Highlights of a Summer Road Trip to New Zealand - South Island

Picton is a very small town and its major attraction is the port which welcomes thousands of tourists everyday through the Bluebridge and Interislander ferries. Instead of heading out to explore the city, we chose to spend some time with our host Angela and get to know the place and culture through her eyes.

The next morning, we left for Arthur's Pass - again another long drive day but the surrounding views and twisty roads would never let you feel tired. You can opt for a short (1 hour) trek to the Devil's Punchbowl falls. The main junction of Arthur's Pass spans along a 1 km straight road and can be explored on foot.

The drive to Wanaka was undoubtedly the most scenic one. We drove past the Fox Glacier and could only see a small glimpse of the snow since it was summer. The fun begins at Lake Matheson and Lake Wanaka. The vast stretch of Lake Wanaka would leave you spellbound. The city itself is based around the lake and you can take a walk around the shore whenever you desire.  Alot of people in our host's guest book had mentioned about Rippon Winery and we decided to give it a shot. They conducted very informative wine tasting sessions. We got the best view of Wanaka from this place. As a bonus, we also got a chance to witness a wedding ceremony at the winery.

For all the intellectual minds, this is going to be a fun place to be. While the Great Maze will leave you running around for hours to find your way, there are other indoor puzzles and illusion rooms where you can spend your entire day. This is a must visit if your brain is in need of some fuel on this vacation. We spent the evening along the lake side watching the sunset taking a break from the hustle.

Queenstown is approximately at an hour's drive from Wanaka. It is rightly labelled as the adventure capital of New Zealand. Like Wanaka, even Queenstown is situated along the lake Wakatipu. Make sure you keep aside adequate number of days to experience all that this city has to offer. All of our adventure sports activities are covered in a separate post which includes Sky Diving, the Swing and Hang Gliding. The Luge was a different experience altogether. Firstly you get a birds eye view of Queenstown when you go up the gondola. Luge rides are more fun with more number of people as that gives you a chance for a tough race. Luge ride is a must do when in Queenstown. We stayed at the Nomads Backpackers for 4 nights. The Shot Over Jet boat ride a different thrill altogether and not worth a miss.

We spent the entire next day to cover the Milford sound guided cruise. It is a 4 hour drive from Queenstown with a lot of pit-stops for some scenic views including a creek, a valley and the famous mirror lakes. The cruise allows you to witness and get drenched in the humongous waterfalls. This is when I first learnt about Fjords. You can also spot a few seals and penguins if its a lucky day! On the way back we took a halt at the Te-Anau Glow Worm caves which gave an experience of the ancient structures created by naturally flowing waters. They don't allow clicking pictures within the caves since it would distract the glow worms.

Tekapo is just a stopover to break the long drive from Queenstown to Christcurch from where we took our flight back to Auckland. One the way to Tekapo, we had to take a halt at Lake Pukaki to soak in the breathtaking views it offered. Such a pure and serene piece of nature was hard to find. Tekapo is famous for Star Gazing while lying in the hot pools at Tekapo Springs. However we only got an indoor virtual reality tour since it rained quite heavily while we were there. But we still got to spend an hour at the soothing hot springs. We spent the night at Lakefront Backpacker's Lodge however it was not such a great experience so would not recommend it to others.

Christchurch doesn't have much to offer in terms of tourist destinations apart from the International Antarctic Center. We only took a pit stop here to fly back to Auckland the next morning. However, while searching for restaurants to have dinner, we came accross this Pier and a small park at the shore. It is worth spending a couple of hours there just to take a break from all the hustle and enjoy the sunset before we fly back to our busy lives back home.