How to plan a south island itinerary

Hey everyone, can you please help me order a New Zealand (south island) itinerary. I tried doing it myself but got overwhelmed with too many stops. I may not visit all of these places, but I'd like to make a flowing route anyways, from north to south (along the east), and south to north (along the west), with emphasis on mountain scenary, and less so (on livestock/farming areas when possible). Also, I'd like to reduce backtracking when practical (a little backtracking is OK). I'll be traveling by vehicle (in February).

So leaving Christchurch, i'll head south to timaru, and then make a decison to either go inland via tekapo, twizel, omarama, (lindis pass), to cromwell, clyde, alexandra and then the road via palmerston, or middlmarch to dunedin.

OR after timaru continue south to waimate, oamaru, palmerston, waitati, and dunedin.

After dunedin, to milton, balcluttha, owaka, and the scenic route to invercargil (with a sidetrip to stewart island).

After invercargil, to winton, ohai, tuatapere, and te anu and then head to queenstown and then wanaka.

The last stop before heading to the west coast (via the glaciers) is naturally wanaka, it's therefore practical to leave wanaka as the last stop of this itinerary.

gore area seems to be left without a place. Maybe skip the whole gore region, i don't know.

So what do you think?

are you the same person who asked for itineraries before with an aversion to livestock/farming areas?

didn't we answer enough?

if you aren't the same person, just look on that thread. South island lends itself to a loop, it's easy.

how long do you have?

You might be better going to a travel agent to arrange a tour for you.

But I'd have thought there'd be more than enough itineraries to be found using the search box to be able to put something together.

See here for the original thread:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=2373554

Really, it all depends on how much time you have and what you're interested in. Reread the comments from those who replied to your first thread, buy or borrow a guidebook like Lonely Planet's New Zealand, and have a nice time exploring South Island. It is not that complicated.

I have 4+ weeks, interests are mostly scenic (landscape photography) and the wild. I am pretty much done with route planning just wanted to put it out there.

a lot of 'the wild' needs you to get out of the car and walk for two hours. Remember that.

I am not sure what you consider "wild" but I didn't see anything what I would consider "wild" in NZ. Landscapes are nice but you will see farmlands, sheep, cows etc. Enjoying the views out of the car window will depend on the weather. It rains a lot in the South Island and a lot of times mountains are in the clouds. I was in the Fjordlands area for a week and it rained the whole time. I didn't see any mountain scenery from the road as it was all in the clouds. The landscapes you could consider "wild" are only in national parks and require trekking. If you don't want to be disappointed you should lower your expectations and accept that most of the island is not wild. Majority of the island is stripped of native vegetation to make way for the farmlands (which can be viewed as beautiful in its own way). Whatever virgin vegetation is left is beautiful. You should also know that it is very touristy and commercial, which to me negates the concept of something being "wild", unless you get lost in some far corners of national parks bushwhacking.

yes i agree with you i had the same concerns which is why I have decided on a route that takes me passed natural lakes, and protected national parks, in which I will do all sorts of hikes and walks. Hopefully feb will prove to be a sunny month and if If i see a lot of tourists i usually go the other way or take another walk, if possible.