The South Island of New Zealand is an outdoor lover’s paradise. You will find glaciers, rainforests, snow-capped mountains and some of the most rugged beautiful landscapes you will ever see. Mountainous terrain occupies almost three-quarters of the South Island, with a central mountain chain, the Southern Alps, reaching 12,336 feet (3,754 meters) at its peak. We had around two weeks to spend exploring the South Island! I can honestly say that New Zealand is probably one of the most beautiful countries I have been to thus far. Driving through the wine regions, the East coast, the West coast and everything in between was a spectacular journey!
We arrived in New Zealead in Auckland and spent the first week exploring the North Island. If you missed the previous post you can read about it here. Below is a map to give you reference to some of the areas that we visited during our time here in the Land of Kiwis. Below are some highlights of our time on the South Island of New Zealand.
Planes Trains and Automobiles
When planning a trip that covers both the north and South Island you will have the opportunity to use just about every type of transportation New Zealand has to offer. We rented automobiles for part of our travel, we crossed between islands via ferry, we took domestic flights within the country, and even took a train to get us from point A to B. You will read about some of these adventures below but the first tip we would give is make sure you have booked your tickets or reserved your seat in advance for any type of transportation you will be using. The other tip is to allow some wiggle room in your schedule. The weather can impact any type of travel you have during any part of the year.
The Cook Strait
The Cook Strait, named after Captain Cook, separates the North and South islands of New Zealand. It extends northwest to southeast from the Tasman Sea to the South Pacific Ocean. The Cook Strait is renowned as being one of the roughest and most unpredictable stretches of water in the world. This is because it is part of the westerly wind belt known as the Roaring Forties. As the only gap between the mountainous main islands of the country, the strait acts like a huge wind tunnel. I won’t bore you with a geography and meteorology lesson but if you are interested just google it like I did. I found it very interesting!
One of the most scenic ferry journeys in the world
Now that you know a little about the Cook Strait, let’s talk about how we got across it. Let me introduce you Interislander ferry, which is considered one of the most scenic ferry journeys in the world.
The Cook Strait ferry crossing is 58 miles (93 kilometers) in total and will take about three and a half hours to cross. You will have harbor views as you depart Wellington then beautiful views as you cross through the Marlborough Sound and probably the most stunning section being the Tory Channel. This spectacular landscape can only be seen by boat so experiencing the Cook Strait crossing is a must-do if you ever have the chance!
We had tickets for the Plus Lounge on the ferry and would highly recommend it. It included comfort lounge style seating with dinner service and easy access to the roof top deck to take in the views.
Weather permitting, the top deck of the boat has jaw dropping panoramic views. The wind was extreme during our ride but they did open the top deck up for us once we got into the Marlborough Sound and allowed us access. We were blown away by the views, both figuratively and almost literally!
At the southern end of the Cook Strait crossing we would arrive in Picton, a sleepy fishing town at the end of the Queen Charlotte Sound. This is where our ferry ride would come to an end, but because our ferry was delayed due to weather, we had to make the final drive to Nelson in the dark. Not a huge deal but the drive was a winding road through the mountains so if you are not comfortable with night driving through steep and curvy roads plan accordingly!
Nelson – New Zealand’s Sunshine Capital
Nelson is known for its sunshine, beaches and national parks. We stayed a a lovely hotel called The Sails Nelson. The host was gracious enough to wait for our late arrival and gave us one of the warmest welcomes we have had on the trip thus far. Our time in Nelson was more of a layover as we only had one full day there and would do a full day wine tour so we didn’t really have a chance to explore Nelson like we had hoped. But who is whining about wine? Not me!
New Zealand Wine Tours
Wine was first introduced to New Zealand in the 19th century with the oldest existing vineyard being in Hawke’s Bay. But it wasn’t until the mid 1980’s that New Zealand Wine was put on the map. It was Cloudy Bay’s Saugvingauh Blanc that put the international spotlight on New Zealand Wine. Wine Regions in the South Island include Hawke’s Bay, Marlborough, Canterbury, and the Central Otago. The two we toured and will highlight will be the Marlborough and Central Otago regions.
Marlborough Wine Region – This region accounts for over three quarters of the entire wine production in New Zealand. Because of its unique soil and climate conditions, this wine region is best known for its Savingnau Blanc. We had a private guide that spent the entire day driving us around the region. Our stops included several boutique wineries, each with its own unique story and stunning locality. These family owned wineries have interesting histories. Our favorites were Clos Henri, Forrest, and Cloudy Bay.
The second wine region we visited was Central Otago. This is where you will find the best Pinot Noirs in New Zealand! This is also where you will find the most southern vineyards in the world. Our favorites were Gibson Valley and Te Kano Estates. But it is worth noting that we stopped at the Stoaker Room for lunch and they did an amazing food pairing with Wild Earth Wines and we highly recommend. It was such a fun experience! At the end of the wine tour we got to stop by the historic gold mining town of Arrowtown.
Crayfish – it’s what’s for dinner!
You can’t come to the East Cost of New Zealand without trying some crayfish! But don’t confuse “crayfish” with “crawfish” as I soon learned they are not the same thing! New Zealand Crayfish is actually a Rock Lobster. They are a little different from the lobster you would see in the US or Canada, and the most distinctive difference between the northern hemisphere’s lobster and New Zealand’s crayfish is its large crushing pincers on their first pair of legs. New Zealand crayfish also have much longer antennae and one less pair of legs.
Kaikoura Coastline
The East Coast of the South Island of New Zealand is where you will find the Kaikoura Coastline. Kaikoura on the coast north of Christchurch is the crayfish capital of New Zealand. The name Kaikoura means ‘eating crayfish’ in Maori. Seafood caravans (what we would normally call a food truck) can be found along the roads around Kaikoura selling fresh crayfish. We were told to find Nin’s Bin and have a crayfish tail and that is exactly what we did!
Driving along the East Coast was absolutely stunning. There are plenty of areas that you can pull off to stop and enjoy the view. Our favorite was when we stopped and got an up close and personal view of the fur seals. They were entertaining to watch as they played and did some sunbathing on the rocks.
In 2016, an earthquake drastically affected this entire area. Houses were demolished, roads and railways were ripped up and massive landslides demolished houses, ripped up roads and railways, and caused massive landslides through this entire area. Driving through this area just 7 years later you would not even know it.
Whale Watching in Kaikoura
One of the reasons to visit the Kaikoura area is to see the whales! The morning of our tour we were briefed upon checkin that the winds were very strong and some passengers were actually removed from the roster and rescheduled. The boat ride out was an adventure in itself but boy are we glad we stuck it out! Our captain stopped for us to watch a pod of dusky dolphins playing, a fur seal playing, and yes, we got to see a sperm whale named Taiki! This was an amazing tour and the captain and crew were great!
After we disembarked the whale watching cruise we made our way down to Christchurch where we stopped for the night before our flight to Queenstown. We stayed at the George Hotel. We had a fabulous stay there and it was within walking distance to town. This was just a layover so didn’t do much but luckily we will be back as we pass through toward the end of our trip here on the South Island.
Side Note regarding the flight from Christchurch to Queenstown
If you are flying from Christchurch into Queenstown make sure you get a seat by the window. The views from the plane were spectacular!
Queenstown — The Adventure Capital of the World
Queenstown is New Zealand’s top travel destination. Located on the shores of Lake Wakatipu and draped with towering mountains, it is an adrenaline junkies heaven. You may even hear it referred to as the birthplace of bungee jumping! I did some research before calling it that through a trusty “google” search and found that there may be some controversy over that claim. So I will just say that they do “a lot” of bungee jumping in the South Island among many other extreme sports. Had we visited 10 years ago you would read about all the ones we tried while there, but given the fact that we have a lot more travel ahead of us this year, we played it safe and skipped the bungee jumping and paragliding. But young or old, there is something for everyone in New Zealand, especially if you enjoy being outdoors.
When we arrived in Queenstown we were already lined up to take a short cruise on the TSS Earnslaw, aka The Lady of the Lake. While this cruise would fall at the opposite end of the spectrum from an extreme activity, it was a nice way to chill for a couple hours after arriving to town.
Mother Nature doesn’t care about your schedule
The first thing we would recommend if you have specific things you want to do in New Zealand that are weather permitting type activities, allow flexibility in your travel. Especially if the activity includes anything that is on the water or in the air.
If you read our previous blog about our time in the North Island we mentioned that we had a full day guided trek across the Tongariro Alpine Crossing that was cancelled due to weather. We weren’t able to reschedule because we already had travel planned for the next day.
Once we arrived in Queenstown, Mother Nature struck again and our plane ride to Milford Sound was cancelled due to high winds and cloud coverage. We were super disappointed to say the least but we are learning that you can’t argue with nature and life goes on.
I think they say that three times is the charm right? Our third scheduled tour that was top on our list was cancelled which was the helicopter ride and hike onto Franz Josef Glacier. They wanted to schedule us for the next day but again, we had travel already booked for the following day so we missed out on this activity as well.
So our best advice would be to reserve and schedule your bucket list items for the first day you arrive to that area and have an extra day (or two) in the event they are cancelled. Most tour operations will work with you to get you on the next scheduled timeslot. In all of these cases we didn’t have the flexibility to stay extra days to let that happen.
Queenstown didn’t disappoint
Had we realized how spectacular the entire area in and around Queenstown was we would have added an extra day or two. We spent some time exploring the town and one full day was devoted to the Central Otago wine tour. On the day we were scheduled for the Milford Sound Plane and Cruise we had to wait until mid afternoon to confirm it was cancelled for the day. With limited time left in the day, we were able to secure quick 2 hour excursion called the Skipper’s Canyon Jet Boat tour. They accommodated us last minute and it was an amazing adventure. It consisted of a bus ride into the canyon and a jet boat ride through Skippers Canyon. Portions of the Lord of the Rings and Mission: Impossible Fallout were filmed there. Our captain was a part of each of the movies and had lots of interesting details about the productions.
Glacier Country
The next day we made our way to Glacier Country. This was a 5 to 6 hour drive but was probably the most picturesque drive of our entire time in New Zealand. It is hard to even put into words so I suggest you book your ticket to see it for yourself. The mountains and curves were incredible and the whole time all Pete could say was that it would be great on the Harley. Maybe next trip will be on bikes with our Sugarland Friends!
Our hotel once we arrived in Franz Josef was one of our favorites. It was a boutique mountain style lodge. The common area was perfect and was just a mile or so from town. If you make it to Franz Joseph you must visit the West Coast Wildlife Center. You will be able to see the world’s rarest kiwi, the Rowi, in their kiwi sanctuary. Rowi are a nationally vulnerable threatened species with less than 600 remaining in the wild.
There is plenty to do in Glacier Country, even with our helicopter ride and glacier hike cancelled we were able to spend the day enjoying the beauty of this area. There are plenty of hikes, both short and long, so there is something for everyone!
Beautiful reflective views of the glacier valley and mountains at Peter’s Pool.
Train ride
A trip to the South Island of New Zealand would not be complete without a ride on the Tranz Alpine Train. We boarded the train in Greymouth and began the three hour ride through the Great Divide. With scenic views through the Southern Alps you will make your way through spectacular gorges and river valleys until you descend in the Canterbury plans and end in Christchurch.
Once we arrived in Christchurch we were back at the The George hotel. This is a lovely hotel and worth mentioning again and a nice way to end our stay on the South Island.
Auckland
We left Christchurch and flew to Auckland for our last couple of nights in New Zealand. When we arrived we didn’t have much time so we wanted to explore the city. We actually had dinner with a friend we met when we were in Bali. Shout out to Jillian! That is the one thing we have found the most rewarding about our travel, we have met some of the most amazing people and some we hope will be life long friends.
Auckland is a very cool city! We spent a couple days just exploring and winding down from the last three weeks of touring the country. The last thing we did before closing out our time in Auckland was take a ride up sky tower. We almost skipped it but I am glad we didn’t. Seeing the city from a Birds Eye view was perfect!
Nom Nom Nom
Food has not been the highlight for our trip here in New Zealand but we did happen to find a few places that were worth mentioning. Here are a few from different cities we visited:
Auckland: Ada is an Italian inspired restaurant that specializes in small plates. Located in the Ada Hotel which is a boutique home stay that resides in a former convent. We met our new friend Jill there and had a fabulous time! You will want to make reservations in advance!
Franz Josef: Alice May was where the locals said to go so we went. They didn’t take reservations so we would recommend to show up early. This New Zealand eatery is dedicated to Alice May Parkinson. Alice May Parkinson (1889 – 21 July 1949) was a New Zealand manslayer. She was born in Hampden, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand in 1889. Her subsequent trial and conviction became a subject of controversy for New Zealand at that time. You can find lots of history about this event throughout the restaurant and the food was great as well! Oh, and let’s not forget the Mountain View’s from the courtyard while you dine!
Queenstown: Blue Kanu is definitely worth trying. We didn’t have reservation so we were lucky enough to grab a seat at the bar. By far the best service we have had of any restaurant anywhere on both the North and South Island! And if you are wondering we did NOT try the infamous Ferg Burger. Apparently every other tourist that arrived to Queenstown stood in line to try it (because we saw the line every time we drove by) but we asked several locals and they said “it is just a burger”. Some even gave us names of places to get a better burger if that is what we were in search of. Being from Texas we opted to skip the burger, as not much can beat a burger from the Lone Star State!
The Modern Nomads 
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