Hello, we are off to NZ late Jan until the end of March and I would love to hear your suggestions for train, ferry excursions, day trips etc on the South Island please. We’re not hikers, but won’t say no to a winery (or two).
Our North Island adventure is pretty much sewn up, but the South is a blank canvas at the moment.
Thank you. 
I’d say my favourite places were Rotorua and Napier. Rotorua has a great Wednesday night food market with love music and lots of different cuisines. It also has hot springs!
My absolute favourite thing we did on the North Island was the Waimangu Volcanic Valley. It’s a hot springs park that is a really easy walk/hike (they also have a shuttle if you really can’t be arsed.) We got BOGO tickets on Bookme, which is a great resource for discounts for things like ferry trips, museums, and the like.
Napier is great for wine, and the entire region is famous for it. Have a few whites for me!!
Thank you for replying, much appreciated.
Milford Sound is one of the most beautiful places we have seen. Wanaka and Te Anau are very nice places also.
We’re friendly locals here on the South Island & can give heaps of suggestions.
Are you driving from Akl down to the South Island? How much time do you have?
Road trip ideas: Akl-ohope-east cape-gizzy-waipuk-castlepoint-welly-or then add paraparam-wanganui-new plymouth-taumaranui-te kuiti-back to Akl
When heading south from Picton you have heaps of choices: Head over the Takaka hill (be mindful of the stop/start traffic due to construction on it 
) over to Kaiterteri-Farewell Spit, back down to the buller gorger-reefton-lewis pass-down to the waimakiriri area-oxford-mount hutt-rakia gorge-Christchurch
I’ll finish my coffee then will get you down to Invercargill 
.
We house sat around New Zealand for three months back in 2018 and loved it. Some spots we visited in the South Island were:
Mt. Cook
Lake Tekapo
Christchurch
Arthur’s Pass
Lyttleton
Shag Point
Moeraki Boulder Beach
WOW…
thank you all so much for your fabulous suggestions, it’s really kind of you to reply.
Our plans: fly to Auckland from Perth, hire a car, two days free .
Three days sit in Papakura, three day gap, then nine day sit 20 mins from Rotorua, nine day gap, before a final three day sit in Napier, ending Feb 23rd.
After that…no plans other than heading to South Island. Was thinking of leaving the car in
Wellington, boarding the ferry to Picton and that’s as far as the plan goes for now. Happy to get another hire car, but also keen to try some train journeys too. Then back to UK end of March.
From South Akl head over to Whangamata or Waihi Beach as you’ll then be super close to your sit. Will you be in the Ngongataha area? There’s a yummy cafe we can suggest.
You’ll have heaps of time between your Rotorua & Napier sit for the East Cape 
.
Our nine day sit IS in Ngongotaha! Suggest away 
Cafe Dynasti .
Good people & coffee.
@Daisy999 , my husband and I will be in New Zealand at the same time as you. We are not doing a sit; it will be our vacation of a lifetime! I had been thinking of posting the same type of question here on the forum, so I appreciate all the answers, as I can benefit from them as well! We will be in the South Island from March 1 to March 22 and after that we move to the North Island and Australia afterwards. Our itinerary in the South Island will take us to: Christchurch, Akaroa, Lake Tekapo, Mount Cook, Dunedin, Te Anau, Milford Sound, Cromwell, Wanaka, Franz Josef, Punakaiki, Tasman and well as stops along the way. It would be amazing if we ended up in the same place at the same time and could actually meet up. Feel free to private message me and maybe we can figure something out.
If any other Kiwis have tips for visiting your beautiful country, please send them!
Also, since we’re THS homeowners too, I wanted to mention that we have already confirmed some really wonderful sitters. It really puts my mind at ease as we prepare for our wonderful trip.
Ok, heading south from Christchurch, here are some thoughts…I could be here for a while and for now, will just do the South Canterbury/upper Waitaki area… 
If you need a second-hand book, stop at the Chertsey Book Barn, then head inland to the Stavely Store for a wee walk, a good coffee and food. Head south through Geraldine and perhaps stop for an easy walk at the Talbot Forest. If you need the ocean and another coffee, Timaru’s 30 from Geraldine, Caroline Bay’s a nice beach walk and then head up the stairs to the Arthur Street Cafe. If you’re around for the night, wee penguins live in the rocks by the port. From Timaru, head over to Tekapo and go the back way to Fairlie where you can have a nice lunch with a view at the Farm Barn Cafe then a brief side stop at Lake Opuha. Over to Tekapo & the dark sky observatory. If you want a flat walk, head to Pines Beach by the Tekapo dog park. Mt John isn’t the easiest walk with all the rabbit holes. Head off from Tekapo towards Otemetata back towards Ikawai where you can loop back and stop in Waimate for the yummy bakery, light horse monument and murals then up at wee Makikihi for more food at the pub.
More later…
Milford sound is a must. I’ve heard Doubtful Sound is also incredible, and less touristy. Queenstown and Wanaka should definitely be on your list. I really enjoyed the west coast, past Punakaiki, Arthur’s pass area and up to Nelson. If you have the time definitely go to Able Tasman National park. You can get a taxi (or drive) from Nelson and catch the water taxi from the big town there. One of my highlights of New Zealand 
NZ SI is our favourite place in the world! We have been a few times from Brisbane, QLD. We have done some self drives and have picked up a hire car in Picton after getting off the ferry from Wellington. Wineries around Blenheim are great but we prefer the Otago area down near Queenstown. We drove to Kaikoura to swim with hundreds of dolphins in the ocean but sadly the weather was against us that time. On another trip, we caught the Transalpine Express from Christchurch to Greymouth on the west coast, picked up a hire car and did 17 days driving a loop from there down to the very southern point and up the east coast back to Christchurch, including Queenstown, Aoraki, Akaroa and most places in between. The penguins at Oamaru were a delight. THE MOST AMAZING TRIP!
Tripadvisor has some great itinerary ideas as well but I find these days ChatGPT gives you brilliant itineraries as you can be very specific about what you want and can keep tweaking your requests until you get a great trip planned. It does all the hard work internet searches for you in mere seconds.
One big tip I’m glad we adhered to was do not plan long driving days. The roads are windy & narrow with glorious scenery that make you stop, often. There are also many tourists driving campervans, not always well. Limit yourself to around 250km per day or less and you will see the magic that is NZ SI.
again, thank you, thank you everyone for your fabulous ideas. @sledgejoyce it would be great if our paths ending up crossing.
Hi “Daisy999” and “sledgejoyce”,
NZ is one of our favorite places in the world. We are not Kiwis, but we spent 3 months exploring New Zealand: 2 months on the North Island, including 2 house sits, 1 in Auckland, the other in Wellington.
In the South Island, we rented a camper van for 1 month, which was the best way for us to go, since there are very few hotels in the remote areas we liked. We did a lot of “freedom” camping on beautiful beaches and in remote areas.
In addition to the great suggestions above of other THS members, we highly recommend the following:
Thank you ever so much for all that brilliant information and stunning photos, it’s very helpful. We were thinking of renting a motorhome, but I do like my comforts (air con, bath), but we will see. Once again, thank you xx
