Make day 3 a grand South Island odyssey through Fiordland National Park. Travel via the Eglinton Valley, pause at the Mirror Lakes, and pass through the Homer Tunnel before boarding a vessel to cruise the fiord beneath Mitre Peak. Watch for cascading waterfalls like Stirling and Bowen and New Zealand fur seals basking on rocks.

Clouds snag on sheer cliffs as the boat noses close to spray — a raw, glacially carved landscape that defines Aotearoa’s wild heart. This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour, with a full-day pace balanced by quiet moments to absorb scale, sound and shifting light.

Spend day 3 sampling the flavours that made the region famous. Visit small cellar doors in the Gibbston and Cromwell basins to sample cool-climate Pinot Noir alongside aromatic whites, chatting with vintners about seasons and soils. Terrace vines climb schist-scarred hillsides, with mountain vistas framing every pour.

A relaxed wine-paired platter lunch showcases local cheeses, cured meats and seasonal produce. Learn how alpine breezes, big daytime temperature shifts and ancient river gravels shape Central Otago’s elegant style. This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour, ideal for travellers who relish terroir, storytelling and time among the vines.

Before departing Rotorua on day 6 (time permitting), elevate your perspective on the Redwoods Treewalk, a network of eco-engineered suspension bridges and platforms set about 20 metres above the forest floor. Move quietly among towering Californian redwoods, planted over a century ago, as birdsong and the scent of pine drift on the air.

Interpretive panels reveal forest ecology and the area’s connection to Whakarewarewa. This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour, offering a serene, family-friendly way to feel scale and stillness before the journey north to Auckland.

On day 6, journey north from Rotorua with a fascinating stop at the Waitomo Glowworm Caves. Follow your guide through ancient limestone formations and a cathedral-like chamber famed for its acoustics, where stalactites and rippling flowstone hint at millions of years of geology at work.

Then board a small boat to glide in near-silence beneath constellations of native glowworms (Arachnocampa luminosa), their cool blue light mirrored on the underground river. Emerge into pastoral sunlight and continue toward Auckland, carrying the memory of a subterranean sky and the science that makes it shimmer.

On day 3, venture into the backcountry along the cliff-hugging Skippers Road, carved by hand during the gold rush, before a high-octane dash on the Shotover River. With expert drivers at the helm, you’ll power through narrow gorges, spin in spray, and sweep past rock walls and gold-rush relics where prospectors once toiled.

This is Queenstown adrenaline with a heritage twist — history meets adventure in a canyon few ever see up close. This Optional Experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour, perfect for travellers who crave speed and spectacular geology in one unforgettable ride.

As evening falls on day 2, board the vintage steamship TSS Earnslaw and cruise Lake Wakatipu, watching stokers feed coal-fired boilers as The Remarkables glow in the late light. Glide to Walter Peak High Country Farm, where gardens edge the lakeshore and an historic homestead welcomes you.

Savour a gourmet barbecue dinner showcasing Otago produce before a lively farm presentation with sheep dogs in action. Return across the lake on a scenic cruise back to Queenstown, the water dark as ink and the mountains etched against the southern sky — a classic slice of South Island heritage and hospitality.

On day 5 in Rotorua, step behind the scenes at the National Kiwi Hatchery Aotearoa to witness conservation in action. Learn how specialists safeguard New Zealand’s national bird, from kiwi egg incubation and careful candling to meeting newly hatched chicks in the nursery when in season. Your guide explains the science and dedication that underpin the programme.

Discover how ‘Operation Nest Egg’ combats threats from introduced predators and why every successful hatch helps the species endure. This intimate encounter deepens appreciation for a shy, nocturnal icon and shows how visitor support directly funds vital work to protect the kiwi for future generations.

On day 2, head into Southland station country to meet a ‘Southern Girl’ local farmer at Real Country. Try hands-on skills that keep a high-country farm humming — from horse communication to working sheep dog mustering and a go at stock whip cracking — then feed friendly farm animals. Your visit helps support The Fairlight Foundation, advancing women in agriculture, while the backdrop of tussock hills and big skies sets an authentic rural scene.

Continue to Arrowtown, a beautifully preserved gold-rush settlement. Stroll Buckingham Street past miners’ cottages and sweetly restored shopfronts, then follow the riverbank to the Chinese Settlement, tiny huts first built in 1868 beside the Arrow River. Hear stories of fortune-seekers and resilience, and take time to pause for photos and reflection among schist ruins and autumn-hued trees.

Also on day 5, walk with local whanau through Whakarewarewa – The Living Maori Village, where bubbling mud pools and steaming vents shape daily life. Guides share traditions of Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao, showing how food is cooked in earth-heated boxes and how bathing springs soothe body and spirit through manaakitanga — warm, thoughtful hospitality.

Hear stories of adaptation and artistry in New Zealand’s first Maori tourism enterprise, a place where culture has been shared for generations. This is an engaging exchange rather than a performance: you’ll gain context, vocabulary, and a living sense of community as geothermal forces breathe and the village’s rhythm carries on around you.

Come nightfall on day 5, enter Te Puia in Te Whakarewarewa Geothermal Valley for the Te Po evening experience. Step inside Te Aronui a Rua meeting house for a stirring kapa haka with rhythmic poi and haka, then follow guides by lantern light to view the valley’s star, the Pohutu Geyser, at its most dramatic after dark.

Share a dinner of hangi-inspired cuisine that celebrates traditional flavours alongside contemporary dishes. Along the way, learn about master carving and weaving preserved through the New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute — a night where performance, geothermal wonder and taste come together to illuminate the richness of Maori culture.