New Zealand Winter - Itinerary
Itinerary
New Zealand 'South Island' in Winter Photo Tour (7-Day)
The South Island is one of those places in the world that you have to experience at least once in a life time, and there is no better time to visit than in Winter. This magical 7-day Winter tour in New Zealand offer a splendour of photographic opportunities, with some truly unique sceneries, ever changing-light and mesmerising views.
Embark on a journey through iconic landscape, rugged mountains, alpine lakes with colour reflections out of this world, snow-white peaks, breathtaking vista, waterfalls and picturesque little towns. Let us help you capture the best of New Zealand. Our tour leaders have been shooting these parts of the world for many years and will be there to assist you with your lens selection and camera settings.
If conditions are good for Night Photography, we will also have the opportunity to do some stargazing and capture the mighty Milky Way peaking above the Alpine landscape.
Day 1. Queenstown
The tour starts with a meet & greet followed by a short briefing on the next few days itinerary and notes, to get everyone up to speed before we explore some autumn locations around Queenstown. Before dinner, we’ll head out to our first landscape initiation and venture to one of these locations to capture our first sunset; Edith Cavell Bridge, Arrowtown Chinese Settlement or Lake Hayes.
Day 2. Queenstown/Glenorchy
Today we’ll brave the early morning ‘frost’ and wait for sunrise at Moke Lake, one Queenstown best kept secret little mountain lake with breathtaking water reflections... also a fabulous spot for stargazing, astrophotography and capturing the Aurora Borealis. In the afternoon, we take a drive along Lake Wakatipu all the way up to Glenorchy. We’ll explore the Dart River region before having an early dinner in one of the local cafés, allowing us to stay for sunset to capture the historic Glenorchy Wharf and its spectacular views of the Southern Alps and surrounding mountain ranges in the background.
Day 3. Queenstown - Twizel/Mt Cook
Pre-dawn, blue hour and the sunrise over the spectacular mountain range surrounding Queenstown, hopefully capturing some morning clouds lighting up with winter colours in the background. After breakfast we make our way to Twizel, home for the next 2 nights. Afternoon spent exploring Twizel and Mt Cook including alpine lakes, sweeping river vistas, and views of New Zealand’s highest peaks. We’ll finish with a sunset over Lake Pukaki looking out over at Mount Cook, and beautiful colours reflection in the foreground. It is also the perfect location to capture the Aurora Australis when a solar storm has hit.
Day 4. Twizel/Mt Cook
This morning there will be an option for an early shoot at The Tasman Glacier Viewpoint, a 25 minutes hike to the perfect location to marvel at the views, background glacier and sunrise reflections off the lakes surface or a pre-dawn start to take the blue hour and the sunrise at one of Twizel's spectacular surrounding lake and river, hopefully capturing some morning mist and the mesmerising 'Hoar Frost' with winter colours in the background - weather conditions been in our favour. We'll take a scenic drive up the valley to Mt Cook Village and spend the day capturing the magical winter landscape on the way and see if we can spot a few iceberg floating on the mountain Lake.
Day 5. Twizel/Lake Tekapo
This morning there will have the option to join a 30 – 60 minutes flight. The Grand Traverse flight with Air Safaris Tekapo is a spectacular experience with incredible views of the Aoraki Mt Cook and its surrounding glaciers, The Godley Valley, The West Coast and all the rivers and alpine valleys in between. This extra offer sublime aerial photography opportunities of the mountains in the early morning light (flight cost not included in tour package). Back in Mt Cook Road, we’ll capture more iconic views of sweeping river vista, endless windy roads and close-up of massive glacier face, giving the area a scale and grandeur that has to be seen to be believed. We will end the day shooting sunset at the gorgeous Church of the Good Shepherd in Tekapo with the Southern Alps in the background.
Day 6. Lake Tekapo - Wanaka
Departing Lake Tekapo we drive to Wanaka. Will start with an early morning sunrise shoot, hopefully capturing some beautiful mist that forms over the lake in Autumn. We will then spend the rest of the day exploring the remote valleys between Canterbury and Otago to capturing the best of the colours. The day finishes by photographing the sunset over lake Wanaka, and after dark, weather permitting, we’ll have our last opportunity to capture the stars and the Milky Way in one of the darkest sky in New Zealand.
Day 7. Wanaka - Queenstown
This morning sleep-in or have a second go at shooting the famous Wanaka tree at sunrise. After breakfast we will return to Queenstown to say our final Goodbys, stopping along the way to capture a few more autumn colours shots. Our ETA back in Queenstown is planned for early afternoon, allowing you can catch your flight later that afternoon or in the evening if you are flying back home today.
* This is a sample itinerary, our itineraries are subject to change depending on weather and other circumstance beyond our control. Changes in the itinerary are always made to provide our guests the best possible experience, in a secure and professional way.
