Kia Ora :)
My boyfriend and I are planning a trip to the South Island from 3 - 19 June. We'll be flying in to Christchurch and out from Christchurch as well. We've been doing quite some research and would love to seek some feedback from you guys:
1) Arrive Christchurch in the morning, and spent the day at Christchurch. Collect our car.
2) Drive to Tekapo and spend the night there
3) Drive to Mount Cook (do some hike)
4) Drive to Wanaka (hikes, ski, etc.)
5) Drive to Queenstown
6) Drive to Te Anau (basing ourselves here while we travel to Milford Sound/ Fiorland)
7) Drive back to Queenstown and leaving our car here, before taking a coach bus back up to Franz Josef glaciers (I've read it's 8 hours long? Or is there another way up?)
8) From Franz Josef, take another bus to Greymouth
9) Take the Tranzalpine back to Christchurch
Is this itinerary feasible? We would like to drive some routes (we heard they're super gorgeous) while not the others as we may want to rest on the road as well. Is there another smoother loop which we can make on the South Island (e.g. by rearranging the order of some of the locations on our itinerary)?
Thank you in advance for your much needed advice! :)