Worthy detours between Christchurch and Queenstown, New Zealand?

[behyx]

I will be driving from Christchurch to Queenstown, and stopping at the following places :

Lake Tekapo
Mount Cook National Park
Lake Pukaki
Wanaka
Lake Dunstan
Arrowtown
Lake Hayes

Along the way, is there any places worth making a detour? Any off-the-beaten-track locations? Distance preferably not more than 1 hour return from the main highway 8.

Thanks!

 

[Choon]

hello behyx,

assuming u r travelling with your mates, dun bother to detour unless ur schedule there are more than a week.

By the time you guys take turn to drive from Christchurch to Queenstown on daily basis, u all will be dead tired.

 

[kaxdd]

Fox Glacier!

 

[harnamsc]

I agree with Choon, how many days is your road trip and what are you driving? Don't forget this is not Singapore. Some roads are not paved so a sedan car will have to travel much more slowly. Realistically speaking one hour is not enough unless you intend to simply drive in, jump out, take two photos then quickly speed back to the highway.

hello behyx,

assuming u r travelling with your mates, dun bother to detour unless ur schedule there are more than a week.

By the time you guys take turn to drive from Christchurch to Queenstown on daily basis, u all will be dead tired.

 

[behyx]

Hey guys, thanks.. The length of the trip is not fixed, my schedule is very flexible.

But if there are good detours to make, I can make time for it.

Please throw in your suggestions!

Thanks kaxdd! But I'm skipping the west coast for this trip =)

 

[nsng]

I will be driving from Christchurch to Queenstown, and stopping at the following places :

Lake Tekapo
Mount Cook National Park
Lake Pukaki
Wanaka
Lake Dunstan
Arrowtown
Lake Hayes

Along the way, is there any places worth making a detour? Any off-the-beaten-track locations? Distance preferably not more than 1 hour return from the main highway 8.

Thanks!

From Queenstown, you can drive along Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy. You can hike some of the trails around this area. But it is definitely more than an hour round trip. Also, you can go to Te Anau from Queenstown. But again more than an hour.

I completed a 24 day driving trip around the South Island in Oct/Nov. Here is thread with some photos, http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/land-city-scapes-travel/1200238-south-island-new-zealand-trip.html

N S Ng

 

[Alpc]

Some roads are not paved so a sedan car will have to travel much more slowly.

Actually, the list he has given here are all on paved roads and can be reached very easily.

If I am not late in this reply :-

The Clay Cliffs in Omarama is one that is not on paved road, in fact it's on private land, but the owners has this on honesty system where you pay NZD5 (used to be put it into a bucket but i think they change it to buy ticket from Omarama Hot Tubs) and drive into the area to hike around it - do a Google it to find out more if you are interested. One thing is that you need to wash the car after the trip as the road is not paved, and the clay/sand do dirty the car.

The other would be the Elephant Rocks off Duntroon, between Oamaru and Omarama in Otago, This was used for Narnia movie but can't remember which was it that had use this, could be the 1st one as it was supposed to be Aslan camp. You can Google them as well. This is on paved roads, so you should not have any problems.

This was 2 locations that I had been to during my trip to NZ in 2009. I don't recall having a thread in Clubsnap of the locations I been to for this trip.

 

[K S Kong]

Should consider visit Kaikoura.