NZ South Island – Fjordland NP or Abel Tasman NP?

How many nights do you actually have, and where will you fly out from back to Australia?

Sorry that would've been handy to know - we have 10 nights total, but a few of those are already booked at or near Queenstown, so I'd say we have about 5 or at a push 6 days spare. We have return flights from Sydney to Queenstown.

If I had five to six spare days I would have 2--3 at Aoraki Mt Cook and 2--3 at Te Anau / Milford Sound. Both are wonderful, and much less driving.

Abel Tasman NP is very nice, but a bit like the Hawkesbury River / Broken Bay / Ku-ring-gai Chase north of Sydney, whereas there is nothing in Australia quite like Aoraki Mt Cook or Milford Sound.

We visited Milford Sound and Abel Tasman 2 years ago on a 2 month trip to Australia and New Zealand. Milford Sound was easily the natural highlight of our entire trip. I recommend that you spend the night before in Te Anau, get an early start, and take one of the earlier cruises before the coach tours--and crowds-- arrive from Queenstown. Drive straight through to Milford, then drive back to Te Anau in a leisurely fashion and visit the scenic viewpoints along the way.

Good advice from zoobrux ... that is the way to do it, and on your return to Te Anau after the cruise there are a lot of scenic stops. The Key Summit walk at The Divide is excellent ... it is the southern end of the Routeburn Track.

Take insect repellent for Milford Sound.

Thanks everyone for the great advice! I think we will skip Abel Tasman NP for this trip, and focus on the areas between Queenstown, Te Anau, Milford Sound, Aoraki (Mount Cook, Fox Glacier) to really soak it up.

Am I right in thinking there's only the one road between all of those things? Looks like you can't go straight from Milford Sound to Aoraki, you have to go back through Queenstown (6.5 hours total driving roughly) seems a bit weird.

Side question - anyone ever done Christmas and New Year in those areas? Any recommendations?

... you have to go back through Queenstown (6.5 hours total driving roughly) seems a bit weird.

Not weird in the circs ... once you get there you will see how wild it is, how empty it is, and how many items mitigate against lots of roads (ie, mountains, fjords, and lakes). Plus the drive back from Te Anau (go early) all the way to Aoraki / Mt Cook is incredibly scenic. If you wish to stay in the Mt Cook YHA Hostel (basic but very good) you must book.

Queenstown will be very busy over the Christmas / New Year period ... be well booked!

Oh my God, Jingili, you were totally right, haha, I feel like an idiot after seeing it! That was a fantastic holiday – the Fjordlands National Park was my favourite, did some great hikes there (the lupins and wildflowers were in full bloom all over the place, and it had rained just before we got there so the waterfalls were all going, added to the beauty), Milford Sound and Lake Tekapo were also highlights, just magnificent and so much more diverse and grand than anything I've seen here in Australia. What a beautiful country, I can't wait to go back and explore further.

DEFINITELY good we pre-booked EVERYTHING before we left, considering the time of year – a few people were getting turned away at accommodation. Christmas was perfect in Queenstown (drinks on a permanently moored boat in the harbour, and dinner in a cute restaurant on the beachy inlet just opposite Botswana Butchery) and New Years at cute Fox Glacier was quiet and rainy, but a hot tub in our hostel, the lovely pubs and a cinema showing Star Wars more than saved the day!

I'd probably think about swapping Queenstown for Wanaka next time, just as it was slightly less touristy, and we miiiiight have skipped Otago Peninsula and shaved off that corner (it was really nice, but a bit out of the way, our mistake, didn't allow enough to time to fully explore it) just to allow more wriggle room, time-wise in the other parts, but apart from that, the plan was perfect.

If anyone's interested, here's the route we ended up with (this was over 11 days in all):
• Begin Queenstown
• Te Anau
• Milford Sound (stayed overnight on a boat)
• Otago Peninsula
• Lake Tekapo (via Oamaru's Victorian quarter)
• Franz Josef (see both this and Fox Glaciers)
• Cromwell (make sure you see the old town if you go there – we went via lovely lakeside Wanaka for a half day)
• Queenstown to depart

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