New Zealand August 2025 Itinerary

Hi lisajford22,
We visited New Zealand in November 2024. So I do have some firsthand experience. But the first point I would like to make is that August is winter in the Southern Hemisphere. I assume that you are aware of this. My concern would be weather conditions for hiking and driving. When I was planning my trip, we initially planned on spending October in New Zealand. People advised me that the weather and road conditions would not be ideal. Even in October we would have to be concerned about black ice while driving in New Zealand, especially in the mornings and evenings. And the weather in the South Island is colder and more unpredictable than on the North Island.

You said you've done a lot of research so I assume you are aware of this but I thought I should point this out to you.

Another consideration is staying in a camper van in August. Will that be warm enough?

I am still working on my N.I. itinerary for April May. My previous 2 visits there were long ago so I won't offer any help there. It does look pretty realistic to me though.
Sth Island a different story as we did 3 weeks roadtripping in a campervan last April May.
First up Dunedin, it's been over 20 years since I visited so no specific help. I remember it and the surrounds being quite a delight.

Queenstown to Wanaka.
We actually went to Wanaka from nearby Arrowtown rather than Queenstown. We drove over the Crown Range which tested out Little Kermit the green Jucy camper. It has a series of steep switchbacks early on to get up the Crown Range. There is the most spectacular view of Q'town and Lake Wakitipu from further up at a big parking area. I took off for a wonderful run further up into the ranges from there. Quite a bit of snow, stunning scenery.
If you are not to keen on those switchbacks you can drive back along the beautiful Kawarau Gorge to Cromwell and take the road to Queensberry then onto Wanaka. I haven't done that road but it looks less steep and twisty but looks much longer.

In Wanaka we stayed at Hampshire Holiday Park.
Good facilities, close to all services and not far from the lake. Powered site was in the $NZD 40 ish range. That was about the average price for powered sites. There is camping available for vans at Glendhu Bay near your hike. Sorry I don't know if it has good facilities etc.

Wanaka to Lake Tekapo via Omarama Clay Cliffs.
Haven't done the first section from Wanaka to Terra's but after that I'm in familiar territory except heading the opposite way.
Should take about 90 minutes to get to Omarama via Lindis Pass. You might want to stop at Lindis Pass. I may have run up to Double Peak from the parking area. I am not admitting to anything as I am not sure whether you are allowed.
I really enjoyed the clay cliffs, more impressive than I expected. It's a short side trip from Omarama, maybe 10 kms.
Another 20 mins will get you to Twizel and 40 or 50 mins to Lake Tekapo. If it's clear weather you can get some great views on the short section around the south end of incredibly blue Lake Pukaki.
Lake Tekapo didn't do it for me or my wife. Maybe because of timing and weather. Raining heavily and arrival coincided with the arrival of multiple bus loads of tour groups. Maybe on a fine sunny day and without the tour groups? Hopefully you will enjoy it more.
We didn't stay and drove to Twizel and stayed at Twizel Holiday Park. The kitchen area was a bit small but it was a good location, snwy mountain backdrop.
Nothing special about the town but it has a decent supermarket. It's selling point is that it is a spectacular 45 min drive from Mt Cook.

Start Hooker Valley early as you can. It gets very crowded sometimes. There is a Dept of Conservation campsite (White Horse) at the start of the hike. Gets crowded too. It has reduced facilities June to end of August. DOC camps charge a small per person fee. We didn't stay there so not sure what if any facilities it has. We drove back and forth from Twizel when visiting Mt Cook NP.
We bought a toastie at the Hermitage, it gets pretty busy there.
The Mt Cook visitors centre has a bit of a museum worth visiting.

Queenstown.
Super busy, spectacular location, plenty of activities available. Quite expensive.
We stayed at the Top 10 Queenstown Holiday Park up at Arthur's Point a bit of drive out of town.
It was the most expensive of our stays. Give it it's due though, it had excellent kitchen/common room facilities.

Queenstown to Te Anau.
A bit over 2 hours driving. We stopped for lunch at Mossburn at the Bracken Hall Cafe.
In Te Anau we stayed 3 nights at the well appointed Lakeview Holiday Park, great views across Lake Te Anau to the snowy mountains.
Te Anau has pretty decent services.

Milford Sound.
We booked a coach and cruise tour rather than just the cruise. It wasn't much more price wise and just seemed an easier option.
The coach trip to Milford was about 3 hours with commentary and a number of stops at scenic points. From memory 10 am to 1 pm.
We boarded the boat at 1.30 pm. We had commentary throughout the cruise from a roaming tour guide. The cruise and the scenery was brilliant. We had done Doubtful Sound the previous day and been blown away. I thought Milford might be a let down but it certainly wasn't.
The cruise finished about 3 pm. We were on the bus by 3.30. We drove straight through to Te Anau and were back maybe 5.15.

That's about all I can think of at the moment.
Cheers.

I've roadtripped in NZ a couple of times but in the summer, so the days were a lot longer and the road/weather conditions were very different. I recommend posting your itinerary on Tripadvisor's New Zealand forum. The NZ natives/residents are very knowledgeable and offer good, constructive feedback.
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g255104-i125-New_Zealand.html

Thanks for all of this advice. We will be there in the winter although I understand the places we have chosen are open in the winter and in fact may be nicer both due to the weather (more predictable-not sure what that means) and crowds. I will try to post it to get some additional feedback. Thanks for that idea!

Just want to support the cautionary note from kmkwoo about black ice on some of the roads in the early morning on the South Island - the drive from Te Anau to Milford Sound is notorious for that very thing. There are usually a number of accidents every year involving vehicles skidding off the road or, unfortunately, into the path of oncoming traffic.
The drive is an especially scenic one and it's easy to be distracted by the beautiful surroundings, so do exercise an abundance of caution on your trip.

I appreciate the caution. We plan to do a coach tour from Te Anau to Milford Sound. While I think the freedom of having our camper van and our own schedule is my ideal way to travel, I do not think it outweighs having an expert there to provide us information on the route and drive the historically challenging road in. Any advice about the best outfitter to use for this excursion from Te Anau? I heard that Southern Discoveries is a good company.

The companies running tours down to Milford Sound are generally highly rated but it does pay to shop around, especially if you're interested in a small group tour. It does tend to get rather congested down near the dock and some of the vessels are huge ... carrying a mass of humanity all jockeying for position at the rail for their photos.
The Things to Do menu on Trip Advisor is helpful in sorting thru the various offerings, and we've generally found their reviews to be accurate.

Two good investments we made.

A Hema Road Atlas. It was a huge help both in planning and then when on the road.

A hot water bottle. Most evenings were spent socialising in kitchen/common rooms a campgrounds which were usually pretty comfortable but the hot water bottle was great at bedtime. It was sub zero Celsius (sub 32F) 17 of our 20 nights but not once did I feel cold in bed.

Black ice. Not sure where you live but I have dealt with it many times here in Australia. We only came across it deep in a forest near Haast Pass (not on your itinerary). One guy had came off the road in front of us. But he had sped past us earlier.
The roads on the South Island are much better than the roads I am used to at home. That said of course it is necessary to be aware of road conditions and drive accordingly. On your itinerary I would think the only road of concern would be the Crown Range from Queenstown to Wanaka. If conditions appeared hazardous then reroute, I did post the alternative route.
We tended to head out later in the morning as we were not in a great hurry.

Day 11 Lake Tekapo.
I wasn't paying attention last night but I am assuming the Dark Sky stuff you are hoping to do is at night.
If that is the case then best stay in Lake Tekapo, the campground isn't too far from the Dark Sky setup. We didn't have a close look but I imagine it is well appointed.
Leading into day 12, heading to Hooker Valley. I am thinking it will take close to 90 mins from Lake Tekapo to Hooker Valley (the last 30 to 40 is spectacular if the weather cooperates). So an early start. If the weather was a bit awful then maybe head up the Tasman Valley as an alternative.
That night probably stay at Twizel seeing you will be heading that way back to Queenstown. You could also stay at the Omarama campground 30 kms further on. It was quite nice but I seem to remember it being a bit more expensive than Twizel.

Milford Sound.
We went with Pure Milford based on a recommendation from someone we met. We had gone with RealNZ for Doubtful Sound the day before. I have no complaints about Pure Milford but our experience with RealNZ was just brilliant. I think the basic coach/cruise tours are all pretty similar both in price and content. A good call not to drive yourself, ends up being a long day.

The one thing that stands out in your itinerary is the frequent visits to Queenstown.
Day 16 you travel back there from Te Anau with your daughter who is flying back to Auckland.
Then day 17 you drive south again to Dunedin.
It would make sense to drive to Dunedin from Te Anau rather than heading all the way back to Queenstown. Could your daughter take a bus from Te Anau to Queenstown? This saves you a day of retracing your steps and a couple of hours drive time the next day. I realise time spent with your daughter may take precedent.

I do hope you choose to campervan it. We met no American campervanners on our trip, not sure why. I just think it is a brilliant way to travel.
Cheers.

We used Fiordland Tours, and we were very, very happy with them. No problems at all. For an extra fee, you can purchase lunch (sandwiches and sides) from them. They picked us up at our motel in a van. It's a small group. No more than 16 people. We made 4 stops on the way to Milford Sound and another 4 stops on the way back to Te Anau. The stops are for short hikes, photo opportunities, bathroom breaks, and coffee and pastry on the way to Milford Sound.

Lake Tekapo was one of our highlights! A gorgeous, shimmering turquoise lake. Of course we were fortunate to have brilliant sunshine. No tour buses. This was in November which is a quiet time of year. December starts to get busier.

I recommend staying at the White Horse campground, if you can. The drive back and forth from Twizel is long. I hope you have good weather and can do the Hooker Valley Track hike. That was one of our highlights. It's a magnificent hike through the valley surrounded by snow-capped mountains. You cross 3 suspension bridges and a long meandering boardwalk. Just spectacular!