Day 5 (Saturday) Rotorua

After your breakfast buffet this morning, you visit Whakarewarewa, one of Rotorua’s most active thermal areas. You see the lively Pohutu Geyser, which erupts about 20 times a day and gushes to a height of more than 100 feet. Here at "Whaka", there are also hot mud pools, hot springs, and a Maori pa (fortified settlement to which the Maori would retreat when under attack).

Nearby is the Maori Arts and Crafts Institute, where skilled Maori carvers and flax weavers can be seen at work. At a Maori settlement, you pass thermal waters that tribal people have used for generations for cooking, washing, and heating. (B,L,D)

Today you depart this lovely plateau by air for Mount Cook National Park, on South Island – the crowning glory of the magnificent Southern Alps range. This terrain was the training ground for Everest climber Sir Edmund Hillary.

In 1991, Mt. Cook itself lost about 34 feet of height in a massive landslide; however, it is still an impressive 12,316 feet, and it remains New Zealand’s highest mountain. Within this park are 140 peaks over 7,000 feet as well as five of New Zealand’s largest glaciers.

Your arrival at the "rooftop of New Zealand" is particularly thrilling, as your aircraft brings you right to the glacier in the Aoraki Mount Cook National Park. Your hotel, the Hermitage, sits on the panoramic hilltop, between the valley and the glacier. This stone and wood chalet is cheerful and relaxing, but the highlight is the magnificent view – the mountains, the glaciers, and the glacial lakes. Tonight, you dine at the hotel, which has a wonderful variety of entrees; game dishes are a specialty here. After dinner, relax with your companions with a coffee or after-dinner drink in the lounge. (B,L,D)

This morning, you drive southward along the Southern Alps toward the Fiordland National Park – New Zealand’s largest national park and a World Heritage Park. This unspoiled region holds sheer mountains and remote deep valleys that give you an understanding of some of the Maori legends - such as one about the lost tribe Te Anau.

You visit the Te Anau Caves, which feature whirlpools, magical waterfalls, and a glow-worm grotto. This evening, you stay at Takaro, a picturesque resort with majestic mountain views. The dining room here offers savory dishes of venison, lamb, and seafood. (B,L,D)

After breakfast, you drive past incredibly beautiful landscape along Lake Te Anau, and on through dense forests and the "Avenue of the Disappearing Mountain", where you cannot believe your eyes. Rudyard Kipling described the journey to Milford Sound as "the eighth wonder of the world". Passing through the Homer Tunnel, the road drops down into the Cleddau Valley, with its awesome chasm, and then on to the breathtaking view of Milford Sound. Although called a sound, geographically it is actually a fiord (a previous glacial area filled with seawater).

This afternoon, you take a boat on a 10-mile excursion from the southernmost end of Milford Sound to Dale Point, on the open sea. During your cruise, you see such landmarks as the hanging valley called Sinbad Gully, Mitre Peak (5,560 feet rising directly from the ocean floor), and Anita Bay (where Maori once came for greenstone for their weapons). At Seal Point, you may be able to see some Southern Fur Seals; this is one of the few areas in the fiord where they can climb out of the water onto the rocks. Look for the Fiordland Crested Penguin (the world’s rarest penguin), which lives and nests around Milford Sound.

You return to Takaro Resort for overnight. (B,L,D.)

Traveling north this morning, you arrive in Queenstown, set on an inland plateau, surrounded by mountains, on the shore of Lake Wakatipu. For many years, painters have been attracted to the landscape of warm browns tinged with shades of gold, ochre, white, and sienna.

Queenstown has been called "the jewel in the tourist crown". Its beautiful setting, combined with a broad range of adventure activities, makes this destination a favorite with all visitors. Gondolas take you from central Queenstown, 2,500 feet above sea level, to Bob’s Peak for a glorious panorama of the lake and forested mountains. Later this afternoon, check into your hotel, the Outrigger at the Beacon – right on the lake, surrounded by well-landscaped grounds. Dine this evening with your travel companions in the award-winning restaurant, Clancy’s. After dinner, have an espresso or cordial in the bar, which replicates an old frontier village. (B,L,D)

Your excursion today takes you north to a picturesque, and well-preserved, gold mining settlement in Central Otago. Arrowtown was once the center for an estimated 80 gold fields that mushroomed, and then faded, all in one wild decade. At the historic Kawarau Bridge you can watch bungee jumpers leap off for the longest "ride" in the area.

This afternoon, you take an exhilarating ride aboard a jet boat – New Zealand’s "home-grown" style of running rivers. The typical jet boat can skim over shallows no more than 4 inches in depth.

Returning to Queenstown, relax before your à la carte dinner at the hotel. (B,L,D)

Today, you fly to the very English "garden city" of Christchurch, with the Avon River winding like a ribbon through it. There are acres and acres of gardens (gardening is the biggest leisure time activity here), which makes for some extremely pleasant drives and walks as you explore the city.

Few people have the opportunity to experience the awesome beauty of Antarctica first hand, but in Christchurch, at the International Antarctic Center, you see and participate in a unique exhibit. The Center uses advanced technology to create the feel, the sound, and the sight of the "Great White South". Many of the staff here have lived and worked in Antarctica and speak from first-hand experience.

Tonight you stay at the sleek and sophisticated The George Hotel, considered to be one of the finest in the country. (B,L,D)

After breakfast, you are escorted to the airport for your return flight to the States. (B)

OR (Journey extension) Christchurch - Papeete

You have this morning at leisure in Christchurch. You might care to stroll down to the pedestrian area called City Mall, to shop at Ballantynes (this city’s equivalent of Harrod’s). Continuing another two blocks toward the Avon River and the Bridge of Remembrance, you come to some of best shopping of the city. There is another pleasant walk a few blocks to the west, to the Christchurch Arts Center, once the site of the University and now home to arts and crafts studios.

Later, you leave New Zealand and fly to the tropical paradise of French Polynesia.