I lived in New Zealand for a 12 months, and in that point I drove almost about each highway on this article, a few of them greater than as soon as. So once I let you know that you’ll see either islands in two weeks however most certainly shouldn’t check out, that comes from including up the true using hours relatively than taking a look at a map and hoping.
Two weeks throughout either islands method round 47 hours of using and ferry time. Two weeks at the South Island by myself method about 31 hours of using, and a some distance higher travel.
That’s the quick resolution. My advisable path is fourteen days at the South Island, flying out and in of Christchurch, and each leg of it under carries its personal power time plus a operating general. The both-islands variations get the similar remedy, in fact, so you’ll verify my running relatively than take my phrase for it.
A phrase on the place the numbers come from: each power time this is both a determine I’ve checked in opposition to the operator or highway company that manages that reach (RealNZ, DOC, the appeal itself), or one I’ve pushed and padded to replicate truth. New Zealand power occasions revealed across the web are wildly unreliable, and whilst researching this piece I discovered reference tables that had been unsuitable through an element of 2. The place a host is a minimal, I say so. The place it’s a making plans determine with stops inbuilt, I say that too.
New Zealand in Two Weeks: The Fast Take
Listed below are the 3 ways to spend fourteen days in New Zealand with a automobile, and what every one in reality comes to. Transit method using plus ferry crusing plus terminal check-in plus shuttles, as a result of that’s the quantity you’ll really feel.
| South Island Handiest | Each Islands through Ferry | Each Islands through Flight | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall transit | ~31 hours | ~47 hours | ~31 hours |
| In a single day bases | 6 | 9 | 8 |
| Worst unmarried day | 5h 30m | ~9h (Milford day go back) | The fly day |
| Apartment contracts | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| What you surrender | The North Island | Not anything named, which is the issue | Wellington, the West Coast, either glaciers, the crossing |
| My verdict | Do that | Provided that you settle for the hours | Identical hours because the South Island path, fewer rewards |
When you simply need the advice: spend your two weeks at the South Island, fly out and in of Christchurch, and save the North Island for some other travel (or an extended one, by which case you need our month in New Zealand itinerary as a substitute). The whole day-by-day path is under, together with either possible choices in complete.
Can You See Each Islands in Two Weeks?
You’ll, and various other folks do, however the mathematics is in opposition to you. New Zealand appears compact on a map however the drives take time. The roads are most commonly two-lane, they wind, they pass mountain passes, and the surroundings makes you forestall way more continuously than you propose to.
A “5 hour” leg is a seven hour day by the point you’ve had lunch and pulled over 11 occasions for pictures. 11 is me being conservative. I pull over greater than you’d consider, and a 12 months of dwelling there by no means taught me to construct it into the estimate.
Upload up a wise both-islands path touching the puts other folks fly to New Zealand for (Hobbiton, Rotorua, the Tongariro Crossing, the ferry, the glaciers, Queenstown, Milford Sound) and also you get kind of 47 hours of transit in fourteen days.
That’s a mean of neatly over 3 hours an afternoon, each day, for all of your vacation, with 9 other in a single day bases. 5 of the ones days run to 4 and a 1/2 hours or extra. Considered one of them, the Milford Sound day go back from Queenstown, is ready 9 hours of using. I stated in my month itinerary that you just don’t wish to do Milford as a unmarried day from Queenstown if you’ll steer clear of it, and I stand through that. The issue is {that a} fourteen-day both-islands path can’t steer clear of it, as a result of there’s no room within the time table to base your self at Te Anau.
The South Island path under fixes precisely that. Milford is completed from Te Anau, how it will have to be, the worst using days are two of the rustic’s nice alpine passes relatively than highway slogs, and also you sleep in six puts as a substitute of 9. You get time to in fact move outdoor and do the issues that make a New Zealand travel memorable, relatively than gazing all of it go through your window.
Sure, you surrender the North Island, which is an actual sacrifice, and I’ve indexed precisely what that suggests additional down relatively than pretending differently.
Another piece of the mathematics that’s simple to skip: day one doesn’t exist. You’ll arrive off a long-haul flight, having in all probability crossed the world date line, right into a rent automobile queue. No matter you propose for that day, you’ll succeed in a grocery store run and an early night time. The real looking fourteen days is 13, and this path treats it that means.
My Two Week New Zealand Itinerary: The South Island Direction
That is the path I’d hand to a chum with fourteen days and a long-haul flight booked. It’s a loop from Christchurch, because of this one apartment contract, no one-way charges, and normally less expensive flights than an open-jaw price ticket. You’ll in fact select and make a choice from it, and the operating general column will let you know what every change prices.
| Day | Plan | Riding | Operating general | Night time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arrive Christchurch | 0h | 0h | Christchurch |
| 2 | Christchurch to Mount Prepare dinner, by means of Lake Tekapo | 4h | 4h | Mount Prepare dinner village |
| 3 | Hooker Valley Monitor | 0h 30m | 4h 30m | Mount Prepare dinner village |
| 4 | Mount Prepare dinner to Wanaka | 3h | 7h 30m | Wanaka |
| 5 | Wanaka: Roy’s Top or a relaxation day | 0h 30m | 8h | Wanaka |
| 6 | Wanaka to Queenstown over the Crown Vary | 1h 30m | 9h 30m | Queenstown |
| 7 | Queenstown | 0h 30m | 10h | Queenstown |
| 8 | Queenstown to Te Anau | 2h 15m | 12h 15m | Te Anau |
| 9 | Milford Sound day travel and cruise | 5h | 17h 15m | Te Anau |
| 10 | Te Anau to Queenstown | 2h 15m | 19h 30m | Queenstown |
| 11 | Queenstown to Franz Josef over the Haast Move | 5h 30m | 25h | Franz Josef |
| 12 | Franz Josef and glacier nation | 0h 30m | 25h 30m | Franz Josef |
| 13 | Franz Josef to Christchurch over Arthur’s Move | 5h 30m | 31h | Christchurch |
| 14 | Fly out of Christchurch | 0h | ~31h |
13 nights, six bases, seven mattress adjustments, and round 31 hours of using, of which the 2 longest days are the Haast Move and Arthur’s Move, two of the most productive drives within the nation. If you need extra element on the ones roads, now we have an entire information to the maximum scenic drives in New Zealand, and this path contains maximum of them.
For lodging, I’ve related a seek for every base. E book Queenstown, Te Anau and particularly Mount Prepare dinner village neatly forward in summer season. There are only a few beds at Mount Prepare dinner and so they move early.
Day 1: Arrive in Christchurch
Select up the auto, to find your lodging, purchase snacks and water for the street, and sleep. You probably have power left over, the Botanic Gardens and a wander across the rebuilt town centre are a gradual get started, and Christchurch’s flat, quiet streets are a forgiving position to get used to forcing at the left if that’s new to you. Don’t plan the rest you’ll be unhappy to pass over. Jet lag will win any argument you time table for nowadays.
You’ll browse puts to stick in Christchurch right here.
Day 2: Christchurch to Aoraki Mount Prepare dinner, by means of Lake Tekapo
A very easy first using day: about 3 hours to Lake Tekapo on nice roads, with Geraldine because the herbal espresso and gasoline forestall kind of midway.
Tekapo in reality is that milky turquoise color, brighter in consumer than maximum footage of it set up, and the little Church of the Just right Shepherd at the shore is the vintage photograph forestall. The Aoraki Mackenzie Global Darkish Sky Reserve covers the entire basin and Mount Prepare dinner Nationwide Park past it, and it’s the most important of its sort within the Southern Hemisphere, which issues for this night.
From Tekapo it’s about some other hour to Mount Prepare dinner village, and it’s one of the most absolute best hours of highway in New Zealand: alongside the brink of Lake Pukaki with Aoraki Mount Prepare dinner, the rustic’s absolute best mountain, rising for your windscreen the entire means. Take a look at in, have dinner, then move outdoor and glance up. On a transparent night time the sky this is absurd!
Beds within the village are restricted: the Hermitage Resort is the large possibility, with a handful of motels and a vacation park but even so. E book this base first, earlier than the rest at the travel. You’ll see extra of the world in our Mount Prepare dinner photograph information.
Day 3: The Hooker Valley Monitor
The Hooker Valley Monitor is the stroll at Mount Prepare dinner: 10km go back, 3 to 4 hours, most commonly flat, throughout swing bridges with the mountain lifeless forward for the second one 1/2. It has the most productive effort-to-reward ratio of any stroll I did in a 12 months of strolling in New Zealand.
Crucial standing notice, present as of July 2026: the monitor’s moment swing bridge has been closed since April 2025 after riverbank erosion, and the monitor these days ends on the Kakīroa / Mount Sefton View Lookout, which incorporates the Mueller Lake perspective and the primary swing bridge.
DOC’s Would possibly 2026 replace says the alternative, a 189-metre suspension bridge around the Hooker River, will have to open against the top of July 2026, so the entire monitor could be open once more by the point you shuttle. Take a look at the DOC Hooker Valley Monitor web page earlier than you opt for the present closure standing, regardless that remember its personal reopening estimate has lagged in the back of DOC’s bulletins.
If the higher monitor is closed whilst you move, the shortened stroll remains to be price doing, and the Tasman Glacier perspective and Blue Lakes monitor at the different facet of the valley make a nice moment 1/2 of the day. When you’re considering extra strolling, a number of of the absolute best day hikes in New Zealand are inside succeed in of this base.
Days 4 and 5: Wanaka
Mount Prepare dinner to Wanaka is round 3 hours: backpedal Lake Pukaki, via Twizel and Omarama, then over the Lindis Move, a ravishing stretch of golden tussock nation that carries ice in wintry weather. Wanaka is Queenstown’s quieter sibling, a lakeside the city that’s stored extra of its personal persona, and it earns its two nights.
Day 5 is a decision. The well-known possibility is Roy’s Top: 11km go back, 5 to 6 hours, a sexy relentless zigzag climb to one of the crucial photographed viewpoints within the nation. It’s an actual exercise and the view over the lake and islands justifies each step.
My non-public favourite stroll within the house is the Rob Roy Glacier monitor. Certain, you don’t get the epic view of the lake, however it’s normally somewhat quieter and the surroundings remains to be simply as epic.
The gentler possibility is an afternoon round the city: the lakefront, the lavender farm, a swim if it’s heat, and sure, the Wanaka Tree, a willow status by myself within the lake that you’re going to queue to {photograph} if that’s your factor. To be honest, this is a excellent tree.
To find lodging in Wanaka right here.
Days 6 and seven: Over the Crown Vary to Queenstown
There are two roads from Wanaka to Queenstown, and I drove either a number of occasions in my 12 months there; the Crown Vary received each time the elements allowed. It’s about 70km and 1 hour quarter-hour to one hour half-hour, over the absolute best sealed via highway in New Zealand, with a large view of the Wakatipu basin as you drop down the zigzags on the some distance finish and the historical Cardrona Resort as a forestall at the means.
Two caveats: in wintry weather it will probably lift snow and ice and once in a while calls for chains, and a few apartment agreements limit or exclude it, so verify yours. If both applies, move spherical by means of Cromwell as a substitute, about 117km on more uncomplicated roads, and make allowance nearer to one hour 45 mins.
Queenstown itself wishes no creation from me. It’s the journey capital of, arguably, anyplace, and no matter your urge for food (bungy, jet boat, gondola, wine tasting in Gibbston, or a quiet lakefront stroll with an ice cream) it’s catered for. With one complete day I’d select one huge job for the morning and spend the afternoon at the lake or up Ben Lomond. A number of of our South Island must-dos cluster round this nook of the island, so take a look earlier than you select.
Queenstown lodging spans hostels to motels and sells out in top season: browse Queenstown puts to stick right here.
Days 8 to ten: Te Anau and Milford Sound
That is the stretch the place the geography punishes optimism. Milford Sound is 283km from Queenstown, and RealNZ, the primary Fiordland operator, quotes that power at 4 hours 25 mins every means. There may be one highway in and one highway out. Accomplished as an afternoon travel from Queenstown it’s round 9 hours of using wrapped round a two-hour cruise, and it turns the most productive sight within the nation into an staying power match.
So don’t do this.
Pressure to Te Anau on day 8: 170km and about 2 hours quarter-hour of using, regardless that RealNZ suggests permitting 2 hours 45 mins, and the street alongside Lake Wakatipu previous the Satan’s Staircase makes a nice case for the slower plan and its viewpoints.
Make the beautiful lakeside the city your base for 2 nights. Day 9 is Milford: 121km up the Milford Highway, which DOC calls at least 2 hours with out a stops, and for which 2 hours half-hour is a practical making plans determine.
Finances extra, since the highway itself is an match: the Eglinton Valley, the Replicate Lakes, and the Homer Tunnel, a rough-hewn single-lane hollow in the course of the mountain with site visitors lighting fixtures in summer season and waits that may run 15 to twenty mins. Be aware {that a} stretch between the Hollyford turn-off and The Chasm is a no-stopping avalanche zone, so get your photograph stops in earlier than it. DOC’s personal recommendation is to regard the power plus a cruise as an eight-hour day, and that fits my revel in.
At the water, the boat you need is a smaller nature cruise relatively than the largest catamaran: nearer to the waterfalls, extra statement, fewer other folks. You’ll guide the Milford Sound nature cruise right here, and I’d do it forward in summer season as sailings fill. Deliver insect repellent; the sandflies on the foreshore are integrated at no additional fee. For a lot more at the fiord itself, see our complete Milford Sound information.
Day 10 is the power again to Queenstown, which leaves the afternoon unfastened for no matter you didn’t have compatibility on day 7. When you’d relatively business the second one Queenstown night time for a detour, In doubt Sound from Manapouri is the quieter, larger fiord and value researching. To find Te Anau lodging right here.
Days 11 and 12: The Haast Move to Glacier Nation
Day 11 is the lengthy one: Queenstown to Franz Josef by means of the Haast Move, about 5 hours half-hour of using. It’s additionally the day the South Island displays off its complete fluctuate, from dry Central Otago vineyards previous the lakes at Wanaka and Hawea, via mossy rainforest over the go, to a wild driftwood-strewn sea coast.
Fill the tank earlier than you permit, fill it once more at Haast township, and verify the street standing earlier than you place out: the go is the one highway in this facet of the island and closes for climate and slips every so often, with out a sensible detour.
Franz Josef and Fox are the 2 glacier townships. The valley stroll at Franz Josef will get you to a perspective of the ice; status at the glacier in this day and age method a helicopter, both a scenic flight with a snow touchdown or a guided heli-hike, and either are weather-dependent, so deal with them as an advantage relatively than a promise.
Day 12 will provide you with room for that, or for the pretty stroll round Lake Matheson close to Fox, well-known for its replicate reflections of Aoraki and Tasman on a nonetheless morning. There’s extra in our glacier nation photograph information. Browse Franz Josef lodging right here.
Day 13: Arthur’s Move to Christchurch
Any other 5 hour 30 minute day, and some other of the rustic’s nice drives: up the coast to Hokitika (Franz Josef to Hokitika is 135km and about 1 hour 45 mins, and it’s a very simple run), then inland over Arthur’s Move in the course of the Southern Alps.
The Otira Viaduct perspective is the vintage forestall, and the kea (alpine parrots) within the automobile park will attempt to consume your aerial, your door seals, and your lunch, in that order. Don’t feed them, and don’t depart the rest rubbery unattended. Like each alpine go on this itinerary, Arthur’s can shut for snow, so verify earlier than you power.
You’ll roll into Christchurch through night time. In case your flight out is overdue on day 14 it is advisable to as a substitute in a single day nearer to the go and do the power within the morning, however I favor the buffer: climate occurs, and day 14 will have to don’t have anything in it that issues.
Day 14: Fly Out
Go back the auto, board the airplane, and get started making plans the North Island travel! In case your flight leaves within the night time, the Global Antarctic Centre close to the airport makes an incredibly nice couple of hours with baggage within the boot.
The Slower Model
If two 5 hour 30 minute go days sound like extra holiday-behind-glass than you need, there’s a easy repair, in fact: drop glacier nation. Skipping days 11 to 13 as written and coming back from Queenstown by means of the east facet as a substitute (via Central Otago to Dunedin and its wildlife-rich peninsula, or the splendidly empty Catlins coast, then as much as Christchurch) leaves not anything at the time table longer than about 4 hours half-hour, and places penguins and sea lions the place the glaciers had been.
Honest caution from the operating general: the entire hours slightly drop, since the east-coast go back is its personal lengthy highway. What adjustments is the form of the times, and the form is the item you’re feeling.
We’ve a information to an afternoon in Dunedin if that model appeals. It’s the itinerary I’d level at someone whose excellent day is one hike, one cafe and no explicit hurry.
The Each-Islands Ferry Direction in Complete
Right here’s the path the general public have of their head after they guide fourteen days: either islands, attached through the Prepare dinner Strait ferry. I’ve laid it out in complete with each leg timed, since the general is the argument, and also you deserve to peer it earlier than you decide to it. This used to be my routing good judgment for a month-long travel, and at that duration it’s glorious. At fourteen days it looks as if this.
| Day | Plan | Transit | Operating general | Night time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arrive Auckland | 0h | 0h | Auckland |
| 2 | Auckland to Rotorua, by means of Hobbiton | 3h | 3h | Rotorua |
| 3 | Rotorua geothermal points of interest | 0h 30m | 3h 30m | Rotorua |
| 4 | Rotorua to Tongariro Nationwide Park | 2h | 5h 30m | Nationwide Park |
| 5 | Tongariro Alpine Crossing (climate allowing) | 1h trip | 6h 30m | Nationwide Park |
| 6 | Tongariro to Wellington | 4h 30m | 11h | Wellington |
| 7 | Ferry to Picton, power to Nelson | 6h 30m | 17h 30m | Nelson |
| 8 | Nelson to Franz Josef | 6h 15m | 23h 45m | Franz Josef |
| 9 | Franz Josef glacier morning | 0h 30m | 24h 15m | Franz Josef |
| 10 | Franz Josef to Wanaka | 4h | 28h 15m | Wanaka |
| 11 | Wanaka to Queenstown (Crown Vary) | 1h 30m | 29h 45m | Queenstown |
| 12 | Milford Sound day go back from Queenstown | ~9h | 38h 45m | Queenstown |
| 13 | Queenstown to Mount Prepare dinner | 4h 30m | 43h 15m | Mount Prepare dinner village |
| 14 | Mount Prepare dinner to Christchurch, fly out | 4h | ~47h 15m |
Learn it the way in which you’d in fact reside it. 9 beds in 13 nights. 5 days at 4 and a 1/2 hours or extra of transit. Wellington will get a night and a breakfast, which is a deficient method to deal with a town that merits two days (on the very least, glance spherical Te Papa, the nationwide museum, earlier than the ferry). The Tongariro Crossing, a six-to-eight-hour alpine hike, sits immediately earlier than a four-and-a-half-hour power. And Milford Sound arrives by means of the nine-hour day go back I’ve already informed you I steer clear of.
Each person day in this path is achievable. The fortnight as an entire is a using vacation with sightseeing connected, and no person books New Zealand in need of that.
When you do run it, and along with your eyes open it may be run, the North Island days are lined in way more intensity in our North Island highlights information. A couple of reserving notes for this model:
- Hobbiton sits simply outdoor Matamata, about 2 hours from Auckland and 1 hour from Rotorua through Hobbiton’s personal reckoning. You’ll’t power to the set: you park at Shire’s Relaxation and take their trip around the farm, on a guided excursion best, so upload a few hours of live time to the using. E book Hobbiton tickets and excursions right here, neatly forward in summer season.
- Rotorua merits its complete day: Wai-O-Tapu for the geothermal color, and a night at Tamaki Māori Village for the cultural revel in and hangi meal, which used to be one of the most standout evenings of my 12 months there. If you’ll stretch the time table, the Waitomo glowworm caves fit in between Hobbiton and Rotorua, at the price of a fair fuller day 2.
- The Tongariro Crossing wishes a plan B. It’s 19.4km level to indicate over an energetic volcanic panorama (the Mount Doom one; our hiking Mount Doom piece covers it intimately), and in summer season DOC applies a “No longer Advisable These days” advisory on every occasion prerequisites flip hazardous, which occurs on a significant proportion of summer season days. DOC recommends a unfastened monitor reserving for all walkers, calls for one for those who’re the usage of a trip or information, and states it appears that evidently that during summer season there’s no parking at Mangatepopo for Crossing walkers, so guide a trip and verify the DOC Crossing web page the night time earlier than. If the mountain says no, the Taranaki Falls loop and Tama Lakes monitor are effective comfort walks, and the path above survives the pass over.
- The ferry will get its personal phase under, as it’s the largest reserving of the travel and the piece both-islands planners maximum continuously get unsuitable.
The Each-Islands Flight Direction
The 3rd possibility swaps the ferry and the Wellington leg for a home flight, normally Rotorua to Christchurch. Air New Zealand flies that path direct on a regional turboprop, about two hours within the air, with a handful of exits an afternoon operating mid-morning to overdue afternoon, so it’s a half-day door to door whenever you upload airports at either ends.
Run the mathematics on it, regardless that, and the tidiness fades. With the similar icons stored in (Hobbiton, Rotorua, Tongariro, Mount Prepare dinner, Wanaka, Queenstown, Milford from Te Anau relatively than as an afternoon go back), it nonetheless involves kind of 31 hours of transit throughout 8 bases.
That’s the similar general because the South Island loop, spent on two apartment contracts (with the one-way and second-pickup prices that suggests), a flight, and a time table with out a slack, in trade for deleting Wellington, all of the West Coast, either glaciers and the Prepare dinner Strait crossing.
You’ll in fact shave it against 26 or 27 hours through losing the Tongariro Crossing or settling for Milford as a Queenstown day go back, however at that time it’s price asking what the both-islands model remains to be purchasing you.
You’ll realize I haven’t given this one a day-by-day desk like the opposite two. That’s planned. It isn’t a path I’d ship you on, and the flight schedules shift round ample that I’d relatively no longer print occasions I will’t stand in the back of.
The place I’d fee it: if Hobbiton or Rotorua’s geothermal nation is the explanation you’re coming to New Zealand in any respect, that is the least-bad method to bolt them onto a two-week travel. For everybody else, the South Island loop will provide you with the similar hours with extra to turn for them, and the North Island turns into the very good reason why you come.
The Prepare dinner Strait Crossing
The Wellington to Picton ferry is the one largest logistical match of a both-islands highway travel, and it merits extra recognize than it normally will get. The numbers that topic:
- The crusing itself is 3.5 hours throughout Prepare dinner Strait and down the Marlborough Sounds, and the Sounds phase is likely one of the scenic highlights of the entire nation. Don’t spend it within the cafe. Be on deck.
- When you’re taking a automobile, check-in closes 60 mins earlier than departure. That makes the crossing a 4.5-hour match minimal, earlier than you upload the power to the terminal. Pass over check-in and there’s no rolling onto the following boat like a town bus; the following automobile area could also be the next day to come.
- Car areas promote out. Interislander names the Christmas wreck, college vacations and lengthy weekends amongst its top sessions and says last-minute bookings for personal cars are not likely then, and New Zealand’s summer season college vacations quilt maximum of overdue December to early February. E book the automobile slot once your dates company up, and deal with it like a world flight relatively than a price ticket you purchase at the day.
- Maximum apartment automobile firms don’t will let you take their automobile throughout; the usual association is to drop the auto in Wellington and select up a moment one in Picton, strolling on as a foot passenger. Campervans, then again, do pass with you, which is likely one of the quiet arguments for a campervan on a both-islands travel.
Bluebridge runs the similar crossing and is price price-checking. Both means, if the forecast is tough and also you’re at risk of seasickness, take the capsules earlier than you sail, no longer after.
Campervan or Automotive?
New Zealand is the campervan nation, and the liberty of it’s actual: your mattress travels with you, the automobile crosses the strait when a apartment automobile can’t, and waking up at a lakeside vacation park with the kettle on is a right kind New Zealand revel in. I travelled round New Zealand for a 12 months in a small camper and is used to be glorious.
The economics have modified, regardless that, and the campervan’s recognition because the funds possibility is years outdated.
Campervan apartment in summer season is pricey, continuously extra in step with day than a automobile and a mid-range motel room blended whenever you upload insurance coverage aid, diesel highway consumer fees and vacation park charges.
Tenting totally free is just about a non-option for many guests: freedom tenting regulations are enforced, maximum fascinating spaces require qualified self-contained cars, and the unfastened spots that exist are scarce, far flung and fill early.
Finances as a substitute for powered vacation park websites maximum nights, kind of NZ$45 to NZ$65 for 2, or the fundamental DOC campsites, that are glorious and inexpensive however bookable and busy in top season. A campervan may be just a little slower: upload ten to 20 p.c to each power time on this article, and the Crown Vary with a high-sided automobile in a wind caution isn’t any a laugh in any respect.
So: rent a campervan as a result of you need the campervan travel, the vacation parks, the kettle, the lakeside mornings. It’s a good way to peer the rustic, and it’s how I’d do a 3rd or fourth New Zealand travel.
Don’t rent one since you assume it saves cash, as a result of for many itineraries it doesn’t. You’ll examine campervan and motorhome costs around the apartment firms at Motorhome Republic, and automobile rent at Uncover Vehicles. Whichever you select, guide early for December to February; the fleets in reality do run out.
What Two Weeks Will No longer Hang
Each itinerary is a listing of belongings you’re no longer doing, and I’d relatively identify mine than have you ever uncover them on the airport. Opting for the South Island path above method giving up, at minimal:
- The Bay of Islands and the Some distance North: the winterless north, dolphin cruises out to the Hollow within the Rock, and the large kauri timber, together with Tāne Mahuta, estimated at someplace between 1,250 and a couple of,500 years previous.
- Rotorua and the volcanic middle of the North Island, plus Hobbiton and the Tongariro Crossing, all lined above within the ferry path and in our North Island information.
- Wellington, the most productive small capital I do know, and the Surf Freeway and East Cape past it.
- Kaikōura, the whale gazing the city at the northeast coast (our Kaikōura information covers it), plus Abel Tasman Nationwide Park and the highest of the South Island.
- Stewart Island, In doubt Sound and the deep south, until you are taking the slower variant.
That’s a large number of nation, and it’s precisely why the two-week travel will have to be deliberate as the primary travel relatively than the one one. If there’s any method to stretch to a few weeks or extra, the calculus adjustments utterly and the both-islands model turns into the proper resolution: that’s the travel in our month in New Zealand itinerary.
Much less Time, or Extra Time?
With one week, don’t try a loop in any respect. Fly into Queenstown, base your self there and in Te Anau, and do the Queenstown, Wanaka, Milford triangle. You’ll power round 13 hours all week and spot the most productive nook of the rustic. It’s a travel that merits its personal information, and it’ll neatly get one.
With ten to 12 days, run the path above and make the cuts on this order: first drop day 12 (the second one glacier day), then compress Wanaka to at least one night time, then drop glacier nation completely and go back by means of Tekapo the way in which you got here. Stay the 2 nights at Te Anau till final; the Milford day is the only section I’d offer protection to at any travel duration.
With 3 weeks or extra, do either islands with the ferry, take the month article’s path and trim to suit. 3 weeks is the duration at which the crossing stops costing you belongings you care about.
When to Move
My select for this itinerary is November to early December, or March. Each shoulders come up with long-enough days, summer-grade get entry to to the alpine walks, and noticeably fewer other folks and decrease costs than the December to February top. Of the 2 I’d lean March: the elements has extra of its thoughts made up, and the Fiordland sandflies have taken the brink off. Overdue October can paintings, however spring within the mountains is a lottery, and it sits correct at the seasonal boundary for the Tongariro Crossing for those who’re operating a both-islands model.
The constraint no person builds into their plan: sunlight is a part of the path. In excessive summer season you get gentle from round 6am to 9pm, and the 5-hour-plus days on this itinerary have compatibility within it with room for stops and a comfortable dinner. In wintry weather you don’t.
Between Would possibly and September the lengthy legs consume each to be had hour of sunshine, the alpine passes lift snow and chain necessities, the Milford Highway turns into a major enterprise, and DOC treats the Tongariro Crossing as a wintry weather alpine path the place shuttles usually don’t run. A two-week wintry weather travel to Queenstown for the snowboarding is a smart vacation; this itinerary, in wintry weather, isn’t. Plan it for October to April.
What Two Weeks in New Zealand Prices
New Zealand isn’t an affordable nation to shuttle, so those are actual 2026 numbers relatively than at ease ones. According to consumer, travelling as a pair and splitting rooms and gasoline, protecting lodging, meals, gasoline and a paid job right here and there, and except for world flights and the rent automobile:
| Taste | According to consumer, in step with day | What that appears like |
|---|---|---|
| Finances | NZ$100 to NZ$150 | Vacation parks, cabins and hostels, cooking maximum foods, picnic lunches, one or two big-ticket actions around the fortnight |
| Mid-range | NZ$150 to NZ$250 | Hotels and three-star inns, a restaurant lunch and maximum dinners out, a paid job each day or two |
| Relaxed | NZ$250 to NZ$400+ | 4-star inns and motels, eating places selected on urge for food relatively than charge, excursions and scenic flights as they enchantment |
The rent automobile sits on most sensible of the ones bands, and it’s the piece that varies maximum with the season, which is another reason to guide it early. Mid-range lodging runs NZ$150 to NZ$200 an evening in the primary vacationer cities, however you’re splitting it, so it lands at NZ$75 to NZ$100 every. And a comparability tip: a large number of the New Zealand day by day budgets you’ll to find on-line fold the rent automobile, and once in a while a paid job each unmarried day, into their per-person determine, which is how other folks finally end up apprehensive through numbers previous NZ$400 an afternoon. Take a look at what a determine contains earlier than you let it transfer your plans.
The massive actions are the place budgets quietly die: a Milford cruise, a Hobbiton excursion, a heli-hike and a Queenstown adrenaline repair can in combination upload NZ$700 or extra in step with consumer, so select your two or 3 earlier than you move and let the remaining be surroundings, which is unfastened.
A couple of techniques to stay it down that don’t harm: shuttle within the shoulders, guide cars and the large actions early relatively than reasonable lodging overdue, self-cater breakfasts and lunches despite the fact that dinners are out, and fill the tank within the larger cities, since gasoline at the West Coast and in Fiordland is priced for individuals who haven’t any selection, which is you.
The Reserving-Forward Tick list
So as of the way a lot it hurts to depart overdue, for a summer season travel:
- Mount Prepare dinner village lodging: the fewest beds at the complete path. E book the instant your dates are mounted.
- The ferry automobile slot (both-islands variations best): deal with it like a flight. Interislander or Bluebridge.
- Your automobile: automobile or campervan. Summer time fleets promote out, and costs best transfer a technique because the dates method.
- Hobbiton (ferry and flight routes): guided excursions best, and peak-season slots move neatly forward.
- The Milford cruise: sailings fill in summer season, and you need the time slot that matches the power.
- The Tongariro trip (both-islands variations): a required reserving for those who’re the usage of a trip, plus the unfastened DOC monitor reserving along it.
- Queenstown and Te Anau beds: no longer scarce like Mount Prepare dinner, however the good-value puts move first. Browse New Zealand lodging right here.
A Brief New Zealand Package Record
We’ll do a complete New Zealand packing record one after the other, however 3 issues are price their position within the bag for this travel in particular, plus the guidebooks I’d lift.
New Zealand makes use of the similar Kind I sockets as Australia, so maximum guests want an adapter; after years of shopping for single-country plugs I simply shuttle with a common one with USB-C ports, like this Epicka common adapter.
A tight energy financial institution issues extra right here than on a town travel, as a result of your telephone is your digicam, your map and your DOC climate verify on days whilst you’re far from a socket; I lift the INIU P63, which will even stay a pc alive at the flight over. Insect repellent you’ll purchase on arrival, and for Fiordland you will have to.
On guidebooks: I really like having a paper guide within the passenger seat for the evenings when making plans through telephone will get tiresome. The Lonely Planet New Zealand information is the excellent possibility, the Tough Information to New Zealand is the easier learn, and the DK Eyewitness New Zealand is the only to flick thru earlier than you move, whilst you’re deciding what sort of travel you need.
Continuously Requested Questions About Two Weeks in New Zealand
Those are the questions I am getting requested maximum about making plans a two-week New Zealand travel, responded with the similar mathematics as the remainder of the information.
Can You See Each Islands of New Zealand in Two Weeks?
You’ll, however I don’t counsel it. A both-islands path touching the primary points of interest comes to round 47 hours of using and ferry transit in fourteen days, with 9 in a single day bases and a nine-hour Milford Sound day.
Two weeks at the South Island by myself involves about 31 hours of transit throughout six bases, and each special day is a scenic alpine go relatively than a slog. Save the North Island for a moment travel, or come for 3 weeks or extra and do either.
Is Two Weeks Sufficient for New Zealand?
Two weeks is ample for one island carried out neatly, and the South Island is the only I’d select for a primary travel. It isn’t ample for either islands with out spending maximum of your vacation within the automobile.
A fortnight covers Christchurch, Mount Prepare dinner, Wanaka, Queenstown, Milford Sound and the West Coast glaciers at a tempo that leaves room to stroll, linger and take the detour that appears fascinating, which is what New Zealand is for.
Which Island Will have to I Make a selection for Two Weeks?
The South Island, for scenery-first journeys: it has the alps, the fiords, the glaciers and the large lakes, and this newsletter’s path covers the most productive of it. The North Island wins in case your priorities are Māori tradition, geothermal nation, Hobbiton and seashores.
My rule of thumb from a 12 months dwelling there: first travel, South Island; moment travel, North Island; and if you’ll in all probability set up 3 weeks or extra, either.
Is One Week Sufficient for New Zealand?
One week is ample for one area, no longer one island. Fly into Queenstown and spend the week at the Queenstown, Wanaka, Te Anau and Milford Sound triangle: round 13 hours of general using and the absolute best focus of world-beating surroundings within the nation.
What one week isn’t ample for is a loop. Any seven-day path that comes with Christchurch or the glaciers turns right into a using contest, and also you’ll spend extra time in the back of the windscreen than in entrance of the perspectives.
How A lot Does Two Weeks in New Zealand Price?
According to consumer, travelling as a pair, funds NZ$100 to NZ$150 an afternoon for a holiday-park-and-cooking travel, NZ$150 to NZ$250 for a mid-range motel-and-restaurants travel, and NZ$250 to NZ$400 or extra for inns and motels, all except for world flights and the automobile.
For the entire fortnight, a practical mid-range funds for 2 other folks is round NZ$4,200 to NZ$7,000 plus flights and the automobile. The paid actions are the swing issue, so select your two or 3 huge ones intentionally, and verify whether or not any funds you examine in opposition to folds within the rent automobile, as a result of many do.
Is a Campervan Less expensive Than a Automotive in New Zealand?
Typically no longer. Summer time campervan charges plus insurance coverage, diesel highway consumer fees and nightly vacation park charges normally upload as much as greater than a automobile plus mid-range rooms, and unfastened tenting is scarce and closely regulated.
Rent a campervan as a result of you need that taste of travel, the vacation parks, the versatility, the kettle with a view. It’s an attractive method to see New Zealand. It simply isn’t the funds possibility any further.
How Some distance Forward Will have to I E book the Interislander Ferry?
For a automobile in the summertime top, once your dates are mounted. Interislander names the Christmas wreck and faculty vacations amongst its busiest sessions and says last-minute automobile bookings are not likely then, and New Zealand’s summer season college vacations run from overdue December to early February.
Foot passengers have way more flexibility. Consider automobile check-in closes 60 mins earlier than departure, so deal with the three.5-hour crusing as a 4.5-hour match whilst you plan the day.
How Lengthy Is the Pressure from Queenstown to Milford Sound?
RealNZ, the primary Fiordland operator, quotes 283km and four hours 25 mins every means, and that’s with out significant stops. The Homer Tunnel’s summer season site visitors lighting fixtures can upload 15 to twenty mins, and the street is price preventing for repeatedly.
That’s why this itinerary bases you in Te Anau, two hours nearer. From there Milford is 121km, a 2 hour 30 minute making plans determine every means, and DOC suggests treating the power plus a cruise as an eight-hour day.
Can I Do Milford Sound as a Day Commute from Queenstown?
You’ll: it’s round 9 hours of using wrapped round a two-hour cruise, and hundreds of other folks do it each summer season. It’s the unsuitable method to see the most productive sight within the nation, and I’ve have shyed away from it on each travel.
Higher choices are two nights in Te Anau (this itinerary), a coach-cruise day excursion from Queenstown so a minimum of you’re no longer the only using, or a scenic flight a technique if the funds stretches.
What Is the Absolute best Month for a Two Week New Zealand Commute?
November or March. Each come up with summer-grade get entry to to the alpine walks and passes, lengthy sunlight, and less crowds and higher costs than the December to February top. I’d lean March for extra settled climate and less sandflies.
December to February works neatly too if college vacations repair your dates; simply guide the automobile, the ferry and Mount Prepare dinner lodging months forward relatively than weeks.
Can You Do This Itinerary in Iciness?
No longer this one, no. Between Would possibly and September the alpine passes (Crown Vary, Haast, Arthur’s, and the Milford Highway) lift snow, ice and chain necessities, sunlight shrinks to eight-ish usable hours, and the lengthy legs forestall becoming throughout the day.
Iciness is a smart time for a special New Zealand travel: base your self in Queenstown or Wanaka for the ski fields, do Milford on a excursion when the street permits, and depart the grand loop for October to April.
Do I Want to E book the Tongariro Alpine Crossing?
DOC recommends a monitor reserving for all walkers, and calls for one for those who’re the usage of a trip or guided carrier. The reserving is unfastened. In summer season there’s no parking on the Mangatepopo finish for Crossing walkers, so a booked trip is the sensible means onto the monitor.
Construct in a climate buffer too: DOC posts a “No longer Advisable These days” advisory when prerequisites are hazardous, and a significant proportion of summer season days get one. Have a plan B stroll able and don’t argue with the mountain.
Is the Hooker Valley Monitor Open?
In part, as of July 2026. The monitor these days ends on the Kakīroa / Mount Sefton View Lookout as a result of the second one swing bridge closed in April 2025 after riverbank erosion. DOC’s Would possibly 2026 replace says the alternative 189-metre suspension bridge will have to open against the top of July 2026.
By the point you shuttle the entire monitor could be open once more, so verify the DOC Hooker Valley Monitor web page for reside standing earlier than you move. Even the shortened model is a ravishing stroll.
What Aspect of the Highway Does New Zealand Pressure On?
The left, with right-hand-drive automobiles, the similar as the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan. When you’re coming from a drive-on-the-right nation, give your self somewhat of time on Christchurch’s flat, quiet streets on day one earlier than the mountain roads.
The conduct that topic: the driving force sits nearest the centre line, roundabouts move clockwise, and after any forestall on an empty rural highway, left is your default. Jet lag plus an unfamiliar facet is the vintage first-day error, which is one more reason day one will have to comprise not anything however a grocery store.
Can Apartment Vehicles Pressure the Crown Vary?
Maximum can, however some apartment agreements limit or exclude it, particularly in wintry weather, so verify yours earlier than you propose the Wanaka to Queenstown leg over it. The Crown Vary is New Zealand’s absolute best sealed via highway and will require snow chains between Would possibly and September.
In case your settlement regulations it out or the forecast appears dicey, the Cromwell highway is the opposite: about 117km in opposition to the Crown Vary’s 70km, more uncomplicated gradients, and kind of 1 hour 45 mins as a substitute of one hour 15 to one hour 30.
Will have to I Fly Between the Islands As an alternative of Taking the Ferry?
Flying saves actual time (a Rotorua to Christchurch direct is ready two hours within the air) however prices you Wellington, the Marlborough Sounds arrival and normally a moment apartment contract, since you’ll’t fly a automobile throughout.
Run the numbers to your personal path earlier than assuming the flight wins: with the similar points of interest stored in, my flight-route mathematics got here out on the similar general transit because the South Island loop. The ferry is slower and higher; the flight is faster and lesser; the South Island loop skips the query completely.
Do I Want an Global Riding Allow for New Zealand?
In case your licence is in English (UK, US, Australian, Canadian and Irish licences all qualify), you’ll power in New Zealand on it for as much as 18 months from the date you final arrived. In case your licence isn’t in English, you wish to have a correct English translation or an Global Riding Allow, carried along your authentic licence relatively than as a substitute of it.
That 18 months is a short lived extension of an older 12 month rule, regardless that, and NZTA says it reverts in the end with out publishing a date, so do verify their web page earlier than you shuttle. Motorbike and truck licences are nonetheless one year.
Lift the bodily licence, and notice apartment firms practice their very own regulations on most sensible, together with minimal age and, once in a while, highway restrictions just like the Crown Vary one lined above.
How Many Days Do You Want for the South Island?
Ten days is the practical minimal for the loop on this article with out it feeling rushed, and fourteen is at ease. With ten to 12 days, minimize the second one glacier day first, then a Wanaka night time, and offer protection to the 2 nights at Te Anau above the whole thing else.
With fewer than ten days, don’t loop: fly into Queenstown, out of Queenstown, and stay to the bottom-left quarter of the island, which is very easily the most productive quarter.
Additional Studying for Your New Zealand Commute
We’ve written so much about New Zealand over time, and those are the items that pair absolute best with this itinerary:
And that’s the travel. Two weeks, one island, about 31 hours of using with each hour accounted for, and the most productive of it carried out correctly relatively than glimpsed from a carpark. When you’ve were given questions on your individual model of the path, ask away within the feedback; between the 12 months I lived there and the journeys since, there’s an excellent probability I’ve pushed no matter leg you’re questioning about.
