New Zealand has always been on our family travel bucket list for some time. It is not a cheap place to visit, so for many years this New Zealand trip kept getting delayed as we ventured to other destinations. For some reason we always thought of New Zealand as a place for retired people and sheep! Oh how wrong are we!
So, for our first family of 4 travel adventure we chose New Zealand because:
- In 2021 – It’s the only country Aussies are allowed to travel to!
- When it comes to Covid, New Zealand is the safest country in the world! As much as we miss travelling, staying healthy remains top priority
- New Zealand has amazing landscape and outdoor activities
- We want to see snow again
- And… we just want to go somewhere! Anywhere outside Western Australia!
As New Zealand first time tourists we decided to focus on the South Island. During the trip we based ourselves in 4 towns: Queenstown, Wanaka, Mount Cook region and Te Anau.
The big bucket list items for us are the helicopter flights in Wanaka and Mount Cook, hiking at Hooker Valley track and Milford sound cruise. Knowing the winter weather can be temperamental, we spent at least 3 nights in each town to give us flexibility in case our schedule needs tweaking along the way.
QUEENSTOWN
360 degrees view of the mountains from just about anywhere you stand! Even the flight here was amazing! No wonder people gush about this town. As we were there during school holidays it was BUSY with local tourists. We stayed 4 nights in Frankton, about 10 minutes from the city centre at a lovely Airbnb with the most amazing views.
The highlight of Queenstown for us was the Luge Ride and Onsen Hot Pools.
The Skyline luge ride starts with a fun gondola ride all the way to the top of Bob’s peak. While at the onsen we took turns entering as Roman was too young to enter (minimum 5 years old). Nonetheless it was a great day of pampering!
While in Queenstown we also did a day trip to Glenorchy. About 45 minutes drive from town to see the famous red house, the willow trees and of course more picture perfect mountains!
WANAKA
Our next base was Wanaka, just over one hour’s drive from Queenstown. This small (but very famous) town was super busy during our stay. Because of our last minute dramas – We could NOT find accommodation! Luckily Alfred managed to find an Airbnb bed and breakfast in Mount Barker region, just 10 minutes drive from Wanaka. It has been a while since we stayed in the same house as the host, but Jan (the B&B lady) was so lovely.
We spent a day at Cardrona alpine resort. We did not plan to do any skiing, so we purchased a sightseeing pass which allowed us to go all the way up via the gondola, play with the snow and enjoy the resort’s facilities.
In Wanaka, we also did a hike at the Diamond lake lookout, enjoyed wine tasting at the beautiful Rippon vineyard, checked out that famous Wanaka tree (which looks nicer in photos than in real life). For the kids we took them to the national transport toy museum – we highly enjoyed it too!
But Wanaka’s biggest highlight of course was our scenic 45 minutes helicopter flight with Wanaka Helicopters, where we got 2 landings including one at Coromandel Peak! Due to weather we had to reschedule this flight FOUR times! But my God it was worth all the effort.
MOUNT COOK
Just 2.5 hours drive from Wanaka, passing many beautiful photo stops including Lindis Pass, the drive to Mount Cook was the most scenic drive of the trip. Mount Cook region is literally a tiny village. Other than the hotel there are no outside convenience stores, restaurants, cafes. We stayed at the only hotel in the area, The Hermitage.
There are numerous hike options you can do in this region. The most famous being Hooker Valley Track which we completed in 4.5 hours. There are shorter hikes such as the Blue lakes & glacier view track which can be done in a much shorter time – especially when you are not carrying a toddler.
We did day trips to Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki and enjoyed the yummiest and freshest salmon sashimi here! Even fresher than the sashimi served at Tsukiji market restaurants in Tokyo!
We were so incredibly blessed with beautiful weather, our 1 hour helicopter flight with Inflite Helicopters was one of the most amazing things we’ve ever done after so many years travelling as family. We got to see the mountains up close and flew over Franz Josef glaciers. The snow landing in knee deep snow and the sights from the peak was something we will remember forever.
TE ANAU
Our last stop was Te Anau, the gateway to Milford sound. Being a quiet small town, we enjoyed a relaxing 3 nights stay here at our modern Airbnb.
Milford Sound is one of the wettest place on earth. The day we had our Milford sound cruise was the ONLY day in a month that the sun decided to shine. It rains a LOT here even in summer. So we indeed had the luckiest day. The 1 hour 45 minute cruise seeing the fiords, waterfalls and dolphins was better than we had ever imagined.
Another highlight in the area is the glow worm cave tour.
SO WOULD WE GO BACK TO NEW ZEALAND?
Absolutely YES! We only visited a small chunk of the South Island, so we look forward to visiting the North Island, and return to explore the rest of South Island (Christchurch and Abel Tasman region). Considering New Zealand has tons of outdoor adventures, we feel we should go NOW while our bodies can still cope with the physical activities it offers.
HOW MUCH WAS THE FLIGHT AND HOW LONG
We flew with Air New Zealand, Perth return to Queenstown. There’s no direct flight so we had to transit via Auckland. Perth to Auckland flight is about 6 hours. Auckland to Queenstown another 2 hours. We paid $1100 return for each person. We did not buy Roman a seat as we thought we could squeeze him in between one of us. He was surprisingly very well behaved on the plane, and Berlin just loved to finally be on a plane again.
Note: Most flights out of Perth will usually transit via Sydney or Melbourne. Due to our state’s border restrictions, at this time, we only wanted to fly direct to NZ in case Covid cases appear in other states which would affect quarantine requirements. Which, as it turned out during our travel – it did! So we were lucky to be able to made it back safely.
HOW WAS THE JET LAG
New Zealand is 4 hours ahead of Perth, Australia. As usual it didn’t really affect us until we came back home where we would be hungry at random times throughout the day. The kids took only one day to settle back to their routine.
WHAT WAS THE WEATHER LIKE
We traveled in July in the middle of winter. It’s the coldest but driest month in South Island. So amazingly we only had 2 days of rain, and the rest we had blue sky and sunny days. Average day temperatures was about 0 to 2 degrees – mild compared to European winter. Good thermals and winter footwear certainly helped a lot.
HOW MANY LUGGAGES DID WE BRING
Our motto is to always travel light. For the two weeks travel – the 4 of us managed living out of 2 luggages, 1 hand carry and 2 backpacks. Again because of our last minute changes, we could only hire a Toyota Corolla wagon so luggage space was going to be limited.
WAS IT EASY GETTING AROUND
Driving in New Zealand is a must! Buses in between town are infrequent (and not cheap). Ten minutes taxi ride in Queenstown costs a crazy $30 NZD! Snap car rental was the company we used.
One of the best part of the adventure in NZ is the scenic drive itself. There are countless photo stops along the way.
WAS NEW ZEALAND CHEAP
N-O. NO. New Zealand is one of most expensive places we have ever visited. Holidaying in Italy, England, Germany etc etc are all cheaper than New Zealand. We kept reminding ourselves we have saved up 2 years for this trip lol.
As usual we booked our accommodation via Booking.com and Airbnb. Our average stay per night works out to be about $245 AUD.
HOW ABOUT FOOD AND DRINKS
Yep expensive. Away from the tourist areas, $25 AUD for a meal is considered reasonable.
Even groceries are more expensive than back home. $9 for a punnet of strawberries anyone?
AND HOW ABOUT THE PEOPLE
Super friendly and everyone speaks English with “a-wee-bit” funny accent.
IS NEW ZEALAND SAFE
The safest place on earth (in 2021) without a doubt.
For places we have visited, Checkout our website’s travel Destinations section. We buy of our travel essentials online via Ebay
