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#1
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Drive in South Island
I am planned to go to South Island next February for 5-6 days. Due to the
short duration, I will fly directly to Queenstown and out from Christchurch. Any advice or suggestions for the following : 1) reasonable rented car companies, without one way drop off charge. 2) suggest driving route to cover Milford Sound, West coast (Fox Glacier, FJ), Mt cook and Christchurch. My draft itinerary: Queenstown - Milford Queenstown - Franz or Gleymouth Franz or Gleymouth - Christchurch Christchurch - Mt cook Mt-Cook- Christchurch 3) suggest night stay and accommodation 4) any pre-booking of hotel is required during that period 5) I come with 2 kids, 10 and 6 each. Any family and fun activities, other than the adventurous one. I believe that the day time will last until 8-9 pm. Is it true? Many thanks, Victor |
#2
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I would suggest you arrive and depart from Christchurch and drive or
take the train to the West Coast then drive down to Quenstown via the Haast Pass. Fly to Milford and back to Queenstown then drive back to Christchurch via Mt Cook. There may even be bus trips covering that route which would free you up to enjoy the wonderful scenery & perhaps someone can suggest options in this area. Thats the way I would do it though things have changed a lot since I lived in the area 40 years ago and others may have different suggestions |
#3
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In article , Victor says...
I am planned to go to South Island next February for 5-6 days. Due to the short duration, I will fly directly to Queenstown and out from Christchurch. Any advice or suggestions for the following : 1) reasonable rented car companies, without one way drop off charge. 2) suggest driving route to cover Milford Sound, West coast (Fox Glacier, FJ), Mt cook and Christchurch. My draft itinerary: Queenstown - Milford Queenstown - Franz or Gleymouth Franz or Gleymouth - Christchurch Christchurch - Mt cook Mt-Cook- Christchurch 3) suggest night stay and accommodation 4) any pre-booking of hotel is required during that period 5) I come with 2 kids, 10 and 6 each. Any family and fun activities, other than the adventurous one. That's a lot of driving with two kids in the back! You're a brave man. May I suggest that you book one of the 4-berth cabins on the Milford Wanderer? It's fairly spartan accommodation, but you get two cruises (evening and morning), dinner and breakfast, a night's accommodation and the best part is that you don't have to go haring back to Queenstown along with all the big tourist buses on a narrow winding road. The rest of it sounds doable, but you are going to need a holiday when you finish. All the roads you mention are two lane (one each way), winding and often on steep grades. Not freeways or interstates. Some awesome scenery, but I don't know how much the kids will appreciate this. I believe that the day time will last until 8-9 pm. Is it true? In February? It will be changing very swiftly but yeah, you'll get a reasonable amount of daylight. Mind you, a lot of this is due to daylight saving, so the evening light is borrowed from the morning. Cheers, Peter |
#4
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In article , Victor says...
I am planned to go to South Island next February for 5-6 days. Due to the short duration, I will fly directly to Queenstown and out from Christchurch. Any advice or suggestions for the following : 1) reasonable rented car companies, without one way drop off charge. 2) suggest driving route to cover Milford Sound, West coast (Fox Glacier, FJ), Mt cook and Christchurch. My draft itinerary: Queenstown - Milford Queenstown - Franz or Gleymouth Franz or Gleymouth - Christchurch Christchurch - Mt cook Mt-Cook- Christchurch 3) suggest night stay and accommodation 4) any pre-booking of hotel is required during that period 5) I come with 2 kids, 10 and 6 each. Any family and fun activities, other than the adventurous one. That's a lot of driving with two kids in the back! You're a brave man. May I suggest that you book one of the 4-berth cabins on the Milford Wanderer? It's fairly spartan accommodation, but you get two cruises (evening and morning), dinner and breakfast, a night's accommodation and the best part is that you don't have to go haring back to Queenstown along with all the big tourist buses on a narrow winding road. The rest of it sounds doable, but you are going to need a holiday when you finish. All the roads you mention are two lane (one each way), winding and often on steep grades. Not freeways or interstates. Some awesome scenery, but I don't know how much the kids will appreciate this. I believe that the day time will last until 8-9 pm. Is it true? In February? It will be changing very swiftly but yeah, you'll get a reasonable amount of daylight. Mind you, a lot of this is due to daylight saving, so the evening light is borrowed from the morning. Cheers, Peter |
#5
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On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 00:25:25 +0800, in message
, Victor wrote: I am planned to go to South Island next February for 5-6 days. Due to the short duration, I will fly directly to Queenstown and out from Christchurch. Any advice or suggestions for the following : 2) suggest driving route to cover Milford Sound, West coast (Fox Glacier, FJ), Mt cook and Christchurch. My draft itinerary: Queenstown - Milford Queenstown - Franz or Gleymouth Franz or Gleymouth - Christchurch Christchurch - Mt cook Mt-Cook- Christchurch I suggest you check out the driving times he http://www.accommodationz.co.nz/distances.html Queenstown - Milford Sound is a total of 8½ hours solid driving (4¼ hours each way). That is before you add time for stopping on the way, taking a walk or boat cruise at Milford Sound, doing any family and fun activities. That could be rather long with 2 kids in tow. 5) I come with 2 kids, 10 and 6 each. Any family and fun activities, other than the adventurous one. I believe that the day time will last until 8-9 pm. Is it true? In February, yes, more or less. See http://www.rasnz.org.nz/SRSStimes.htm -- Cheers, Ralph The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. |
#6
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On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 00:25:25 +0800, in message
, Victor wrote: I am planned to go to South Island next February for 5-6 days. Due to the short duration, I will fly directly to Queenstown and out from Christchurch. Any advice or suggestions for the following : 2) suggest driving route to cover Milford Sound, West coast (Fox Glacier, FJ), Mt cook and Christchurch. My draft itinerary: Queenstown - Milford Queenstown - Franz or Gleymouth Franz or Gleymouth - Christchurch Christchurch - Mt cook Mt-Cook- Christchurch I suggest you check out the driving times he http://www.accommodationz.co.nz/distances.html Queenstown - Milford Sound is a total of 8½ hours solid driving (4¼ hours each way). That is before you add time for stopping on the way, taking a walk or boat cruise at Milford Sound, doing any family and fun activities. That could be rather long with 2 kids in tow. 5) I come with 2 kids, 10 and 6 each. Any family and fun activities, other than the adventurous one. I believe that the day time will last until 8-9 pm. Is it true? In February, yes, more or less. See http://www.rasnz.org.nz/SRSStimes.htm -- Cheers, Ralph The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. |
#7
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#9
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Thank you for all your invaluable comments.
I need to adjust my itinerary, as most of you pointed out clearly that the kids may find it boring. For only 5-6 days, if I need to choose between 1) Queenstown thru Mt Cook to Christchurch 2) Queenstown thru west coast to Christchurch which one has more scenery and need to go once in my life. Kindly provide me more practical information. Many thanks, Victor ps. just back to square one, is South Island better than Norht Island? "vicki Steven" wrote in message .. . in article , Victor at wrote on 22/11/04 5:25 AM: I am planned to go to South Island next February for 5-6 days. Due to the short duration, I will fly directly to Queenstown and out from Christchurch. Any advice or suggestions for the following : 1) reasonable rented car companies, without one way drop off charge. 2) suggest driving route to cover Milford Sound, West coast (Fox Glacier, FJ), Mt cook and Christchurch. My draft itinerary: Queenstown - Milford Queenstown - Franz or Gleymouth Franz or Gleymouth - Christchurch Christchurch - Mt cook Mt-Cook- Christchurch Mount Cook is in fact a 4 hour backtrack - half way to Queenstown. You have not allowed any time at all in Queenstown. I would definitely allow a full day for adventurous activities in Queenstown & perhaps take a tour to Milford on Day 2 so you don't have to do all the driving while looking at the scenery! Day 3 don't attempt to drive any further than Fox or Franz Josef - that is about 5 hours if you don't stop for short walks or photos along the way. Take the kids to Puzzling World in Wanaka too! At Fox Glacier do the lake Matheson walk to the "View-of-views" if the sky is clear. Day 4 you'll have time for an early morning hike on the glacier (pre booking required at that time of year) and then a 5 hr drive to Chch in the afternoon. Hokitika is worth a brief stop, esp if your kids are girls - great jewelry shops (local specialties are jade/pounamu and gold and paua shell) Day 5 instead of Mt Cook go to Akaroa & see the dolphins (only 3hrs driving round trip) or spend the day in Chch - check out the Antarctic Centre or the Maori Culture & kiwi etc at Willowbank Wildlife Park. Have a great time Vicki |
#10
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Victor wrote:
Thank you for all your invaluable comments. I need to adjust my itinerary, as most of you pointed out clearly that the kids may find it boring. For only 5-6 days, if I need to choose between 1) Queenstown thru Mt Cook to Christchurch 2) Queenstown thru west coast to Christchurch which one has more scenery and need to go once in my life. Via west coast is definitely the more scenic route - don't miss it. BTW if you really want to go to Mt Cook you can fly there by light plane from Franz Joseph. -- Burn the land and boil the sea, You can't take the sky from me. |
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