View Franz Josef Glacier from a panoramic viewpoint and take in its setting among the Southern Alps of the West Coast. The viewpoint offers a land-based perspective on a glacier landscape shaped by ice, mountains and temperate rainforest.

Franz Josef Glacier, also known as Ka Roimata o Hine Hukatere, is one of the region’s best-known natural landmarks. This included viewing experience is distinct from the separately offered scenic flight, which is optional.

• 6 Dinner (D)
• 16 Breakfast (B)
• 2 Lunch (L)

• Medium level of fitness required.

• Day 1: Flights to arrive prior to 12 noon into Auckland AirportDay 17: Flights to depart anytime from Christchurch Airport
  Airport to Hotel transfers are available to purchase on request.
  Flights to and from your tour are not included in the tour price.

• Comfortable walking shoes
  Warm layers
  Sunglasses, sunscreen and hat
  Water bottle
  Camera

AAT Kings

Explore Auckland’s city sights with your Travel Director, taking in historic Parnell, the Auckland Domain, Wynyard Quarter and Viaduct Harbour. See the setting of Auckland Museum amid the Domain’s expansive grounds.

The route connects older neighbourhoods with the waterfront that gives the City of Sails its name. It is a guided introduction to the city’s heritage, harbour setting and contemporary life.

Walk Napier’s Art Deco quarter on a private tour with a local expert from the Art Deco Trust. Examine the geometric facades and hear stories of the people and events behind this distinctive streetscape.

Much of central Napier was rebuilt following the devastating 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake, in styles including Art Deco and Spanish Mission. This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience reveals how the city’s architecture records a remarkable period of recovery.

Visit Tui Brewery in the Wairarapa town of Mangatainoka and explore a site associated with beer-making since 1889. The brewery grounds include a museum, bar and restaurant, offering a look at a longstanding New Zealand beer name.

Set in a small rural town rather than a major city, the visit offers a glimpse of regional brewing heritage. It is a stop to discover the brewery’s history and character; a guided tour or tasting is not specified.

Taste wines at boutique Urlar vineyard in Wairarapa and meet hosts Tess and Brian to hear the story behind the wines made on site. Enjoy a seasonal sharing platter of country fare overlooking the vineyard lake.

Wairarapa’s boutique producers give the region a distinctive place in New Zealand’s wine landscape. This hosted visit pairs a tasting with personal insight into the vineyard, in a setting shaped by the region’s rural character.

Meet fifth-generation beekeeper Karly at Greytown Honey in Wairarapa. Tour the processing factory, watch a hive-to-jar demonstration and taste award-winning honeys produced from sources including manuka, kanuka and native wildflowers.

Make your own jar of honey to take home while learning how local bush and farmland shape each variety. This MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience offers a personal connection to a family business and the landscapes its bees forage.

Explore Greytown, a Wairarapa town known for its well-preserved Victorian architecture. Its historic streetscape, boutique shops and cafés offer a chance to take in the character of one of the region’s small towns.

Look beyond the shopfronts to the nineteenth-century buildings that give Greytown its distinctive appearance. This visit is an opportunity to experience a different side of New Zealand from its geothermal landscapes and alpine scenery.

Discover Wellington on an orientation tour that includes Mount Victoria. Take a short stroll at the summit for 360-degree views across the city and harbour, with the capital’s hills and waterfront spread below.

The viewpoint makes Wellington’s compact geography easy to appreciate: neighbourhoods rise steeply from the water, while the harbour shapes the city’s outlook. It is a scenic introduction to New Zealand’s capital and its setting.

Explore the Knights of the Sky and Dangerous Skies exhibitions at Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre in Blenheim. See aircraft and memorabilia associated with the First and Second World Wars, presented in detailed, theatrical displays.

Craftsmanship by Weta Workshop helps bring the aviation stories to life. The visit offers more than a line-up of historic machines, using immersive scenes to convey the people, technology and circumstances behind wartime flight.

Explore Christchurch’s city sights and get a feel for this South Island centre. The city’s streets offer a contrast between established heritage and newer spaces created as Christchurch has rebuilt and changed.

This city introduction provides context for a place still shaped by the Canterbury earthquakes and the work of renewal that followed. Specific landmarks and entry visits are not listed for this experience, so the focus is on seeing the city itself.

View the Church of the Good Shepherd beside Lake Tekapo’s striking blue water. Built in 1935, it was the first church in the Mackenzie Basin and remains one of the area’s most recognisable landmarks.

Its simple stone form sits against a backdrop of lake and Southern Alps, creating a memorable meeting of architecture and high-country scenery. The itinerary specifies a view of the church, rather than entry inside it.

Join Angie and Stan Taylor for afternoon tea at their lakeside home near Lake Tekapo. Angie, known as the Pavlova Queen, gives a baking demonstration and explains the spirited trans-Tasman debate over the dessert’s origins.

Hear Stan’s stories from a lifetime spent farming while sharing time in a local home. The experience combines a much-loved meringue dessert with personal accounts of life in the Mackenzie High Country.

Explore the Highlands Motorsport Park Museum in Cromwell, a stop designed to interest committed car enthusiasts and curious newcomers alike. Spend time among its motoring displays in a region better known to many visitors for fruit growing and Central Otago scenery.

The museum adds a different dimension to the South Island journey, focusing on automotive design and motorsport culture. It is a museum visit; driving activities at the park are not specified as part of the tour.

Visit Arrowtown, a small town whose historic streets recall the gold rush that drew prospectors to Central Otago in the nineteenth century. Take in its village setting beneath the hills near Queenstown.

Arrowtown’s preserved character offers a tangible contrast to Queenstown’s contemporary adventure scene. The itinerary describes a visit to the town, without specifying a guided walk or entry to a particular heritage building.

Enjoy a burger at Fergburger, Queenstown’s cult eatery known for its gourmet burgers and lively atmosphere. It is a chance to experience a local food institution amid the energy of the resort town.

The appeal lies as much in the bustle around this well-known stop as in the meal itself. The burger is listed among the tour’s inclusions, although the itinerary leaves you free to enjoy it at your leisure.

Cruise overnight through Piopiotahi (Milford Sound) aboard the Milford Mariner. Watch waterfalls descend from steep mountains, look for fur seals and seabirds, and hear a specialist nature guide explain the fiord’s wildlife and landscape.

Explore the shoreline by kayak or tender boat, with viewing decks offering another perspective on the rainforest-clad cliffs. Dinner and a cooked breakfast are included aboard, allowing time to experience the fiord beyond a brief daytime visit.

Unwind at Wai Ariki Hot Springs & Spa in Rotorua, a city renowned for geothermal activity. Choose this optional experience for time in a purpose-built bathing and wellness setting shaped by the area’s hot-spring heritage.

The warmth and steam offer a relaxing way to connect with Rotorua’s geothermal character beyond its geysers and bubbling pools. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; specific treatments or facilities depend on the option selected.

Tour Rotorua’s lakes in an amphibious vehicle, enjoying views of the surrounding landscape from a vehicle designed to travel on both road and water. It is a playful alternative perspective on a region celebrated for lakes as well as geothermal activity.

Watch the scenery change as the tour moves between land and lake, with the water bringing volcanic landforms and lakeside surroundings into focus. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Zipline through ancient forest near Rotorua on a low-impact adventure option. Travel above the forest floor for a different view of the trees and the layered greenery of New Zealand’s native bush.

The experience pairs the movement of a zipline with time in a forest environment, appealing to travellers who want a more active encounter with the landscape. It is at additional cost and bookable on tour; the itinerary does not specify a particular course or operator.

Discover Hawke’s Bay wineries on an optional tour from Napier. Explore a region with a longstanding wine-growing tradition and learn about the wines produced in its varied coastal and inland settings.

A winery outing offers a taste of the food-and-wine culture surrounding Napier, distinct from the included Wairarapa vineyard visit. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; individual wineries and tastings are not specified in the itinerary.

Visit a Hawke’s Bay gannet colony on an optional wildlife tour from Napier. Observe these large seabirds in their coastal nesting habitat and experience a side of the region far removed from the city’s Art Deco streets.

Hawke’s Bay is home to a notably large nesting colony, making this a rewarding choice for birdlife enthusiasts. Wildlife encounters vary with season and conditions. The tour is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Explore Marlborough’s vineyards on an optional wine tour from Blenheim. The region is especially associated with Sauvignon Blanc, and its sun-soaked vineyard landscape offers a clear sense of where that reputation was built.

This is an opportunity to focus on Marlborough’s wine culture and regional setting during time based in Blenheim. The experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; the itinerary does not name wineries or confirm particular tastings.

Join a working mail boat cruise through Queen Charlotte Sound, travelling among its sheltered inlets as mail and supplies are delivered to local residents. Scenic views, possible wildlife sightings and commentary add depth to the journey.

The boat’s practical role makes this more than a conventional sightseeing cruise: it offers a glimpse of how communities stay connected across the sound’s intricate waterways. This optional experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Feel the speed of a Queenstown jet boat ride on an optional adventure in the region known for high-energy outdoor pursuits. The ride puts you close to the water and surrounding scenery while delivering the fast-paced experience for which jet boating is known.

It is a choice for travellers who would rather engage with Queenstown’s landscape at speed than admire it from a viewpoint. This experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour; a specific river or operator is not named.

Discover New Zealand birdlife at a wildlife centre during your time in Queenstown. This optional visit offers a closer look at some of the country’s feathered residents and an opportunity to learn about its distinctive fauna.

New Zealand’s long geographic isolation helped produce birdlife found nowhere else, giving a wildlife-focused stop particular interest here. The visit is at additional cost and bookable on tour; the itinerary does not name the centre or guarantee sightings of particular species.

Cross Lake Wakatipu aboard the historic TSS Earnslaw to Walter Peak High Country Farm. Enjoy the lake and mountain views before joining a guided farm tour in a setting framed by Queenstown’s alpine landscape.

Morning or afternoon tea is part of this optional outing, combining a heritage vessel with an introduction to high-country farm life. The experience is at additional cost and bookable on tour, and provides a more leisurely alternative to Queenstown’s faster-paced activities.

Fly over Fox and Franz Josef glaciers for an aerial perspective on the Southern Alps’ icefields and rugged West Coast terrain. From above, the scale of the glaciers and their mountain setting becomes particularly clear.

A glacier landing may be possible if weather conditions allow, but it is not guaranteed. Offered during the West Coast portion of the tour, this is one optional experience rather than two separate flights. It is at additional cost and bookable on tour.

Experience Maori performance at Te Puia in Rotorua’s carved Te Aronui a Rua meeting house. The Te Po Indigenous Experience also brings you close to Pohutu Geyser, where steam and erupting water reveal the area’s geothermal energy.

Share a buffet dinner of locally sourced, hangi-inspired cuisine. Together, the performance, food and geothermal setting offer an introduction to living Maori traditions in a place long associated with them.

Walk Whirinaki Forest with local Maori guides and hear stories of Ngati Manawa history among ancient native trees. Look for birds, meet the forest’s chiefly trees, including a thousand-year-old totara, and learn about rakau rongoa, traditional medicinal plants.

This interactive MAKE TRAVEL MATTER® Experience includes a forest-to-fork picnic infused with traditional cuisine. Waterfalls, rainforest trails and hot kawakawa tea create space to appreciate both the ecology of Whirinaki and its cultural significance.