A wise author once wrote: “Not all those who wander are lost”, a great mantra for a family taking a year off to explore. J.R.R. Tolkien also wrote an epic fantasy series-turned-movie-trilogy that ended up being the highest grossing and award winning trilogy of all times, The Lord of the Rings. The Devereauxs continue our unexpected journey on the South Island of New Zealand, retracing the steps of the Fellowship across the plains of Middle Earth. Yes we watched all three, extended cut movies, yes we recreated scenes at the filming locations and yes, we ate po-tay-toes boiled, mashed and in a stew.
New Zealand was Madeline’s “No questions asked” choice for our year abroad destinations. Technically our whole family has been to New Zealand before in 2023, with Madeline being six months pregnant with Emmett. We stuck to the North Island that time, trying to be more pregnant friendly, avoiding the long drives, wineries, hot springs, extreme sports and hiking famous in the South. Truthfully, though, we had a fantastic time exploring the North Island and vowed to one day return to visit the other half…. not pregnant. Not only have we returned, but “Nani” (Madeline’s Mom) asked to join us again, despite the warnings of road tripping with toddlers in a crammed middle seat.
Where Are We?
For our New Zealand South Island trip with toddlers Madeline planned a central highlights tour, balancing places to see with drive times. To help limit our miles, we flew in to Queenstown, drove north, and flew out of Christchurch. We generally stopped at places for a minimum of 3 nights, as we’ve found that to be the goldilocks of moving “quickly” without feeling like all we do is unpack/pack with kids. Here was our itinerary:
- Queenstown (6 Nights) – A longer stay to feel the vibes of this area of New Zealand, meet up with some friends and see Lord of the Rings (LOTR) sites.
- Te Anau (3 Nights) – Stayed here to be within driving range of the Milford Sound.
- Wanaka (5 Nights) – A compare and contrast with Queenstown to see if its less touristy younger brother is better. Days at the lake and hikes abound.
- Twizel (3 Nights) – A dark sky area (lots of stars) and within striking distance of Mt. Cook, another required stop on the South Island.
- Christchurch (2 Nights) – Our departure flight location and largest city in the South.
Even with 3weeks and +1000km of driving, there were many places we didn’t reach. It was particularly hard to cut out Abel Tasman National Park, but it was just too far north to make it on this trip. I’ve structured the blog a little differently this time to give some more stories about each of the areas we stayed. Get ready, this is a long one.
Queenstown
Our starting point for exploring the South Island was Queenstown, and we knew as the plane landed flanked by sky-reaching mountains that we were in for a treat. Nestled on the shores of Lake Wakatipu, the town is surrounded by nature. Downtown is walkable and filled with an alternating series of eatery and outdoor equipment stores to satiate pre and post hike needs.
One of our favorite spots was the promenade along the Queenstown Bay Beach with daily food cart and craft vendors. For the kids, the playground next to the beach was easily in the our top 5 of the year and stopping by the Patagonia Chocolates – Ice Creamery & Chocolaterie is a no brainer. It was also fun to watch the coming and goings of the jet boat tours!
Known as “The Adventure Capital of the World”, Queenstown has every extreme sport possible. We embraced the adventure and visited the Skyline Queenstown, which is a gondola with a “luge” at the top of the mountain. It’s actually more of a downhill cart race with sweeping curves to steer around and the kids loved it. We went five times and they were both bargaining for more. In a small world moment, a coworker from our first job, Megan, was traveling in NZ at the same time and met up with us for the luge and dinner afterward.
Megan wouldn’t be the only person we met up with here, on purpose or on accident. Lars, a fellow engineer from the University of Portland, lives in Queenstown and shared stories about life in NZ before taking us to Canyon Brewing for pizza, beer and river views. The craziest unplanned meetup, was I ran in to a high school classmate, Alex, while hiking Bob’s Cove. I hadn’t spoken to him since graduation, ~20 years ago. Suffice to say it’s a popular travel destination.
Taking a break from all the extreme activities, we went in search of filming locations from the Lord of the Rings. It’s a surprisingly common tourist thing to do here regardless of how big of an LOTR fan you are. We drove an hour up to Glenorchy and Paradise. We were struck by how pristine New Zealand is, unimpeded by any buildings on the majority of its landscape. The town itself is also worth a stop over, particularly at Mrs Woolly’s General Store for the pastries and trinkets.
In Paradise, we visited the popular “Lothlorien Forest” and “Isengard” sites. Madeline always tried to get side-by-side photos on her phone of the film, but poor service areas were a challenge, so pro tip is to pre-download those. The story behind the production of the LOTR is a fascinating one, where entire local communities came together to support the cast and be extras. While the South Island has some of the most iconic locations, the North Island has Hobbiton (near Auckland) and Weta Workshop (near Wellington) that should be on every fan’s bucket list. I flagged the film sites we visited at the end of the post on the map.
On our last day in Queenstown we went to brunch at Bespoke Kitchen to get our daily dose of “fluffies” (kids warm milk with a dusting of chocolate powder), caffeine and millennial avocado toast. We drove out to the airport to pick the final member of our traveling circus, Nani, and tried to watch her plane fly in from a nearby playground, but the high winds made it hard to play outside and apparently even harder to land a plane. Nani did make it to ground safely and united with a full car, we left for Te Anau to see the Milford Sound.
Te Anau
From Queenstown we headed south to Te Anau, a small town on another beautiful lake (this is going to be a theme) where we could be 1.5 hours from the famous Milford Sound versus +5 hours from Queenstown. We debated a lot between Milford and the less-known-but-equally-as-beautiful Doubtful Sound, but elected for the classic, well traveled one (Milford) for more flexibility with toddlers. If you have time, the overnight stay aboard boat in Doubtful Sound is supposed to be phenomenal.
Our accommodations in Te Anau were actually a hostel, Barnyard Backpackers Te Anau. The views from the place were the perfect setting for sunset, at least for the parent that wasn’t trying to put kids to sleep while it was still light out after 9 pm. Mae and Emmett loved gathering wildflowers and running up and down the hill between our bunk building and the common area.
Te Anau town was more like a large neighborhood with a grocery store and a few eateries. The lakefront is picturesque and it has a well-designed children’s playground, common in NZ. A trip out to Manapouri was also worth it for a more secluded, nature-based lakeside walk.
On to why we are were here: Milford Sound. The drive out is half the journey, with some great spots to stop for views and hikes. There is a long, one-way tunnel that can get backed up, so we drove with minimal stopping on the way out. Then, in the afternoon, took a more leisurely pace on the way back to town.
For our cruise, Madeline found Mitre Peak Cruises, which operates some relatively smaller tour boats in the sound, allowing you to get closer to the waterfalls and cliff faces. On the boat, we pumped the kids full of complimentary hot chocolate to keep them occupied while we took in the dramatic 360 degree views. As a special treat, our boat was visited by some of the resident bottlenose dolphins. We visited on a gloriously sunny day, but rainy days are equal in epic-ness since literally 1000s of waterfalls form, cascading into the sound. We took the first boat out which meant we had the road to ourselves on the way out and few boats in the sound.
On the way back, Madeline and her mom hiked at Gertrude Valley Lookout while the kids and I ate PB&Js and Snackachangi Chips (I’ve never laughed more at packaging) while discussing what the clouds looked like. Emmett and I took a car nap while the girls (Nani, Madeline and Mae) did the Lake Gunn Nature Walk with some gummy sharks for sustenance. A lot of driving over a few days but the kids did fantastic!
Wanaka
We turned around at Te Anau and drove back up past Queenstown to, you guessed it, another lake side town: Wanaka. Along the way we stopped to explore Arrowtown before proceeding through Cardrona. The Cardrona route takes you up through grassy hills with spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and huge swaths of purple, pink and blue lupin everywhere (at least in January).
I want to quickly highlight our stop at Arrowtown, an old mining town turned quaint artsy destination. It’s a must-stop 20 min from Queenstown. We started our visit at Mora Wines for a fantastic lunch and wine under pergolas of flowers. Mora has both an indoor and outdoor play area, so Mae and Emmett disappeared for two hours, surfacing briefly to inhale some food. We spent the better part of the afternoon walking the idyllic main street, stopping in coffee shops, craft stores and the many merino wool clothing vendors.
We made it to Wanaka and found a place with shops and food similar to Queenstown but toned down a notch. It all felt more “lived in” is the best way I can describe it. All over New Zealand we’ve seen plenty of tourists, but everyone here is dressed in outdoor attire and here for the nature. The laidback attitude of travelers matches the locals, yielding what to us felt like a symbiotic relationship. As far as scenery, the Wanaka mountains are a bit more in the distance than Queenstown and the lake wider, offering a long, rocky waterfront with, you guessed it, another epic playground.
One of the primary things we used five nights in Wanaka for was to catch up on life a bit. I did boring tax things (yuck) and Madeline gave the kids haircuts and nail trims while watching episodes of Bluey. We got to go on our first date in months (thanks Nani) and splurged on a tasting menu with wine pairing at Kika, a restaurant focused on seasonal local fare. Madeline and I enjoyed reflecting on our year abroad and the gift it’s been to spend it with Mae and Emmett.
A few other Wanaka favorites:
- Diamond Lake Conservation Area: Offers 3 hike options, each extending upon the previous one depending on how far you want to go. We opted for the middle one, a 4 mile loop with some substantial uphill climbs. The kids (and adults!) did great, motivated onward by 3 gummy worms. The views of Lake Wanaka and the mountains were spectacular.
- Lake Hawea: Gloriously bright turquoise and one of the area’s best-kept secrets. We lounged on the shore in the sun while the kids collected marbled rocks.
- Red Berry Farms: A U-pick strawberry farm that was gloriously in season. Madeline was in heaven and I think we picked close to 10 lbs of strawberries. New Zealand also does this special twisted berry ice cream, where they mash the fresh berries into vanilla ice cream. None of us were willing to share this ambrosia and purchased a cone each.
- Hokuwai Loop: A running/hiking/mountain biking path along the Clutha River. The views are so good that Madeline was distracted and fell trail running, spraining her wrist. Good news that the NZ medical system is phenomenal and she got treated promptly for the grand price of $0.
- Rippon Wines: While picturesque and amazing wines, we cannot recommend a visit with children. It’s essentially a 30 min group lecture in a small room where our kids were frowned upon for asking us questions while quietly coloring.
Twizel & Mt Cook
Twizel was our home base for visiting Mt. Cook National Park, another of the “must sees” of the South Island. While still about 50 mins from the park, it is the more affordable/available lodging option. The main town itself is not directly on a lake (!) but has several close by. There is a central town square with playground and quizzically two of the exact same brand of grocery store right across from each other. Even stranger, we went to both and they each had different items….
For Mt Cook, we planned three days in Twizel to have weather flexibility for our trip. As fate would have it, THE sunny day was our arrival day from Wanaka. Already two hours on the road, we quickly dropped off a few items at our rental and continued on to the park. We were glad we did, as the visibility was perfect and we could see Mt. Cook and the surrounding range. We did two hikes (tracks): Kea Point and the Tasman Glacier View, both of which were relatively short but offered fantastic views of the namesake glaciers and Mount Cook. The kids were troopers, especially since in my haste to unload the car I had left all snacks at our accommodations in Twizel.
In addition to the main park we also visited a few other places in town worth mentioning:
- Pelennor Fields Film Site – The largest LOTR filming scene of the epic battle in the last movie, it took nearly a month and over a 1000 actors/actresses to complete. Almost the entire town of Twizel was employed in some fashion to support.
- High County Salmon – I know that a salmon farm is probably not a place you typically want to visit ever, vacation or not, but this place is legit and on a glacial river. The kids loved feeding the fish and watching people do the available “catch your own fish” adventure. We got a fillet harvested that day and it was some of the best salmon of my life.
- Stargazing – Twizel is in a dark sky reserve, meaning the stars are epic. We did have a stargazing experience booked, but unfortunately the clouds didn’t clear in time for us to partake.
We departed Twizel for our longest drive of the trip to Christchurch. Along the way we stopped in the quaint Tekapo, another lake town (#4) with scrumptious food and a smattering of shops. It is THE most turquoise lake we’ve saw in NZ. It had a pretty chapel along the water and large grassy park to relax. We visited the Tekapo Springs, which had adult and kid pools alike to rest our weary hiking muscles. It was relaxing and let the kids burn some pent up car energy. After that we had wood fired pizzas on a hill by the lake before the final leg of our drive.
Christchurch
Our final stop in New Zealand was Christchurch, the largest city on the South Island. We only stayed for two nights, and used the time to go on a shopping spree for some much needed new clothes, sunscreen and art supplies. We enjoyed walking around the streets and watching the famous trams pass by (Emmett was only excited if it was blue). The Riverside Market was a delicious food stop with creative takes on a lot of cuisines, like push pop sushi rolls.
For putting up with the long car rides and tons of family photos, we gave the kids a treat day, with epic playground and ice cream. The Margaret Mahy Playground, should be called playgrounds because there were at least five separate areas for the kids to run around in. It was hard to keep track of whether they were in “trampoline land” or climbing high above us in the netted trees. We replenished our energy with heaping cones of Hokey Tokey Pokey (the actual flavor) ice cream at Rollickin Gelato. I’m always impressed with just how much ice cream Emmett can put away.
Tips & Lessons Learned
This is where we put all of the things we learned along the way about traveling in the region as well as traveling with toddlers.
About New Zealand:
- Didn’t Need Cash – New Zealand is all digital. In the three weeks we were there we never used an ATM or carried any cash on us. Tap-to-pay was omnipresent.
- Car vs Camper Van – We debated a long time on whether to squeeze in to a camper van for our tour around New Zealand, expecting it to be a way to save money. What we found was: A) Finding one that fits four people with seats during driving was hard. Five people nearly impossible. B) They are bloody expensive during the summer. Like $3000 a week. We ultimately found that renting a car and staying in a bed without wheels was, while still expensive, more cost effective.
- Book Early – For their Summer (Nov-March) things book up quickly. We were booking two months out and had to make some cost sacrifices on location based on availability. It was definitely doable, but for families needing more than a single bedroom we’d recommend looking at least six months ahead.
- Sunscreen and Bug Spray – The UV index in New Zealand summer is some of the highest in the world. And the sand flies near southern lakes can attack you the minute you leave the car, especially in the fjordlands. We learned the hard way that they itch like crazy for days. Plan for lots of sunscreen-bug spray-sunscreen-repeat!
- Roadtrip Apps – A variety of road trip apps exist for NZ that show everything you need: bathrooms, picnic areas, playgrounds, gas stations, etc. It’s very handy with small children. Google which ones are the best near your trip as we’ve noticed they’ve changed a bit in the last 3 years!
Closing
New Zealand surprised us yet again and we know we’ll be back someday. There’s nowhere that feels quite as untouched despite the flocks of tourists that hit the main sites. After so many days on the road around New Zealand we felt that we need the cliche, “vacation from our vacation”. Luckily we found an easy set of flights to the island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands for some sun and R&R!
So nice to live vicariously through you. I’m sure so many people, including me, will refer back to your pictures and notes for future trips. Can’t wait to hear about Raratonga.