u/LoveFoolosophy12

Hello!

My wife and I (mid-30's) are nearing the final itinerary for our trip to NZ from December 13-30. Thanks to those of you in this sub who helped out with advice. Laying out what we currently have below:

12/13: land in Queenstown at 1:30pm, get rental car, settle in

12/14: Queenstown (gondola/luge, Glenorchy drive)

12/15: drive to Te Anau (possibly do Lake Marian track)

12/16: Te Anau (Milford Sound 2 hour cruise booked for 8:50am, relaxed drive back to Te Anau afterwards and possible hike)

12/17: Doubtful Sound overnight

12/18: drive to Wanaka (settle in and relax)

12/19: Wanaka (Roy’s Peak early AM, Haast Pass afterwards - some of Wilson’s Creek, Thunder Creek Falls, Monro Beach, Blue Pools Track)

12/20: Wanaka (Rob Roy Glacier Track)

12/21: drive to Twizel to drop bags (staying here) then to Mt Cook (Sealy Tarns to Mueller Hut/Hooker Valley Track either today or tomorrow depending on weather)

12/22: drive to Arthur’s Pass (some of Devil’s Punchbowl, Castle Hill, Cave Stream Scenic Reserve, Bealy Spur)

12/23: drive to Hokitika Gorge, down to Franz Josef, and back up to Hokitika to sleep

12/24: drive to Punakaiki then up coast to Westport then to Abel Tasman

12/25: Abel Tasman

12/26: Abel Tasman

12/27: fly to Auckland in AM, drive to Tongariro

12/28: Tongariro Alpine Crossing, drive to Cambridge afterwards

12/29: Cambridge (Hobbiton Second Breakfast tour then Spellbound Glowworm tour at 4pm)

12/30: fly home from Auckland 2pm

How does this look?

Do you think we would prefer an extra night in Wanaka or Twizel (or elsewhere) and therefore cut out the Franz Josef day?

Thanks for any advice!

Thanks to everyone in this sub that has already helped me out with some itinerary planning for a 17 night NZ trip my wife and I (mid-30's) are embarking on in December. I've done a ton of research and booked most of our accommodations along with some activities such as the Doubtful Sound overnight, but I keep getting stuck on a few points and am hoping to get some advice here.

To sum up our trip quickly, we arrive to Queenstown on December 13th and we fly out of Auckland on December 30th. We are booked for Hobbiton on December 29th, otherwise this is primarily a South Island trip. We love day hikes, nature, animals, epic scenery, and good food.

1. The one North Island activity we are torn on is Tongariro Alpine Crossing. We have the ability to fly into Auckland on December 27th, drive to Tongariro, sleep there, and do the hike on December 28th weather permitting before making our way towards Hobbiton. That's not too much for the type of travelers we are, but we're worried about the seemingly constant weather cancellations. Is a chance at Tongariro worth sacrificing a day in the South Island, even if we end up unable to do the hike last second?
2. Is missing Arthur's Pass a mistake? It looks like a beautiful drive and a beautiful area, but we currently are planning to drive all the way up the West Coast from Haast Pass to Abel Tasman. We're torn on skipping out on Arthur's Pass though.
3. Is 1 night in Mt Cook and 2 nights on the West Coast enough? We're doing 2 nights Queenstown (gondola/luge, Glenorchy), 2 nights Te Anau (Milford Sound cruise, 1-2 shorter hikes), 1 night Doubtful Sound overnight, 3 nights Wanaka (Roy's Peak, Rob Roy Glacier Track), 1 night Mt Cook (Hooker Valley Track/Sealy Tarns), 2 nights West Coast, 3 nights Abel Tasman/Nelson as of now. This relates back to the Tongariro question - would 1 more night help us out quite a bit on this itinerary?
4. We keep coming across Karamea and the Oparara Arches in our research. If we tweaked our itinerary or if we had that extra South Island night, is this area worth checking out on our way up the West Coast before Abel Tasman? I'm guessing it may be too much but I wanted to ask about it.

Thanks a lot for any advice!

Hi all,

My wife and I are finally taking a dream trip to New Zealand in December. We land in Auckland early morning on December 13th from LAX and we fly back out of Auckland in the mid-afternoon on December 30th. We're in our mid-30's and love day hikes of all difficulty levels, road trips, nature, scenic views, seeing animals in the wild, and great food. We are currently planning to immediately fly to Queenstown about 3-3.5 hours after our plane lands in Auckland, with the Air NZ flex fare that will allow us to change flights day of for no fee if needed.

Our current thought process is to focus mostly on the South Island (13-14 nights) and do a few days on the North Island (3-4 nights) at the end of the trip. We will rent a car for each island. I'd love some itinerary advice, and thank you all in advance for any suggestions.

Currently, our rough outline is:

Queenstown - 2 or 3 nights - get over jet lag, settle in, gondola + luge looks fun, what else is recommended around Queenstown?

Te Anau - 3 nights - very excited for this portion of the trip, Milford Sound boat tour one morning, Doubtful Sound day tour one of the days (we really want to do the overnight tour but my wife deals with some sea sickness and is concerned she won't properly enjoy it given the cost), we'd like to do a couple hikes between Lake Marian, Key Summit, Gertrude Saddle. Is this all overkill?

Wanaka - 2 or 3 nights - Roys Peak hike is priority, have friends who have lived in Wanaka and say wonderful things about the town/area, would be into mountain biking or kayaking or another similar activity

Aoraki/Mt Cook - 1 or 2 nights - Hooker Valley Track and Sealy Tarns

West Coast - 3 nights - include Franz/Fox Glacier (we dislike helicopters and small planes so would stick to the walks), Haast Pass, Hokitika, Punakaiki, Blue Pools Track

Arthurs Pass - 1 night or drive through and spend a few hours?

Fly out of Christchurch the day we arrive there to either Rotorua or Auckland for the last 3-4 nights. Tongariro Alpine Crossing is pretty high on our list for this trip so we figured if we fly in on Dec 26 (and give ourselves 13 nights South Island in that case) we can plan to do that hike on Dec 27 with Dec 28 as backup if the weather fails the first day. We've already booked Hobbiton for our last full day, Dec 29, as we are big LOTR fans. We would also like to see glow worms if there's time, possibly on the 28th. Nikau Caves looks like a slightly less touristy option that we're intrigued by. Otherwise, Spellbound looks great for what it is.

How does all of this sound? Are we missing anything substantial that we may really enjoy? Underestimating or overestimating certain portions? Truly open to suggestions. Thank you! We cannot wait to experience this beautiful country.

Hi all, my wife and I are mid-30's well-seasoned travelers and visiting Italy from September 4th-September 20th. We have not booked our flights yet but we will land in Italy on the 4th and we will depart on the 20th.

We love outdoor, nature-based areas as well as scenic towns/views. We're big hikers (although have no interest in backpacking this trip, an epic day hike or two would suffice). My wife is an actual cook so we love love love food. And we adore animals. These are the main components of most trips for us.

We have zero interest in museums, guided tours, or history in that sense. We're not big wine drinkers although we can appreciate a nice glass here and there. We love wandering cities for the food, the random shops, fun cocktail bars, etc.

I've been to Rome before but nowhere else in Italy and it's my wife's first time. Some of her family is from the town of Reggio Emilia (she's half Italian), so stopping there for at least a day is mandatory (none live there currently so this is more for us to see the area they grew up in). After a good deal of research, areas that look appealing to us are the Dolomites, Venice (for a night or two), the Amalfi Coast, and Sicily. She'd like to do a night or two in Rome if possible but it's not top of the list.

We realize these are areas spread all throughout the country and that slow travel is the preference for many. We focus on slower travel for certain trips and faster on others. This is going to be a faster/moving around trip and we're ok with that. The pacing doesn't bother us. We are definitely going to rent a car for the Dolomites/would be happy to drive around for portions of this trip. We are set on the Dolomites for 3-4 nights, Venice for 1-2 nights, and Reggio Emilia in some capacity, even for just a day.

Does anyone have advice for us on how we could shape the rest of our itinerary, what seems aligned with our tastes, and if skipping cities/areas like Florence and Tuscany feels like a mistake? We have not decided where we will fly into or out of yet so we are happy to take suggestions there too. Thank you for any advice you can offer!