New Zealand Adventures By Disney - Itinerary March 2024

*ABD itineraries can change from year to year, or even mid-trip if need be. Since my trip, ABD has changed this itinerary for 2025 trips.

I have to admit, when I told everyone we’d finally booked our trip to New Zealand and it was with Disney, it was met with quite a few eye rolls. I know there are lots of people out there that think my love of Disney blinds me, and that I must insist on traveling with them no matter what, but I promise that wasn’t the case for this trip! We’d done tons of research about things we wanted to see in New Zealand and whether we wanted to take a cruise, go by ourself, or take a full blown tour of the country. When we finally settled on the idea of a land tour, I then researched tons more companies! We knew this would probably be our only chance we’d ever get to go to New Zealand and most of the tour companies I was finding didn’t take the time to see both island - but Disney did. Not only that, but once I glanced at their itinerary and saw all the adventurous activities planned, we knew that was the direction we’d want to go. Our guide Dusty was quick to warn us that it’s “adventures by Disney, not vacations by Disney” alluding to the fact that our days would be busy but well worth it. Many of the activities we enjoyed I never would’ve booked on our own, but they ended up being super memorable and fun!

And please note, that my trip to Hobbiton was done on our own and is not included in this tour, ever. So if that’s something you want to see, you’ll need to make arrangements to do it yourself.

So, just as a brief run down because it was such a long trip, I wanted to show what our daily itineraries looked like and all the things we did!

Day 1: Arrive at the Park Hyatt for check in with our Disney guides (shout out to the amazing Dusty Atha and Danny) and had our welcome dinner to meet the group.

Day 2: Breakfast at the Park Hyatt.
Morning activity was cooking school and this ended up being so much more fun than I thought it would be! It was also a great first activity to have to dive into and get to know the rest of the group.
Afternoon activity sailing in the Auckland harbor. I know this is obviously a wonderful activity but we got caught in a huge rainstorm and absolutely dumped on the entire time. Everyone was a good sport about it and laughing, but I’m sure it’s much better in the dry sunshine!

This evening we got to tour the Auckland Zoo after hours and have dinner in the old elephant house. The zoo activity wasn’t my favorite but the dinner was one of the most delicious from the trip.

Day 3: Breakfast at the Park Hyatt.
We took a ferry over to Waiheke Island and spent the day shopping in this adorable beach town. Our group was split into two different parts, and ours went shopping for a couple of hours and then got to go zip lining later in the day. Lunch was at Stonyridge Vineyard after a wine demonstration and tasting and was absolutely to die for. We spent all day on the island and then took a ferry back in the evening. Dinner was on our own this night.

Day 4: Breakfast at the Park Hyatt. Check out day.
We then drove for about 4 hours via bus to Rotarua and stopped for lunch at the Roseland Resort. This lunch was a bust in my opinion but I knew with the length of the trip that they wouldn’t all be winners.

After lunch was one of the most incredible activities we had the entire trip. We got a private tour the Spellbound Glowworm caves, getting to see a wonder that only exists in parts of New Zealand or Australia.

Dinner this night was a highlight of the trip for me. We got to have a private Maori Hangi Feast. And when I say this was private, I mean it! We literally got to join a Maori family in their backyard. They’d cooked for us all day, and then we got to all sit together and enjoy the food while they performed for us. This was my favorite dinner and one of my favorite moments in general. It was so special.

Check in at the Pullman Rotorua

Day 5: Breakfast at the Pullman Rotorua
The morning started out with us getting to visit the National Kiwi Bird Hatchery, getting to see the birds first hand! Afterwards, we visited the Agrodome Farm next door and got to see a sheep shearing demonstration.

Lunch was at the Bowen House and was a fun experience being in an old farm house with a delicious meal just for our group.
Our afternoon was spent at the Rotorua Canopy Tour zip lining through the rainforest. This was an amazing experience and one of the best days we’d had.
Dinner was up on the hill at the Skyline and was just ok. It was a big touristy buffet type experience and very busy and the food was just average buffet food.

Day 6: Breakfast at the Pullman. Check out day.

We started our morning at the Te Puia Geothermal Park and got to experience the natural wonders of the hot springs, geysers, and national arts and crafts.

We then headed to the airport to board our flight to the Southern Island, into Christchurch. Lunch was a sack lunch in the airport.

Immediately upon landing in Christchurch, we went punting which was a great relaxing activity after so many days of high adventure!

We checked into the Crowne Plaza and had dinner on our own that night. This was my least favorite place we stayed. The rooms weren’t that spectacular and we were glad we were only spending one night there.

Day 7: Breakfast at the Crown Plaza.

We rode a Transalpine train up to Arthur’s pass. It was about a 3 hour journey as we watched the gorgeous scenery around us change every moment. It was incredible.

Lunch was at the Monteith’s Brewing Company and wasn’t that great. The brewery is not longer operational so it’s basically just a pub/restaurant now.

We then drove to Hokitika for a little bit of free time and shopping to buy some famous Hokitika jade jewelry.

A further bus ride took us up to Franz Josef to check in at Te Waonui Forest Retreat. This hotel was one of my favorite! It’s beautifully built in the middle of the rainforest and is so serene.

Dinner was at The Canopy which is the restaurant at the hotel and we had some time to do laundry this evening.

Day 8: Breakfast at Te Waonui

This day was glorious. We started the morning with a very easy but private hike up to the Franz Josef Glacier Valley and it was indescribably beautiful. The rest of the day was free time for us which was so nice. We’d been so busy and so crazy the entire trip that it was nice to have a day to just wander and relax on our own. This also left time for those who wanted to do crazier activities like hiring helicopters to take them to the glacier, ATV’ing, or renting a private hot tub in the forest.

Day 9: Breakfast at Te Waonui. Check out day.

This was a long bus day! All told, our day was probably 8 or so hours in the bus to our next destination.

On the way, we were able to stop in Wanaka for lunch and to enjoy this beautiful lakeside town. It was one of our favorite spots. The earlier plan was to have lunch at Makarora Country Cafe but due to traffic and other circumstances that day, our guides made the decision to skip it and just let us find lunch in Wanaka (which turned out better anyway!).

We checked into the Hotel St. Moritz in Queenstown this evening and had dinner at the hotel this evening. This dinner was probably the “fanciest” we had during the tour.

Day 10: Breakfast at Hotel St. Moritz

This was a HUGE day. Probably the highlight day for everyone on the trip. My group started off jet boating up the Dart River first thing in the morning and this was the most fun activity from the whole time. Everyone in the group exclaimed that it was their favorite day by far. It was adrenaline filled and absolutely stunningly beautiful.

Lunch was in the adorable town of Glenorchy at a little pub there and was served buffet style. It was an average meal.

After lunch we split up again and some of us went horseback riding through the landscape, while others went on a “safari” which I heard was incredible. They took jeeps up through the river to see sights Lord of the Rings were filmed at.

Dinner was on our own in Queenstown.

Day 11: Breakfast at the St. Moritz

We took our bus up to Arrowtown and got to explore this old mining town a little bit. We then took e-bikes through the forest and over suspension bridges.
Lunch was at the Gibbston Valley Winery where they showed us their cave cellar. This lunch was not great though. Probably one of my least favorite.
That evening we had free time in Queenstown before meeting back up with our group to take the TSS Earnslaw up to Walter Peak for our farewell dinner. This was a very special night. Riding this old steamer up to our last dinner was beautiful. Dinner was a huge buffet at the Walter Peak farm where we all got to share some of our favorite memories and start saying our good byes. It really was the perfect way to end the trip.

Here are some of my favorite things from this incredible trip:
Favorite Hotel: Park Hyatt or Te Waonui
Favorite Meal: Private Hangi dinner
Favorite Activity: Jet Boating up the Dart River

Least Favorite Hotel: Crowne Plaza Christchurch
Least Favorite Meal: Roseland Resort or Gibbston Valley Winery