Experience the best of New Zealand on this top family guided tour. Your private guide will meet your family at the airport and take you on an insider’s tour of New Zealand, visiting iconic landmarks and local secrets alike.

Offering New Zealand’s top escorted tour operators and highly experienced tour guides, we cater for groups between 1-20 people. With no date or itinerary restrictions, your New Zealand family tour can be fully customised.

14 Day New Zealand Family Guided Tour Itinerary

Day 1 Arrive Queenstown

Your intriguing guided holiday begins in Queenstown, the adventure capital of New Zealand. Surrounded by rugged mountains and bordered by the turquoise waters of Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown is a vibrant, buzzing mountain paradise.

Explore Queenstown with your guide, with the option to take a stroll along the lake, or ride the Skyline Gondola to the top of Bob’s Peak for panoramic views over Queenstown and beyond.

Stay 3 nights in Queenstown.

Day 2 Steamship Cruise + High Country Farm Lunch

Enjoy a quintessential Kiwi experience – a delicious gourmet BBQ lunch and a farm tour in a stunning lakeside setting. Your experience starts with a cruise aboard the historic TSS Earnslaw across to Walter Peak High Country Farm. Once there, you can sit back on the lakeside terrace of the Colonel’s Homestead Restaurant and savour the delicious aromas as our chef has the best of local produce, sizzling away on the grill. After lunch, you can join an entertaining farm demonstration or explore the beautiful lakeside gardens.

In the afternoon visit Arrowtown with your tour guide. This charming gold rush village sits in a natural paradise. A Queenstown “must-do.” Arrowtown is a lively, quirky, historic village. So many pleasures to choose from – Arrowtown satisfies many sides of your personality. The nature lover, photographer, the museum visitor, the shop browser. The charm of historic Buckingham Street, while savouring a coffee.

Day 3 Shotover Jet

Prepare yourself for the ultimate Jet Boating experience with Shotover Jet – the unique, breathtaking white water ride and adrenaline rush you’ll never forget. From the moment the accelerator hits the floor, your adrenaline hits the roof. You’ll speed over 10cm deep water, along the famous Shotover River and deep into the spectacular Shotover River Canyons.

Continue your quest for adventure and choose from any adventure activity on offer in Queenstown; bungy jumping, skydiving, paragliding, quad biking, zip lining, heli flights, 4WD off-roading, you name it we can book it.

Day 4 Te Anau

Travel time Queenstown to Te Anau – 2 hours

Tick off any last wish list activities in Queenstown in the morning, before following Queenstown’s Lake Wakatipu to Te Anau. Te Anau is the hub of Fiordland National Park and offers visitors a great base for visiting Milford Sound.

Discuss with your guide what you would like to do in the afternoon, recommendations include a once in a lifetime helicopter flight to see this sights of this dramatic landscape or a lake cruise across Lake Manapouri to visit the Te Anau Glowworm Caves.

Stay 2 nights in Te Anau.

Day 5 Milford Sound Experience

Embark on a fantastic journey along the Milford Highway today to New Zealand’s most iconic fiord – Milford Sound. Travel with a small tour group on this extended day trip to Milford Sound, stopping along the way for countless scenic photo opportunities and short walks plus a delicious morning tea. At Milford Sound, enjoy a scenic nature cruise that takes you up close to the majesty of the fiord – you might even spot keas, seals, dolphins, or the rare Fiordland Crested Penguin!

Day 6 Catlins Coast + Dunedin

Travel time Te Anau to Dunedin via the Catlins – 5 hours (direct route available if preferred – 3 hours)

Along the way to Dunedin, your guide will take you on a tour of the remote Catlins coast, where you will find pounding waterfalls, an iconic lighthouse, lush native bush, a petrified forest, and maybe even penguins and dolphins! Stop for a number of nature walks and photo opportunities along the way, and soak in the wild natural beauty.

In the evening, relax in Dunedin, where you will find a number of striking historic buildings in the compact town centre.

Stay 2 nights in Dunedin.

Day 7 Taieri Gorge Railway

Today, join the Taieri Gorge Railway for a spectacular journey through the rugged gorges of Central Otago.

In the afternoon, your guide will show you around Dunedin – you have the option to visit Larnach Castle, the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, Speight’s Brewery, or the Otago Peninsula.

Day 8 Wanaka

Travel time Dunedin to Wanaka – 3 hours

Your scenic tour will continue as you enjoy the drive through rolling green farmland, then through moon-like valleys where glacial rock lies scattered over mountains. Drive through orchards and fruit farms where you can stop to taste fresh fruit and real fruit ice creams. The next feature includes patchwork vineyards, if you are interested in New Zealand wines, make the most of your guide’s local knowledge and stop off at some of the best wineries in NZ.

Explore the alpine town of Wanaka in the afternoon – your guide could take you to Puzzling World or the Toy and Transport Museum, or you could simply relax on the lakefront and stroll around the great selection of boutique shops.

Stay 1 night in Wanaka.

Day 9 Franz Josef Glacier + Heli Flight with Snow Landing

Travel time Wanaka to Franz Josef – 4 hours 

The Haast Pass Highway is one of the most scenic alpine routes in New Zealand. Explore the pass with your guide, stopping to view cascading waterfalls, broad alpine meadows, craggy snowcapped mountains, and the turquoise depths of the Blue Pools.

Continuing along the West Coast, your guide will take you to the base of Fox Glacier, where you have the option to enjoy a 1-hour return walk to a viewing point over the mighty glacier.

In the afternoon, take an unforgettable helicopter flight over Franz Josef Glacier, where you will land in the snow to enjoy incredible views of the majestic Southern Alps.

Stay 1 night in Franz Josef.

Day 10 TranzAlpine Train Journey

Travel time Franz Josef to Greymouth – 2.5 hours 

Train travel time Greymouth to Christchurch – 4.5 hours 

Leave the rugged West Coast behind today as you board the TranzAlpine Train for a fantastic journey through Arthurs Pass. Travel past the soaring peaks and braided rivers of the Southern Alps, through the gorges of the Waimakariri River, and past the rolling Canterbury Plains.

Your guide will meet you at the train station and bring you to your accommodation.

Stay 1 night in Christchurch.

Day 11 Hobbiton + Rotorua

In the morning catch a domestic flight from Christchurch to Auckland to start your North Island adventure. Arrive at Auckland Airport and get on the road, first stop hobbiton!

Travel time Auckland to Matamata – 2.5 hours

Experience the magic of Middle-Earth as you tour the Hobbiton Movie Set, where the charming village from The Lord of the Rings has been brought to life.

Travel time Matamata to Rotorua – 1 hour 

Enjoy the scenic drive through rolling farmland to Rotorua, the geothermal capital of New Zealand. Tour the exciting geothermal attractions with your guide, visiting sulphur springs, mud pools, geysers, and sinter terraces.

Stay 2 nights in Rotorua.

Day 12 Geothermal Wonders + Skyline Gondola Lunch + Maori Culture

In the morning stroll through Hells Gate Geothermal Reserve, where you will have the opportunity to experience the rich Maori culture and soak in a relaxing sulphur spa.

As your building up an appetite, head to the Skyline Gondola where you will enjoy a sumptuous lunch while taking in the most amazing views over Rotorua. After lunch option to enjoy luge rides, the skyswing, zoom zipline and finish with a visit to the Jelly Bean shop.

There is more to see! In the evening experience New Zealand’s cultural side with a evening of Maori Culture and delicacies. See a real life haka and be touched by a traditional Maori welcome. Then feast on the three course meal cooked in the traditional hangi pits. Finish your evening next to a fascinating geyser watching it erupt under the night sky.

Day 13 Waitomo Glowworm Caves

Travel time Rotorua to Waitomo Caves – 2 hours 

Venture off the beaten track as your guide takes you on a scenic drive to the Waitomo Caves. The land is wilder around here, with limestone outcroppings emerging from farmland and densely forested hills rising all around, but the wildest landscape of all lies underground.

Witness the marvels of these vast caverns as you explore two fantastic caves – the Ruakuri Cave, home to a dizzying array of cave formations, and the Waitomo Glowworm Caves, where you will be dazzled by a galaxy of glowworms overhead.

Travel time Waitomo Caves to Auckland – 2.5 hours

Sit back and relax as your guide drives through unique landscapes before entering the bustle of Auckland streets. Home to 1/4 of New Zealand’s population and bordered by two stunning harbours, Auckland is a thriving, diverse city surrounded by natural wonders.

In the evening, explore Auckland with your guide, visiting top attractions such as the Sky Tower.

Stay 2 nights in Auckland.

Day 14 Auckland + Whale and Dolphin Safari

Explore Auckland with your guide, visiting top attractions such as Mt Eden’s volcanic crater, Waiheke Island or Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World.

At midday head to sea as you finish your New Zealand holiday with a very memorable Auckland Whale and Dolphin Safari! Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf Marine Park is home to resident populations of whales, dolphins and seabirds and visited by a staggering one third of all marine mammal species found on earth. Departing directly from the Viaduct Harbour in down-town Auckland, be welcomed aboard a purpose-built research vessel the ‘Dolphin Explorer’ for an unforgettable 4.5hr eco-safari of whale watching, dolphin watching and seabird spotting on the sparkling waters of the Hauraki Gulf.

Day 15 Depart Auckland

Your guide will deliver you to Auckland Airport for your departing flight.