u/ab1175

Hi! This will be my first trip to New Zealand. We'll be going during winter/late this month. Would love any suggestions and if you think that this is doable/anything I should remove or must-sees? Are these going to be precarious roads to drive?

EDIT: Bold parenthesis is where we plan to stay the night that day. Worth nothing that we'll also be getting off of a 10 hour flight Day 1, and coming from a destination wedding in a place that takes 24 hrs for us to get to. (We would have 2 nights there before flying out to Auckland)

Day 1: Arrive in Auckland. Fly straight to Christchurch. (Christchurch)

Day 2: Full day in Christchurch. (Christchurch)

Day 3: Whale watch day trip to Kaikoura (Not sure if this is worth it or not... the whole drive and boat tour is included but is over 600 USD) (Christchurch)

Day 4: Check out, get rental car and go towards Mt. Cook. Stay in Twizel (?) (Twizel)

Day 5: Day trip to visit Lake Tekapo, Mt. Cook, etc. (Twizel)

Day 6: Drive to Te Anau and stay the night (Te Anau)

Day 7: Day trip to Milford Sound (Te Anau)

Day 8: Drive to Queenstown (Queenstown)

Day 9: (Queenstown)

Day 10: (Queenstown)

Day 11: Flight back to AKL (Auckland)

Day 12: Full day in Auckland (Auckland)

Day 13: Departure flight around noon from Auckland.

Christchurch:

1. Was debating whether to stay closer to the main city or near Banks Peninsula/other suggestions?
2. Is the whale watching trip to Kaikoura worth it? Or would it be better to rent a car and pay for a separate boat tour in Kaikoura rather than with the tour bus to and from CHC? Or is this a skip completely?

Lake Tekapo/Mt. Cook/Twizel:

1. I saw in some other posts that Twizel was a good option to stay in when checking out these areas...Does this seem like the right track? Is two nights (1st day a travel day from Christchurch) too much or too little?

Queenstown:

1. Was planning to have some day trips with Queenstown as our base (Day 8-10) Just now seeing in some recent similar posts that Queenstown might not be worth staying in for 3 nights and to maybe check out Wanaka/Dunedin/the Otago Peninsula instead. I haven't researched enough about this area and part of the trip and would love any/all suggestions or if I should allocate time to other areas instead.

Thank you so so much!! I really appreciate it!! Sorry if anything is confusing.