Go to nearby towns for the scenery. NZ is mainly scenery, walks and extreme/adventure sports, as well as some museum and history.
Drive around Lake Wakatipu, stop by at the towns on the way and enjoy the scenery. You can also spend a day at Arrowtown for its history and beautiful town.
Should be able to fill up the 5 days pretty easily.

The last I been to Australia was over 10 years ago so I can't really answer that question for you. Some say that NZ is much more expensive than Australia and even Australia tourists find travelling in NZ expensive. But it really depends on your budget, there are lots of budget backpackers travelling in NZ, so it also depends on what you are comfortable with.

I would say whole of NZ generally suitable for family to travel. It's just harder to get to SI since there is no direct flights to SI. I recommend hiring a car and driving around NI or SI.

From my recent trip in late April/early May...

Autumn in Arrowtown:


Lake Wanaka:


Lake Wakatipu & Glenorchy with gloomy weather:

Summer holiday plus christmas plus new year holidays.
The locals take 1 month off work during those time.

School starts on February 1st. So maybe it's better to travel in Feb.

We usually book in advance. I have no experience renting the car from the airport directly.

Best if you could get one. Very cheap to get it in Malaysia.
But it's not necessary.

Lake Tekapo is beautiful. Hokitika is on the west cost, don't think you can get from Wanaka to Hokitika and back to Christchurch in a day. You mean Rakaia Gorge is it? I would suggest better to spend a day at Lake Tekapo and just pass by Rakaia Gorge and some other mountains and lakes nearby on the way back to Christchurch, some LOTR filming sites there I think.

During my recent trip to SI, we spend almost 3/4 of a day in Arrowtown just walking around and visiting the museum. The hot pies at their bakery here is pretty
awesome.

Which route are you taking for CHC to Franz Josef? You won't exactly pass by Greymouth if you take Arthur's Pass route. The drive can be quite challenging.

I would suggest self-drive. It's very easy to drive around NZ. Just pay attention to the speed limit. There are tons of information on driving around NZ and planning your drive.

What ticket are you talking about?

Hmm, you'll need to walk around 20 minutes if not mistaken to a certain point to see the glacier from far far away. The walk is not too bad. Lemme show you some photos:

Basically the walk will be that kind of path, some slope up and down if I remember correctly (done too many walks in SI ). That's my 70+ year old dad btw, he also manage to do the full 1.5 hours walk up to glacier and down. That walk is much more tough as some parts are quite steep. That's the view you get from the nearest viewpoint.

Auckland to Rotorua - depends on the flight I guess, check the domestic flights and see. Might be doable but probably very tight and tiring. It's about 3 hours drive if you're driving. There are quite some stuff in Rotorua, suggest you do a few days there on a 2nd trip.

Day 8 - Queenstown to Wanaka only about an hour plus drive, not that long. Lake Wanaka is beautiful too, you can drive a bit further north to the tip of Lake Wanaka then drive back passing by Lake Hawea, I find that route very scenic.

Day 9 - You'll be travelling from Wanaka to CHC right? Maybe can take a slow coastal drive stopping by Timaru for lunch then continue your way back to CHC.

Eating out can be quite expensive in NZ, unless you plan to eat fast food all the way. Try getting those motels where they have family rooms and come with kitchen so you can buy some groceries and do some simple cooking to save some money. We stayed at mostly Top 10 holiday park, roughly NZ$130-160 per night for 4 adults to stay, most of these holiday park rooms come with full kitchen. We have membership so maybe cheaper. You can also look into Kiwi Holiday Park to see if it's cheaper. Some may find it too troublesome to cook every night though. Car rental depending on company, we manage to get NZ$45/day at Quality Car Rental in CHC, they provided airport transfer as well. There are some fuel saving tips here on this forum, something about getting a temporary AA card or something to get few cents off per litre. Check back a few pages and see.

Edit: Forgot to mention, I did my trip end April/early May, it was autumn then and quite cold so prices may have been cheaper.

This post has been edited by munkeyflo: Sep 3 2013, 06:59 PM

Depending on which airline you are flying with and also what are the terms and condition of the ticket that you've booked. Usually promotion air tickets can't be change so maybe need to forfeit. Check with the airline company you bought with.

With all (if not most) of MH flight, doesn't matter which destination, they normally have a few classes of tickets - i.e. Economy Promo, MH Basic, MH Smart, and MH Flex. Each has different T&Cs. Example for Economy Promo, you can't get refund if you cancel, but with the others, you can cancel for a fee. As for changing the flight dates, it depends on the new flight ticket price as well. It's best for you to contact them directly to find out the additional charges.

Most flights fly KL-Auckland direct then you take a domestic flight from there to CHC.

You can try Air NZ and Jetstar for domestic flights. Jetstar luggage is damn expensive IMO.

SQ very expensive for me.

Last time booked AA return RM700 KL-CHC. Damn cheap!

That was way back when AA just started fly to CHC, new route promo lor. Now want back that rate also don't have edi.
Normally fly Jetstar to Auckland these days, transit in SGP for 3 hours or so. You manage to get below RM2k that's very cheap! This year flew to Auckland return also RM2.5k with Jetstar.

Meals onboard Jetstar are friggin expensive too. Seats are something like AA, more cramp than MAS or SQ.

I think they have a no outside food policy but you see everyone bringing their own food on board the plane, especially when they open up their Subway sandwich, the smell woahhh hahah. Me myself also pack some food (often fried rice/bihun or bread) from home to eat on the plane. You can ask to refill your water bottle with no extra charges, in other words, water is free if you have a water bottle, hot or cold.

I usually don't bother about the entertainment cause I'll be too occupied with my own tablet so I can't really answer you about that. But I think there have some movies playing on board the plane considering they have a webpage on inflight entertainment.
http://www.jetstar.com/au/en/what-we-offer...t/entertainment

Correct. You can stay up to 3 months without a visa.

It'll be a good time to travel I guess. Summer time has longer daylight hours, can do more stuffs. Daylight saving times usually start ends September and finishes early April.

Queenstown.

For places to go, just look back a few posts and you can see some of the suggested itinerary already.

Then check and see if it's cheaper to rent a car and drive from CHC to Queenstown or not.

Then again, you have only 4 days and travelling by car takes up quite some time too. So it depends how much you are willing to pay now.

Check with the car rental companies. I'm sure the bigger car rental companies are able to provide that service.

Cheapest so far is still Jetstar, with transit at Singapore. Last minute booking cost slightly below RM4k return when I booked in October/November this year.

December probably peak season, summer time. End December, Christmas time, when the locals take 1 month holiday off.

This post has been edited by munkeyflo: Nov 20 2013, 08:38 AM

Have you done a search?

https://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopi...&hl=new+zealand

7 days better just do south only. Not enough to do both islands.