New Zealand 'South Island' Photo Tours 2025 (12-Day)

Dates

This new re-modeled 12-Day photography tour itinerary in late summer/early Autumn is the ideal time to capture New Zealand's eye-catching autumn colours, mega night skies and the mesmerising Aurora Boralis!

Tour Starts: Our Autumn photo tour group will meet and greet in our hotel lobby at 9.00 AM in Queenstown, and go through a quick orientation and discuss the next 12 days’ agenda. Hotel TBC in due time as it may change between tours.

Tour Finishes: The tour will finish at Queenstown Airport (or hotel drop off) at 1pm to connect with late afternoon flights after 3pm.

Specifications & Further Information:

Accommodation: Our tours use a standard hotel/lodge accommodation close to shooting locations and we always try where possible to stay 2 nights at each places. Sometimes we will book a cabin/motel to be close to a location where it does not have any other options if we want to in position for a pre-dawn or after dark session.

Single Room Upgrades: All our tour prices are based on twin/double share rooms. If you are travelling alone you can book a single room upgrade or we can try and pair you with another traveller for all/part of the tour. If we cannot pair you with another traveller of the same gender for all/part of the tour you may need to pay for a single room upgrade.

Food: The price tour includes continental breakfast each morning at our accommodation but sometimes a local cafe. Lunch and dinner (apart from any listed as being included) are at your own expense. We will stop at a cafe/lunch bar for lunch and book a table for the group for dinner each day at a local restaurant. Sometimes evening meal times might be early/late to fit around the time of sunset.

What is included?

What is not included?

Level of physical difficulty: 3 out of 5

Itinerary

New Zealand 'South Island' in Fall Photo Tour (10-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 the Fall (Autumn). This magical ten-day 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 lush green valleys, waterfalls and picturesque beachscapes. 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. In the afternoon, we’ll head out to our first landscape initiation and venture to Edith Cavell Bridge, Arrowtown Chinese Settlement and a sunset session at 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 – Te Anau/Milford Sound
Departing from Queenstown this morning we head to Te Anau, gateway to Fiordland National Park and Milford Sound, our base for the next couple of days. After lunch we take the Milford Highway up the Eglinton Valley, winding through the stunning Fiordland National Park with eye-catching rivers, tranquil little lakes, beech forests and steep rocky mountains all the way to the sound. Framed by upscaled rock-face and thousands of waterfalls, Milford Sound ‘Piopiotahi’ is the most famous and easily accessible shooting location, and one of the most photographed awe-inspiring fjord foreshores in the world with its iconic giant granite peaks soaring above the dark waters. Weather permitting, we’ll spend the rest of the afternoon there and wait for sunset.

Day 4. Te Anau/Milford Sound
Early morning start and back in Milford sound where we’ll embark on a magical 2 hours photography journey up & down the fjord to experience Milford Sound from the water abord a small boutique cruise. Back on solid ground, we’ll spend the rest of the day exploring some more locations along the Milford Hwy that we missed on the way in, before heading back to Te Anau for the night... Lake Gunn, Mirror lakes, The Chasm just to name a few.

Day 5. Te Anau – The Catlins
Sleep in or join us for an early sunrise workshop over Lake Te Anau to portrait Marakura Wharf with the mountains lighting up in the background and with a bit of luck - big bright orange & pink clouds reflection in the South Island’s largest lake.

Today we transit to the west coast across the Catlins to Owaka where we will spend the next couple of days roaming to different coastal locations and adventure to some of our favourite’s inland rainforest magic spots. The Catlins is not only known for its mesmerising Waterfalls and coastline, with a bit of luck we’ll capture an array of different local and migrating bird species, amongst other amazing wildlife. Sea lions also live there, and can be spotted fishing and playing in the water or sun-bathing on rugged beaches along the coastline. You will have the rest of the afternoon free in Owaka to relax, catch up with downloading and post-processing some of the many shots you have already captured. We will also make time for some one-on-one feedback and a group critique of the photographs from the last 2 days.

Day 6. The Catlins
This morning we take a short trip to Nugget Point where we capture the sunrise lighting up the sky over the spectacular Catlin coastline - where a lighthouse, wind ruffled native shrubs and a dozen rugged little islands make an eye-catching landscape composition.

From here we travel back to our accommodation for a well-deserved breakfast, before heading out again, inland this time to explore the waterfalls of the Catlins Coastal Rainforest Park, these are spectacular and we’ll spend most of the day chasing waterfalls.

Day 7. Owaka - Moeraki Boulders
‘Lazy’ morning (sleep-in). Opportunities for second group critique of the photographs from the past days and in-depth post-production techniques to bring out the best desired tones and crop to enhance your photographs. Transit to Moeraki via Dunedin – Tunnel Beach. Time allowing, coastal coast walk to capture more Sea Lions hauling on the beach, birds and the Katiki Lighthouse. Sunset session at Moeraki Boulders and weather permitting we’ll stay to capture the Milky Way.

Day 8. Moeraki - Twizel/Mt Cook
Pre-dawn start to take the blue hour and the sunrise at the spectacular Moeraki Boulders, hopefully capturing some morning clouds lighting up with Autumn colours in the background. After breakfast we make our way to Twizel via the coastal town of Oamaru. Free time to explore the old Victorian precinct and quirky Steampunk HQ. 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 autumn colours reflection in the foreground. It is also the perfect location to capture the Aurora Australis when a solar storm has hit.

Day 9 – Twizel/Lake Tekapo Day
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, and/or 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 10. Twizel/Mt Cook - Wanaka
Departing Twizel 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 11. Wanaka West Coast Otago Waterfalls
This morning's sunrise session will be at the iconic Wanaka tree, capturing its autumn colours against Mount Alta snowy mountains backdrop. After sunrise, we will spend the morning chasing waterfalls along the picturesque Pass between Wanaka and Hasst, there are some absolutely beautiful falls and creeks chasm located just off the State Highway, a great place to get acquainted with those ND filters and practice long exposure. Time allowing, late afternoon we will head high above Lake Wanaka for sunset to capture the last light across Otago’s iconic tussock grassland and panoramic views of the lake.  

Day 12. 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.

Photography Outline

Personal Items and Weather Conditions

Camera Equipment

Tour Extensions