Christchurch

I would recommend staying as close to the centre as possible as public transport is scarce and finishes early, there is however a lack of hotel rooms after the earthquake so check out the usual booking sites such as www.booking.com or www.venere.com.

Queenstown

As befits Queenstown, home to the first bungy jump and now some of the most expensive real estate in the country, there is a wide range of accommodation from hostels to new luxury hotels.

We stayed at Absoloot Value Accommodation, www.absoloot.com.nz a hostel but with private en suite rooms including one with probably the best view of any accommodation in the town. Great staff, amazing location and reasonable prices.

If this doesn’t suit then check out the usual booking sites such as www.booking.com or www.venere.com .

Christchurch

Restaurants

We were only there for two days and found it difficult to find eating and drinking places, Victoria Street is reckoned to be the best area in the centre for places but early in the week we found many places shut or very quiet.

Cafes & Bars

As above for restaurants, Victoria Street and around is probably the best area.

Queenstown

Restaurants

Again as you would expect a huge range of eating and drinking options to suit all pockets, there were several standout places which are detailed below.

Rata, 43 Ballarat Street, is owned by Josh Emett a top NZ chef who has worked round the world for some of the best known chefs. He offers a three course lunch for a very reasonable price and the quality as you would expect was top notch. Top notch service and a lovely setting.

Bella Cucina, 6 Brecon Street, this was recommended to us and lived up to expectations, an excellent meal of Italian dishes with some small twists. The beef carpaccio to start was seriously top notch and both pasta mains were excellent.

Madam Woo, 5 The Mall, is also owned by Josh Emett and is his take on Vietnamese street food, we enjoyed the food but the prices are on the high side for “street food”.

Tanoshi, Cow Lane, was a real find, this small Japanese restaurant was excellent, lovely staff and atmosphere. As recent visitors to Japan we really rated the quality of the food and it is also reasonably priced.

Fergburger, 42 Shotover Street, is very well known for, no surprise here, its burgers and the queues sometimes are enormous. Go mid afternoon and you shouldn’t wait long and the burgers were worth the hype. It is licensed so you can get a beer or wine with your meal.

Cafes & Bars

Vudu Café & Larder, 16 Rees Street, is “the” place to go for breakfast, it is amazingly popular and the style of service can be described as irritating but it is good but also it is pricey.

Patagonia Ice Cream & chocolates, 50 Beach Street does amazing ice creams, portion are large.

The Empanada Kitchne, 60 Beach Street, is beside the very smart public toilets but don’t be put off, this small take way sells very good empanadas with an assortment of fillings.

The Bunker, Cow Lane, is a very smart bar and restaurant, stays open late and in the upstairs bar serves up excellent cocktails and wines, the coolest bar in town.

Perky’s Floating Bar, you cannot miss this moored on the lake, with a great setting and decently priced drinks, it is always busy but a must to visit.

The Winery, 14 Beach Street, is the place to sample wines, there are over 80 by the glass in varying sizes but since they are machine dispensed you have to be careful to check the prices as some are seriously top range. They also sell wine by the bottle, arrange tours and tastings.

Drink

The South Island’s most well known wine growing area is without doubt Marlborough, famed for its Sauvignon Blanc, and this area really put New Zealand on the wine growing map.

For a less well known area you should head around 900km south to Central Otago, New Zealand’s highest and the world’s most southerly wine growing region. It is also the country’s most spectacular wine region, ringed by mountains and interlaced with lakes and deep river gorges. Around 80% of the wine produced is Pinot Noir but there are also white wines such as Pinot Gris, Riesling and Chardonnay.

There are six main areas within the region and the first commercial wine was produced in 1987 by an Irish ex-journalist called Alan Brady at Gibbston Valley, in 1996 there were only 11 wineries, now there are over 120. The pinot noir produced at Gibbston Valley went on to win the world championship wine fourteen years later.

These days craft beer is also very popular, Speights from Dunedin is one of the larger brewers and also has a number of ale houses. Wanaka near Queenstown is home to three small craft brewers and there are several more around, give them a try.

Christchurch

A must is to wander round the centre and see what happened and how it is being rebuilt, there are many art installations that were put in place in the aftermath and an exhibition at Quake City. ReStart is a mall of shipping containers containing shops, bars, banks etc. and is fun to walk around and there is also a historic tram route.

The botanic gardens are really lovely and well worth a couple of hours exploration you can then walk along the banks of the River Avon and take a boat trip in a punt.

Queenstown

Famous of course for it’s adventure sports, there are dozens of places offering bungy, paragliding, jet boating, and dozens more, I cannot comment on any as we went for more sedate activities such as wine tasting and boat trips. We did however go and watch the original bungy site, now a major attraction and it is bad enough that they have to do it but having to smile and wave to the large audience must make it even worse.

A must is a visit to Milford Sound, often described as the eight wonder of the world, it can be done by a day trip from Queenstown although the journey takes between 5 and 6 hours. There are frequent stops to admire the amazing scenery at places such as Mirror Lake and of course a boat cruise on the lake as the highlight. There are options to fly back or even take a helicopter but these come at a price and due to the weather often don’t happen. We used Real Journeys and while there were gripes about late pick-ups the quality of the guide/driver soon made you forget about this. Given that it is supposed to be the second wettest place in the world,  be prepared for the weather.