Following our time in Queenstown and hiking the Routeburn Track, exploring New Zealand’s South Island was an unforgettable adventure filled with dramatic landscapes, shifting climates, and warm, welcoming people. From winding roads through the Southern Alps to the unique experience of Milford Sound, our 800-mile counterclockwise journey offered a glimpse into a place that felt like a true home away from home.
Dates: 3/6–3/11
Overall Rating: 5/5
Pizza Rating: 5/8 – We did not come all the way to New Zealand for pizza.
Walkability: 1/5 – Too much to see to not rent a car.
Airport Rating: 4/5 – Got to love a small tourist town airport!
As we described before, the South Island is an interesting mix of topography, climates, vegetation, and sites thanks mostly to the mountain range running north to south. Known as the Southern Alps, this range runs most of the length of the island and contains the Main Divide, the point where water either runs east or west across the island. Due to this, you can experience nearly every climate and wide ranges of weather all in the same day driving around the island.
Our plan was to do a counterclockwise loop around probably just over half of the island, since we did not have enough time to get to either the southern or northern tips. Our direction was mostly due to accommodation availability and the desire to stay out near the Milford Sound in Te Anau to beat the crowds our last morning. Either direction would work for your trip! In total, our loop was just over 800 miles of driving in our Hyundai SUV rental car. We definitely recommend getting an SUV or something with good visibility as a big part of the fun was just seeing the sights outside the window as we drove. First up, was our drive from Queenstown out to Lake Tekapo!
The plan for our first day of the loop was to drive the 3.5 hours to Lake Tekapo, with a stop at one of the most popular walks in the South Island: the Hooker Valley track. Unfortunately, our day started with more stress than you should have on vacation! The afternoon prior, after getting back from our Routeburn hike, Stephen got a call from the observatory we booked a stargazing tour with in Lake Tekapo. Long story short, he had accidentally booked our tour a day early because it technically started at midnight. The March 6th tour was really the night of March 5th. The correct tour on the night of the 6th was fully booked, but we got on a waitlist in case there were any cancellations (or if anyone did what we did!). Ashley in particular we really bummed as this was one of the excursions she was most looking forward to. As we got breakfast and grabbed an Uber to the airport to pick up our rental car, we tried to not worry about it and go with the flow. In all of our travels, we’ve learned that while planning is important, if you approach each day with curiosity and intentionality and are willing to go with the flow, serendipity will strike and things will tend to work out.
Once on the road, the urban setting of Queenstown quickly gave way to rolling hills and then foothills with a dry, almost desert-like appearance with short brush and limited trees. As we climbed out away from Queenstown, we had amazing views of the surrounding mountains and bright blue lakes. The drive was fairly straightforward, with a few small towns on the way to stop if needed. About 30 or 45 minutes from Lake Tekapo, we turned left toward Hooker Valley. In total, stopping there probably added about an hour of driving plus the time for the hike, but it was definitely worth it!
The drive to the Hooker Valley track follows along Lake Pukaki, one of the many alpine lakes along the Southern Alp range. The bright blue water was astounding and unlike any water we had ever seen before. There is a softness to the blue hue that is other worldly, unlike the deep bright blues of the Caribbean or Bahamas. There are numerous pull-offs and places to stop to take pictures across the lake, with Mt. Cook looming ever closer in the background.
Mt. Cook is the tallest mountain in New Zealand at over 12,000 feet tall. While we were not climbing that mountain, the Hooker Valley track is so popular because of its relatively easy rating (just over 3 miles out and back and a couple hundred feet in elevation gain). The trail itself is exceptionally well maintained, with pavement and elevated boardwalks in many areas. After arriving at the trailhead, we were quickly on our way. The walk was really enjoyable, with several suspension bridges that crossed the gushing gray glacier runoff river coming from the base of the mountain range. While the water at the end of the hike did not have the same wonderful blue color due to the summer melt, the views of Mt. Cook from Hooker Valley are unmatched.
Following a few hours exploring Hooker Valley, we made our way to Lake Tekapo. Lake Tekapo is an actual lake, but also the name of the small town on its shore. Town is an overstatement—the settlement has a permanent population of less than 600, but it is one of the larger towns in this region of the South Island. Although we did not realize it was as small as it was, we picked Lake Tekapo as our first night’s stay not only for its convenient location from Queenstown, but also for its world-famous Mt. John University Observatory. Given the sparse population in this region and its relatively high elevation, this is the perfect place for an observatory. And we hoped to get to experience it for ourselves.
Our first stop into town was to the visitor center for the observatory to check to see if we would be able to join the tour, and luckily two spots opened up! Whew. After getting instructions on where to meet, we went to find our hotel, the Lake Tekapo Village Motel (right across the street), got checked in, and then moved onto our favorite adventure: find food! Turns out, there were about 2.5 restaurants in the entire town and after finding a two-hour wait at the Chinese restaurant, we sucked up the insane prices at a much more high-end restaurant nearby. Oh well, at least we got to eat.
We spent a few hours relaxing before taking a nap after dinner. Then, we walked across the street to the meeting point for our stargazing adventure. The tour takes you up a nearby hill in a van and provides a thick jacket to borrow beforehand if you want one. At elevation, it definitely gets very cold after the sun sets. The tour was of both the observatory itself and of the night sky. The guides were exceptional, and there were several telescopes set up to see different stars, galaxies, and even a dying star being sucked into a black hole. The guides did a great job talking about why this area was selected for an observatory and how the town that we could see below had worked to do things such as install warm lights and point lights down to limit light pollution and preserve the beautiful night sky. Stephen noticed one bright white light in town and quickly realized that we had left our white porch light on. Amazing how it stood out compared to the rest of the town. Whoops! Lesson learned, always turn your lights off when in a dark sky area. Overall, the experience was stunning and worth the extremely cold, late night! After an hour of learning and stargazing, we rode the van to the observatory, where we walked quickly back to our room, and Stephen promptly turned the white light off. Time for bed because day two of our trip around the South Island would be one of our longest driving days of the whole New Zealand adventure.
Bright and early the next morning, we set out, stopping to see the river flowing out of the lake past the hydroelectric dam, as well as the Church of the Good Shepherd. This is an extremely small church on the edge of the lake. While picturesque, there wasn’t a ton to see, so we were quickly back on the road. The second day’s drive was a long one, heading east first and then northeast toward Christchurch, before heading north across the mountains, and ending up in the seaside town of Hokitika. This drive was also one of the more isolated, with miles and miles between really small towns. Knowing that, we decided to stop for fuel and some sandwiches/wraps to eat later in Sheffield, a small town near the base of the mountain range. We took Arthur’s Pass across the mountains, which is both a small town (again, town is exaggerating, it was more of what we would call a truck stop in the states) and a national park. Though we were initially excited to have a national park stop at the midpoint of our drive, (we were visualizing a visitor center with exhibits like a national park in the States), Arthur’s Pass did not live up to the hype. We’re glad that we grabbed food to go, and we hopped back in the car after a bathroom break.
The drive itself was absolutely gorgeous, as most New Zealand drives are. We moved from the alpine deserts of the eastern side of the island, through a thick forest with a rushing stream and winding road around the Arthur’s Pass visitor center, to a landscape that looked like Scottish Highlands. We stopped for lunch in the back of the car at a location with almost Stonehenge-like rock outcrops. It felt like we had been teleported to a completely different part of the world—a cold mist and low clouds swooped over the mountaintops as we looked over the pass and munched on our prepackaged lunch. If you are making this drive, there are very limited services for much of the drive, so we highly recommend you fill up on fuel and food before starting the climb up into the mountains.
After our late lunch, it was back in the car for another hour or so to the west coast of the island. At Kumara Junction, you transition to Highway 6 that follows the coast south through little coastal towns. In basically half a day, you can go from one side of the country to the other, through a half dozen or so distinct zones of geography and fauna. Because we got a decent start in the morning, we had time to head past the town of Hokitika to our next destination: Hokititka Gorge. Instead of stopping at the seaside town, we went east back into the mountains for another 30 minutes to find one of the coolest sites on the South Island.
Hokitika Gorge is another Instagram famous spot in New Zealand, known for its suspension bridge over piercing turquoise blue waters. Nestled in the foothills of the mountains, the river here has thick forests, large white limestone cliffs, and boulders surrounding it, making it, well, very Instagrammable! Its popularity also comes from how accessible it is. Just 30 minutes from Hokitika, the surrounding trails are very forgiving (similar to Hooker Valley). Early into the trails, you get breathtaking views of the river from high above, so even those with limited mobility can take a peek themselves.
For those looking for a little physical activity, you can walk down and across the suspension bridge and make your way down to the river’s edge for some exceptional photography opportunities. Remember your bug spray/cream though; the sand flies were absolutely vicious near the water. We had to loudly count down our photos so we could momentarily stop swatting them and smile like nothing was happening! After an hour or so exploring, we went back to town to check into our hotel and find some dinner. While there were a few more dinner options than some of our other stays, the only options we could find were outside sitting, which Ashley was not excited about as the sun had started to go down and the sea wind was blowing in. It was a bit chilly!
We went to bed after a busy second day knowing that our main adventure on our tour around the South Island was in danger of being canceled due to weather. We had booked a heli-hike— an epic-looking adventure where you take a helicopter up onto a glacier for a quick hike around before coming back down. The weather did not look good when we went to bed with heavy rain and fog in the forecast.
Unfortunately, after waking up, it looked like the forecast was accurate for once! We called our tour operator and they confirmed, all tours were grounded that day. Due to our tight schedule, we could not take them up on their offer to reschedule. In hindsight, it would have been great to have more time on the west coast of the island near Franz Josef to provide some flexibility for weather issues. This was their first day of weather cancellations in weeks they said, lucky us. Although bummed, at the end of the day, we were glad they were on the safe side as the last place we wanted to be in heavy fog was flying in a helicopter near mountains.
Instead of dashing down to Franz Josef for our tour, we had a leisurely morning exploring Hokitika. Although a little sleepy looking in the morning rain, the beachside town turned out to have more to offer than we originally expected. First up, was the National Kiwi Centre, which had a variety of fish and other animal exhibits. There were several families there with children as this was clearly the place to take little ones when it rained. The exhibits were entertaining, but the highlights were of course seeing Kiwis again but also feeding massive eels their breakfast of raw meat on metal tongs. A little gross but a lot of fun and a very cool experience!
Following this morning excursion exploring New Zealand’s native aquatic life, it was time for Ashley’s favorite travel activity: shopping! As the sleepy seaside town started waking up, we realized just how many stores and shops were on the main street. Known for their jade stonework, there were many stores with jewelry and extremely intricate carvings, but there were a lot of shops with a variety of artwork and local goods. What really struck us was the lack of normal cheap touristy goods that seemed to be mass-produced overseas. Instead, each store had unique items. We stumbled upon one store in particular, the Hokitika Craft Gallery, that had one of the best collections of beautiful, uncommon, and reasonably priced items.
After exploring a bit, we found ourselves in awe of a triptych set of paintings depicting the mouth of the Cook River as it comes out of the mountains. We could quickly imagine it hanging over our couch at home! We asked some questions, and then we decided to eat an early lunch while we thought it over. We found a deli down the street, where we quickly talked ourselves into how reasonable it was to buy it since we canceled our expensive heli-hike tour for today. We headed back for a little more haggling and purchased it. Once we had shipping set up for our new triptych, we finished exploring the town before hitting the road for the short drive down to Franz Josef. If you have the time, we highly recommend spending a half-day exploring the shops and attractions of Hokitika. It was an unexpected highlight of our trip.
In Franz Josef, we found our hotel and explored the town a bit. We also drove down to Franz Josef Glacier. Since we weren’t able to take a helicopter up to a glacier, at least we could go look at one! The trail was short through a dense forest before opening up onto a boardwalk with a clear view of the glacier. A rock slide several years before our visit had permanently closed the last part of the trail. Prior to that, you could actually walk right up to the base and onto the glacier. Like many glaciers around the world, what was left in 2023 was a shell of its former range as a warming planet has shrunk in size over the years. After snapping a few quick pictures, we hurried back to the car to avoid another rainstorm and stopped at Blue Ice Restaurant and Bar for dinner. Known for their authentic New Zealand cuisine, we had one of the best meals of the trip as we watched the rain come in! We highly recommend checking it out if you are in the area. After dinner, exploring town in a downpour was not very appealing, so we went back to the hotel for an early evening.
The heavy downpour continued into the morning hours. Although it made for a wet start to the day as Stephen packed the car, it ended up contributing to what was the most memorable drive of the entire trip. Our plan for the day was our longest drive—from Franz Josef down the western coast, up across the mountains, back down to Queenstown, and then out to our final point of interest at Milford Sound. We opted to stay in Tau Anu, a small town about halfway out from Queenstown. Due to its relative proximity to Queenstown, day trips on large buses are a popular thing to do to get out of the city. Knowing this, we wanted to get up early and beat the rush. This meant we had over 500 km of driving (almost 7 hours without stopping). After locating a coffee from a nearby cafe for Stephen, we were on the road into the mist and clouds.
The road for Franz Josef to Queenstown takes you through the Haast Pass, known for its twisting road and numerous waterfalls. After a heavy overnight rain, these waterfalls were ready to give us a show! As we climbed up the mountains through dense rainforest and mist, we would suddenly see a waterfall shooting down the mountainside. There are several pullovers and small walks you can do along the drive, although we found it was not as well-marked as it could have been. We hopped out and stopped at a few, including Thunder Creek Falls (which was roaring) and Blue Pools (which were muddy brown from all the rainwater runoff). All but the Blue Pools were worth the stop, and that was just because of how muddy the water was.
As you finish climbing out of the Haast Pass, the topography abruptly changes from rainforest, to alpine forest to barren highlands. The change in a couple of hours of driving is really remarkable—you feel like you are on several different countries or even planets all in one day. It is really easy to see why Sir Peter Jackson decided to film the Lord of the Rings films in New Zealand. We stopped in Wanaka for fuel for the car and the people—lunch was burgers that turned out to be delicious. There were actually a decent amount of food options in the city/town, and it is a good stop if you are driving through near mealtime. Then it was back on the road through more desert-looking terrain in the high hills around Queenstown before dropping down quickly on tight switchbacks toward the waterside city. Just before we reached Queenstown proper, we turned left toward the Remarkables, the side drive that our bus took on our way to the Routeburn hike. Once again, we were down near sea level now, with tall mountains surrounding us next to bright blue turquoise waters of the lakes around Queenstown.
After a long day of driving (or napping in the car for Ashley), we finally arrived in Te Anau. We decided to stretch our legs through Main Street thinking it would be easy to find somewhere to eat but found our assumption was very wrong! We arrived a little later in the evening and found many of the stores and restaurants closed. Although this picturesque town on the shore of the lake was clearly geared to tourism, it seemed to have fallen victim to the nearby Queenstown and catered to more day-trippers than overnight guests. We eventually found a pizza place where we decided to quickly place an order rather than risk continuing to explore and running out of options. The town itself would have been really enjoyable to explore in the daylight with more stores and restaurants open, but if you are staying overnight, be prepared for limited dinner options.
After dinner, we wandered back to our car and over to our hotel to take advantage of a quiet evening to get a jump on packing for our flights home and then hit the bed early.
We woke up for our final full day in New Zealand to low clouds and some mist. Hard to believe our two-week adventure around the country was coming to a close. Our preparations the night before allowed us to get an early start on the road, hoping to be well ahead of the bus loads of tourists from Queenstown. Unfortunately, our early start combined with the limited food services in town meant no morning coffee for Stephen! We decided to press on rather than waste time, hoping something would pop up as we got closer to Milford Sound.
Milford Sound is one of the several fjords of New Zealand, formed by slow-moving glaciers many years ago. Milford Sound is probably the most famous in New Zealand because of its stunning combination of clear waters, steep cliffs, waterfalls, and beautiful topography. Many in New Zealand call it the 8th Wonder of the World because of its stunning beauty. The area is surrounded by lush rainforest, which makes the drive out to the sound really enjoyable as you get closer. The drive from Te Anau out is just under 2 hours all on highway 94, which keeps it really simple.
Once we were in the forests about halfway out, we were lucky enough to find a small coffee truck on the side of the road. We happened to have just enough cash to grab a coffee for Stephen and a chai latte for Ashley. Luck was on Stephen’s side this morning! The coffee spot was conveniently located at the Mirror Lakes stop, which we explored a bit while sipping our hot beverages before getting back in the car. These short walks take you down to the edge of a couple narrow lakes on the edge of the forests that give a really nice reflection of the mountains behind them. This is a nice first taste of Milford Sound (and it came with coffee), so we highly recommend a quick pullover.
A few minutes down the road, we began our descent into Milford Sound. There are two main parking options if you drive: a gravel parking lot you reach first driving in (the farthest from the harbor) that is near the airstrip (which is free) or a parking lot near the visitor center/cafe (which costs somewhere around $20–$25 an hour). We decided to park out at the farther lot as we had plenty of time before the tour that we had booked and thought it better safe than sorry. Because we arrived before 9:30, there was plenty of parking in both lots, but the short walk wasn’t bad (except it was surprisingly a little tricky to find where the trail started).
While the main attraction of the sound is clearly hopping on a boat for a tour of the water, electing to drive allowed us time to explore the area on foot a bit. The views from the harbor are breathtaking, and there are a few short walking trails available nearby. We decided to grab some food at the cafe and then walk around instead of trying to get on an earlier boat. This was really nice as we had sections of the walk completely to ourselves and got some nice pictures of the sound and the towering cliffs surrounding it. There were several different species of songbirds chirping in the morning sun. One thing we forgot from our car was bug spray, and the sandflies were out in force. Definitely keep bug spray handy if you visit and walk the trails.
After exploring, we made our way across the foot path to the area where they checked tickets and boarded the boats. There are several different options for you to tour the harbor with different types of boats and companies. Most are large multihull power boats with large open viewing decks on top. We purchased through Milford Sound Nature Cruise thinking they would be a little more focused on the ecosystem/nature of the area, but in reality, we think most of the cruises are pretty similar. There was an optional add-on where you could get off the boat mid-cruise and visit a nature center with underwater viewing areas that sounded interesting, but we did not have time to add that to our trip. There were also options to add a picnic lunch to the tour for $35 a person. Although the boarding process was a little chaotic, we were soon on the boat and found some seats. Where you sit really does not matter since for most of the cruise people are up and about moving around.
The tour itself was really enjoyable! It takes a couple hours to motor down to the end of the sound and back, with interesting narration on how the sound was created by glaciers. Due to the heavy recent rains, there was some serious water coming down off the mountains, which gave us some astounding waterfalls. If you were brave enough (and didn’t mind getting wet), the captain put the bow of the ship into one of the falls to splash everyone up front (on purpose and with plenty of warning if you were like Stephen and had a camera in hand that you did not want to get wet). We also saw some wildlife with some interesting birds and several sea lions sunbathing on rocks around the sound. Although getting to Milford Sound is a bit of a drive and out of the way of everything else, it is definitely worth the effort! It is a unique place, and we highly recommend doing it on our own if you can so you can explore before or after your boat ride at your own pace.
Finally, our ride was over, and we were on our way back to the car. Our final night was back in Queenstown in a hotel near the airport for our early morning flight the next day. It was hard to believe it was time to head back home already! We had a very early morning flight from Queenstown back to Auckland, with several hours between flights since there were two separate terminals still in 2023 (they were working on connecting them). Then, we hopped on our midday flight back to DFW and reality.
Overall, our trip to New Zealand was one of our favorites of all time. We have never visited another country that so immediately felt like a home away from home. While traveling is always exciting and each place we go has interesting things to do and see, New Zealand more than any other made us both say “I could see living here.” There is a real emphasis on the natural world and leaving spaces untouched (it is even incorporated in the Air New Zealand safety video), a respect of different cultures, and so much to see and do! The people of New Zealand are some of the nicest we have ever encountered—always willing to help and interested in who you are as a person.
Our trek around the South Island was a fantastic way to end the trip, but honestly it was too short. Ideally, we would have liked to have another couple days, if not a full two weeks, to explore a bit more of the island and slow down to take it all in. Packing up every night to move to another hotel does get old quickly, and there are many activities, such as the heli-hike, that are very weather dependent. It would have been nice to have a couple days around Franz Josef to reschedule our canceled trip up on the glacier.
Our only complaint of the whole trip was that even in more touristy areas in early 2022, there was still a lack of hospitality options open. Some days it was a challenge to find full meals, although hopefully that has improved as we have moved further from the core of the COVID-19 pandemic.
All in all, it was an incredible two-week trip, and we cannot wait to get back to New Zealand to explore more!
