Here’s a day wise view of what we covered in New Zealand
Day 1: Arrival into Auckland
Auckland Sky tower gives you a good bird’s eye view of the city. Spend some time at the waterfront in Auckland– there are many birds to give you company
Day 2: Rotorua
Rotorua has many action-packed sights. We started our day at Whakarewarewa Thermal Reserve where you can see hot springs erupt at regular intervals of 10-15 minutes. There was a Maori show that gave us a view of their dance forms
We headed to Agrodome for an entertaining show by sheep. We saw many different varieties with a demonstration of shearing process. The show was very entertaining even for adults. Our lunch was at the same place
Day 3: Christchurch
We took a flight from Auckland to Christchurch. Christchurch is a city with some attractions, mainly to pass the day. They were all good in the moment, but none of them were truly memorable years later
Christchurch is a major gateway to the Antarctic from this part of the world. The International Antarctic centre has simulation of life in the Antarctic, with snow and storms. The centre has video clips and information bout life and expeditions to Antarctica
Willowbank wildlife reserve has a collection of native birds like Kea, Kiwi, Kakapo, Takahe, animals like tuatara, some wallabys, kangaroos, and many more. The kiwis were kept in a dark room for their comfort. They were hardly visible, and we imagined some movement to be from these birds
The cardboard cathedral is a memorial for people who died in Christchurch earthquake of 2011. It is colorful, built completely out of cardboard
The Airforce museum can be skipped unless you are an aircraft enthusiast
Day 4: Scenic train ride
We headed to fox glacier by taking the scenic train from Christchurch to Greymouth through Arthur pass. The route was scenic with mountains, rivers, bridges on the way. You need not go out of your way to be on the train. Even a drive would have similar landscapes. Arthur pass café is a good place to see Kea sitting on top of the roof
The bus ride from Greymouth to Fox Glacier was equally scenic with rivers meeting the ocean. Fox Glacier and Franz Joesph Glacier are close to each other. We had a helicopter rise included in our tour.
Day 5: Fox glacier
We were weighed in the morning so that seat allocations can happen with good weight distribution in the helicopter. We were lucky to have good weather- all groups could have a landing at the top of the glacier
En route, you can see blue colored glacier tongue. Mt. Cook is the most prominent mountain visible on top. We had a great time there. It was our first scenic helicopter ride, outside the one we took at Vaishnodevi, a quite memorable one. We definitely recommend taking one here
Day 6: Queenstown
We had a stop at Puzzling World in Wanaka. You can try your luck and wit with many puzzles here, some of real-life size maze. It was an interesting detour, not something we would have gone with if we had planned on our own
Queenstown is a cute town with a nice lake and colorful trees. The gondola ride to Bob Peak gives you a good view of the town
The jet boat ride on Kawarau river was a thrilling and memorable one. Be ready to get wet in between the twists and turns maneuvered by your skillful driver
You can try bungee jumping at Kawarau bridge run by the famous company AJ Hackett. It is quite safe here compared to other parts of the world. We don’t get much thrill out of these adventures, so gave it a miss. You can also try sky diving in Queenstown. People interested in skydiving skipped the Arrowtown visit
Arrowtown, which is about an hour away had all autumn colors in full show. There is not much to do outside admiring nature in this small town
Day 7: Milford sound and glow worm caves
Milford sound was a day trip from Queenstown. On the way, you can stop by mirror lakes for gorgeous views of mountains
The view of mountains, waterfalls and fjords was quite good. We had some playful dolphins chase or rather lead our boat for quite a distance. We could see a seal on the rocks just before turning back. It was not a rainy day, so not much waterfalls on the way to the boat pier. Rain comes with a mixed bag- while the views can get more beautiful, there are chances of road closure happening
We ended the day with a visit to Te Anau glow worm caves. You have to go across the lake on a large boat, walk a bit into the centre and then transfer into a small boat to traverse the caves. You can see glow worms in the dark. It is quite a nice experience to do this on a boat. Pictures are not allowed on the ride to protect the glow-worms
We could see clearest skies with millions of stars and milky way on our way back. I have never seen these many stars anywhere else in the world. The night darkness and limited light pollution makes it conducive for star gazing on the boat
Day 8: Dunedin
Dunedin is an interesting city on the Otago peninsula. Home to one of the few Albatross colonies in the world where humans co-exist with them. Albatross pairs mate for life and take a year to raise a baby bird. They come back to the same place every year to lay eggs. A lot of efforts have been taken to ensure young Albatross born here come back every year. These birds are quite large, you can see some of them in flight while walking towards the centre. You can see many more birds like black cormorants on the rocks below the cliffs
Larnach castle was another stop which has the largest castle in New Zealand. Nothing spectacular compared to the grand European castles. We would have rather preferred a visit to yellow eyed penguin reserve, which was swapped out
Day 9: Travel back to Christchurch
All drives were pretty scenic- we never got bored on any of the days. We headed back to Christchurch to catch our flight back the next day with lots of memories. In case you have time, you can go to Moeraki boulders beach which has large spherical stones on the coast