March 2019

Perfect Two Week Itinerary for New Zealand

New Zealand moved high on the “big trip” list when my brother came back from a trip in 2018. His pictures and videos were simply stunning! We had to go and I could not wait.

With only two weeks to explore New Zealand, we knew it would be an impossible task to see everything. After doing preliminary reading, it was clear people do not recommend a two week trip to see both North and South islands and to instead focus on one. Since we both had a feeling this would not be our last visit to New Zealand, we decide this trip would be a highlight reel from both islands. We started planning by pinning locations on Google maps that we wanted to see and the hoped that an organic itinerary would come together.

As hoped, our pins provided a natural flow and driving gave us the flexibility to accomplish as much or as little as we wanted. We started on the South Island in Queenstown, drove north through Mt Cook then continued north up the east coast until we hit the ferry to transfer to the North Island. From the capital of Wellington, we continued north towards Auckland making many stops along the way. We were so proud and excited with our itinerary- an incredible 2,070km (1286 miles) of driving through New Zealand.

Our major stops: Queenstown –> Mt Cook –> Christchurch –> Kaikoura –> Wellington –> Tongariro National Park –> Rotorua –> Auckland

Upon our return, it is easy why people recommend focusing on one island but even two weeks would not be enough time to see everything on one island. Since we had such limited time, we knew there was a high risk of our itinerary experiencing changes. Many of our activities were weather dependent and there are many other factors that are out of our control. Do not miss other tips on what to expect when visiting New Zealand!

We ended up having to change quite a bit around from the originally planned itinerary to accommodate. The biggest thing we planned for that got canceled was a trip out to Milford Sound. Since it is an 8 hours drive from Queenstown, we opted to treat ourselves by booking a plan ride since 16 hours of driving alone would eat up a large portion of the trip. Little did we know, the plane barely flies due to weather conditions at the Sound. While we were disappointed, we ended up moving Mt Cook a day up and have a much better weather day than the day we originally scheduled so it all worked out. Something to look forward to next time!

Even over a year later, we are still smiling over how incredible this trip was and I already have ideas for our next New Zealand adventure.

Day	Time	Activity		Food	Lodging
Day 1 Friday	Evening	Flight to LAX 2PM Land LAX 5:17PM Flight LAX 8:55PM
Day 2 Saturday	Day	Crossing the international date line
Day 3 Sunday	Morning	Land AUC 6:45AM Flight AUC 8:40AM Land QNS 10:35AM
	Afternoon	Check into Airbnb AJ Hackett Bungy Jump		Rehab	Queenstown
	Evening	Explore Queenstown		Taco Medic  Seight’s Ale House
Day 4Monday	Morning	Tiki Trail		On hike (pack)	Queenstown
	Afternoon	Queenstown Wine Trail Tour		Gibbston Cheesery
	Evening			Blue Kanu Patigonia Ice Cream
Day 5 Tuesday	Morning	Pick up car		Patagonia	Twizel
	Afternoon	Drive to Mt Cook		Fergbakery
	Evening	Hike Hooker Valley Trail Check into airbnb		Fergburger
Day 6 Wednesday	Morning	Drive to Tekapo  Drive to Fairlie		Fairlie Bakehouse	Christchurch
	Afternoon	Drive to Christchurch Botanical Gardens		High life
	Evening	Check into Airbnb
Day 7 Thursday	Morning	Drive to Kaikoura		Copenhagen Bakery	Kaikoura
	Afternoon	Peninsula hike		Kaikoura Seafood BBQ Kiosk
	Evening	Check into Airbnb Explore Kaikoura		The Top Shop
Day 8 Friday	Morning	Drive to Picton Picton Ferry at 10:45 AM			Wellington
	Afternoon	Arrival at Wellington 1:30PM Check into Airbnb
	Evening	Weta Workshop Tour		Shed 5
Day 9 Saturday	Morning	Te Papa Museum		The Hanger  Wills Kitchen	Tongariro Park
	Afternoon	Drive to Tongariro		Pasteria
	Evening	Check into lodge
Day 10 Sunday	Morning	Hike Tongariro Alpine Crossing		On hike (pack)	Tongariro Park
	Afternoon
	Evening
Day 11 Monday	Morning	Drive to Taupo Skydive Taupo			Rotorua
	Afternoon	Spa Thermal Park Huka Falls Lookout
	Evening	Drive to Rotorua Check into Airbnb		Urbano Bistro
Day 12 Tuesday	Morning	Hobbiton Tour		Hobbitant Cafe	Rotorua
	Afternoon	Skyline Luge
	Evening			Eat Streets
Day 13 Wednesday	Morning	Redwoods Treewalk		Sequoia Eatery	Rotorua
	Afternoon	White Water Rafting		Sequoia Eatery
	Evening	Te Puia Experience
Day 14 Thursday	Morning	Drive to Waitomo Lost World Epic Cave Tour			Auckland
	Afternoon			On tour
	Evening	Drive to Auckland (2.5 hours) Check into Airbnb		On tour
Day 15 Friday	Morning	Drop off car			Auckland
	Afternoon	NZ Wine Pro Tour		On tour
	Evening	Explore Auckland		Giapo Cotto
Day 16 Saturday	Morning	Auckland Memorial Museum		Parnell Open French Market
	Afternoon	Bus to Airport		Wu and You
	Evening	Flight AUC 7:30PM Land LAX 10:35AM Flight LAX 3:15PM Land Home

Read the full trip details!

North Island

South Island

What to Expect

If you have been to New Zealand before, let me know what I missed and what your favorites are!