Titan Travel Worldwide including Europe

A U C KL A N D S KY L I N E 3 Bay of Islands 3 Auckland Waitomo Caves NEW ZEALAND Picton 2 Rotorua 1 Taupo 2 Wellington Mount Cook Milford Sound Queenstown 2 Te Anau 1 1 Christchurch 1 3 Dunedin Day 13 Day 8 Queenstown Burke's Pass to Fairlie and the gentle green countryside in which nestles the village of Geraldine. Our hotel this evening is the Chateau on the Park. Day 11 Christchurch - Wellington Wellington - Taupo Queenstown, dominated by the majestic Remarkables, is the most sophisticated resort in New Zealand. This stunning landscape is a favourite with winter skiers and all who love the great outdoors. This is a wonderful place to relax as well as to walk and savour the purity of the air. This evening we take a cruise aboard the beautiful vintage TSS Earnslaw on Lake Wakatipu to the highcountry sheep station of Walter Peak where you will dine in the elegant Colonel's Homestead. Day 9 Queenstown - Mount Cook This morning we visit Gibbston's Winery before we journey into the heart of the Southern Alps where we have our first glimpse of Mount Cook, known as "Cloud Piercer" by the Maori, towering 3,754 metres above sea level. The Tasman Glacier, nudging one side of Mount Cook, is one of the longest glaciers outside the Himalayas. This evening we stay in this classic alpine region at the Hermitage Hotel, where dinner is included. Day 10 Mount Cook - Christchurch North across the plains to the coastal town of Kaikoura, famous for its crayfish. At Picton we leave the South Island and steam across the spectacular Cook Strait on the comfortable inter-island ferry. Wellington Harbour offers our first view of the capital city. On disembarking we are transferred to the James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor, our base for the next two nights. Day 12 Wellington We travel north this morning over the Desert Road - in this case the "desert" has been caused by the effects of volcanic ash - before reaching the charming lakeside town of Taupo, on the shores of New Zealand's largest freshwater lake. You will see and hear the thunder of Huka Falls before visiting the thermal areas and boiling mud pools of the Craters of the Moon. This evening we stay at the delightful Bayview Wairakei Resort. Continued... Leaving the majestic Mount Cook, following breakfast, we skirt the glacial blue waters of Lake Pukaki. We pass Lake Tekapo, before crossing We take a short orientation tour of the city, which is often compared with San Francisco. Visitors generally agree that the harbour is the most beautiful in the country. The remainder of the day is at leisure and there are several attractions that are worthy of exploration, none more so than New Zealand's national museum, Te Papa. Free to enter and located on the waterfront in a purpose built, architecturally beautiful building, the museum showcases the history of New Zealand in many visually stunning and thought provoking ways. MIL FOR D S OU N D TH E WAIT O MO GL OW- WO RM CAV ES Boating through a subterranean cave covered with the mucus cocoons of thousands of fungus gnats may not, on the face of it, sound like a pleasing way to spend your holiday time, but the glow-worms of Waitomo, discovered by Maori Chief Tane Tinorau and English surveyor Fred Mace in 1887, are truly a sight to behold. Each emits a beautiful and intense pin-point of blue light, making the top of the caves resemble the sky on the clearest night. This is, however, a transitory beauty in something of an evolutionary enigma, the gnat emerges from the cocoon without a mouth or digestive system and consequently dies within a couple of days. 149

Worldwide including Europe - 2012/13