Christchurch to Queenstown 2-Day Tour via Franz Josef

This was an amazing two-day tour starting in Christchurch and ending in Queenstown, taking us to see the amazing sights of Arthur's Pass, Franz Josef, Wanaka, and everything in between! The road trip along the way is an adventure in itself, full of amazing views! The first day was led by Joel, a young tour guide who is very friendly and knowledgeable and provided lots of explaantions along the way. The second day was led by Danny, who really took good care of the group and made sure we had good views of a couple of glaciers!

Great trip, nice stops along the way where you can walk to great lookout points and take pictures. Had fantastic guides, Rosie and Lynette, and lots of information about the area and NZ in general.

Great fun lots of walks Rosie and Colin were amazing very knowledgeable interesting we had the best time

We spent 3 weeks in New Zealand and had planned to do a lot of travelling by bus since we were not confident to drive on the right side of the road. This 2-day tour was a great choice and gave us more than we expected for the cost. First off, the bus we rode in is really a well-fitted and comfortable van which had 10 guests on our tour. The driver is also the tour guide and ours was very good at sharing both insight and humor about New Zealand’s indigenous and Euro-Asian history. Each day includes up to 10 stops along the route that takes you through the remote and less populated west coast of the South Island (and there's an option to take the Trans Alpine train to the western side of the island, which is a separate cost and skips the Castle Hill and Arthur's Pass visits). Some stops on the route are only for 5-10 minutes to grab a picture and stretch your legs but several stops are up to an hour in length including Castle Hill, a site that is sacred to the Maori tribes, Arthur's Pass village and the Devil's Punch Bowl walking track, and the Hokitika Gorge walk, which was stunning. We ended day 1 in the town of Franz Joseph. Keep in mind this is not a stop on the glacier, which we couldn’t even see. But after the long day of travel it was a great place to stop and spend the night. Plan to visit the local grocery store before grabbing dinner at one of numerous restaurants on the main route. The next day kicked off with a morning visit to Lake Matheson, which was stunningly beautiful and the coffee at the local bakery was delicious. After a couple more stops lunch was at the Hard Antler, an unexpected treat with interesting history. I recommend trying the Sammy. The afternoon included 4 more stops before ending up in Queenstown, which was our final destination. All in all a great day trip and I would do it again.

I love these one-way NZ tours by Cheeky Kiwi. And to do it over 2 days made it spectacular. You get to see so much along the way and with more time and stops to soak in. The landscape is beautiful as you travel and you learn so much from talking to the guides (Rosie - day 1, and Noah - day 2) and the other passengers.