Must-see attractions in South Island

  • Curioscape

    Fiordland & Southland

    Incorporated in this new centre is a pleasant cafe (lunch mains $10 to $22, dinner $26 to $38), visitor centre and the Gateway, a modern museum with a…

  • Roaring Bay

    Fiordland & Southland

    Your best chance of spotting rare yellow-eyed penguins (hoiho) is from a hide at Roaring Bay, 8km south of Kaka Point's main drag. The hide is accessible…

  • Gillespies Beach

    Westland Tai Poutini National Park

    Follow Cook Flat Rd for its full 21km (the final 12km is narrow, winding and unsealed) to this remote beach, a ruggedly beautiful, wind-blasted length of…

  • Owaka Museum & Catlins Information Centre

    Fiordland & Southland

    Vaguely canoe-shaped in honour of the town name (Owaka means 'place of the canoe'), this modern museum is a pleasant surprise. Salty tales of shipwrecks…

  • Lake Māhinapua

    The West Coast

    Serene Lake Māhinapua lies 10km southwest of Hokitika, screened from SH6 by its surrounding forest. The scenic reserve, gazetted in 1907, has a picnic…

  • Cave Stream Scenic Reserve

    Christchurch & Canterbury

    Near Broken River Bridge, 2km northeast of Castle Hill, you'll find this 594m-long cave. As indicated by the information panels in the car park, the walk…

  • Matai & Horseshoe Falls

    Fiordland & Southland

    Two falls for the price of one! A fork in the road leads you, on the left, to the graceful drop of Matai Falls, while stairs to the right bring you to…

  • Eastern Southland Gallery

    Fiordland & Southland

    Nicknamed the ‘Goreggenheim’, this gallery has a truly impressive treasury of contemporary New Zealand art, including a large Ralph Hotere collection and…

  • St Paul’s Cathedral

    Dunedin

    Even in Presbyterian Dunedin, the 'established church' (aka the Church of England) gets the prime spot on The Octagon. A Romanesque portal leads into the…

  • Bluff Maritime Museum

    Fiordland & Southland

    Salty tales whisper from the portholes, driftwood and barnacle-clung planks displayed at Bluff's small museum by the container port. The best part is…

  • Te Papa Ōtākaro/Avon River Precinct

    Christchurch

    One of the city's key post-earthquake redevelopment projects is reinvigorating the area around the Avon (Ōtākaro) River. Running along the river as a self…

  • Arrowtown Chinese Settlement

    Queenstown & Wanaka

    Strung along the creek, near the site of Arrowtown's first gold find, is NZ’s best example of an early Chinese settlement. Interpretive signs explain the…

  • Peak Viewpoint

    Westland Tai Poutini National Park

    It's a very long way from the actual glacier, but this parking area provides a surprisingly good view over fields to Fox Glacier (weather permitting)…

  • Emerson's Brewery

    Dunedin

    This impressive brick-and-glass structure is the flash home of Emerson's, the microbrewery founded by local-boy-made-good Richard Emerson in 1992. Forty…

  • Church of the Good Shepherd

    Christchurch & Canterbury

    The picture window behind the altar of this pretty stone church (built in 1935) gives worshippers a distractingly divine view of the lake and mountains;…

  • Maerewhenua Māori Rock Painting Site

    Dunedin & Otago

    Sheltered by an impressive limestone overhang with amazing views over the valley, this site contains charcoal-and-ochre paintings dating to before the…

  • National Transport & Toy Museum

    Wanaka

    Mixing Smurfs with Studebakers and skidoos (and an authentic MiG jet fighter flown by the Polish Air Force), this completely eclectic and absorbing…

  • University of Otago

    Dunedin

    Founded in 1869, the University of Otago is NZ's oldest. Today the university is home to some 21,000 students, and is well worth a wander, with many…

  • Waipapā Lighthouse

    Fiordland & Southland

    Standing on a desolate but beautiful point surrounded by farmland, this 13.4m-high lighthouse was built after the SS Tararua disaster, an 1881 shipwreck…

  • Christchurch Gondola

    Christchurch

    Take a ride to the top of Mt Cavendish (500m) on this 862m cable car for wonderful views over the city, Lyttelton, Banks Peninsula and the Canterbury…

  • Gibbston Valley

    Queenstown & Wanaka

    The area's oldest commercial winery (established in the early 1980s) offers tours of the winery ($35) and NZ's largest wine cave ($20). It also has a…

  • North Otago Museum

    Dunedin & Otago

    This weighty museum plans to reopen after renovation in March 2020. The new space will house Waitaki Taonga (the Willetts Collection), one of the most…

  • Hagley Park

    Christchurch

    Wrapped around the Botanic Gardens, Hagley Park is Christchurch's biggest green space, stretching for 165 hectares. Riccarton Ave splits it in two, while…

  • Arrowtown Gaol

    Queenstown & Wanaka

    With gold rushes came lawlessness. Arrowtown's prisoners were originally manacled to logs, but in 1876 this schist jail, now surrounded by homes, was…

  • Vanished World Centre

    Dunedin & Otago

    Stop into this volunteer-run centre to dig out your own real limestone fossils (to keep!) or check out the frightening 25-million-year-old shark-toothed…

  • Lakes District Museum & Gallery

    Queenstown & Wanaka

    Exhibits cover the gold-rush era and the early days of Chinese settlement around Arrowtown. Kids are kept engaged by the likes of an 'Odd One Out' game…

  • Orana Wildlife Park

    Christchurch

    Orana is an 'open range' zoo, and you'll know exactly what that means if you opt to jump in the cage on wheels for the lion encounter ($52.50 per person)…

  • Kiwi Birdlife Park

    Queenstown

    These 2 hectares are home to 10,000 native plants, geckos, skinks, tuatara (an endemic reptile) and scores of birds, including kiwi, kea (alpine parrots),…

  • Dunedin Public Art Gallery

    Dunedin

    Gaze upon local and international art – including a small collection of Impressionists – at this expansive and airy gallery. Only a fraction of the…

  • Canterbury Earthquake National Memorial

    Christchurch

    Unveiled in 2017, this moving monument comprises a 100m-long memorial wall, curved along the south bank of the Avon and engraved with the names of the 185…

  • Petrified Forest

    Fiordland & Southland

    Marvel at the rare phenomenon of fossilised forest, extending south of Curio Bay. Preserved by silica in the ashy floodwaters that submerged these…

  • Dunedin Botanic Garden

    Dunedin

    Dating from 1863, these 30 hectares of peaceful, grassy and shady green space include rose gardens, rare natives, a rhododendron dell, an exotic bird…

  • Castle Hill/Kura Tawhiti

    Christchurch & Canterbury

    Scattered across lush paddocks around 33km from Springfield, these limestone formations reach up to 30m high, and look so other-worldly they were named …

  • Rippon

    Wanaka

    It's worth raising a glass to the view alone at Rippon since the Tuscan-styled cellar door has surely the finest winery view in NZ. In a bid to contain…

  • Black Estate

    Christchurch & Canterbury

    Perched on a hillside overlooking the valley, this striking black barn is home to some excellent drops – try the pinot noirs from the winery's three…

  • Water Tower

    Fiordland & Southland

    Built in 1889, this elegant brick-clad structure resembles a lighthouse more than it does a water tower. Almost 43m high, it was built to supply the city…

  • River T Estate

    Dunedin & Otago

    Offering over 40 local wines by the glass, including River T's own well-regarded pinot gris and chardonnay, this new cellar door is gaining a reputation…

  • Brew Moon

    Christchurch & Canterbury

    The variety of craft beers available to taste at this wee brewery never wanes. Stop in to fill a rigger (flagon) to take away, or sup an ale alongside a…

  • Peregrine

    Queenstown

    Peregrine by name, peregrine by design…the award-winning construction of the cellar door, shaped a bit like a falcon's wing in flight, looks particularly…

  • Glowworm Dell

    The West Coast

    At nightfall, bring a torch (or grope your way) into this grotto on the northern edge of town, signposted off SH6. The dell is an easy opportunity to…

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