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10 days,
9 nights |
from $4831 per person*
TOUR CODE: IZANB
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.
Flights are not included in the tour price; please call our team for the current flight prices. Any flights referred to in the itinerary are an additional expense.
7 July 2023 – from $4831/person based on double occupancy
25 August 2023 – from $4831/person based on double occupancy
8 September 2023 – from $4831/person based on double occupancy
22 September 2023 – from $4831/person based on double occupancy
6 October 2023; 13 October 2023; 10 November 2023; 17 November 2023; 24 November 2023; 01 December 2023; 8 December 2023; 15 December 2023; 22 December 2023; 29 December 2023; 5 January 2024; 12 January 2024; 19 January 2024; 26 January 2024; 2 February 2024; 9 February 2024; 16 February 2024; 23 February 2024; 1 March 2024; 8 March 2024; 15 March 2024; 22 March 2024 – from $5066/person based on double occupancy
All trips include 24-hour emergency travel assistance.
Book by:
August 31, 2023
Valid for travel between:
7 July 2023; 25 August 2023; 8 September 2023; 22 September 2023
Additional dates, gateway cities and airlines may be available.
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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 harbourside 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 few local tipples at a Welcome Reception and dinner. Start your Auckland tour on a high, we say. Hotel: The Grand by SkyCity, 2 nights. Included Meals: Dinner with wine
Day 2 Auckland
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 harbours. 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? Or cruising to Waiheke Island to sip more wine at forward-thinking cellar doors? This evening’s Auckland tour is at your leisure. Included Meals: 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 on a Rotorua tour at Te Pā Tū Māori Experience, where your hangi Highlight Dinner is cooked underground. This is a meal you won’t forget in a hurry. Hotel: Millennium Hotel, Rotorua. Included Meals: Breakfast, Highlight Dinner
Day 4 Rotorua – Queenstown
Lord of the Rings fanatics, prepare for a day of goosebumps. Your Rotorua tour begins with breakfast served in the very spot that Frodo and Bilbo once lived. The Hobbiton Movie Set is all rolling hills and emerald pastures, a storybook landscape for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies. The feel-good vibes that ensure 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. Hotel: Millennium, Queenstown, 3 nights Included Meals: Breakfast
Day 5 Milford Sound
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 World Heritage listed Fiordland National Park. Once you’ve paused to admire the drama at Mirror Lakes, Knobs Flat, Hollyford Valley lookout, Cleddau Valley and the Chasm, 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… The best Milford Sound/Piopiotahi cruise sees you in the company of eagle-eyed guide, who not only knows the immense geological history of the region, but can also point out sun-baking fur seals and playful dolphins. Included Meals: 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 the high-octane Shotover Jet, perhaps, your high-octane chariot churning over the Shotover River’s white-water rapids. Prefer to be able to talk (and drink wine) while you cruise? Glide across Lake Wakatipu aboard the historic TSS Earnslaw to Walter Peak High Country Farm for a gourmet barbecue lunch in a dreamy alpine setting. 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: 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 a local orchard, where the farmers will guide you around the estate. Mountain drama – including views of Aoraki/Mt. Cook – 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’s handy to have an astronomer in your company to decode the constellations of the Milky Way. If there was ever a NZ experience that put life in perspective, this is it. Hotel: Peppers Bluewater Resort, Lake Tekapo. Included Meals: Breakfast, Dinner with Wine
Day 8 Lake Tekapo – Christchurch
The Canterbury region of the west coast is a bucolic union of grassy plains, mirror-like lakes and snow-capped mountains, the kind of landscape that you might see on postcards. Enjoy some warm Kiwi hospitality at Morelea, the home of Angie and Stan Taylor. Indulge in a Be My Guest barbecue lunch and hear about a lifetime spent in farming in New Zealand. You’ll also get to witness Angie preparing her famous pavlova dessert. Whether installations or bijou boutiques, this city packs a mighty art punch, as you’ll discover on tomorrow’s Christchurch tour. For now, the only thing to do is celebrate your New Zealand holiday at one of the city’s forward-thinking restaurants and bars. Ask us for recommendations. Hotel: Distinction, Christchurch, 2 nights. Included Meals: Breakfast, Be My Guest Lunch
Day 9 Christchurch
Start your last full day of your travels touring the beautiful English city of Christchurch, which 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. 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: Breakfast, Be My Guest, Farewell Dinner
Day 10 Farewell from Christchurch
You’ve travelled 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: Breakfast
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Additional upgrades and add-ons may be available.
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*Terms & Conditions: Pricing is per person based on double occupancy. All prices are in US dollars and correct at time of posting for travel during specified travel dates. Single supplements, black-out dates and seasonal supplements may apply. Airfare is not included unless indicated. Prices may differ when you book your travel and are not guaranteed until full payment is received. Airline and hotels frequently change their prices as a result of fare increases and/or fuel surcharges. Prices may increase before full payment for those and other reasons. Package is not combinable with any other offer or discounted vacation package. After full payment, prices are guaranteed except only due to an increase in government-imposed taxes or fees. By paying your deposit, you affirmatively agree to the possibility of such increases. Package is strictly subject to availability, not retroactive and not combinable with any other special or vacation package offer. Minimum night stays or required room types may apply. All prices, itineraries and routings are subject to change without notice. Please call for our current prices. CST#2001136-20
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