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Visually spectacular in all seasons, the South Island has something for everyone. Experience the majestic heights of Mt Cook, the otherworldly beauty of the Tasman Glacier and the breathtaking mountain views from Queenstown before completing your trip on the world renowned TranzAlpine train.
Book your self drive tour this month and receive an Earlybird Discount of 10%. Make full payment by 31 July 2018 to qualify or receive a discount of 7.5% if you pay by 30 September 2018.
Rental vehicle of your choice including airport collection charges
Tasman Glacier Explorer Boat Excursion
Coast to coast TranzAlpine Train journey through the Southern Alps including transfers
Travel wallet, comprehensive customised itinerary, bound map book, accommodation & activity vouchers and local travel guides
Book your self drive tour this month and receive an Earlybird Discount of 10%. Make full payment by 31 July 2018 to qualify or receive a discount of 7.5% if you pay by 30 September 2018.
“Haere Mai” Welcome to Christchurch – the Garden City! Disembark, pass through customs and collect your luggage – it’s time to start your holiday. Your rental car is ready to whisk you away to your centrally located accommodation.
What should you do with the rest of the day? Take it slow, sit back and relax, punting down the River Avon through the stunning Christchurch Botanic Gardens.
Day2
Christchurch - Mt Cook
Today’s drive takes you through the Canterbury Plains to Mt Cook, known in Maori as Aoraki. Mt Cook is the highest peak in New Zealand and standing at an imposing 3754m dominates the Southern Alps that separate Christchurch from Queenstown.
Certainly an icon of New Zealand, Mt Cook has long attracted climbers and mountaineers, wishing to scale its heights. However, many of the people visiting Mt Cook have less lofty ambitions, choosing simply to enjoy the impressive views on clear days or on scenic flights, which are a great way to appreciate the grandeur of the place.
Day3
Mt Cook - Queenstown
This morning enjoy a glacier tour from the terminal lake of the Tasman Glacier, afterwards journey onwards to Queenstown.
Some might say the adventure capital of the world, Queenstown is the place where just about everything is possible and anything is likely. Boasting an incredible location on the edge of Lake Wakatipu, in front of the impressive Remarkables mountain range, nature has purpose built this area for adventure. (2 nights)
Day4
Queenstown
Today is at leisure to explore Queenstown and the surrounding areas, although there is a wide variety of adrenaline fuelled activities that will not disappoint even the most fearless visitor. You can enjoy bungy jumping, white water surfing, jet-boating, canyoning, luging and parapenting.
There is also plenty for those wanting indulgence and relaxation, from the fine wines of the region to the many shops. The best mountain views are to be had from the Skyline Gondola, which has a panoramic restaurant, overlooking the town and Lake Wakatipu, where scenic cruises on a historic steamboat are on offer.
Day5
Queenstown - Glaciers
Today make your way through Wanaka and up the West Coast to the Glaciers, the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers are without doubt the greatest lure of this region.
Nestled on the edge of the rainforest and descending 2500m over 13kms, these great cascading frozen rivers are only 6kms from the Tasman Sea and in this respect are unique.
They are also amongst the fastest moving glaciers in the world with Franz Josef known to move up to 5m per day on occasions. (Consider adding an extra day here if you wish to heli-hike on one of the Glaciers.)
Day6
Glaciers - Christchurch
This morning make your way to Greymouth and return your rental car to the depot at the rail station. Join the TranzAlpine train to journey through the Southern Alps to Christchurch. The TranzAlpine is described as “The Great New Zealand Rail Adventure” and is rated as one of the top six scenic train journeys in the world – with accolades like those, you know it will be good.
Ascend through lush beech forests past the beautiful Lake Brunner via the alpine village of Arthur’s Pass situated 737 metres above sea level, before crossing the spectacular Southern Alps. The TranzAlpine then winds its way over massive viaducts, through spectacular river gorges and the stunning Waimakariri River valley before arriving in Christchurch.
On arrival in Christchurch you will be transferred by shuttle to your accommodation.
Day7
Depart Christchurch
Sadly, your holiday is at an end and you will be transferred to Christchurch airport today for your onward flight. Here, we bid you a fond farewell and hope you leave with many happy memories of your stay in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
4.5/5.0
There are 24 reviews of this tour from past clients of Relaxing Journeys, averaging 4.5 out of 5.
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Tour Reviews
4
Donna Clark (Canada)
06/03/2018
We really enjoyed the tour. Well organized and efficient. Chelsea was terrific. We found it a bit too long to be in the car on certain days and might have enjoyed one extra day in the Queenstown area as it took us well over 8 hours to drive there from Franz Josef glacier. Perhaps a better description/warning of the winding roads, one lane bridges and construction would have helped prepare us. Accommodation was good with the exception of the Rydges hotel in Queenstown. Franky, our room was a dump and given we had paid extra to stay in better hotels, it was disappointing (the hotel lobby/restaurant area and location were good).
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3
Steven Hopkins (United Kingdom)
23/01/2018
A couple of the motels (Queenstown & Franz Joseph) did not fully meet our expectations. Only one of the units had a safe or air corn which had we known would of led us to ask for alternative options. The pick up and drop of our car with Thrifty was reasonably painless when compared to some firms and the car was clean and performed well.
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5
Fiona Shade (Australia)
23/12/2017
This tour was a great way to see many highlights of the South Island. We really enjoyed the freedom of travelling at our own pace and the train journey at the end was a lovely way to end of the tour. There is a lot of driving involved and if we did it again we would include extra days throughout the tour to break up the driving, but the drive was relatively easy because the roads are very well maintained. The hotels were all lovely. Marie organised our tour and was a delight to deal with and always responded to emails quickly. This was our first trip to New Zealand and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
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5
Jed Barron (Korea)
02/10/2016
Great trip put together at the last minute. Jo and Chelsea were absolutely fantastic, and could not have been more helpful and friendly. Self drive tour, accommodations, recommendations were all great, and price was very reasonable. Very well planned trip. Had not used a service like this before, but was glad I did. Professional service, and a great way to plan a trip to see a beautiful country that fits within your budget and time constraints. Thanks to Relaxing Journeys again!
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4
Nikhil Pradhan (Singapore )
11/09/2016
Very good arrangement. Self drive tour went off without any hiccups. Very good planning, all reservations were done and didn't have to think of anything. The only thing that tipped us off was the GPS navigation device. The Kruze commentary was nice but really had to spend a long time to input the destination address into the GPS device as the touch screen had a very very bad sensitivity. Other than that, the tour was a memorable one.
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5
Timothy Joyce (USA)
24/04/2016
I had high hopes for our trip to NZ, and this exceeded them! It was absolutely wonderful, the accommodation was terrific, the car was great, and the country was wonderful beyond imagination. The tour offered by Relaxing Journeys was well-arranged and well-organized, and every accommodation was exceptional. The itinerary and info (including the Kruse commentary) was all great and helpful and informative. Both myself and my two kids (25 and 20 years old) had a wondrous time. Will extol your virtues to everyone I speak to! Thank you!
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5
Karin Steinke (Australia)
03/01/2015
All in all a very well organised tour with centrally located decent and well equipped accommodations (Christchurch and Queenstown). I would definitely recommend stopping at Fox Glacier en route to Franz Joseph. Personally I didn't find the train trip too exciting, but this probably comes from having lived in Switzerland for 11 years, having had this scenery at my doorsteps.
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5
Tim Tormoen (United States)
02/01/2015
Loved every minute of it! Just when you thought you'd seen the most breath-taking view, another one seemed to pop up around the corner. It was probably the best driving trip I've ever taken. And the accommodations were clean, the staff friendly, and they got me addicted to Anzac biscuits, which were in every room!
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4
Tashia Dixon (Australia)
08/08/2014
Mani, our Tour Consultant was excellent. Very attentive and supportive of our needs. We upgraded to a better class of hotel and felt not in all cases was the extra money well spent. In Queenstown our hotel was quite old and not what we thought we had paid for. Certainly in all places the staff were excellent. Overall the tour itself was very good. The most spectacular country we have ever seen and will ever see in our lifetime I am guessing. Christchurch was a fantastic experience. This community is doing extra-ordinary things. Our time was very well spent in Christchurch for two days (start and end of the trip) to learn from these people who are rebuilding their community and to spend a dollar or two. A great experience. This was (for us) a lot of driving. More time at each destination would have been fantastic but a luxury we couldn't afford. If we had more time we would have stopped a lot more along the way to each destination. There is so much to see. The roads were excellent. If you get a chance to spend more time in Franz Josef do so. It is a place for down time, Punga Grove accommodation (ask for a rear cabin next to the rainforest) was excellent, Bernie the proprietor was so helpful and considerate, hot springs across the road, near by glaciers, so cool. We will definitely be going back to the South Island and we will use Relaxing Journeys to assist us and our travel needs.
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5
Soumela Horomidis (Australia)
23/06/2014
We all really enjoyed the tour; it helped having a comprehensive itinerary that alerted us to various areas of interest as we drove from Christchurch to Queenstown. The accommodation was of a good standard with the best being Blue Peaks Lodge, the service was fantastic. We were a little stuck with things to do at Mt Cook apart from the 4hrs trails which we did in the rain and of course the scenery was breathtaking, it was quiet because apparently it was their off season. The skiing day in Queenstown with transfers was very well organised with no hiccups. Thank you for organising this and if we decide to visit the north island will be asking you do the same for us.
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5
Pachickara Raj Chacko (India)
01/05/2014
Leanne was incredibly helpful and she seemed to know exactly what we had in mind while planning our self drive tour. Everything went rather smoothly without any glitches. This is the second time we are touring with Relaxing Journeys and we will definitely be booking with them again in the future. Thanks Leanne for this wonderful holiday !
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4
Tricia Liew (Australia)
03/01/2014
The tour was great! Instructions provided in the welcome package were clear and throrough. Toni Harris was fantastic with organising our trip on such short notice and everything went as planned. I plan on visiting NZ again in the near future and will definitely use Relaxing Journeys again and will recommend to all my friends.
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4
Alena Freed (United Kingdom)
10/12/2013
Well planned visit of the South Island! We would love to have more time to visit the North as well. People were very friendly, some motels included in the tour need maybe a bit of 'modernization'. We did not need the GPS at all, the directions were clear, the car extremely comfortable. Many thanks for your help!
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4
Ross Jeffery (Australia)
05/03/2013
We went on the budget tour - with an extra night in Frans Josef and 3 nights in Queenstown - which was worth the extra cost. I think next time we would spend an extra night in Mt Cook. All the motels were good - the staff helpful except in Queenstown where the staff were fairly uninterested - and we were disappointed with a basement style room- especially as we were there 3 nights. The tours were excellent, the guides were fantastic & everyone was very helpful. Christchurch itself was rather depressing and a disappointment - the first motel was good but a long way from decent restaurants, the second, Antonios was a bit cramped but close to good places. We felt very relaxed knowing the vouchers worked and we didn't have to worry about accommodation. I highly recommend a helicopter ride to the glacier - well worth the money. In Queenstown buy a ticket at the wildlife park for the park and the gondola and see the feeding of the kiwis at 11am before travelling up on the gondola - then go to the animal show at 3 on the way back to your motel.
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5
Dale & Carol Westergard (United States)
05/02/2013
We were way beyond 'pleased' with our Relaxing Journeys vacation to paradise, or more commonly called Aotearoa, New Zealand. All pieces of the tour fitted together perfectly. We consider this vacation as the most joyful and fulfilling of our lives. You performed your duties and execution of plans to perfection. We only wish we could have stayed a little longer. If we ever get to do another vacation down under we will contact you directly. E aroha ana ahou kia akoe.
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4
Brian & Pamela Peck (Singapore)
23/12/2012
Overall the tour was very good, having your own time to do what you wanted was excellent. From the start to finish of the tour all went well with no hitches and the suggested driving times and routes were well planned and equally well advised. However there was one part of the tour that we feel if we got more information on it would have been very helpful. Mt Cook Hertiage Hotels have a monoply of the place and if you are going in to the motels and cabins it would have been greatly appreciated if there was information about the cooking/food facilites . Whilst you can go to the hotel complex within 10-15 mins for a variety of resturants had there been some advise that if you wanted to prepare your own meals and bring some things along that would have helped. There is a very limited & restricted choice at the shops and this made it a little inconvienent. Additionally petrol is only available from one pump and if you have a overseas credit card it becomes a challenge. However upon request from the hotel we were able to get some petrol but it was not exactly forthcoming. Other than the Mt Cook experiences the tour was very good.
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4
Graham & Jenny Miller (Australia)
02/05/2012
Probably not enough time to stop and look around at various towns in between accommodation. Train trip was great except it was to dark to take pictures towards the end due to power failure holding the train up along the way.Food everywhere was of highest quality. Good time of year to see NZ, sunny days with snow on peaks of mountains, you certainly have a most beautiful country side. Christchurch CBD is very sad, but impressed with the way the have used shipping containers for shops and some demo sites separating materials for recycling.
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5
Ajan & Gowrie Pasupati (Australia)
05/04/2012
South Island tour organised by you went off well as clockwork no issues. We enjoyed every bit of it. It was a bit tight with time on some days. However, overall it was fantastic. Thank you to you & all other staff at Relaxing Journeys for organising it so well. Next time we go on a holiday to NZ we will book it all through you.
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4
Stuart Watson (Australia)
19/03/2012
I think it is a great country you have there, and can understand why you guys would be so proud of it. I'd like to say thanks for the effort, especially to Jarrod, and I did give serious thought at some point to dropping in on the last afternoon before my flight home to thank you guys personally, but I got a little sidetracked, I think that can happen in a great place like Auckland can't it? Overall I would have to say everything was very good, and wouldn't hesitate to recommend your business to others. I would definitely like to get back over in the next two years...and can't see any reason why I would go Googling anyone else. All the best guys.
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5
Sally Bautovich (Australia)
07/01/2012
Great holiday. I especially loved staying at Queenstown, the service was first class. My only issue was finding the hotel at Christchurch as the GPS kept taking me to blocked roads. Thanks for everything and I would certainly recommend your company.
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5
Cameron Young (Australia)
19/12/2011
Great trip thank you. The accommodation was excellent and centrally located. The car was excellent to drive. The only thing we would say as constructive criticism is that the length it took to drive from place to place was not accurate and it took a lot longer than we thought. Perhaps you should suggest that it takes a little longer to get there!! Thanks for a great trip.
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5
Lorraine Gibson (Australia)
12/09/2011
On the whole the trip was A1 but with a few exceptions. The motel in Hanmer Springs was 4 star. The motel in The Hermitage Mount Cook was not good, even if the hot water did work, the basin tap was not broken and the remote for the TV did not work. In complaining, we were upgraded to the hotel which was great. I would never want to stay in the motel there. The motel unit in Queenstown was depressing and very ordinary. Regardless of it's rating I would give it 2 stars. I would not include it on this tour. There are so many other places to stay. The two bedroom unit at Franz Josef was well equipped and comfortable. The train trip was wonderful and the Sudima Hotel at Christchurch Airport excellent. The Shuttle people were wonderful. I left my briefcase on the footpath at the Train Station and discovered this half way to the hotel. The driver radioed back and another Shuttle driver at the Station retrieved it and we went back to collect it. It contained technology worth $3000. We love NZ. It is so easy to drive around even for oldies. We were not able to do the boat trip to the Tasman Glacier as we could not walk the 20 minutes there (crook knees). The four wheel driver tried to get us there in an exciting trip up beside the Glacier ridge in his buggy, but we had to abort. A great guy Graham. Thanks to Jarrod for organizing the tour.
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5
David & Linda Setter (Australia)
14/03/2011
Thank you to Jarrod for making our trip to the South Island of New Zealand memorable, and most importantly hassle free. Even though the earthquake necesitated the need for chnages to some of the original hotels this was done professionally and courteously. We did not encounter any issues with the bookings made by Jarrod and would not hesitate to recommend you to any of our friends. One very small suggestion would be to advise travellers going from Queenstown to Franz Joseph that the opportunity for a coffee is very very limited in the first 4 hours of the trip! Thanks again for the organisation that was done for our recent holiday.
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5
Catherine Willacy (Australia)
04/01/2010
Overall, I am very happy with the arrangements, and had a great trip. This was my first visit to NZ's South Island, and was arranged on short notice and at the height of summer with many motels already full. Jarrod could not have been more helpful in answering my questions, and I was impressed with the speed of his email responses and of confirming all the arrangements. I also took his advice on a spare battery for my camera - and was glad I did! The tour itinerary worked very well and provided the right amount of driving per day. All the motels that were booked were very satisfactory in terms of cleanliness, amenities and very friendly service. The Hema Touring Atlas was really useful and a great addition to the pack. I have no complaints at all, but just a suggestion: The SatNav offered three suggestions for the route to my first accommodation in Christchurch, (and no help at all for some other motels) so some guesswork was required to find it. Perhaps an AA route map from the airport to the motel could be included. Many thanks again for a great introduction to South Island, and I would have no hesitation in recommending Relaxing Journeys to other travellers who, like me, relish a trip where all the hard preparation work has been done for you! Many thanks.
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Optionals
New Zealand has a great deal of things to see and do, why not add one of our optional sightseeing activities to your trip. Prices are per adult (we'll adjust your quote for any children).
Visually spectacular in all seasons, the South Island has something for everyone. Experience the majestic heights of Mt Cook, the otherworldly beauty ...
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