8 Day South Island Grandeur

Kia Ora,

Welcome to Christchurch. On arrival you will be picked up at the airport and transferred to your first night’s accommodation, where you will receive your detailed tour information pack.

Take the rest of the day to relax and explore the inner city, with its famous botanical gardens, or see the city in style on a tramway restaurant dinner tour.

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Leaving Christchurch in the morning, on the first day on your coach tour will travel through the fertile farmland of the Canterbury Plains to the shores of the stunning, glacier-fed Lake Tekapo, where you can view the solitary Church of the Good Shepherd and take in the sights of the spectacular Southern Alps. Then continue to the location of New Zealand's tallest mountain, Aoraki / Mount Cook, situated in a national park and UNESCO World Heritage site. Rising to 3,754 metres high, Aoraki certainly lives up to its name, which in Maori can be translated as 'cloud piercer'. Legend tells of a young boy named Aoraki who was stranded with his brothers when their canoe struck a reef. As it tilted, the brothers climbed to the high side, where they were frozen by the south wind and turned into stone. Aoraki and his brothers now form the Southern Alps.

Enjoy lunch (optional extra) at the famous Hermitage Hotel in Mount Cook Village. After lunch you'll have time to explore the village and soak up the view (1 hour and a half).

The tour continues south, past Lake Pukaki and through the tawny tussock of the Mackenzie Country. En route, enjoy afternoon tea (own expense) in the quaint village of Omarama and if time permits, visit the Jones Family Orchard near Cromwell. Your tour concludes in the evening upon reaching Queenstown, the adventure capital of New Zealand.

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Queenstown is synonymous with adventure, it is dubbed the "adventure capital of the world". Regardless of the season, Queenstown gets your adrenaline flowing year round, and the options are endlesss. Want to throw yourself out of a plane in amazing scenery, jump off a bridge in the birthplace of Bungy, jetboat, raft down a river, you name it...Queenstown has it all.

Today you will do the  Dart River Wilderness Jet is an exhilarating and spectacular journey from Glenorchy deep into the heart of the world-renowned Mt Aspiring National Park with the only jet boat operator allowed on the Dart River.

The sheer diversity of what’s on offer means you experience a unique combination of breathtaking scenery matched with exciting jet boating on braided, glacier-fed rivers. Highly informative guides add the personal touch, talking about the area’s history, the Greenstone trail and Māori legends. Walk amongst ancient beech forest unchanged for 80 million years and view the scenic backgrounds for many Middle Earth movie scenes. An authentic New Zealand experience in an untouched world.

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Visit Milford Sound today and experience a world of cascading waterfalls, sheer rock faces and dense rainforest. Your journey along the shores of Lake Wakatipu takes you further south to Te Anau first. You will travel along the Milford Road – one of the world's most scenic roads – and through the Homer Tunnel, before arriving for your Milford Sound Cruise. Enjoy striking views of iconic Mitre Peak from the head of the Sound – it rises 1,692 metres from the south shore and is named for its resemblance to a bishop’s mitre.

The pristine Milford Sound is part of the World Heritage Fiordland National Park, in the south west of the South Island, and is famed for its pristine natural beauty and remote atmosphere. It is New Zealand’s best known fiord and the only one that can be reached by road. The fiord extends 15km inland from the wild Tasman Sea and is regularly visited by wildlife including penguins, seals and dolphins.

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You'll head north towards Lake Wanaka, travelling past picturesque scenery of massive mountain peaks and crystal-clear blue lakes. You will pass on the border of Mount Aspiring World Heritage National Park, before crossing over the Haast Pass, named after 19th century explorer and geologist Julius von Haast.

On the other side of the Southern Alps, the landscape changes dramatically. Welcome to the wild and wonderful West Coast, a remote and unspoiled region. Wend your way past native rainforest, rocky coastlines and powerful waterfalls, stopping in the early afternoon at a boutique salmon farm in Westland Tai Poutini National Park until you arrive to Franz Josef, your base for exploration of the area. Explore the spectacular scenery of the Franz Josef Glacier, a 12 kilometre-long river of ice, with one of the many local guiding companies, or opt for a flightseeing tour via helicopter or plane.

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Westland National Park and its glaciers is an area of magnificent primeval vistas – snow-capped mountains, glaciers, forests, tussock grasslands, lakes, rivers, wetlands and beaches.

And you'll have the best view of all today, from a helicopter. After a thrilling flight, high above the rugged terrain, you will land on the glacier, ready to undertake a three hour guided glacier hiking .Your friendly guide will lead you through some of the most pristine and awe-inspiring glacier scenery in the world

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Experience the South Island’s striking natural landscape by taking a train between Christchurch and Greymouth. Along this journey you’ll see epic vistas, travel the edges of the ice-fed Waimakariri River, traverse the Southern Alps, and see miles of native beech forest. The TranzAlpine is one of the world's great train journeys covering 223 kilometres (139 miles) one-way, taking just under 5 hours. You’ll traverse the majestic Canterbury Plains, to the backdrop of the mighty Southern Alps - the journey of a lifetime.

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Your tour concludes in Christchurch and you will be transferred back to the airport