Wildlife & Wilderness 3 Week Self Drive

Overview
Drive just about anywhere and you see what the fuss is about. Not only is the scenery outrageous, but with only four million people in a country the same size as ours, the roads are also wonderfully empty.

Days 1, 2 and 3 The Coromandel
After touching down in Auckland you’ll collect a car at the airport, turn your back on the city and drive - around two hours - to the Coromandel Peninsula. It’s a wonderful region of high contours and deep green valleys, in parts as tropically lush as the Caribbean, in others more like natural parklands that could pass as Capability Brown creations. The beaches too are superb, from the surfing seaside of Whangamata to Hot Water Beach, where you can rent a spade and, at low tide, dig a hole in the sands and dunk yourself in your own private casserole of thermal waters.

We suggest a choice of accommodation, either the remote beachside Kuaotunu Bay Lodge or the more central Colleith Lodge in Tairua. We would also recommend booking a Kiwi Dundee Wilderness Adventure tour of the Peninsula, visiting beaches, rainforest, historic gold caves and Maori heritage sites, with either a picnic or café lunch (£89). (For further details on the touring and accommodation options, please see our website.)

Days 4 and 5 Rotorua
Although more famous for its bubbling cauldrons of hot mud and salvoes of spouting geysers, the town is also the epicentre of Maori culture. We think the best way to experience both is on a full-day tour with New Zealand Wild Escapes (£123).

It starts with a drive through the magical Wai-O-Tapu thermal wonderland and the famous Lady Knox geyser before entering the awesome Waimangu Volcanic Valley (some background: in 1886, Mount Tarawera erupted, creating a ten mile incision in the earth, expanding Lake Rotomahana to 20 times its original size and forming the seven craters that today make up the Waimangu Volcanic Valley). After close encounters with hot springs, thermal pools and geysers and a cruise on the lake, the tour continues to Lake Tarawera for lunch at the beautiful Landing restaurant. You’ll stop at the Blue and Green Lake on your way back to Rotorua and your accommodation at Akahu Lodge, a boutique guest house overlooking Lake Rotorua.
We would also recommend an amazing helicopter flight, landing on the crater of the active volcano Tarawera (£136), or a further jaunt to White Island, an active volcano in the sea off the Bay of Plenty (£299).

Days 6 and 7 Tongariro National Park
To Tongariro, the heart of volcano country and your first encounter with LOTR’s Middle Earth, in the shape of the trio of volcanoes in the world’s second oldest national park (after Yellowstone in the US). Your accommodation will be at Chateau Tongariro. Built in 1929, and still retaining many of its original features, this is the only hotel located within the UNESCO World Heritage Site. There’s an abundance of things to do in the area; in particular, we would suggest taking a scenic flight that includes the huge steaming hot crater lake of Mount Ruapehu and its glacier (£81), or either a full-day (£75) or half-day (£54) guided hike.

Days 8 and 9 Wellington
Most cities in the world would be out of place in an itinerary themed around scenery. Not Wellington. The country’s seat of government is positioned in a handsome horseshoe of hills, the slopes tumbling with woods, the ridge lines polished by scurrying clouds. You’ll be staying at Lambton Heights, a large heritage home with sweeping views of the city and harbour. We can book a number of Wellington tours, including a half day devoted to Maori art, crafts and customs (£89), and a full-day ‘Wild Wellington’ tour of the city’s extraordinary natural features, laced with tales of legends and illuminated by native birds (£119, including a bistro lunch).

An alternative to staying in the city, which would appeal to lovers of wildlife, would be to spend the two nights on the nearby Kapiti coast, staying at luxurious Greenmantle Estate, with a visit to Kapiti island, home to some of the world’s rarest birds, for a supplement of £150 (for 2 nights).

Days 10 and 11 Abel Tasman National Park
You could choose to take the ferry across the Cook Strait, but to save time we suggest flying from Wellington to Nelson, where you’ll transfer to a breathtaking scenic flight to Awaroa Lodge in the heart of the Abel Tasman National Park (with no road access!). Imagine the perfect beach, where a dense natural garden meets the most golden of sands, which, in turn, meet the calmest, most opal of seas, protected from the prevailing west winds by granite highlands and headlands, with no roads and barely a building to detract from the scene . . . you’re looking at the Abel Tasman, yours to explore by boat, sea kayak or on foot.

Days 12 and 13 Kaikoura
Fly back to Nelson and collect your hire car for your drive to Kaikoura, perhaps stopping for lunch at a Marlborough winery en route. The old whaling town of Kaikoura has made a complete U-turn, relinquishing its once lucrative harpooning business in favour of whale watching. Regular boat trips take visitors to see sperm whales that not only thrive in the smorgasbord of food found in the rich mingling currents off the Kaikoura peninsula, but also come close inshore along digits of deep water that cut into the continental shelf. There’s also the option of swimming with seals and dolphins. Kaikoura is a great place to eat crayfish, too (in the Maori language kaimeans food, koura means crayfish).

As well as both whale watch cruises (£57 for a 2hr 30min trip) and dolphin encounters, where you swim in their company (£69, for around 3hrs, with wetsuits, mask and snorkel provided), we can arrange half-day Maori tours. These include a guided bush walk, looking at the medicinal properties of native trees and shrubs, and afternoon tea at the home of a local family (£43). Night-times are special, too - you’ll sleep in one of the stunning new treehouses at Hapuku Lodge - with views across the olive groves to the sea.

Days 14 and 15 Arthur’s Pass
One of the highest settlements in the country, Arthur’s Pass sits in the middle of a national parkland and is a popular base for walkers, from gentle strollers to intrepid climbers. Accommodation is at Arthur’s Pass Wilderness Lodge, owned by ecologists Dr Gerry McSweeney and Anne Saunders. Alternatively, you could, for a supplement of £244 (for 2 nights), treat yourself to superb country comfort at Grasmere lodge (see our hotels – New Zealand Lodges). Both properties offer a programme of prebookable guided walks, as well as canoeing and trout fishing, or you can take off on your own with just a map of the footpaths and a picnic.

Day 16 Franz Joseph
Turning west towards the ocean, the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ of scenic pleasure continue as you experience a magnificent mix of coastal and Alpine scenery. The roaring Pacific surf and wild beaches littered with kelp and giant arthritic claws of bone-coloured driftwood are on your right and, to the left, the immensity of 6,000ft snow-capped peaks. No place in Europe celebrates such an intimate marriage of mountains and sea.

You spend the night in the new Franz Joseph Glacier Retreat, set in 200 acres of tranquil farmland, with all 12 rooms having views of either snow-capped peaks or Lake Mapourika, each one themed after a local pioneer family. Before continuing south, you’ll have time to take an optional 50min flight along the Alpine peaks, including Mount Cook, the tallest mountain in New Zealand, and over glacial lakes, the famous Tasman glacier and rainforests (£121); or indulge in a helihike, walking among spectacular ice formations, crampons included (£156).

Day 17 Lake Moeraki
On your drive south you’ll need to feed your camera shutter with Lake Matheson, famously known for the reflection of Mount Cook in the mirror-like stillness of the waters. But you will also find it hard to match the unique natural setting of the Wilderness Lodge, your port of call for the night on Lake Moeraki. Landscaped in a lakeside clearing and surrounded by 1,000-year-old rainforest trees, it makes an ideal stopover on the way to Wanaka. Those who want an active afternoon can paddle a canoe on the lake or river, go birding or hike through the ancient forests.

Days 18, 19 and 20 Wanaka

From Moeraki you’ll slice through the spine of peaks at Haast Pass and drop down into Wanaka. On the way you might like to take time out for a ‘Siberia Experience’, a popular trip which begins with a scenic flight, with close-up views of Mount Aspiring. You’ll touch down in the Siberia Valley and take a hike through gorgeous scenery, following a stream through the meadows before climbing through a beech forest over a craggy saddle and down into the Wilkin river valley. There, you’ll be met by jet boat for an awesome 30min ride back (£127).

Although not quite as adrenaline-driven as Queenstown, lakeside Wanaka is a hub of activities, with hiking, canyoning, climbing, mountain biking, sailing and skydiving. Our most popular trips include fantastic walking options such as the Rob Roy Glacier hike in Mount Aspiring National Park, which peaks above the tree line at a mountain cirque set in an amphitheatre of hanging glaciers. It’s a full day out and can either be guided (£89) or tackled on your own. A sedentary alternative is a flight over the Mount Aspiring World Heritage Site and along the full length of Milford Sound, including a landing and a cruise out to the Tasman Sea (£203). You’ll be staying at River Run, a stylish lodge just outside town in 42 acres of countryside and close to the confluence of three rivers.

Your Accommodation
3 nights in the Coromandel at Kuaotunu Bay Lodge or Colleith Lodge including breakfast

2 nights in Rotorua at Akahu including breakfast

2 nights in Tongariro NP at Chateau Tongariro Room Only

2 nights in Wellington at Lampton Heights including breakfast or upgrade to Greenmantle Estate for £150

2 nights in Abel Tasman National Park at Awaroa Lodge Room Only

2 nights in Kaikoura at Hapuku Lodge including breakfast

2 nights in Arthur’s Pass at Wilderness Lodge, incl dinner and breakfast or upgrade to Grasmere Lodge for £244 incl. dinner and breakfast

1 night in Franz Joseph at Franz Joseph Country Retreat including breakfast

1 night at Lake Moeraki at Wilderness Lodge, including dinner and breakfast

3 nights in Wanaka at River Run including breakfast