amyd
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South Island ▷ Queenstown Region ▷ Queenstown Township ▷
Shotover Jet
4.5/5
This was an adrenaline-inducing activity!
They can only go so far on the river, so you don't get to see too much, but too much of those spins and near misses would be too much to handle! I think that all the seats in the boat are good seats. We thought it was pretty cool! This is the closest jet boat tour to Queenstown - you can drive here in 10 minutes, so the whole excursion from QT can be only 90 minutes.
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South Island ▷ West Coast ▷ Cron street ▷
Franz Josef Glacier Guides
4.0/5
We did the all-day hike on the Franz Josef, and it was an amazing experience that you don't want to miss!
Walking through deep blue crevasses and climbing up and over ice formations is awe-inspiring.
I'm not sure if there were more people than usual on the day we went, but it was a total zoo when we arrived - they wound up with 6 groups of 11, each with one guide. We thought that the group size was a little too large for what we were doing there.
It takes a while to get to the glacier - probably an hour from when we checked in until we got waivers signed, all kitted out, on the bus to the glacier. Then you have to walk about 45 min until you get to the glacier. Once you're on the glacier, it takes about an hour to start getting to the cool stuff. I don't think you'd get to the cool stuff with the half-day hike.
It was a little odd that they expected everyone to go 9 hours without a wee - you have to be pretty dehydrated for that.
We used our own boots and waterproof gear and gloves and socks and were totally happy (just used their crampons). Much of our group used their gear, and a couple of people were really suffering from blisters.
We were in group 1 of 6, which was supposed to be the people who wanted to go the fastest. We had to do a lot of adrenaline inducing climbs up and down the ice, and moving from side to side over big cracks, and avoiding stepping in things that would get your boots soaked. Some of the time our guide hooked a rope into the ice to help us. It was a long day and it totally wore me out.
The supposed benefits of the Fox over the Franz Josef are the shorter walk from the bus to/from the glacier, and smaller group sizes - both would be big advantages if true.
Wow AMYD what a great description! Thanks for taking the time to write it. Just so you know we do provide tape to prevent blisters for those choosing to use our boots. Saves on the blusters! Glad you enjoyed the trip!
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South Island ▷ Queenstown Region ▷ Queenstown Township ▷
Kiwi Discovery
4.5/5
We took a Kiwi Discovery Bus from Te Anau to Queenstown (had used Tracknet but liked the timing of the Kiwi Discovery bus better for this leg) - it was on time.
A big coach bus, which is a little more comfortable than the tracknet busses.
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South Island ▷ Fiordland ▷ Milford Sound - Fiordland National Park ▷
Mitre Peak Cruises
4.5/5
We took the last boat of the day at 4:30 and there were hardly any boats on Milford Sound.
Of course, when you do that boat, you can't go to the underwater observatory, but they actually let us go on a boat in the morning for free if we booked the underwater observatory. So we got a quiet rainy afternoon and a sunny morning on Milford Sound for the price of one! The boats go all the way out to the Tasman Sea. On one of the trips we saw lots of dolphins, swimming on our bow wave. Neither of the boats we were on was even remotely crowded.
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South Island ▷ Fiordland ▷ Doubtful Sound ▷
Doubtful Sound Overnight Cruise
5.0/5
We had a great time on the boat!
The weather was a little iffy (on and off rain) and we didn't get to see Dolphins or seals, but the experience was great. On a boat with a total of 10 passengers and 2 crew, you really feel like you're out in the middle of nowhere. We had arrived in Te Anau via the Routeburn Track, and they were able to arrange us free rides to & from Manapouri. We had fun fishing - I caught a big blue cod, which we ate for dinner. We kayaked by a waterfall. They also picked up a bunch of crayfish, which were excellently prepared as our entree. The food was quite good! I guess on a small boat, your experience could be affected by the other passengers, but we had a good group!
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South Island ▷ Mount Cook - MacKenzie ▷ Mount Cook ▷
Glacier Explorers
4.5/5
We had perfect weather, and it was great to see the huge icebergs up close.
We almost did the kayak tour, but then we realized that it wasn't in Tasman Lake - it was in another lake, with teeny tiny icebergs. Tasman Lake has huge icebergs, and the lake is too big to get to see the most impressive stuff via kayak (if there was an option to kayak on this lake). Our guide was only so-so (talked a lot about stuff he didn't know anything about), but the experience was great - the icebergs are really dynamic!
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South Island ▷ Fiordland ▷ Te Anau ▷
Tracknet Transport
4.5/5
We used to tracknet to get from Queenstown to the Routeburn track and from the Divide to Te Anau.
We had booked on a later bus from the Divide to Te Anau, but it was raining so we didn't do the Key Summit, and they let us on the earlier bus. Busses were fine - nothing special - but got us where we needed to go and were on time.
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South Island ▷ Fiordland ▷ Milford Sound - Fiordland National Park ▷
Milford Discovery Centre & Underwater Observatory
3.0/5
I was sort of underwhelmed - was expecting something more...
something bigger or deeper...
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South Island ▷ Queenstown Region ▷ Queenstown Township ▷
Skyline Luge Queenstown
4.0/5
We had fun racing each other down the luge.
The views are great from the top of the gondola.
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South Island ▷ Queenstown Region ▷ Queenstown Township ▷
AJ Hackett Bungy
5.0/5
We did a tandem jump to kick off our honeymoon, and we loved it!
Everything was very professional, and the guys up there knew how to tell you what to do so you could actually jump off. (Look at another bridge, not down, and then they count down.) I screamed the whole way down and then couldn't stop laughing for at least 5 minutes. Loved it!
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North Island ▷ Auckland Region ▷ Auckland ▷
Mighty Campervans
5.0/5
We booked through a Nomad through Backpacker in Christchurch.
I'm not sure if they were out of the Backpackers (supposed to be about 3-5 years old) or what, but we got a Britz with only 10,000 kilometers on the odometer, and that was great (and at the Backpacker price!). We were happy that we got a van big enough that we could spend time in and stand up in, and not one that is just glorified camping. It was nice to be able to hide from the sandflys, and from the cold. The bed was way more comfortable than we expected given that you put together a bunch of cushions - we were worried, but had no problems. We were also glad to have a fridge that was capable of making stuff cold, and a stove that was stable and worked really well. Everything worked fine. The pan they put in there was really nice - we want to get one at home! It did take a little while to pick up and drop off the van - it's not like getting a rental car in the states, so just be prepared. The fuel economy seemed to be quite good for a van of that size; we were expecting it to be much worse. It had a line in so we could hook up the ipod. The only thing we wished was that they had made more mesh pockets to stuff things in or cables to hang things from, but we managed quite well.
Kia ora amyd,
We're super please that you enjoyed your experience with Backpacker cars and campervans. Let us know which depot you hired from and we'll pass on your comments, you'll make their day!
Enjoy your travels wherever they may take you!
The Backpacker crew
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South Island ▷ Canterbury ▷ Akaroa ▷
Akaroa Farm Tours
5.0/5
We actually stayed at the B&B here (Paua Bay Farmstay) which was great.
We also went on the Farm Tour (which is discounted if you stay at the house). After weeks of seeing all those sheep, we got to learn about what they really did with them. We got to see a sheep shorn, to actually try shearing it ourselves, to see sheep dogs controlled by the whistle in action (really cool!) to learn how they do work on the sheep, how they divide them up, and how & why they move them from section to section of land. The tour ends with tea or coffee in the house.