Welcome to New Zealand! Touch down in Christchurch, the kind of city you could lose yourself in for a week, or more. You have this afternoon to explore at your leisure. Perhaps take the Christchurch Tram for a comprehensive tour of the city, travelling past attractions like Cathedral Square, the Arts Centre, the Botanical Gardens, Cashel Street and the Riverside Market.

This evening, it’s time to meet your fellow travellers and Travel Director over a glass of wine and local snacks at a Welcome Reception.

Distinction Christchurch Hotel

If you didn’t get your Christchurch bearings yesterday, you certainly will on today’s city tour. Take in the incredible Cardboard Cathedral, rebuilt in an incredible feat of engineering after the 2011 Christchurch earthquake, as well as the gilded library.

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 Taylor, or the ‘Pavlova Queen’ and her husband Stan welcome you to their home with afternoon tea and tales about life on the land. And this land is truly dramatic, backdropped by powdery mountains and cut with turquoise lakes.

Lake Tekapo is particularly spectacular, which you will have time to take in, admiring the Church of the Good Shepherd.

Distinction Mackenzie Country Hotel Twizel

Breakfast, Afternoon Rea, Dinner with Wine

Known as “New Zealand’s quirkiest destination”, Oamaru has a rich history, proud heritage and passionate locals. Explore the shops, galleries and traditional crafts within some of the Southern Hemisphere’s most complete Victorian streetscapes.

Continuing towards Dunedin, the rolling green meadows and grand stone castle kind of feel like you’ve been transported to Scotland. Spend the afternoon at your leisure, we recommend checking out Speight’s Brewery, a New Zealand institution, or paying a visit to Larnarch Castle.

Scenic Hotel Southern Cross

Breakfast, Dinner with Wine

Leave Dunedin’s pastoral sheep-farming countryside behind as you venture into World Heritage listed Fiordland National Park, a landscape of vast gorges, gem-like glaciers, and lakes so large they have their own islands.

Immerse yourself in these incredible landscapes on a thrilling jet boat ride down the Waiau River to Lake Manapouri. What’s more, this activity is a ‘Make Travel Matter’ experience, as your participation contributes to a local conservation project on Pomona Island, where a charitable trust of passionate volunteers works to restore flora and fauna.

You can also choose to cruise to the iconic Glowworm Caves (at your own expense).

Distinction Te Anau Hotel and Villas

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 reflect mountain scenery and precipitous lookouts hold guard over alpine rivers.

Embark on a Milford Sound/Piopiotahi tour, where you’ll cruise in the company of fur seals that bask on the rocks, and gaze at misty escarpments. 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.

Millennium Hotel, Queenstown

Breakfast

Take today at your own pace, as you have a free day to explore Queenstown.

For thrill seekers, you’re in the right place, as Queenstown is known as the ‘Adrenaline Capital’. Why not embark on a high-octane jet boat ride, or you can even go bungee jumping? Alternatively, learn why Otago makes some of the world’s most raved about cool-climate wines on a cellar-door tour. For panoramic views, take the gondola up Bob’s Peak.

Wherever your daily wanderings take you, reunite with your travel companions come dusk to glide across Lake Wakatipu aboard the historic TSS Earnslaw. Your barbecue dinner will be served on the grounds of Walter Peak High Country Farm.

Millennium Hotel, Queenstown

Breakfast, Dinner

In the shadow of the Remarkables, Queenstown is pretty spectacular. Pass through neighbouring Arrowtown, with its movie-set tree-lined avenues and 19th-century buildings that once housed gold-rush fortune-seekers, then travelling into the verdant countryside. Incredible diversity of produce grows here, 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.

Your destination today is 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 (weather dependent).

Scenic Hotel Franz Josef Glacier

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. Wandering Hokitika’s windswept shore on the West Coast feels a bit like you’ve discovered the end of the Earth.

You’ll continue to Punakaiki to admire 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.

Scenic Hotel Punakaiki

Breakfast, Dinner with Wine

Your first stop this morning is Ponaumu Pathway, where you can learn about the history and culture of the local Maori (Poutini Ngai Tahu) and the Mawhera Pa settlement. Make your way through this extraordinary storytelling experience born from a collaboration with the Weta Workshop.

Enjoy lunch at legendary Monteith’s Brewery before you board the scenic TranzAlpine train back to Christchurch. Travel through tunnels and over viaducts, with panoramic views of snow-capped peaks, icy rivers, beech forests, gorges and river valleys.

Distinction Christchurch Hotel

Breakfast, Lunch, Farewell Dinner

Your escorted tour sadly draws to a close today. Bid farewell to your Travel Director and your tour group, and make your way to the airport, either for your flight home, or for your onward travels.

Just let your Freedom Travel Consultant know if you’d like to arrange post-tour nights in Christchirch or additional travels.

Breakfast