Spirit of New Zealand
Overview
What's this trip about?
Details
Travel Themes
Destinations
Activities
Trip includes
- Specialist team of two highly experienced Travel Director and Driver Guide
- 1 UNESCO World Heritage Sites – Fiordland National Park
- Centrally located premium 3.5-star hotels
Itinerary
Community spirit is strong in Christchurch, as you’ll discover exploring its streets at your leisure. We recommend jumping on the tram to tour Christchurch and discover how the city has rebuilt itself since the 2010/11 earthquakes. Look out for the Transitional Cathedral, made largely of cardboard, and Turanga, the gold-clad central library.
Ibis Hotel Christchurch
More of the city is revealed on a Christchurch tour before the colours of the Canterbury Plains spread before you: the turquoise waters of Lake Tekapo, snow-capped mountains and atmospheric towns. It’s quite the backdrop for the stone-hewn Church of Good Shepherd. Opt...
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 awa...
Rolling green pastures dotted with wide-eyed sheep are your backdrop to Gore. Fun fact: this is the country music capital of New Zealand. Invercargill is obsessed with something else: motor vehicles. Tributes to speed legends colour the city, telling the story of ever...
Wild, wide and wonderful, Stewart Island’s rugged coastline cuts a dramatic form in the Southern Ocean. It’s largely untouched – 97% is national parkland – which means that endemic flora and fauna (including a menagerie of birds) thrive here. But don’t take our word f...
You've probably already noticed that there's a lot of farmland here in New Zealand. It's fitting, then, that you meet southern girl Laura, who will introduce you to the sheep farm she was born and raised on. Continue to Queenstown and take today at your own pace. Con...
We wouldn’t blame you for using today to linger by the banks of Lake Wakatipu, marvelling at sky-scraping, snow-tipped Remarkables. But if you want to venture further afield, we can point you in the right direction. A spot of bungy jumping at the place it was born, pe...
We know you’ll want to linger in Arrowtown’s movie-set-like streets, lined with trees and character-filled boutiques and restaurants. But the Alpine country of the Southern Lakes is calling, from Lake Dunstan – pause for juicy stone fruit picked fresh from the tree – ...
There aren’t many communities on the wild West Coast, Hokitika is one, and boy does it make the most of its setting. Wander the windswept coast before discovering the town’s other beauty: pounamu (native greenstone or jade). In Māori tradition, it’s bad luck to buy th...
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.
The Rutherford Hotel
Sleep in or work up a sweat – today is completely at your leisure. We have a few ideas up our sleeve, of course. Lace up your hiking shoes and head off on a bushwalk, or sit back on a boat and soak up the silence of Abel Tasman National Park. This pocket in the north ...
Swap wheels for water aboard the Inter-islander for a cruise through Queen Charlotte Sound, up the Tory Channel and across Cook Strait, from the South Island to the North, navigating a maze of arms and inlets into New Zealand’s cool little capital of Wellington. Bring...
After a strong coffee – take your pick of Wellington cafes; they’re all excellent – it’s time to choose your own adventure. Stroll through Te Papa, the city’s mindboggling museum, or tour Parliament. Peter Jackson fans will have their sights set firmly on a Lord of th...
After a devastating earthquake in 1931, Napier completely rebuilt itself in just two years. The end result is architectural Nirvana, a city home to the world’s greatest concentration of Art Deco, Spanish Mission and Stripped Classical buildings, in a gelato of colours...
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 jettis...
Today is Rotorua tour day of many decisions, but with plenty of tips available from your Travel Director. Want a bit of down time? We wouldn’t blame you for simply blissing out at in the steamy thermal springs at Rotorua’s Polynesian Spa. Soak your travel weary limbs,...
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 your sights are firmly set on the city’s ...
140 – that’s how many droplets of land ringed by turquoise sea comprise the Bay of Islands, your tour destination de jour. It’s undeniably beautiful, but it also holds a special historical secret: this is where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed in 1840, between Captai...
If there’s a travel destination that inspires wanderlust, the Bay of Islands is it. Today, trip the light fantastic and head off in whatever direction you please. Perhaps travel up to Cape Reinga, the very top of New Zealand, via idyllic Ninety Mile Beach. Or glide ar...
For a little more northern exposure, make your way to Whangarei, the island’s most northerly outpost and a place where waterfalls meet beaches, galleries meet museums. It’s like the country in a tantalising snapshot – a union of nature and forward-thinking culture. Ex...
Over three weeks, we hope you’ve packed your address book with the names of new friends and your camera with photos of New Zealand’s most inspiring attractions. But at the end of the day, it’s the memories that will fuel your flight home. Trips to New Zealand don’t get any more epic than this.
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Dates & Availability
Check Current Availability, prices, specials with AAT Kings.
The total tour cost includes the tour price (regular or promotional) and the compulsory local payment. The promotional price is subject to change. Check directly with the operator for the latest price offer. The tour operator requires you to pay only the tour price to purchase your travel. The compulsory local payment will be paid when you join the trip. All prices are based on double, twin or triple share occupancy. Solo passengers will be accommodated in a double, twin or triple room according to availability with a passenger(s) of the same gender. Single supplement only needs to be paid if the passenger does not want to share and requests their own room. Discounts can only be applied at the time of booking and cannot be added at a later date, regardless of any changes made to the original booking.
Prices may vary due to local taxes and trip seasonality. Click "Request Info" to inquire directly with the tour operator for the final trip price.
AAT Kings Reviews & Ratings
Other AAT Kings Reviews
Karen Baker
May 2024
South Australian Outback Adventure
The guides and driver were great and friendly. The places and a...
Jane & Matthías Annisius
May 2024
Tastes of Southern Australia
The tour was well organized. The seat arrangement was very good. Accommodations were good to very good. Some days we were driving a lot but there were always good br...
Jane & Matthías Annisius
May 2024
Kangaroo Island, sheep farm , great ocean road, blue Pinguins
The service from driver/guide were very good, funny and helpful. Always up to date. Never any iffies. Hotels were good to very good. Food was good as well with over ...
Tour Operator
A century ago, the Australian outback was but a twinkle in most travelers’ eyes. But thanks to visionaries like the Pyke family and Bill King, the way we explore the Land Down Under was about to change in unimaginable ways. Over the coming decades, maps were unfolded, desert cruisers and coaches were customized, and guides were trained. From humble beginnings, the company now known as AAT Kings was going places few had gone before, pioneering new paths across Australia and New Zealand and taking intrepid travelers on a wild and wonderful ride. We’ve come a long way and clocked a few kilometers in the process. But some things will never change. Like our spirit for adventure. Our oh-so-knowledgeable Travel Directors. The local characters we meet (and will never forget) along the way. The epic, goosebump-inducing stories we’re told by First Nations guides. The life-changing experiences on offer – the kind that only 100 years of exploring affords. We’ve never been more passionate about our next discovery. Join us and fall in love with Australia and New Zealand all over again. #aatkings
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