We’ve got 10-11 days upcoming in NZ after a time in Oz. I know that’s two short but its what we have.
I keep reading it saves a lot of time to fly from the south to the north rather than drive and take the ferry. But I’m not seeing it in the math and wanted to hear from people who have done this trip. We’re eventually flying out of Aukland at the end so wanted to start in the south. We definitely want to hit the Fox Glacier, and Mount Hood. And in the north the region around Rotorua. But when I add up the time to backtrack from Fox Glacier to Queenstown (or cut over to Christchurch), allow a margin of error for check-in at the airport, travel time, time to deboard and get our luggage and car at the other airport and then head down to Rotorua, it only comes out a few hours less than driving from Fox to Picton, taking the 3-4 hour ferry to Wellington and driving up to Rotorua. Now in pratice would we likely spend a little time in Wellington, sure, but that’s incidental to the commute time since we’re seeing and doing things and don’t have to. And if the hassle of an extra flight and 2 extra airport experiences plus much of the driving being redundant (Queenstown to Fox/Fox to Queenstown; Aukland to Rotorua/Rotorua to Aukland only buys a few hours of travel time versus see a lot more of the countryside, why is this a preferred option or what are we missing?
Again, I know this is short. Can’t change it. And we’re used to aggressive paced road trips and tons of driving.
Our travel guy advised us to fly instead of take the ferry, so that’s what we did. We flew into Auckland, stayed a couple of days, flew to the South Island, stayed for a while, and then flew back to the North Island. If you’re thinking you’re keeping the same rental car between islands, I’m not sure all companies let you do that.
I wouldn’t want to miss Tongariro National Park on the way from Wellington to Rotorua (I hiked the Tongariro Alpine Crossing). And Wellington is quite pleasant. Also the trip up the west coast of South Island was nice, I remember a brief stop at Punakaiki to see the pancake rocks.
Having said that, there should be no backtracking in South Island anyway if you do the classic loop of Christchurch to Mount Cook to Queenstown to Fox Glacier and return via Arthur’s Pass.
I would also think about flying Queenstown to Wellington if you want to avoid backtracking on North Island and there’s no one way supplement for the rental car.
I’m not sure we have time for the full loop that includes Christchurch. It doesn’t look any quicker than driving the whole way, unless I’m not seeing the same loops online. Christchruch is pretty optional for us anyway – nothing must-do there for us.
Flying from Queenstown to Wellington is interesting. Seems like if I had driven through I could have made it from Fox Glacier to Picton in 7 hours, then would take about 4 to cross into Wellington by ferry, so 11 total. If I double back to Queenstown it will take 6 hours, plus two hours in advance at the airport plus a 1 hour, 20 minute flight and another hour at the airport on the other end. Seems very close in total time to driving through inclusive of the ferry.
The Fox Glacier seems out of the way no matter what you do. You’re so close on the other side of the mountain at Mount Cook Village but there’s no way not to either waste hours backtracking or hours overshooting up and then over the Christchurch. Or is there?
Arthur’s Pass is supposed to be great. So I’d suggest going into Christchurch and out of Queenstown or vice versa. Then do Christchurch to Arthur’s Pass to Fox Glacier to Queenstown or vice versa. I actually liked Christchurch more than Queenstown and Te Anau as an actual town (albeit before the earthquakes), just not an ideal base.
Yes Mount Cook Village is far out of the way but is the only town with a great view of Mount Cook itself. Of course if you go up in a plane/helicopter from Fox Glacier then that won’t matter. I actually liked Mt Cook more than Fox Glacier (much nicer day hike up to the glacier), though the west coast drive was nice.
Also it’s quite a long way from Queenstown to Te Anau to get to Milford Sound. There are some benefits to staying in Te Anau for that (and the trip to Doubtful Sound which I thought was amazing). But I was mainly there for hiking (I did the Milford, Hollyford and Routeburn Tracks back to back).