of day you have to stay in each county or town, but if you want to see the South Island in two week's time, you can do that, but remember that with just a few day's time in most places it will be very hasty.
I would suggest choosing only three or four areas and travelling a little more slowly to really enjoy everything this astonishing part of New Zealand has to show you. And if you are interested in seeing the North Island, you will like this article I have written about How to See the North Island in 3 short week, in which I list my favorite places and my assessment of how many nights you should stay there to have a good look around.
All right, here we go - South Island in two week! Christchurch, as you may know, had a severe quake in 2011 and seven years later the town is still moving closer together. Stay at least one overnight here and pay some money in local eateries, pubs and stores (they will be thankful for your business), then get in your vehicle and pick whether you want to drive to the North, South or across the centre to the West Coast.
Cristchurch is the center of the Canterbury area and a full days excursion to Akaroa (about 1.5 hour drive) should probably be included in the list of your spending time in Cristchurch. Prepare for a winding street to this historical UK and France estate at a breathtaking port, but the view is rewarding.
Take a swim with the minute and very scarce Hector spotted porpoises, dine on local cheeses, shop, spend the nights or just go for the ride. The Hanmer Springs is at least 1 tonightworthy. It' barely 2 hour driving from Christchurch, nestled between beautiful vineyards, where I collected breathtaking Pinots during my visit in the basement door!
But, as the name implies, the reason why humans want to remain one overnight is the warm wells. Our most centrally located is Heritage Hanmer Spring, opposite the beautiful thermal spas that are great in the snow-capped deep winters or warm summers. Caikoura is another 1h 45 minutes northerly from Hanmer and is Maori for "eating crayfish" and there are two main reason why you should come here for a nights (or two).
You can buy one of the crabs mentioned above in various restaurants in the city, but for a true taste of kitefin tuna, go to Nin's Bin, a small roadside van where every morning you' ll find crustaceans boiled according to your wishes.
But the other good thing about spending a few nights here is the stunning, giant pottwhales. Please note: If you have been following since the Kaikoura 2017 quake, you will be happy to know that the coast to Blenheim is now open. Visit OMACA if you are a fanatic of warmongering, the memorial cinema of the filmmaker Sir Peter Jackson from the First and Second World Wars, which he created with reconstructed battle sequences thanks to his comrades at Weta Workshop.
The Nelson official has the most sunny New Zealand day every year. It is my goal to go kayaking on the clear water of Abel Tasman National Park, but maybe we do it in gleaming fashion, which seems more like me than dragging my things around in a watertight capsule for a few nights! Remember, if you have children with you, but if not, you are planning to stay a whole overnight in Hokitika or Greymouth.
In March the Hokitika Wild Food Festival takes place here, a wacky and cutting-edge festival where you can drink a schnapps jar of sperm or go chewing on a roasted chicken size. Take your luncheon and travel south to the coastline where you'll stay in either Hokitika or Greymouth. You have a long ride ahead of you to get to the ice, and while it's an astonishing landscape, it's pretty much the same!
Once you have seen them (and hike further than you have done thanks to the melting ice over the years), drive further to Haast and intersect eastwards through the Mt Aspiring National Park and I would advise you to stay at least 2 or 5 nights in Wanaka. Christchurch, Wellington, Hamilton and Auckland also have university!
One of the best things I can do with my relatives or my boyfriends and which is on my Great NZ Bucket List is to ride the Otago Rail Trail, which stays at B&Bs for a few nights on the way. We almost drove back to Christchurch where we began, but this year southwest of Garden City.
Last winters I stayed four at Mackenzie Country, but you could do it right in three of them. You can find offers of marriages and photographs in the sweet stony church of the Good Shepherd - sometimes together, because I happen to have been an inofficial and very surprising photographer when I was there!
The Tekapo Springs is a range of heated swimming pools designed to look like the nearby lagoons and situated on the lakeshore to provide stunning viewing as you immerse yourself. Mackenzie Country is home to the world's biggest dark skies reservation, where huge astronomical scopes are placed and you can take a scenic trip up Mount John at dark to enjoy stargazing and planetary spots.
There' a fast big skies snapping on my Mackenzie Country Highway outing. Now, if you're going to reach North Island, leave mine: When you are an overseas traveller, take a look at DriveSafe to make sure you are satisfied with New Zealand street riding and know the game!