South Island, New Zealand: Mapping the Route

By the time we were planning NZ, Karam was 11 months old and was not interested in taking long car rides. So despite the fact that New Zealand has some of the most beautiful and scenic rides in the world, we decided to drive partly and fly a bit, to reduce time in the car.

Here’s what we did:
- Flew Sydney-Christchurch: short and uneventful flight.
- Drove CC to Kaikoura: Pleasant 2.5 hour drive. We planned it around Karam’s nap time so he literally opened his eyes as we pulled into the inn.
- Drove Kaikoura to Blenheim : Short 1.5 hour drive that brought us into the wineries just in time for lunch
- Drove Blenheim to Nelson: 1.5 hour drive that was completely avoidable. Nelson is a small, unremarkable town. Our purpose for visiting was catching a flight to Queenstown which could have happened from Blenheim.
- Flew Nelson to Queenstown: 1.5 hour flight, very manageable!
- Day trips from Queenstown to Wanaka and Central Otago wineries – Perfect driving distances, left after breakfast, made it back in time for dinner.
- Flew Queenstown to Christchurch: Stayed overnight in airport hotel
- Flew Christchurch to Sydney!

Cons to our approach: More expensive than just driving (domestic flights were NZ 200 each), we missed out the whole of the west coast (glaciers, etc.), and wasted some time waiting for flights, driving to airports, etc.

However, Karam had a perfectly comfortable time and gave us no trouble at all. So it was a good experience from that standpoint. We’ll just have to go back when he’s older to do it the right way!

Here’s a video from our trip: