Save $170 per person twin share

Southern Spectacular

   
Destination:
Christchurch, New Zealand
Duration:
12 Nights
Offer ends:
15 December 2024
Valid for travel:
Valid for Travel 4 Mar 2025

Details

Southern calling? This trip to New Zealand unites some of the country’s most fabled playgrounds – think adventure-filled Queenstown tours, a World Heritage listed Milford Sound/Piopiotahi tour and possible gem-like Franz Josef Glacier/Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere tours – with some of its must off-the-radar pockets. Have you heard of the Punakaiki Pancake Rocks, or glimpsed the turquoise lakes outside Twizel?

Was from $6,810* per person twin share
Save up to  $170* per person twin share

Now from $6,640* per person twin share

Highlights
Local Connection
Visit retired sheep farmers, Angie and Stan Taylor, who serve up a mean afternoon tea at their home on the edge of Lake Tekapo and tell you about life on the land.

Cultural Immersion
Farming is a big deal in New Zealand, as you’ll fast discover at Walter Peak Station. Sit down to a barbecue dinner before being immersed in a farm show.

Make Travel Matter
Delve into the history and culture of local West Coast Māori (Poutini Ngāi Tahu). Embark on a unique self-guided journey, through extraordinary storytelling, in collaboration with Wētā Workshop.

World Class Nature
Snow-capped mountains, a mirror-like lake, white-water rivers and vine-laced fields. Queenstown is blessed with natural assets.

In partnership with:

Inclusions

  • Travel in a fully air-conditioned luxury coach
  • Specialist team of two highly experienced Travel Director and Driver Guide
  • Centrally located premium hotels
  • UNESCO World Heritage Sites – Fiordland National Park
  • 9 breakfasts, 1 Afternoon Tea, 1 Lunch & 7 dinners
  • Arrival and Departure private airport transfers

Itinerary

At once forward-thinking and fun, Christchurch is the kind of city you could lose yourself in for a week – or more. You have this afternoon, so make the most of it. Time to meet your fellow adventure-seekers over a couple of wines and local snacks at a Welcome Reception.
Hotel: Distinction Christchurch Hotel

If you didn’t get your Christchurch bearings yesterday, you certainly will on today’s city tour, taking in the record-breaking Cardboard Cathedral – who knew you could build a church from cardboard? The buildings of the city fade into a patchwork of farms as you ease across the Canterbury Plains towards Lake Takapo. Here, retired farmers Angie and Stan Taylor welcome you to their home with a slap-up Be My Guest afternoon tea and tales about life on the land. And this land is truly dramatic, backdropped by powdery mountains and cut with turquoise lakes, none quite as pretty as Lake Tekapo, on its banks the stone-hewn Church of the Good Shepherd. 
Hotel: Distinction Mackenzie Country Hotel Twizel
Included Meals: Breakfast, Be My Guest Afternoon Tea & Dinner with Wine

Oamaru has a rich history and proud heritage, enriched by passionate and perhaps quirky locals. Explore the shops, galleries and traditional crafts within some of the Southern Hemisphere's most complete Victorian streetscapes. You’re en route to Dunedin, replete with rolling green meadows and a grand stone castle. It kind of feels like you’ve been transported to Scotland – small wonder it’s known as the ‘Edinburgh of the South’. Afternoon at your leisure, we recommend a visit to Speight’s Brewery – a New Zealand institution. And pretty much everything in between. There’s always that castle to explore… Larnach may not have the history of Scotland’s grand estates, but it’s just as pretty in our humble opinion. A NZ holiday must. 
Hotel: Scenic Hotel Southern Cross
Included Meals: Breakfast & Dinner with Wine

Leave Dunedin’s pastoral sheep-farming countryside behind as you venture into World Heritage listed Fiordland National Park, a place of yawning gorges and gem-like glaciers, and azure lakes so large they have their own islands. Case in point Pomona Island, where a charitable trust of passionate volunteers works to restore flora and fauna on this MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience. With your help. Take a thrilling jet boat ride down the Waiau River to Lake Manapouri and if that's not enough water for one day, you may choose to cruise to the iconic Glowworm Caves (own expense). Can we tempt you? 
Hotel: Distinction Te Anau Hotel and Villas
Included Meals: Breakfast & Dinner with Wine

Nature rules again today, from the moment you depart Te Anau and begin your journey deep into the heart of Fiordland National Park. Think native rainforests, beech forests, alluvial flats and meadows; Mirror Lakes perfectly reflecting mountain scenery; and precipitous lookouts holding guard over alpine rivers. And this is just the entrée. The main course is your Milford Sound/Piopiotahi tour, where you cruise in the company of fur seals that bask on the rocks, and gaze at misty escarpments so sheer they appear to cleave off the edge of the Earth. You’re in the company of a naturalist who knows every nook and cranny of this mighty cavern and will point out flora and fauna you would have never spotted on your own. 
Hotel: Millennium Hotel, Queenstown
Included Meals: Breakfast

Take today at your own pace. Like things fast and furious? Feel the wind in your hair on a high-octane jet boat ride, perhaps. Prefer wine to get your heart started? See why Central Otago makes some of the world’s most raved about cool-climate pinots on a cellar door tour. Wherever your daily wanderings take you, reunite with your companions come dusk to glide across Lake Wakatipu aboard the historic TSS Earnslaw, your barbecue Highlight Dinner served on the grounds of Walter Peak High Country Farm. 
Hotel: Millennium Hotel, Queenstown
Included Meals: Breakfast & Highlight Dinner

In the shadow of the Remarkables, Queenstown is pretty spectacular. But it has some stiff good-looks competition from neighbouring Arrowtown, with its movie-set tree-lined avenues and 19th-century buildings that once housed gold-rush fortune-seekers. Things grow well in this verdant countryside, from cherries to pinot grapes and all manner of stone fruit. Prepare for a flavour explosion at a roadside stall run by the interminable Mrs Jones, a local institution. The next explosion is a visual one as you arrive in the town of Franz Josef/Waiau, home to Franz Josef Glacier/Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere. Get some perspective of this immense ice fall on an optional helicopter flight – you may even get to land on it.
Hotel: Scenic Hotel Franz Josef Glacier
Included Meals: Breakfast & Dinner with Wine

Explore the small but lively Franz Josef/Waiau village before venturing to Hokitika, home of New Zealand's native jade greenstone. Then soak in the natural surroundings as you head to Punakaiki to view the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes, where waves thunder through cracks in the Earth. This is the soundtrack that lulls you to sleep at tonight’s eco-resort.
Hotel: Scenic Hotel Punakaiki
Included Meals: Breakfast & Dinner with Wine

Join us at Ponaumu Pathway. Embark on a unique self-guided journey, as you make your way through this extraordinary storytelling experience born from a collaboration with the Weta Workshop. We’ve got you sorted for lunch at legendary Monteith’s Brewery. All aboard for the scenic TranzAlpine train back to Christchurch, through tunnels and over viaducts, with panoramic views of snow-capped peaks, icy rivers, beech forests, gorges and river valleys. 
Hotel: Distinction Christchurch Hotel
Included Meals: Breakfast, Lunch & Farewell Dinner

Wait, the last 10 days flew by. Return home with new friends, a full SD card on your camera – and even more memories.
Included Meals: Breakfast

Terms & Conditions

*Conditions apply. Prices correct as at 20/09/2024 but may fluctuate if surcharges, fees, taxes or currency change. Offers subject to availability. Agents may charge service fees, rates vary. Payments by credit card will incur a surcharge.  Airfare not included unless otherwise stated. All savings and bonus nights (if applicable) are included in the advertised price.  Offers may be withdrawn without notice and are not combinable with any other offers unless stated. Please check all prices, availability and other information before booking. AAT Kings and Helloworld Travel booking terms and conditions apply, see in store for details.

*Save a further 2.5% with the exclusive Helloworld offer on AAT Kings New Zealand Guided Holidays when you use the promotion code HLOSALENZ. Offer valid for sale between Sep 16, 2024 – Dec 15, 2024, for select travel departures from Sep 16, 2024 – Mar 31, 2025. Discounts are subject to availability (for select tours and departures), limited seats, offer may be withdrawn at any time without notice. For new bookings only made through Helloworld Brands. Excludes group and charter bookings. Other standard booking conditions apply. Combinable with selected offers, contact your Helloworld travel agent or speak to our experts for more details. Updated Sep 16, 2024.                                              

From

$6,640* | per person twin share
Save $170 per person twin share
Destination:
Christchurch, New Zealand
Duration:
12 Nights
Offer ends:
15 December 2024
Valid for travel:
Valid for Travel 4 Mar 2025