Best two "homebases" for New Zealand's South Island?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
We are trying to spend two weeks in New Zealand this coming December/January. We generally like to set up a homebase by renting a house or apartment. We would like to find a town that is quintessential NZ, where we can live and check out the area. Maybe a farm stay for a rural area?
Are there two good spots to do this? Most beautiful locations? Most central for very popular spots? If you could only go to two places on South Island where would you go? |
Anonymous
| Queenstown would be 1 for sure. The other, I'm not as sure. Are you also going to North island? If not, probably something up top near Abel Tasman, like Nelson. If you are already going to be between islands, maybe Dunedin or Kaikoura or some other place more south. Jealous - love NZ. |
Anonymous
+1 on Queenstown for sure. Maybe Te Anau as a home base for Milford Sound and Fiordland. Christchurch if you are looking for a big city. It's worth making time to see the North Island though! So many great places and its not that far if you take the ferry. Everyone should go to NZ once in their lives if they can!! |
Anonymous
| Queenstown is the center of a lot of tourist activities, but I am not sure it's the place if you are looking for "quintessential NZ" |
Anonymous
| Queenstown is the center of a lot of tourist activities, but I am not sure it's the place if you are looking for "quintessential NZ" |
Anonymous
|
Wanaka is about 45 minutes from Queenstown and has a lovely lake with great hiking nearby. It's quieter and perhaps a bit more "New Zealand." Good launching point for exploring the west coast.
FYI my best trips to NZ always involved a road trip. It's easy to move around the country and staying each night (or two nights) at a homestay, guest house, hotel or motel. That allows you to see more of the south island. For example, one of the most breathtaking experience was spending the night in a guest house on a remote sheep station by Lake Tekapo: https://www.facebook.com/glenmoreaccommodation/ What made it breathtaking was walking outside after a home cooked meal to look up into the sky to see the Milky Way. And for the first time in my life I fully understood why it was called the Milky Way because there were so many stars that it formed a translucent haze, in other words, milky! It was unbelievable. We stared for hours. I understand the desire to remain rooted in one spot but the scenery is so spectacular and so varied that it does make more sense to take a road trip. It's really the ideal country for road trips because a drive of just a hour or two can take you someplace quite different and just as spectacular. Yet at the same time the distances are just far enough that trying to do lots of day trips from one place is perhaps a little too tiring. Self catering is quite easy, so you can pick up a cooler and bring your food as you go along. Restaurants/bistros are more or less similar across the country. And there's always fantastic coffee 
If I were you, I'd spend the first week doing a loop from Queenstown (Q-town, Te Anau and Milford Sound) to Wanaka (Mount Aspiring National Park) to Mount Cook / Lake Tekapo to Castle Hill and Arthur's Pass then over to the West Coast to Hokitika then down the coast to the glaciers and then to Haast, and from there back to the interior to Wanaka / Queenstown. This is all great outdoors, mountains, valleys, brilliant starlit skies, beaches. Then the second week I'd do the east coast of New Zealand, from Dunedin up to Omaru to Christchurch to Kaikora to Nelson/Abel Tasman. Small historic cities and little towns, great wines in the Blenheim wine country, and the glorious beaches of Abel Tasman. Quite a different vibe from the interior and the west coast. Ahhh....I want to go back to New Zealand. |
Anonymous
|
Thank you all. This has been really helpful. Maybe we do need to make it more of a big road trip given our time limitations.
We can do 2 weeks in Dec/Jan or wait and do 4 weeks in August. If we did 4 weeks we could do a mix of road tripping and longer stays. But it'd be winter. Thoughts? I cannot wait to go!! It sounds amazing!! |
Anonymous
|
South Island NZ in August is winter and it will be cold. Not quite the Rockies but it's winter Expect temperatures to fluctuate between 30s to low 50s depending on the day. There will be a mixture of cold and dry in the hinterlands (central Otago for example), cold but not quite as cold and overcast along the east coast with chills and some rain but also sunny days (variables!). A lot of rain on the west coast but it's very lush and green. Mountain areas will have snow but the valley roads are generally free. Winter travel can be quite charming but some of your options are restricted, hiking trails are closed, roads are icier, days are shorter. On the flip side, more likely to see the Milford Sound and Mount Cook in the sun, far fewer people around and there's still options for good (short) walks.
|
Anonymous
First pp here and this is true - but it is pretty central to lots you would want to do so and heavily you touristed so if you wanted a home base from which to do day trips it is ideal. You can even do a day trip by bus to Milford sound although it is a long day (the second time I went I spent the night and also saw doubtful sound which was even better) |
Anonymous
|
+1 for traveling around--the south island is crazy beautiful packed into a fairly small area. There are actually places that rent camper vans/RVs to let you do this (but IIRC they have cracked down on places you can park for the night).
We did a loop from Christchurch across to the west coast, down to the glaciers, hiked the Milford track to Milford sound, went to Queenstown, then Dunedin and back to Christchurch. We didn't make it north of Christchurch (Abel Tasman) but I've heard that's nice too. |
Anonymous
|
Queenstown or Wanaka are good options.
If you want a more urban experience, Christchurch (check to see how the post-Earthquake building is going). Or, my favorite city in NZ: Dunedin. |