Am going to NZ in dec/ jan on my honeymoon. are 2 nights in queenstown and 1 night in dunedin sufficient?

we will be staying in christchurch for 2 nights and 1 night in mount cook in the lake tekapo area. we have only 3 other nights to spare. how should we balance between dunedin and Queenstown. Can we skip dnedin? Please help me guys. Its my honeymoon :)

I think Josie above makes an excellent suggestion. Is there a reason for staying in Christchurch..family, etc? If not, Christchurch is nice but not a lot to see and do on a honeymoon. Same with Dunedin, I lived there some time and love it but not a lot for you to see & do in town. Would be a nice drive through and stop for lunch, some beautiful architecture especially in the Octagon. Same with Christchurch, gorgeous old buildings especially the church in the square. But they are cities built for the daily life of New Zealanders.

Kaikoura is a gorgeous quaint town with some very nice B&B's and activities. It is in the mountains just off the North tip of the South Island. You can go whale watching, boating, shark or seal diving, swim with dolphins, go visit the large seal colony, horseback riding, and even fly a small plane yourself out at the local flight club (with co-pilot & instruction from one of the local pilots in the club, not expensive either). This is awesome because you can fly out around the mountains and over the water, sometimes when the whales are about. I would say 2-days there.

For the remaining 3-days, how into adrenalin activities are you? Queenstown is again a beautiful town but not much to do if you are not into adventure sports - base jumping, bungee, parasailing, speed boating, etc. Personally, from Mt Cook I would drive down thru Christchurch for a few hours sightseeing then on thru to Oamaru and stop for a penguins tour. If the tour is in the evening, stay over and start again in the AM. If there are at least 2-hours of daylight left after the tour, head on to the boulders and into Dunedin for the night. Next morning get a map at the tourist centre in Dunedin for the Otago Penninsula drive. This would be an excellent romantic trip for a honeymoon. It ends in Queenstown, so you can drive straight thru at a faster pace at stops along the way, or take it slower than spend the night in one of the midway towns you come too, then on to Queenstown the next morning for a full day of activities. -- An afterthought: Oamaru does do penguin tours, however the one I was thinking of when I wrote it is actually done out of Dunedin. Check with tourist centre for times and days, Twilight Tours I think it is called. So you could end the day off with this.

If you are adrenalin junkies, forget the drive and spend your time in Queenstown & Franz Josef :-) Have fun!

I would imagine that you wouldn't be doing a lot of sightseeiing?

don't skip Dunedin, but only stay there one day and then go to Shag Point and stay on the beach for the last two days

Dunedin is great, Queenstown is very busy that time of year, might not be too relaxing, for something different you could stay half way between and spend the day in dunedin, somewhere in the Maniototo, Central Otago, which is a stunning part of NZ

It depends on whether you want to live it up or take it slow. Queenstown has so much activity to do, and it's warmer than Dunedin. Dunedin is spectacularly pretty and a slower pace. Try staying in one place for the last few days and you'll enjoy your honeymoon much more. Three nights in Queenstown is only enough to do a few things, but it will allow you to do a variety of fast and slow paced things together. Plus, you'll be coming back to a comfortable and familar room each night.

Hey how are ya? I'm from Christchurch and I personally would suggest for your honeymoon you skip Christchurch all together and head to Kaikoura instead, it's a beautiful place and far more romantic than Christchurch. You can go out on a boat and do whale watching, and there are numerous beautiful beaches which to romantically wander around. Also I think you can skip Dunedin as well, to be honest with you once you've seen one city you've seen them all, and no one really goes to NZ to see cities do they? I would recommend spending an extra night in Queenstown because that is a fantastic place with plenty of things to do (jet boat riding, gondolas, luging, skiing, plenty of walks/hikes, and tonnes of adventure activities), although since it is a very popular tourist destination it is a little pricey. If you need any other advice don't hesitate to give me a shout.