The South Island

The South Island

Mountains, Fiords, Penguins, and More

Introduction

The South Island is absolutely amazing and you could spend six months here and still not have seen enough of it. This summary of things to do and see will be structured in a geographic context and progress around the island in a generally clockwise direction. We are not much for cities, so there is probably some big gaps in my coverage of those areas. There are a couple of things to keep in mind about the South Island as you plan your trip:

  • Although the distances are small, the driving is slow and can be pretty treacherous, so don’t try to treat it like the Western US where you can cover huge distances easily. Many roads here are narrow and windy.
  • The mountains are more rugged and difficult than you think, be prepared if you go into the back country
  • If you get soaked to a squishy: harden up, mate! She’ll be right.

Basic Facts

Area & Population:

The South Island covers 150,437 square kilometers (58,084 sq mi) which is 56% of New Zealand’s land area; it is also the world’s 12th-largest island. However, the population of the South Island is only 1.26 million people which makes up just 24% of New Zealand’s 5.3 million inhabitants. The largest cities on the island are Christchurch (403,000), Dunedin (106,700), Nelson (51,700) and Invercargill (51,300). As you can tell from those stats, it is a pretty sparsely populated place.

Areas

Areas of exploration

To help you figure out what things to do and allow you to explore possibilities, we will break the South Island into seven main regions highlighted on the map. Understand that we have not seen everything there is see. In those areas, we will point you to some good resources. In the areas that we have visited, we will give very specific advice and direction on visiting that area. The Tasman-Nelson area will have the most information as that is our home stomping grounds.

Map showing the key regions and cities of the South Island. To learn more click on the links below to get to the information for that region
Tasman-Nelson

Home to Abel Tasman, Kahurangi and Nelson Lakes National Parks

Marlborough

Wines, Sounds, and Green-Lipped Mussels

Canterbury

Christchurch, Lake Tekapo, Mt. Aoraki, Arthur’s Pass National Park

Otago

Dunedin, The Catlins, Queenstown, Wanaka and big lakes

Southland

Fiords and more fiords

Stewart Island

Real kiwis! and what New Zealand used to be like

West Coast

Glaciers, stunning coast line, classic towns, one-lane bridges, and sandflies

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