AAT Kings: Southern Spectacular 27/28

At once forward-thinking and fun, Christchurch is the kind of city you could lose yourself in for a week – or more. You have this afternoon, so make the most of it. Freshen up because it’s time to meet your fellow adventure-seekers over a couple of wines.

Staying in:

• Distinction Christchurch Hotel (1 night)

If you didn’t get your bearings yesterday, you certainly will on today’s Christchurch tour, taking in the city’s record-breaking Cardboard Cathedral – who knew you could build a church from cardboard and not much else? – as well as past the gilded library, gleaming like an architectural beacon. The buildings of the city fade into a patchwork of farms as you ease across the Canterbury Plains towards Lake Tekapo. Here, retired farmers Angie and Stan Taylor welcome you to their home with a slap-up Be My Guest afternoon tea and tales about life on the land. And this land is truly dramatic, backdropped by powdery mountains and cut with turquoise lakes, none quite as pretty as Lake Tekapo, on its banks the stone-hewn Church of the Good Shepherd. It’s like someone has taken the glasses off your nose and cleaned them for the first time.

Staying in:

• Distinction Mackenzie Country Hotel Twizel (1 night)

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner

Oamaru has a rich history and proud heritage, enriched by passionate and perhaps quirky locals. Explore the shops, galleries and traditional crafts within some of the Southern Hemisphere’s most complete Victorian streetscapes. You’re en route to Dunedin, replete with rolling green meadows and a grand stone castle. It kind of feels like you’ve been transported to Scotland – small wonder it’s known as the ‘Edinburgh of the South’. Afternoon at your leisure, you could consider an optional experience and visit a sustainable gin distillery, or tour Larnach Castle, A NZ holiday must.

Staying in:

• Scenic Hotel Southern Cross (1 night)

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner

Leave Dunedin’s pastoral sheep-farming countryside behind as you venture into World Heritage listed Fiordland National Park, a place of yawning gorges and gem-like glaciers, and azure lakes so large they have their own islands. Case in point Pomona Island, where a charitable trust of passionate volunteers works to restore flora and fauna on this MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience. With your help. You'll take a thrilling jet boat ride down the Waiau River to Lake Manapouri and if that's not enough water for one day, you may choose to book an optional experience to cruise to the iconic Glowworm Caves. Can we tempt you?

Staying in:

• Distinction Te Anau Hotel and Villas (1 night)

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner

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 reflecting mountain scenery; and precipitous lookouts holding guard over alpine rivers. And this is just the entrée. The main course is Piopiotahi (Milford Sound), where you cruise in the company of fur seals that bask on the rocks, and gaze at misty escarpments so sheer they appear to cleave off the edge of the Earth. 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.

Staying in:

• Millennium Hotel, Queenstown (1 night)

Meals included: Breakfast

Take today at your own pace. Consider an optional experience. Like things fast and furious? Feel the wind in your hair on a high-octane jet boat ride, perhaps. Prefer wine to get your heart started? See why Central Otago makes some of the world’s most raved about cool-climate pinots on a cellar door tour. Wherever your Queenstown New Zealand tour wanderings take you, you'll reunite with your companions come dusk to glide across Lake Wakatipu aboard the historic TSS Earnslaw, your barbecue dinner served on the grounds of Walter Peak High Country Farm. Trips to New Zealand don’t get much tastier than this.

Staying in:

• Millennium Hotel, Queenstown (1 night)

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner

In the shadow of the Remarkables, Queenstown is pretty spectacular. But it has some stiff good-looks competition from neighbouring Arrowtown, with its movie-set tree-lined avenues and 19th-century buildings that once housed gold-rush fortune-seekers. Things grow well in this verdant countryside, from cherries to pinot grapes and all manner of stone fruit at a roadside stall run by the interminable Mrs Jones, a local institution. Prepare for a flavour explosion. The next explosion is a visual one as you arrive in the town of Waiau (Franz Josef), home to Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere (Franz Josef Glacier). Get some perspective of this immense ice fall on an optional experience scenic helicopter flight – you may even get to land on it.

Staying in:

• Scenic Hotel Franz Josef Glacier (1 night)

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner

Enjoy a relaxed morning in Franz Josef/Waiau, soaking up the charm of this alpine village. Pause at a scenic lookout for a glimpse of the mighty Franz Josef Glacier, then browse the quirky shops of Hokitika before joining Rachel, a local expert, for a guided walk through Hokitika Gorge, where brilliant blue-green waters weave beneath a swing bridge and through lush native bush. This evening, arrive at Scenic Punakaiki and settle in over dinner with wine, framed by the wild beauty of the West Coast shoreline.

Staying in:

• Scenic Hotel Punakaiki (1 night)

Meals included: Breakfast, Dinner

This morning, take in one of New Zealand’s most iconic coastal landscapes at the Pancake Rocks and Blowholes. Admire these remarkable layered limestone formations, shaped over 30 million years by wind and sea, with each “whoosh” of the blowholes sending bursts of spray skyward. Continue to Greymouth for a relaxed lunch at the legendary Monteith’s Brewery, a true West Coast favourite. This afternoon, journey inland to Arthur’s Pass and board the world-famous TranzAlpine train. Sit back as you cross soaring viaducts, pass through tunnels, and glide past snow-capped peaks, icy rivers, beech forests, and deep gorges. Arrive in Christchurch this evening, where your New Zealand journey concludes with dinner and drinks.

Staying in:

• Distinction Christchurch Hotel (1 night)

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

The last 10 days of your NZ holiday flew by. Return home with new friends, a full SD card on your camera – and even more memories.

Meals included: Breakfast