If you’re going to New Zealand you have to include the West Coast. Hire a car and drive around the South Island. Take a look at this post here to see my recommended route and itinerary for a couple of weeks trip to New Zealand. If you have a look at that and decide to follow it (you should, I’m from New Zealand), then you’ll leave from Wanaka in the morning and the first place you want to stop at is Makaroa, specifically, the Blue Pools. You can read more details about all these stops in our things to do on the West Coast section. Allow about an hour then away you go.
From there you drive through the Haast Pass which is a nice drive and takes you through some lovely scenery. There’s little lookout and rest areas you can stop at along the way so don’t be in a hurry. Take your time and enjoy the drive and where you are. Where you stay the night is up to you, and that’ll depend on what time you leave and where you leave from. Fox Glacier is a good place for lunch. You can go up the Glacier and spend a few hours doing that and then go to Lake Matheson. I left early afternoon so we didn’t arrive at Fox Glacier until early evening so we had dinner there and spent the night at this hotel. Ideally you want to go to Lake Matheson early morning or sunset or whenever it’s calm, as you can see the reflections better and that’s what Lake Matheson is for.
From Fox Glacier it’s just a short drive to Franz Joseph Glacier. Unless you really like Glaciers, I suggest just doing one. Franz Joseph is the bigger one but it doesn’t really matter. From there you just keep driving North up the West Coast. Hokitika is a good place to stay the night. Make sure to head to Hokitika Gorge and bring your togs and camera for that as well as a shitload of mosquito repellent for the sand flies there.
Keep reading about things to do on the West Coast here. If you have any questions feel free to email me or message me on Twitter or Facebook.
