When deciding the best way to travel around New Zealand it became clear that a long road trip would be the way to have flexibility to see the remote natural wonders. Rather than rent a camper van, we found that having a rental car and staying in small towns around the country would be most efficient for us. Our optimal route was to drive one way to avoid two ferry crossings of the Cook Strait, which meant that we would start in Christchurch, the largest city in the South Island, and end in Auckland, the largest city in the North Island. In between, it was our goal to maximize our time in New Zealand to experience not only the famous nature but also get to know more about the Kiwi culture.
Destination Overview
Christchurch to Dunedin Road Trip
Starting in New Zealand’s South Island meant that the first part of our journey would include the Southern Alps, Milford Sound, and the adventure capital of the world, Queenstown. This is where the majority of international tourists visit in addition to a couple of cultural destinations on the North Island. However, only about 25% of New Zealand’s population lives on the South Island, with the largest city being Christchurch of about 400,000 people and the second largest being Dunedin of about 150,000 people. These two cities are only 5 hours by car from each other on Highway 1 along the east coast of the island which can easily be completed in a day’s drive.
We wanted to visit both cities to get an introduction to the Kiwi South Island culture before spending the next part of the journey with large groups of international travelers. Rather than take the 1 day route between the cities, we decided to go a much longer inland scenic route to spend time in the Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve, one of the best places to see stars in the world. Within this reserve, we also visited the Aoraki/ Mount Cook National Park which is home to the Southern Alps and New Zealand’s tallest peaks. Besides these incredible stops, we also saw numerous locations where Lord of the Rings was filmed and walked on a live set of East of Eden alongside Florence Pugh. Even though it wasn’t the fastest way to see the 2 cities, it was a wonderful start to our New Zealand road trip.
Where to Read More
Queenstown to Christchurch Road Trip: A Stop by Stop Itinerary
A detailed itinerary and guide of the things to do for a Queenstown to Christchurch road trip, including in Wanaka, Mount Cook, and Lake Tekapo.
The Catlins: A 1-Day Itinerary to Go Between Dunedin and Invercargill
A complete itinerary with all the stops between Dunedin and Invercargill to experience the Catlins on the Southern Scenic Route worth checking out.
An Interesting Fact
The Film Industry is Important in New Zealand
Peter Jackson is most famous for being the director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy that won 17 Oscars from a total of 30 nominations. He was born in New Zealand and chose his home country as the primary filming location for those movies as well as The Hobbit trilogy. Given the massive budgets for these movies, it led to an immense growth in the film industry in New Zealand that is still strong today contributing $3.5B and employing over 14,000 people according to New Zealand’s Ministry of Business. Besides leaving a lasting impression on the film industry itself, the images of New Zealand in the movies profiled the beauty of the country in such a way that it led to massive increases in tourism. There are even specific Lord of the Rings tours that will take you to the filming locations and show you the exact spots where specific scenes were filmed.
On the way to Lake Tekapo in the Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve we had the opportunity to stop at one of our first Lord of the Rings filming destinations, Mount Sunday, where an actual set for Edoras was built on top of the real world hill. Even though the set is completely gone now, it is still a beautiful area to go for a walk and feel like you are in Middle Earth. Depending on the day, you may even come across a Lord of the Rings tour and see people reciting movie lines with props. This Lord of the Rings stop was a great way to break up the drive and encouraged us to seek out other Middle Earth filming locations when driving between locations.
As we were completing our drive from Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park to Dunedin, we decided to stop in Oamaru to stretch our legs and walk around its historic Heritage Precinct. The street was blocked off for cars and torn up with gravel. The facades of the buildings looked older than anticipated and then we noticed an old American flag flying in the distance. We soon realized that we were walking through the East of Eden set which was on site filming for a new Netflix mini-series. Since the majority of people follow rules in New Zealand, pedestrians were free to walk around the set and watch the filming in progress. We joined locals watching as Florence Pugh acted out a few scenes and admired everything that goes into the production process. As we were getting ready to leave, there was a call for extras that appeared of Spanish descent. Although we didn’t match the requirements, it was fun to see locals volunteering to join in the filming,
Useful Gear
Download the Windy App to Best Plan Around New Zealand Weather
Since many of New Zealand’s most famous activities are based outdoors, the weather can greatly impact the experience you have during your visit. We normally check the standard weather apps and websites to finalize our plans which showed our first few days exploring New Zealand would be cloudy with sporadic rain. This was not ideal because we were starting our trip in the Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve and the clouds would prevent us from marveling at the beauty of the stars above. Additionally, we planned to hike in the Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park which is known for its stunning peaks and glaciers high above the trails. We had a little flexibility in our itinerary but since the forecast was the same for the next few days we decided to move forward with our itinerary as planned regardless of time or day.
While at Lake Tekapo the cloudy weather did end up coming in and preventing any stargazing activities. We made the most of the stay by admiring the stunning lake with mist above and relaxing in the Tekapo Springs which felt great with the light rain coming down. Next we traveled to Aoraki / Mount Cook and started our day early because we were told that many people come for day trips and crowd the trails. When we started our Hooker Valley hike it was raining and visibility was limited above. However, the rain ended up stopping and the clouds lifted briefly at the end of the trail, providing incredible glimpses of the peaks above. The remainder of the day ended up being partly cloudy which made smaller hikes like Kea Point and Tasman Glacier enjoyable.
After the hikes, we talking about the difficulty of standard apps accurately predicting the weather for our plans throughout the day with people in town. A local recommended us to download the Windy.com app which they said fairly accurately shows clouds and rain throughout different periods of the day. They told us it is immensely helpful in New Zealand because unexpectedly great weather can happen during small pockets and using the app helps to identify when to plan specific activities during those limited times. Looking at the next day’s forecast we saw that after sunrise it would be perfect visibility for a few hours. Although we probably could have waited to do the prior day’s hikes, it was a good lesson to check the Windy.com app in the future. As we left the Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park we were treated to stunning sunny views of the peaks that left us wanting to come back in the future for more hiking and stargazing in conditions like these.
