New Zealand: South Island
- Ramona N
- Mar 8
- 12 min read
Updated: Mar 9
South Island is known as the "nature island" and it definitely lived up to its name. I've been to about 35 countries, and I have to say that New Zealand's South Island was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. I highly recommend everyone to visit, even if you're not typically a nature/hiking/mountain type of traveler like me (I prefer the beach). Below is a list of my favorite things we did on South Island! My biggest disclaimer that applies to all of New Zealand is to book everything super far in advance (like 3+ months in advance). Some of the activities, hotels, rental cars go SO quick so please beware.
Queenstown
Queenstown is such a charming and beautiful town with so many things to do, especially if you're a looking for a thrill! I would make sure to spend about 3-4 days here and use it as a home base for a trip to Milford Sounds.
Walk Around Town
There are so many cute shops and charming buildings around town, you can spend a couple of hours just exploring every street the town has to offer. Walking along the lake on the beach is really relaxing too and there are plenty of stands with different authentic cultural street food that you can grab a casual bite at. When we went, there was a Japanese food stand serving Takoyaki (bite-sized octopus balls) and Yakisoda (a noodle dish) that were so good and really made me miss Japan.
JetBoat Ride
It's really hard to rank all the fun activities we did in Queenstown, but I think I would consider this my favorite thing we did. The JetBoat ride is with Shotover Jet and from what our guide told us, the Jet Boat was literally invented by this adventure company (which turned out to be a common theme among Queenstown activities) and they have exclusive rights to the river. Fun fact: even Prince William and Kate Middleton have done the boat ride, they've got the life vests they used framed in their gift shop! Overall, this activity is definitely on the pricier side for a 30 minute ride but I wouldn't miss it.
Skyline Gondola
Although Queenstown is beautiful from the ground, you really have to take the Skyline Gondola to get the best view of the town, lake, and surrounding areas. We booked our tickets far in advance, which didn't actually seem necessary once we got there but did allow us to skip a line and walk right onto the gondola. The ride up was short and there's somewhere to grab souvenirs and food on the way up if you want to spend some time walking around there. When you book your gondola tickets, I recommend pairing it with the Luge Ride which I'll go into below.
Luge Ride
Similar to the JetBoat, the Luge Ride is also apparently something that was invented in Queenstown. This is probably the most family friendly activity to do in Queenstown, we saw so many children but also a lot of adults so it's still something fun to do especially if you're competitive and plan to race each other. You can purchase a gondola + luge ride package, we had 5 luge rides and it was the right amount and even probably the max I would do. There's also a 3 luge ride + gondola combo if you prefer to do that and don't want to spend too much time on this activity. The one downside was that the line to take the lift back up to the starting point was really long at times, so we opted to take the 7 minute hike up ourselves instead. This was completely fine and a hack to avoid the long line, but something to keep in mind if you're not able to make a hike up.
Bungy Jumping
Probably the most iconic thing you can do in Queenstown is go bungy jumping and that's because (once again) bungy jumping was invented here by AJ Hackett! The guy was a total daredevil and his story is actually pretty interesting, but truly what's more iconic than doing the bungy with his company? It's probably one of the safest places in the world you can do it, and they boast that they've had no fatalities in the 40+ years they've been operating so if it's something you've got on your bucket list in life this is the place to do it. It's definitely not an activity for the faint of heart, but honestly I would try to push yourself to do some variation of the activities they offer. My sister and boyfriend did the highest NZ bungy, the Nevis Bungy which is about a 440m jump over a valley. If a bungy is too scary, and you'd rather someone else click a button to drop you, I recommend the Nevis Swing or Nevis Catapult. I did the Nevis Swing, which was also a pretty high drop and a good option if you don't want FOMO but can't willingly jump off a platform. If you're looking for something easier, you could do the Kawarau Bridge Bungy which is also the original location/home of the Bungy. The drop is much shorter than anything you'll find at Nevis and there's something comforting about dropping with a river below you, we saw a bunch of kids doing this option too.
Free New Years Eve Concert
This activity is pretty niche and requires you specifically be there for one night of the year but if you're planning a post-Christmas trip I definitely recommend timing it so that you're in Queenstown for NYE. We had a prix fixe NYE dinner at Blue Kanu for about $90 USD each that was delicious. The restaurant describes their cuisine as "Asian cuisine with Pacific influence" and they had a lot of interesting fusion dishes that I've never had before. After dinner, we made a quick walk over to the free annual concert by the lake. As it grew closer to midnight, we found a spot on the beach to lay and watch the fireworks overhead. It gets super crowded but if you face the lake and walk left for a while you can find some less crowded spots that have just as good of a view of the show and I personally prefer laying on the sand and looking up at the sky than standing in a crowd in the more centrally located areas.
Where to Eat?
The best place to eat in my opinion is at Fergburger but beware because the line gets very long during a lunch rush. We had this after our bungy and it was quite a satisfying post-adrenaline rush meal. I recommend the Deluxe Burger with a side of fries. When you're done with your burger, you can go across the street for dessert at Mrs. Ferg's for a creamy gelato. Again, the street food we had by the lake was also really good for a quick bite. Other than that, we ate dinner at a sit-down restaurant, Bella Cucina, but I didn't find it that good so I'd skip.
Where to Stay?
I think there are some hotel options right in the town, but we stayed in an Airbnb about 10 minutes out of town on Littles Road. I preferred this option because living in NYC I feel like I'm never around nature and this was just such a peaceful and cozy stay. We had chickens on our property that laid fresh eggs for us every morning, and we even had some cows next door too. I literally felt like I was on a farm, and I definitely romanticized the whole experience. Currently writing this in NYC missing my few days of farm life.
Milford Sounds
We did a day trip to Milford Sounds from Queenstown via car, which was definitely a really long day but I do like roadtripping when I travel because I feel like it helps me see a lot of the country. We started the morning stopping at the grocery store to stock up on snacks and food for our day, grabbing meat pies for breakfast and fruits/chips for the drive. There were a bunch of stops along the way that I'll quickly detail below:
Devil's Staircase: a beautiful lookout point, can make a quick stop for photos
Garston Hunny Shop: the shop was unfortunately closed the morning we were there, I think we went too early, but looked like a great place to grab some Manuka Honey if that's something you want from your NZ trip
Te Anau: if I remember correctly, this is pretty much the last town before you get to Milford Sounds so definitely make sure to fill up on your gas here. We didn't really stop for snacks on the way there, but we did stop for dinner on the way back at The Ranch Bar & Grill which had really good lamb ribs by the way.
Lake Marian: this was a 3 hr round-trip hike, and I really really recommend doing it on your way to Milford Sounds and allowing yourself plenty of time for it. I was definitely struggling because I'm not much of a hiker (I hate hiking) but the view of Lake Marian was so worth it. We were on a time crunch and did the hike in about 2 hours I think so we didn't really leave time to sit at the lake. I would pack some sandwiches and build in the time to sit and have lunch there, you can even bring your swimsuit and take a dip. My sister and brother-in-law took a dip (not intentional) because they fell in while trying to take a photo, but they found it refreshing and recommend an intentional dip.
Mirror Lakes, Gertrude Valley Lookout: honestly these are a blur, the mirror lakes were kind of cool but we did these on the way back from Milford Sounds when we were incredibly tired and just trying to break up the drive. Could skip them.
Okay and now about the actual Milford Sounds trip, we did ours through Mitre Peak Cruises and had a good experience with them. It's about a 10 minute walk from the parking lot to the cruise area so keep that in mind if you're cutting it close on time. We almost missed our cruise, so again, leave like 15 minutes of time for yourself. Pack warm for this excursion, I had gloves, a thermal long sleeve, north face sweater, and a superpuff coat which all felt like the perfect amount. I was also happy to have sunglasses because some parts got super windy and would have irritated my eyes. We were super lucky to see different dolphins on our ride, but I wouldn't count on it because it's apparently super rare. If you're disappointed by the weather, don't be, the rainier and worse the weather is the more beautiful the waterfalls will be. We thought the roof of the boat was the move and spent the first 20 minutes up there, but after a while we realized the very front of the boat was actually the best way to experience the views if you're fine getting splashed along the way. Grab a spot up there early on and enjoy the show. If you don't get the perfect spot, don't worry about it, people rotate through a lot during the ride as not everyone is tolerant to the constant splashes.
Aoraki/Mount Cook
After Queenstown, we drove to Aoraki/Mount Cook and stayed there for 1 day and 2 nights which felt like the perfect amount of time. After a super packed NZ trip, we ended here and it was really nice to take the opportunity to wind down and relax after a bunch of adventure.
Where to Stay?
Before I go into things to do, we need to talk about where to stay as they go hand-in-hand. The options to stay in the National Park are incredibly limited, but we were happy with our stay at The Hermitage Hotel. A couple of things to keep in mind about the hotel:
Book everything FAR in advance, seriously: it seems like pretty much every activity you would want to do at the park (besides roaming around and hiking) is through the Hermitage Hotel's activity center. That being said, the activities and the hotel rooms book up REALLY far in advance. For context, Harris booked our rooms in October and the options were incredibly limited already for rooms with a view of the mountain. Also, we tried to book the Star Gazing tour and Glacier tour a couple of months in advance too and almost all the slots were booked up. We could only get 2 people on the stargazing tour list at that time.
Customer Service was questionable: like I said, we only got 2 spots (we were a group of 4) on the stargazing tour when we booked a couple of months in advance. At the time, I emailed them and asked to be put on a waitlist. Once we got there, we asked what our status was on the waitlist, and the employee at the activity center told us we weren't on it and that there was nothing she could do to honor our waitlist spot from my initial email. This started a whole headache where we went to the hotel manager and showed him my email (yes, very "Karen" of us but we had gone to the Southern Hemisphere with 2 of us being employees at Aerospace companies, obviously we needed a stargazing tour of night sky on this trip). We went back and forth as couples being like "no you two take the spot," but luckily in the end, it all worked out. The hotel manager, Eddy, was incredibly understanding and delightful. He was able to accommodate us, and we had a good experience with him, but in general we saw some pretty hit or miss reviews about the customer service.
Outdated for the price: the hotel was kind of outdated (although others on my trip may disagree, maybe I'm picky) especially for the price point. Not a dealbreaker at all but just mentally prepare for it so it doesn't annoy you once you're there. Again, there are VERY limited options to stay in the national park with this being the best one so you don't really have a choice.
Leave some time to just chill around the hotel: again, this is supposed to be the relaxing part of the trip so take advantage of the lounging areas in the hotel. Harris and I got wine at the bar before dinner and sat with a view of the mountain. We also played some card games as a group after dinner so you can also pack something like that for any downtime on the trip.
Where to Eat?
We only ate at the hotel because it was the easiest thing for us to do, although I'm sure there's some other food options in the village at the park:
Panorama Room: Our first night we had dinner in the panorama room, which has a prix fixe menu. When I was booking dinner reservations, I didn't really realize that the buffet option in the Alpine room also had a good view of Mount Cook so I truly only reserved this for the "panorama views" that were marketed to be exclusive to this room. If you want to feel boujee, go for this option, but I do feel the buffet food in the Alpine room was better.
Alpine Room Buffet: We had breakfast and dinner at the alpine room buffet and we were all very satisfied with both. There were a ton of options that could appeal to any type of eater, the only draw back is that there were a bunch of kids running around.
Stargazing Tour
Now about the infamous stargazing tour... it was so so worth it and overall once of my favorite things we did on the entire trip. If you're fascinated by the the night sky, you really need to do this as its the world's largest Gold Tier Dark Sky Reserve. I didn't even consider how different the constellations would be in the Southern Hemisphere, which is pretty obvious if you sit down and think about it, but as someone who's only ever lived in the Northern Hemisphere it's not something you usually thing about when you look up at the stars. We got so much information, and they were able to walk us through some iconic sights like the Southern Cross, the Milky Way in incredible detail, the Northern Hemisphere constellations upside down like Orion, the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, Mars, Jupiter, Alpha Centauri and Beta Centauri, etc. We happened to be there during a New Moon which is the best time to see the night sky so another thing to consider when planning your trip.
Glacier Tour
We also did a glacier tour with the hotel, in an afternoon slot (although it seemed like the morning slots filled up the fastest so maybe it's better to go earlier in the day). The tour was really cool and we learned a lot, even got to hold 300-year old ice in our hands. Good option to get a glacier experience if you're not interested in doing the whole Franz Joseph thing (or don't have time to). Another opportunity to get splashed by really cold water, so layer up and bring some gloves.
Hooker Valley Hike
We started our morning with a hike to Hooker Valley which takes 2-3 hours roundtrip depending on your pace. The hike takes you towards Aoraki/Mount Cook so there's a great view along the way and a lot of photo ops. I got one of the worst sunburns of my life on this hike and I don't typically burn, so please layer up on sunscreen. In general, you should layer up on sunscreen in New Zealand. Don't bring your own from the US or wherever you're coming from, it won't work well. Your best bet is to buy some when you get there because it will be most suitable for their thin ozone layer.
Lake Pukaki
We passed through Lake Pukaki to go in and out of the national park and it's truly such a stunning view with its turquoise waters. There's some photo ops along the way and little trails you can take to go up to the water at different stopping points.
Lake Tekapo
We stopped in Lake Tekapo on our way out of the area to Christchurch. It was a good stop for food and coffee and it seemed like there were a lot of other activities or places to stay there as an alternate option to staying in the national park.
After Mount Cook, we took a flight out of Christchurch and went our separate ways. Harris and I went straight to Sydney while Jasmine and Kyle went back to Auckland for a day before going to Hawaii on their way home to California.
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