Highlights of New Zealand's South Island

Enjoy some premium-lounge relaxation before your flight to New Zealand.

Arriving into Christchurch, a private transfer will bring you to your luxury, city-centre hotel whose one-to-one staff-to-guest ratio promises only the finest service. Then, head out to explore the city at your own pace. Following a pair of tragic earthquakes, Christchurch has turned over a new leaf in tram-served botanical gardens, delightful parklands and the idyllic, willow-tree-lined Avon River.

The latter is the ideal setting for punting in the sunshine, or a leisurely picnic in Hagley Park, where manicured gardens and greens showcase some of the region's lushest plant life.

Enjoy a day trip out to New Zealand’s whale-watching capital of Kaikoura, a scenic town jutting out on a peninsula on the island's east coast. Here, cold water mixes with warmer currents in a network of coastal trenches, bringing nutrients – and wildlife – close to the surface.

Embark on a custom-built catamaran, which, as the wind rushes past, will race you out onto open water to spot everything from dusky dolphins and fur seals to giant sperm whales, orcas and migratory humpbacks.Return to Christchurch afterwards for an evening to relax at your leisure.

After breakfast and a private transfer to the train station, you'll enjoy one of the world’s most scenic rail journeys aboard the TranzAlpine train. With oversized windows making the most of the view, your route takes you through some of New Zealand's most epic landscapes. Sweep through patchwork plains and skirt alongside rivers before climbing into the South Island’s giant alpine backbone only to descend through subtropical rainforests on the other side.

Arriving into Greymouth, collect your hire car and cruise along the cragged West Coast down to Franz Josef Glacier to your hotel, the sleek Te Waonui Forest Retreat. The next day, access some of the glacier's remote corners on a guided heli-hike among its otherworldly blue-tinged spires, jagged crevasses and eerie caves.

The soul of New Zealand is in its panoramas, from craggy peaks to steep hidden valleys and sweeping coastal rainforests. Today, head to the Te Wāhipounamu World Heritage Area, where you'll find the charming town of Haast. Surrounded by national parks, its Westland ranges and river valleys make for idyllic walks while its rugged coast is home to everything from fur seals to whole colonies of penguins.

Continue on to Queenstown, your ultimate destination and an outdoor adventurer's idyll. Here, bungee jumps and skydives grab the headlines while ski slopes thaw into hiking trails, vineyards tempt budding oenophiles and waterways host white water rafting and gentle lake cruises alike. 

New Zealand’s remote southwest corner is fissured into a series of dramatic fjords where waterfall-troubled mountains flank shimmering waters. Following a sail over Lake Manapouri and a sub-alpine pass transfer, you’ll board the Fiordland Navigator for an overnight wilderness cruise on Doubtful Sound. Expert naturalist guides will be on hand to point out the dolphins, fur seals and penguins that call its dramatic crags home before you drop anchor in a sheltered cove for exploration by kayak, tender boat or swimming.

Warm back up with supper onboard, as you pass on the sleepy, still waters under a thick blanket of stars – this perfectly unpolluted region is one of the world’s finest stargazing destinations.

Enjoy a morning spent on the fjords, where the otherworldly quiet will centre your thoughts and refresh your spirit. Then, on disembarking, travel on to Wanaka, a resort town renowned for skiing, mountain views and occasional rare sightings of the colourful aurora australis. Huddled among the Southern Alps, it’s a place of panoramic views stretching out across its colossal namesake lake, spiked by great white peaks.

Stay: Edgewater Resort, Wanaka

Be sure to make a stop at Mt Cook on your scenic drive to Tekapo, also known to the Maori as Aoraki. Its perma-blanket of snow and ice form Australasia’s highest peak – a truly humbling sight that makes a rugged foil to serene Lake Tekapo. Here, your hotel’s chandelier-lit artwork frames giant views out over its turquoise expanse, lined with yet more snow-dusted mountains.

Recall the region’s pioneering history with a visit to the Church of the Good Shepherd, built to memorialise the explorers that opened up the region to the world.

Drive back to Christchurch to drop off your car and board your flight home.