Contrasts of New Zealand

Auckland 2 nights, Rotorua 1 night, Queenstown 3 nights, Lake Tekapo 1 night, Christchurch 2 nights

10 days

From

$ 5,616

per person

Operated By AAT Kings

Check Availability

About the trip

New Zealand will set your heart racing, while you take the country’s pulse. From its unexpected city sights – who knew you could construct a church from cardboard? – to its culinary delights, this voyage is as thrilling as it is tasty. And then there are the natural wonders: gem-like glaciers, soaring fiords, snow-dusted mountains, and bubbling geysers among them. On this NZ holiday, drop in on Christchurch, soak your limbs in Rotorua, eat your way around Queenstown and feel the full force of nature at Milford Sound/Piopiotahi. Trips to New Zealand don’t get much better than this.

Tour Manager

Included

Meals

9 Full Breakfasts, 2 Highlight Dinners, 2 Be My Guest Morning Teas, 2 Lunches, 2 Dinners with Wine, 1 Farewell Dinner

Max. Group Size

40

Guide Languages

English

Highlights

5 Dinner (D)
9 Breakfast (B)
2 Lunch (L)
Day 1: Flights to arrive by 4.00pm into Auckland AirportDay 10: Flights to depart anytime from Christchurch Airport Airport to Hotel transfers are available to purchase on request. Flights to and from your tour are not included in the tour price. Internal-holiday flight IncludedPlease note that prices include land and internal-holiday airfare, which AAT Kings will book to fulfil the holiday itinerary: Day 4: Auckland to Queenstown
Comfortable walking shoes Warm layers Sunglasses, sunscreen and hat Water bottle Camera
Medium level of fitness required.

Meals

9 Full Breakfasts, 2 Highlight Dinners, 2 Be My Guest Morning Teas, 2 Lunches, 2 Dinners with Wine, 1 Farewell Dinner

Accommodation

Horizon by SkyCity

2 nights in Auckland

Room Type: Standard/base Category

Meals Included: Breakfast

Millennium Hotel Rotorua

1 nights in Rotorua

Room Type: Standard/base Category

Meals Included: Breakfast

Millennium Hotel Queenstown

3 nights in Queenstown

Room Type: Standard/base Category

Meals Included: Breakfast

Peppers Bluewater Resort

1 nights in Lake Tekapo

Room Type: Standard/base Category

Meals Included: Breakfast

Distinction Christchurch Hotel

2 nights in Christchurch

Room Type: Standard/base Category

Meals Included: Breakfast

Included in the price

Auckland

Immerse yourself in the interactive All Blacks Rugby Experience in Auckland Take a guided Tour of Hobbiton Movie Set Share in the guided Te Pō Indigenous Experience at Te Puia Explore the Geothermal Wonders of Rotorua MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience - Visit the National Kiwi Hatchery Aotearoa Explore Milford Sound/Piopiotahi on a Nature Cruise Visit Highlands Museum at Highlands Motorsport Park MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience - Astronomy & Stargazing tour at Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve Enjoy a Be My Guest Farm Visit, Morning Tea, and Sheep Dog Demonstration at Hurunui Hills Farm Visit a Family-owned vineyard for lunch and wine tasting among the vines

Day-wise Itinerary

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Day 1: Welcome To Auckland

New Zealand’s largest city is also one of its prettiest, as you’ll discover exploring at your leisure. Arrive early to linger in its hip harborside precincts, where galleries and design-driven stores await. You’ll have worked up an appetite by the time you meet your fellow travel companions for a Welcome Reception and dinner at The Grill celebrating Aotearoa's culinary treasures. Expect the finest quality grass-fed steaks, from 100% New Zealand owned and operated suppliers, and sustainable line-caught fish. Start your Auckland tour on a high, we say.
Included Meals : Dinner with Wine

Day 2: Auckland Sightseeing & Free Time

If you didn’t get your city bearings yesterday, you will on an Auckland tour today. Have your camera poised as you reach Mission Bay, a dreamy waterside suburb where the blues patchwork to the horizon. Click! Then get snap happy once again at Bastion Point and the Michael Joseph Savage Memorial, offering epic vistas over Auckland and its harbors. Click, click, click! Want some tips on how to spend your free afternoon in New Zealand’s largest city? How about going behind the scenes of the All Blacks, arguably the world’s most legendary rugby team?
Included Meals : Full Breakfast

Day 3: Auckland – Rotorua

You could be forgiven for thinking Rotorua’s landscapes are a sci-fi movie set. Mud pops and jettisons from bubbling geysers, and steam rushes skywards from cracks in the Earth. The surrounding forest is a fertile habitat for New Zealand’s national bird, being protected and bred at the National Kiwi Hatchery Aotearoa. The cute-as-a-button, cotton-ball kiwi is under threat in the wild; at the hatchery, passionate conservationists reveal how they are saving the population, one incubated egg at a time. Tonight, dive deep into Indigenous culture and traditions at Te Pā Tū Māori Experience. Enjoy a forest kai horotai (seasonal canapés) and chef choice aperitif, followed by a seasonal three-course dinner.
Included Meals : Full Breakfast, Highlight Dinner

Day 4: Rotorua - Auckland - Queenstown

Leave Auckland behind and journey into the countryside for an exclusive family-style Be My Guest experience in the Red Barn on a working dairy farm. Over your farm to table morning tea prepared by the onsite chef, get a feel for country life as you're invited to roll up your sleeves and make your own butter - butter churners, tiny mason jars and all! The feel-good vibes that endure will follow you all the way to Queenstown, the self-proclaimed adventure capital of New Zealand. It makes perfect sense – there are ski fields, white-water river and bridges strapped with bungy cords wherever you turn. And then there’s the dining scene; Queenstown is home to some of the country’s most awarded restaurants. Whether you’re in the mood for bulging burgers or lakeside tapas, ask us for recommendations on this leg of your Queenstown New Zealand tour.
Included Meals : Full Breakfast, Be My Guest Morning Tea

Day 5: Milford Sound/piopiotahi Cruise

Bring your stamina and sense of adventure – things get a little wild today. Nature rules as you skirt Queenstown’s gleaming Lake Wakatipu, and traverse the Devil’s Staircase to Te Anau, the alpine gateway to UNESCO World Heritage listed Fiordland National Park. Once you’ve paused to admire the drama at Mirror Lakes, Knobs Flat, Hollyford Valley lookout and Cleddau Valley, you’ll begin to understand why Rudyard Kipling called this the ‘Eighth Wonder of the World’. You haven’t even seen Bowen Falls or Milford Sound/Piopiotahi yet… Onboard your nature cruise, which includes a picnic lunch, enjoy commentary from your eagle-eyed Naturalist guide, who not only narrates on the immense geological history of the Fiord, but will point out fur seals and dolphins should they choose to come out to play.
Included Meals : Full Breakfast, Lunch

Day 6: Queenstown Free Time

Take today’s Queenstown New Zealand tour at your own pace. Like things fast and furious? Feel the wind in your hair on a high-octane jet boat ride, perhaps. Prefer to be able to talk (and drink wine) while you cruise? Glide across Lake Wakatipu aboard the historic TSS Earns law to Walter Peak High Country Farm for a guided farm tour, including morning or afternoon tea, in a dreamy alpine setting (both own expanse). Wherever you wander, be sure to save space for tonight’s Highlight Dinner at Postmasters Café, a historic Arrowtown cottage replete with picket fence and Instagrammable gardens.
Included Meals : Full Breakfast, Highlight Dinner

Day 7: Queenstown - Lake Tekapo

Whether pinot noir grapes or cherries, things grow well in the fertile Central Otago region of the South Island. Get a taste for the area’s plump stone fruit at the stall of a local orchard. Mountain drama is your backdrop en route to Lake Tekapo, with water so turquoise it looks like a Renaissance painting. This part of the country is ravishing and remote; the lack of light pollution means dazzling Southern Hemisphere stargazing at UNESCO World Heritage listed Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve. It may be a late night, but tonight's star gazing experience at a purpose-built observation crater with expert astronomy guides is bound to be a highlight. If there was ever a NZ experience that put life in perspective, this is it.
Included Meals : Full Breakfast, Dinner with Wine

Day 8: Lake Tekapo - Christchurch

The Canterbury region of the east coast is a rustic union of grassy plains, mirror-like lakes and snow-capped mountains, the kind of landscape that you might see on postcards. Arrive in the beautiful English city of Christchurch for a guided tour. The city is not only rebuilding itself after the devastating 2010/11 earthquakes, but is changing the way architects think about design. Case in point the mind-bending Transitional Cathedral, made largely of cardboard, and Turanga, the gold-clad central library.
Included Meals : Full Breakfast

Day 9: Christchurch Sightseeing

Travel north through rolling countryside to Hurunui Hills, a hill country farm in North Canterbury. Enjoy warm Kiwi hospitality with the Bamford Family, who have been farming at Hurunui since 1884 with six generations focused on producing premium Merino sheep, wool and Angus cattle. Soak up stunning scenery while enjoying morning tea, meet the farm animals & discover what it is like to live off the land on this unique By My Guest experience. Continue to a local vineyard, Waipara Springs Winery, where it's time to relax and enjoy a platter-style lunch among the vines. A big day leads to a big evening joining your Travel Director and travel mates for a celebratory Farewell Dinner featuring produce from the Canterbury region.
Included Meals : Full Breakfast, Be My Guest Morning Tea, Lunch, Farewell Dinner

Day 10: Farewell From Christchurch

You’ve traveled hundreds of kilometers across two islands, likely taken thousands of photos, and made countless memories and new friends. The only thing left to do is plan your next trip to New Zealand.
Included Meals : Full Breakfast

Starting From

$ 5,616

Check Availability

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