14 Day New Zealand Small Group Tour: Signature Highlights

Today you’ll visit Hobbiton, the real-world film set built for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies and preserved ever since as a fully realized version of the Shire. On a guided walking tour, wander past 44 individually detailed hobbit holes, each with its own tiny garden, chimney smoke, and personality.

Your guide shares behind-the-scenes stories from the films as you make your way to the Green Dragon Inn and the party tree, both instantly recognizable from the movies. Lunch is included at the Shire’s Rest Cafe, set with sweeping views over the surrounding farmland.

From there, continue on to Rotorua, a city built on geothermal activity, where sulfur steam rises from parks, lakesides, and even sidewalk cracks throughout town.

Accommodation: Millennium Hotel (or similar)

A full free day to build your own adventure in one of New Zealand’s most activity-packed towns. Popular options include white-water rafting down the Kaituna River, home to the tallest commercially rafted waterfall in the world, or a more relaxed soak in the mineral-rich Polynesian Spa, where thermal pools overlook Lake Rotorua.

Adventure seekers can walk the treetop canopy at the Redwoods Treewalk, illuminated with lanterns after dark, or tackle the steep hike up Mount Tarawera, the volcano responsible for reshaping this entire region in 1886.

Your guide is on hand throughout the day to help book whichever activities suit your pace and interests.

Accommodation: Millennium Hotel (or similar)

This morning, visit Huka Falls, where the full volume of the Waikato River is forced through a narrow rock channel, producing a startling wall of turquoise water moving at extraordinary speed.

From there, continue to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, a geothermal park filled with bubbling mud pools, steaming craters, and mineral lakes in vivid shades of green, orange, and yellow, unlike anything else on Earth.

In the afternoon, arrive in Taupo, a lakeside town built on the shores of New Zealand’s largest lake, itself the flooded caldera of a supervolcano. For those with energy to spare, an optional sunset cruise on Lake Taupo offers sweeping views of the lake and the distant volcanic peaks of Tongariro National Park.

Accommodation: Suncourt Hotel (or similar)

Another free day, this time centered on Taupo’s mix of adrenaline and relaxation. The most popular option is the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, widely regarded as the best single-day hike in New Zealand, crossing volcanic craters, emerald lakes, and dramatic red crater rims.

For a gentler pace, choose jet boating on the Waikato River, fishing for trout in one of the world’s best freshwater fisheries, a scenic flight over the volcanoes, or a soak in one of Taupo’s many natural hot pools.

Whatever you choose, your guide can help arrange it the night before.

Accommodation: Suncourt Hotel (or similar)

Travel west to the Waitomo Caves, an underground network of limestone caverns hung with thousands of glowworms whose soft blue-green light mimics a starlit sky. On a guided tour, drift beneath the glow while your guide explains the extraordinary biology behind these tiny creatures.

From there, continue to Hamilton Gardens, an award-winning garden complex where each themed section, from an Italian Renaissance garden to a traditional Japanese garden, transports you to a different culture and era.

The day finishes in Raglan, a laid-back surf town on the North Island’s west coast, known for its black sand beaches and world-class left-hand break.

Accommodation: Sunset Motel (or similar)

Spend the morning exploring Raglan at your own pace, whether that means a walk along the black sand beach, a coffee at one of the town’s relaxed cafes, or simply watching the surfers ride the famous break.

In the early afternoon, board your transport back to Auckland, where you’ll take an included domestic flight south to Christchurch, connecting the North Island leg of your journey to the South Island adventure ahead.

Accommodation: Wyndham Garden Hotel (or similar)

Arriving in Christchurch, your South Island journey begins with a scenic drive through the Canterbury Plains toward the Southern Alps. The route passes through the dramatic Rakaia Gorge, where the braided Rakaia River cuts through steep canyon walls, before a lunch stop in the small farming town of Geraldine.

Continue on to Lake Tekapo, instantly recognizable for its striking turquoise water, a color created by finely ground rock particles suspended in the glacial melt. The lake sits beneath the Southern Alps and within the largest Dark Sky Reserve in the world.

This evening, the group comes together for a second included dinner, a chance to reconnect after the flight south.

Accommodation: Peppers Bluewater Hotel (or similar)

Mt Difficulty Vineyard in Central Otago for an included lunch and wine tasting. Set on terraced hillsides overlooking the Cromwell Basin, Mt Difficulty is known for producing some of New Zealand’s finest Pinot Noir, grown in a region famous for its extreme temperature swings between summer and winter.

From there, continue on to Te Anau, a small town on the edge of Fiordland National Park and the gateway to some of the most remote wilderness in New Zealand.

Accommodation: Distinction Luxmore Hotel (or similar)

Today brings one of New Zealand’s most celebrated experiences: Milford Sound, a fjord so dramatic it has been called the eighth wonder of the world. Board an included scenic cruise that carries you past sheer rock faces rising more than 3,000 feet straight from the water, beneath cascading waterfalls fed by glaciers and rainfall, and past resting colonies of fur seals.

Lunch is served on board as you take in views found almost nowhere else on the planet.

In the afternoon, continue to Queenstown, a resort town wrapped around Lake Wakatipu and framed by the jagged peaks of The Remarkables mountain range.

Accommodation: Millennium Hotel (or similar)

A full free day in the self-proclaimed adventure capital of the world. Options here are almost endless: bungee jumping from the historic Kawarau Bridge, skydiving with views over the Southern Alps, jet boating through narrow canyon walls, or a more relaxed day exploring Queenstown’s lakefront cafes, boutiques, and walking trails.

However you choose to spend it, Queenstown’s dramatic mountain backdrop makes even a simple coffee stop feel memorable.

Accommodation: Millennium Hotel (or similar)

Travel from Queenstown toward the West Coast, pausing in the lakeside town of Wanaka, often described as Queenstown’s quieter, more laid-back cousin.

The route then climbs over the Southern Alps via the Haast Pass, one of New Zealand’s most scenic mountain crossings, before descending into dense rainforest along the wild and largely untouched West Coast.

Arrive in the small township of Franz Josef, home to one of the most accessible glaciers on Earth.

Accommodation: Scenic Hotel (or similar)

A free day to explore the glacier region at your own pace. Popular options include a guided glacier valley walk through ancient rainforest to a viewpoint over Franz Josef Glacier, a soak in the nearby thermal hot pools, or a helicopter flight that lands directly on the ice for sweeping views over the Southern Alps.

Each option offers a completely different perspective on this dramatic landscape.

Accommodation: Scenic Hotel (or similar)

The final day of your journey retraces the route back across the Southern Alps toward Christchurch. Along the way, stop in Hokitika, a small West Coast town famous for jade carving, before crossing Arthur’s Pass, one of the most spectacular mountain passes in New Zealand.

Visit Castle Hill, where enormous limestone boulders rise from open tussock land in formations that look almost otherworldly.

The tour finishes back in Christchurch, bringing an end to a 14-day journey the length of both islands.