Essence of New Zealand
Deal Number 21500305
Interest Free
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Culture and nature unite in this inter-island New Zealand tour. Oh, and there’s a good dose of food and wine on the side to deliver a well-rounded taste of North and South. Whether you’re into wide, open spaces – Stewart Island, we’re looking at you – bubbling geysers, gem-like glaciers or windswept coasts. Whether you’re a history, sport, architecture or culture buff. This New Zealand guided tour is for you.
Duration 18 days
Destination Auckland
Company AAT Kings
Availability From 02/10/2025 to 05/04/2026
Call 133 133

What's Included?
- Highlights
- 17 Breakfast (B)6 Dinner (D)Medium level of fitness required
- We’ve crafted an itinerary with plenty of two-night stays, so you can sleep in and take the pulse of your destination, whether Queenstown, Wellington, Nelson or Rotorua
- Day 1 – flights to arrive prior to 4
- 00pm into Christchurch AirportDay 18 – flights to depart any time from Auckland Airport Airport to Hotel transfers are available to purchase on request
- Flights to and from your tour are not included in the tour price
- From the bubbling geysers of Rotorua to the gem-like surface of Franz Josef Glacier/Kā Roimata o Hine Hukatere, nature and culture unite across the North and South islands
- The Real Country Farm Show offers an authentic taste of
- MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experiences View the Church of the Good Shepherd at Lake Tekapo Indoor Guided Dark Sky & Astronomy Experience in Tekapo Privately Guided Tour and Dinner at Transport World Invercargill Scenic ferry from Bluff to Stewart Island and return Village and Bays Guided Tour Stewart Island MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience - Real Country Farm Experience Visit historic Arrowtown See Franz Josef Glacier from a panoramic viewpoint Visit Punakaiki's Pancake Rocks from a scenic viewpoint Cruise the Cook Straight on the interisland ferry from Picton to Wellington MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience - Guided Art Deco Walking tour in Napier MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience - Guided Te Po Indigenous Experience at Te Puia Explore the geothermal wonders of Rotorua
Availability
- From 02/10/2025 to 05/04/2026
Visit Auckland
Day 1
Arrive early to see just how Christchurch has transformed itself since the 2010/11 earthquakes.
Your Travel Director will welcome you this evening and provide you with a tour briefing.
Day 2
Day two of your tour of the South Island of New Zealand sees you step out with your guide for a deeper dive into ‘The City of Gardens’ before traversing the colourful Canterbury Plains: the turquoise waters of Lake Tekapo, snow-capped mountains and wildflower-strewn meadows.
It’s quite the backdrop for the stone-hewn Church of the Good Shepherd. Your Indoor Dark Sky Astronomy Experience at Tekapo, hosted by passionate guides, will forever change the way you see the night sky. You'll see for yourself it may be one of the quietest spots on the planet, yet it has one of the busiest skies in the universe.
Day 3
Easing through the Waitaki Valley, you’re en route toward New Zealand’s oldest public gardens.
They lie in the pretty town of Oamaru, known for its stately tree-lined streets and limestone buildings. Architectural drama of a different kind awaits in Dunedin. While away the afternoon in atmospheric art-lined alleys or sipping a lager or two in Speights Brewery (a national institution). Or venture further afield to discover Larnach Castle, which nods to Dunedin’s Scottish link – it’s known as ‘Little Edinburgh’ for a reason. In truth, it could also be known as ‘Little Galapagos’: fur seals and penguins thrive in this part of the South Island.
Day 4
Travel through rolling farmlands and lush pastures to Invercargill, a city obsessed with motor vehicles.
Tributes to speed legends colour the city so it's only fitting that you visit Transport World for a guided tour and dinner. Explore classic vehicles as you are transported on a nostalgic walk back in time. Bill Richardson began collecting old trucks in 1967 and in his words sometimes "bought a truck more with our hearts than with our heads." The collection now comprises of many rare and unusual vehicles, along with popular classic vehicles.
Day 5
Invercargill is the gateway to Subantarctic Stewart Island, the latest addition to New Zealand's national park portfolio with 85% of the island designated as national park.
Naturally, it’s a magnet for endemic flora and fauna, as you’ll discover on your guided Village and Bays tour. Later you have the option to join a leisurely cruise, including a picnic lunch, around Paterson Inlet that will take you past unique places including Acker’s Cottage before docking at Ulva Island to admire the bird life and native flora.
Day 6
Today on your New Zealand tour, get a taste of country life combined with good old fashioned southern hospitality when you meet a ‘Southern Girl’ local farmer at Real Country.
Get a feel for life on the farm as you have demonstrations of Horse communication and Working sheep dog mustering. Try your hand at a Stock whip cracking lesson, and feed and interact with the friendly farm animals. For every guest, we donate funds to The Fairlight Foundation, Advancing Women in Agriculture, a MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience. Continue to Queenstown and take the afternoon at your own pace.
Day 7
You clearly need more than one day to appreciate Queenstown and its surrounds.
And when we say surrounds, we mean Milford Sound. Today, sign up for an Optional Experience to dive deep into this yawning gorge within World Heritage-listed Fiordland National Park – it’s within easy reach of your base, and is best explored on an optional South Island tour that sees you jumping aboard boat to cruise the mirror-like waterway. Like things fast and furious? Feel the wind in your hair on the high-octane jet boat ride, perhaps, twisting and revving along Queenstown's Shotover River. There's a reason why Queenstown is known as the adventure capital of the country. Wine aficionado? Sip your way through surrounding vineyards. Tours of the South Island don't get much tastier than this. There's also the option of an afternoon cruise on Lake Wakatipu aboard the historic TSS Earnslaw to Walter Peak High Country Farm for a gourmet barbecue dinner (all own expense).
Day 8
Visit Arrowtown, which found its riches in gold, its residents building stately homes, now filled with boutiques and restaurants – that still line the street to this day.
It’s a bit like stepping onto a movie set. Around the next bend is the Alpine countryside of the Southern Lakes, from Lake Dunstan, where you may like to buy stone fruit picked fresh from the tree, to oh-so-blue Lake Hawea and lovely Lake Wanaka, with its Instagrammable shoreline of poplars and willows. Over the Haast Pass, the town of Franz Josef/Waiau at the edge of the Westland World Heritage Park, awaits. Get some perspective on an optional Franz Josef Glacier/Ka Roimata o Hine Hukatere flight tour – if the weather behaves, you may even get to land on it (own expense). New Zealand tours don’t get much cooler than this.
Day 9
Wandering Hokitika’s windswept shore on the West Coast feels a bit like you’ve discovered the end of the Earth.
The town’s other natural beauty is pounamu (native greenstone or jade). Prepare yourself for Punakaiki’s Pancake Rocks and blowholes; they owe their existence to the thundering surf that will lull you to sleep.
Day 10
Sit back and relax – that’s all you have to do today as you ease along the Heritage Highway toward Nelson.
Press your nose against the glass as your coach weaves through Buller Gorge – a deep canyon home to New Zealand’s longest swingbridge – and Kahurangi National Park, a place of wild rivers, high plateaus, alpine herb-fields and coastal forests.
Day 11
Sleep in or work up a sweat – today is completely at your leisure.
We have a few ideas up our sleeve, of course. Travel to the Abel Tasman National Park for the ultimate cruise and walk combination (own expense). This pocket in the north of the island inspires calm, its golden beaches framed by sculpted granite cliffs that all unite to create one of the country’s most legendary coastal tracks.
Day 12
You’ll want a window seat for the cruise from the South Island to the North Island aboard the interisland ferry.
Breathtaking views unfold as you glide through Queen Charlotte Sound, up the Tory Channel and across Cook Strait, navigating a maze of arms and inlets into New Zealand’s cool little capital of Wellington.
Day 13
View the sights of Wellington including the Beehive and Parliament grounds this morning then travel to Napier.
Beautifully preserved 1930s architecture is Napier's special point of difference.
Day 14
This morning meet your informative and entertaining local guide from the Art Deco Trust who will bring Napier's fascinating architectural history to life as you take an easy stroll through the compact Art Deco Quarter in the vibrant city centre.
On this MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience, your participation helps preserve Napier’s Art Deco heritage. This afternoon relax or perhaps choose an optional experience of either a wine tour of local Hawkes Bay vineyards, or a safari to the famous Gannet nesting colony at cape Kidnappers with Gannet Safaris Overland (both own expense).
Day 15
The road ahead unfolds in a broad panorama of Lake Taupo, the largest (and perhaps bluest) of its kind in the country – it feeds thundering Huka Falls, which you’ll hear well before you see.
It’s a landscape almost as otherworldly as Rotorua, where mud pops and jettisons from bubbling geysers, and steam rushes skywards from cracks in the Earth. This afternoon, explore Te Puia's geothermal valley and learn about Maori history & culture. Take a guided tour of the Maori Arts & Crafts Institute, and later enjoy a Highlight Dinner of hangi inspired cuisine and a cultural performance in a finely carved meeting house, Te Aronui a Rua. It ends on a high at the Pohutu Geyser, where, armed with a hot chocolate you'll view one of New Zealand's geothermal wonderlands.
Day 16
You could spend weeks discovering Rotorua.
But you have today, so seize the moment and set out to explore. Hobbit fans will want to take advantage of the opportunity to tour tour the Hobbiton Movie Set featured in The Lord of the Rings & Hobbit movies. Want a bit of down time? Bliss out at Wai Ariki Hotel Springs & Spa. Arguably the best way to understand just how otherworldly your destination is, from the air. Ask us about a scenic flight (all own expense).
Day 17
From New Zealand’s longest waterway, the Waikato River, to its largest city: welcome to Auckland, the ‘City of Sails’.
You’ll understand how it got its moniker when you glimpse yachts gliding around its two harbours. But today’s Auckland tour sees your sights set firmly on New Zealand's national game: rugby. The interactive All Blacks Experience explores an introduction to the game as a part of New Zealand culture, and ends with a traditional haka with you front and centre.
Day 18
How do you pick a favourite adventure from the last 18 days? You don't have to - let them all shine in equal measure in your memory.
View our great airfares, hotels and travel insurance.
Departure dates and Pricing
Departure Date | Return Date | Availability | Price | Enquire |
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Thu 2nd October, 202502/10/2025 | Sun 19th October, 202519/10/2025 | available | Per person from$8373* | Enquire » |
Departure Date | Return Date | Availability | Price | Enquire |
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Thu 18th December, 202518/12/2025 | Sun 4th January, 202605/01/2025 | Sold Out | Per person from$9850* | |
Thu 25th December, 202525/12/2025 | Sun 11th January, 202612/01/2025 | Sold Out | Per person from$0* |
Departure Date | Return Date | Availability | Price | Enquire |
---|---|---|---|---|
Thu 1st January, 202602/01/2025 | Sun 18th January, 202619/01/2025 | Sold Out | Per person from$0* | |
Thu 22nd January, 202623/01/2025 | Sun 8th February, 202609/02/2025 | Sold Out | Per person from$0* | |
Thu 29th January, 202630/01/2025 | Sun 15th February, 202616/02/2025 | available | Per person from$0* | Enquire » |
Departure Date | Return Date | Availability | Price | Enquire |
---|---|---|---|---|
Thu 5th February, 202606/02/2025 | Sun 22nd February, 202623/02/2025 | On Request | Per person from$0* | Enquire » |
Thu 12th February, 202613/02/2025 | Sun 1st March, 202602/03/2025 | Sold Out | Per person from$10150* | |
Thu 19th February, 202620/02/2025 | Sun 8th March, 202609/03/2025 | available | Per person from$0* | Enquire » |
Thu 26th February, 202627/02/2025 | Sun 15th March, 202616/03/2025 | Sold Out | Per person from$0* |
Departure Date | Return Date | Availability | Price | Enquire |
---|---|---|---|---|
Thu 5th March, 202606/03/2025 | Sun 22nd March, 202623/03/2025 | Sold Out | Per person from$10150* | |
Thu 19th March, 202620/03/2025 | Sun 5th April, 202606/04/2025 | available | Per person from$9135* | Enquire » |
Terms and conditions
- Prices quoted valid for sale until 13 August 2025 unless otherwise stated or sold out prior.
- Price is per person and subject to availability. Accommodation (if included) is based on twin share unless otherwise stated.
- Airfare (including internal flights) is not included unless otherwise stated and, if included, is economy class unless otherwise stated.
- Local payments, "trip kittys" or food funds may apply and may be payable direct to the supplier on arrival or to your travel agent prior to your departure. Where applicable, these payments are included in the total price quoted.
- Gratuities are not included unless otherwise stated.
- Additional conditions and travel restrictions may apply. Please enquire for further details.
- Prices shown are fully inclusive of taxes, levies and government charges current at time of publication.
- Additional levies, government charges and other applicable fees may apply and are beyond our control.
- Seasonal surcharges and blackout dates may apply depending on date of travel.
- Payments made by credit card will incur a surcharge.
- Prices shown are for payments made by cash in store or Bpay.
- These prices are a guide to the best price. Prices are correct as at 08 August 2025 and are subject to change without notice, due to matters outside our control, such as adverse currency fluctuations, fuel surcharges, taxes and airfare increases. Please enquire for further details.
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- Our liability to you is limited in certain situations, and we may charge you a cancellation fee(s) in certain circumstances. See our booking terms and conditions for further details.
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Important Notice
The above information has been obtained from the relevant suppliers and should be considered an indicative guide only as to the prices that may be available for these products. Flight Centre cannot guarantee that any particular product will still be available at the following prices, or for your exact dates of travel. At the time of making your booking, prices may differ to that price displayed on this website. Please contact a Flight Centre travel consultant to obtain the latest up to date information regarding applicable prices, fees and charges, taxes, availability, any blackout dates (such as school holidays), seasonal surcharges and other terms and conditions which may apply.
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