Hello -
I will be traveling with my husband to New Zealand for 10 days in May. We will be flying directly from the states to Sydney and spending approximately 3 days in Sydney to recover from jet lag and see the Opera House. After that we will have 10-11 days to dedicate to New Zealand and would prefer to focus on the South Island. We will be flying out of Auckland, but for us, that is just a departing location (unless we hear otherwise). Typically, we do not like to hop town to town daily and prefer to use good locations as a base and do daily excursions. We are trying to keep our bases to about 3 or so, which would give us roughly 3 nights at each. It looks like Queenstown and 1-2 other cities may be good bases, but we are more than open to suggestions. I know I want to see the glow worm caves at Te Anau, a glacier and Milford sound if at all possible (would love to catch some penguins or other indigenous wild animals at some point). We are also interested in possibly a hot air balloon ride or something adventurous. Any recommendations or help is extremely appreciated as our guide books are very overwhelming. I've used Rick Steve's books for our many European trips, so this is the first time we have had trouble landing on an itinerary. Please help!! Thanks so much!