Explore the natural and cultural highlights of New Zealand's North and South Islands, including magnificent landscapes and geological features, meetings with the "Kiwi" people, and visits to museums and wineries.

Starting at: $7,874 * Includes airfare, taxes & all fees Make a Reservation Ask Us A Question or Call 855-330-1542
Landscape of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu Typical New Zealand landscape with sheep farm Wines of New Zealand. Credit: Chris McLennan/Tourism New Zealand The city of Auckland. Credit: Tourism New Zealand Maori artist working on traditional carving. Credit: Eric Lindberg/Tourism New Zealand Maori woman with traditional tattoos. Credit: James Heremaia/Tourism New Zealand Traditional Maori meeting house Fence with traditional Maori design Rotorua's Te Puia. Credit: Eric Lindberg/Tourism New Zealand Spouting geysers, Rotorua. Credit: Chris McLennan/Tourism New Zealand Geothermal area, Rotorua. Credit: Tourism New Zealand The New Zealand Kiwi Tasting cafe in Wellington. Credit: Tourism New Zealand The Rose Garden at the Botanical Gardens, Christchurch Looking out over Queenstown. Credit: Chris Sisarich/Tourism New Zealand View of the dramatic Doubtful Sound View of Doubtful Sound Waterfalls in Fiordland National Park Queenstown, Lake Wakatipu, and the Remarkables The excitement of the Shotover Jet, near Queenstown. Credit: Tourism New Zealand

Journey Through New Zealand

From Auckland to Queenstown

16 days from $7,874 | includes airfare, taxes and all fees

Explore the natural and cultural highlights of New Zealand's North and South Islands, including magnificent landscapes and geological features, meetings with the "Kiwi" people, and visits to museums and wineries.

or Call 855-330-1542

To view a section, please click on an option below.

Accommodations

* Click on hotel name to visit hotel web-site.

Grand Millennium Auckland

Auckland, New Zealand

The Grand Millennium Auckland sits in the heart of Auckland’s central business district, just a few blocks from Waitemata Harbour and a few minutes’ walk to the High Street shopping district and SkyCity casino. The bright, contemporary hotel features a soaring, light-filled lobby area, two restaurants and a bar; fitness center with indoor pool, steam room, and gym; complimentary Wi-Fi internet access; and laundry and dry cleaning services (for a fee). Air-conditioned guest rooms have private bath with hair dryer, coffee- and tea-making facilities, minibar, TV, and phone.

Number of nights: 2

Millennium Hotel Rotorua

Rotorua, New Zealand

Located just steps from Lake Rotorua and a short walk from the city center, the Millennium Hotel Rotorua offers an ideal home base from which to explore this vibrant small city. Amenities of this 227-room hotel include a restaurant, bar, pool, fitness center, spa, laundry and dry cleaning service (for a fee), and complimentary Wi-Fi internet access.  Air-conditioned guest rooms feature private bath with hair dryer, coffee- and tea-making facilities, minibar, TV, and phone.

Number of nights: 2

Scenic Circle Te Pania Hotel

Napier, New Zealand

Napier hotels with Scenic Hotel Te Pania. Hawkes Bay is one of the first places in the world to see the light each day, and Scenic Hotel Te Pania in Napier enjoys a premium waterfront location on Marine Parade. The hotel's slender curved form echoes the shape of the bay, and guests enjoy sweeping views out over the water. A fresh, contemporary style hotel, Scenic Hotel Te Pania is just a short stroll from Napier's main art deco style street.

Number of nights: 1

Grand Mercure Wellington

Wellington, New Zealand

Conveniently located in New Zealand’s capital city, the Grand Mercure Wellington stands just a few blocks from the shops and restaurants of the bohemian Cuba Quarter. Hotel amenities include a restaurant with an open kitchen, bar, swimming pool, sauna, gym, laundry facilities (for a fee), weekday dry-cleaning services (for a fee), and complimentary Wi-Fi internet access. Each of the 114 air-conditioned guest rooms has private bath with hair dryer, in-room safe, ironing facilities, TV, phone, tea- and coffee-making facilities, and minibar.

Number of nights: 2



Rydges Latimer Square

Christchurch, New Zealand

The Rydges Latimer Christchurch sits directly adjacent to Christchurch’s central Latimer Square. Amenities of the 138-room hotel include a restaurant and bar/lounge, laundry and dry cleaning service (for a fee), fitness center, and sauna. Air-conditioned guest rooms have private bath with hair dryer, complimentary Wi-Fi internet access, in-room safe, tea- and coffee-making facilities, minibar, ironing facilities, TV, and phone.

Number of nights: 1

Scenic Hotel Franz Josef Glacier

Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand

Situated on the edge of Westland Tai Poutini National Park, Scenic Hotel Franz Josef Glacier is located just a few minutes from the glacier from which it takes its name. Hotel amenities include a restaurant, bar, self-serve laundry (for a fee), full spa with massage services (for a fee, located a two-minute walk from the hotel), hot tub, and complimentary Wi-Fi internet access. Guest rooms have private bath with hair dryer, tea- and coffee-making facilities, TV, and phone.

Number of nights: 2

The Millennium Hotel Queenstown

Queenstown, New Zealand

The Millennium Hotel Queenstown sits on a hill in Queenstown, just minutes away from the town’s central shopping district.  Amenities include a restaurant, bar, fitness center, sauna, spa, and WiFi internet access (for a fee).  Each of the 220 air-conditioned guest rooms has private bath with hair dryer, minibar, safe, tea- and coffee-making facilities, TV, and phone.

Number of nights: 3

Activity Level

Activity Level 3: Moderate / Active


Expectations: Most trips will feature long touring days, many full-day excursions, and a full and active itinerary with a faster pace and longer distances. Some tours may have activities with higher intensity and more active choices/options. Excursions require standing and walking for extended periods of time over more difficult terrain (cobblestones, city hills, stairs without handrails, limited or no access to elevators, muddy/slippery walking/hiking trails), and walking to city centers where coaches are prohibited. Specific itineraries may feature hiking, use of local transportation, extended overnight train travel, extensive use of Zodiac crafts or other smaller ship conveyances, or multiple internal plane rides. Some itineraries may require early morning departures and later evening returns. Travelers may be in remote and/or rugged regions, and may be touring at higher altitudes with steep ascents/descents. Leisure time may be limited (sometimes only in the later evenings). Certain tours feature more active excursions (such as moderate hiking, swimming, snorkeling, canoeing, bicycling, rafting, or kayaking), though another choice may be offered for an alternate skill level. Walking/hiking tours may feature up to six-mile walks/hikes.  

Appropriate for: Travelers who are physically fit, lead active lives, are comfortable participating in long days of activities, and expect some physical exertion. 

Reading List
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Highly Recommended

New Zealand Wildlife: A Folding Pocket Guide to Familiar Animals (A Pocket Naturalist Guide)
By: James Kavanagh, Waterford Press
The unique, dinosaur-like, tuatara is one of thousands of species of animals inhabiting the diverse ecosystems found throughout New Zealand, many endemic to the islands. This beautifully illustrated guide highlights over 140 familiar and unique species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes and butterflies/insects and includes a map featuring prominent wildlife-viewing areas. Laminated for durability, this lightweight, pocket-sized folding guide is an excellent source of portable information and ideal for field use by visitors and residents alike. Made in the USA.
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Come On Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All: A New Zealand Story
By: Thompson, Christina
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DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: New Zealand
By: DK Travel
Visit Middle Earth and discover the land of the Kiwis when you travel to New Zealand. From Auckland to Poor Knights Island, this travel guide takes you straight to the best attractions this island nation has to offer.Filled with over 900 photographs and 65 detailed maps, DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: New Zealand explores the country's Maori heritage, flora and fauna, beaches and national parks, focusing on the best scenic routes from which to explore the diverse New Zealand landscape—from the glistening glaciers on the West Coast to the surfers' paradise on Central North Island.DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: New Zealand features:   • Detailed itineraries and "don't-miss" destination highlights at a glance.    • Illustrated cutaway 3-D drawings of important sights.    • Floor plans and guided visitor information for major museums.    • Guided walking tours, local drink and dining specialties to try, things to do, and places to eat, drink, and shop by area.    • Area maps marked with sights.    • Detailed city maps include street finder indexes for easy navigation.    • Insights into history and culture to help you understand the stories behind the sights.    • Hotel and restaurant listings highlight DK Choice special recommendations. With hundreds of full-color photographs, hand-drawn illustrations, and custom maps that illuminate every page, DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: New Zealand truly shows you this region as no one else can.About the series: For more than two decades, DK Eyewitness Travel Guides have helped travelers experience the world through the history, art, architecture, and culture of their destinations. Expert travel writers and researchers provide independent editorial advice, recommendations, and reviews. With guidebooks to hundreds of places around the globe available in print and digital formats, DK Eyewitness Travel Guides show travelers how they can discover more.DK Eyewitness Travel Guides: the most maps, photographs, and illustrations of any guide.
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New Zealand - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture
By: Ljiljana Ortolja-Baird
Culture Smart! New Zealand offers insights into a country that is reflecting on its identity, having shed its colonial past and now moving from a bicultural society (Maori and European) toward a new multiculturalism. Despite the challenges ahead, New Zealand society is resilient, underpinned by the values of anti-materialism, tolerance, patience, and commonsense, and driven by a shared passion about being a Kiwi. Not by chance was New Zealand chosen to represent Tolkien’s ancient Middle-Earth in the film trilogy The Lord of the Rings. New Zealand is remote, and even sometimes inadvertently left off world maps. This remoteness might be one of its greatest assets. It is off the beaten track, with a wilderness of World Heritage national parks to explore—embracing ice-carved fiords, lakes, valleys, and towering mountains; lush lowland forests and limestone canyons. Set against this stunning background are the New Zealanders, who, not surprisingly, are passionate about their country and the quality of life it offers. Kiwis, as they are affectionately known, are friendly, helpful, and fiercely equalitarian.  All great companions for enjoying the prowess of the All Blacks rugby team in action!
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Middle-earth Landscapes: Locations in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit Film Trilogies by Ian Brodie (2016-03-24)
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Beginner's Maori (Beginner's (Foreign Language))
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Fairness and Freedom: A History of Two Open Societies: New Zealand and the United States
By: David Hackett Fischer
Fairness and Freedom compares the history of two open societies--New Zealand and the United States--with much in common. Both have democratic polities, mixed-enterprise economies, individuated societies, pluralist cultures, and a deep concern for human rights and the rule of law. But all of these elements take different forms, because constellations of value are far apart. The dream of living free is America's Polaris; fairness and natural justice are New Zealand's Southern Cross. Fischer asks why these similar countries went different ways. Both were founded by English-speaking colonists, but at different times and with disparate purposes. They lived in the first and second British Empires, which operated in very different ways. Indians and Maori were important agents of change, but to different ends. On the American frontier and in New Zealand's Bush, material possibilities and moral choices were not the same. Fischer takes the same comparative approach to parallel processes of nation-building and immigration, women's rights and racial wrongs, reform causes and conservative responses, war-fighting and peace-making, and global engagement in our own time--with similar results. On another level, this book expands Fischer's past work on liberty and freedom. It is the first book to be published on the history of fairness. And it also poses new questions in the old tradition of history and moral philosophy. Is it possible to be both fair and free? In a vast array of evidence, Fischer finds that the strengths of these great values are needed to correct their weaknesses. As many societies seek to become more open--never twice in the same way, an understanding of our differences is the only path to peace.
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Maori Tattooing (Dover Pictorial Archives)
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A River Rules My Kitchen
By: Tony Smith
A Taste of New Zealand From The Mountains To The Sea. 'I am truly at peace when wandering up a river with a fly rod.' Join chef and outdoorsman tony Smith as he follows a New Zealand river from the headwaters in the iconic High Country, down to the foothills and plains and on to the magnificent coast, and explore the amazing variety of food, game and produce he catches, hunts and cooks along the way. With recipes as ravishing as the landscapes that inspired them, A River Rules My Kitchen is the culmination of a culinary journey into the heartland of a wild and beautiful country.
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The bestselling, Man Booker Prize-winning novel hailed as "a true achievement. Catton has built a lively parody of a 19th-century novel, and in so doing created a novel for the 21st, something utterly new. The pages fly."--New York Times Book ReviewIt is 1866, and Walter Moody has come to stake his claim in New Zealand's booming gold rush. On the stormy night of his arrival, he stumbles across a tense gathering of 12 local men who have met in secret to discuss a series of unexplained events: a wealthy man has vanished, a prostitute has tried to end her life, and an enormous cache of gold has been discovered in the home of a luckless drunk. Moody is soon drawn into a network of fates and fortunes that is as complex and exquisitely ornate as the night sky.Richly evoking a mid-nineteenth-century world of shipping, banking, and gold rush boom and bust, THE LUMINARIES is at once a fiendishly clever ghost story, a gripping page-turner, and a thrilling novelistic achievement. It richly confirms that Eleanor Catton is one of the brightest stars in the international literary firmament.
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A Portrait of New Zealand
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Travel Insurance

For the convenience of our travelers, Travel Guard provides an on-tour Insurance Plan. On-tour emergency evacuation insurance (up to $100,000), medical expense coverage (up to $25,000), dental expense coverage (up to $500), travel medical assistance and worldwide travel assistance (U.S. Residents only). It also includes up to $25,000 medical and up to $500 dental expense coverage, and 24-hour worldwide travel and medical assistance. Please click here to view complete coverage details.

Please visit www.TravelGuard.com/SmithsonianJourneys or call Travel Guard at 1-800-208-6142 to learn about additional (optional) coverage.

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