Best places to visit on South Island, New Zealand?

wanaka as everyone says , lovely down there then , and hot as tour take a tour bus downt here

There are a few places you should totally hit - my advice is to rent a car and drive south from Christchurch and drive the perimeter (the northwestern piece was my least favorite, but still worth visiting). I did it all in about 2.5 weeks without stress. Places to hit - Wanaka, Franz Joseph glacier, Milford Sound (with enough time to enjoy the road to Milford Sound), Queenstown for thrills, and PARADISE (a very small area near Queenstown - the name says it all!) Buy a Lonely Planet book - it was great for identifying small pitstops (e.g waterfalls, et al). NZ is GORGEOUS! Enjoy!

WANAKA !!!! its so beautiful.

You are in for a great experience! Rotorua, Bay of Plenty, (in the north) - Mount Cook, (further away) - Queenstown, Milford Sound (extreme south).

Milford Sound, the Southern Scenic Route, Te Anau, Manapouri, Wanaka, Queenstown. But the last 4 are expensive. Buy some groceries at a supermarket somewhere else if you're self-catering.

Everywhere except Westport. I would not bother too much with luxuries (except that I would do a flight into Milford Sound). I would concentrate my time in the Southern Ranges (Mt Cook, Wanaka, Queenstown, Te Anau). If you want to see spectacular mountains near the coast, cross the Haast Pass to the West Coast (it will be wet), travel via Fox and Franz Josef for accessible glaciers near sea level and cross back via Arthurs Pass. Kaikoura Cost (north east) is spectacular and has whale watching. Blenheim and the Marlborough Sounds are softer country but still beautiful. Also a major wine growing area.

My favourite part of the south island was dolphin swimming in Kaikoura, early start but there must have been 300 dolphins that morning, I kid you not. I booked with these guys. http://www.dolphin.co.nz/kaikoura/ Whatever you decide to do, good luck, NZ is such a beautiful country

In that time you could do a round trip from Christchurch...or add a leg to Nelson/Marlborough... If you start in Christchurch you can do the train (Tranz Alpine)(ok its reasonably pricy..altho i see there is a winter special....opps I see you are visiting in summer...(shame as the snow is cool)..and you only need to do it one way anyway...but its a very good train journey. I love the west coast of the south island (often referred to as "the coast")....its so pretty and scenic...there are buses( eg atomic shuttles or intercity for example) that can get you up and down the coast. There are glaciers..Franz Josef and Fox, which are lovely...with lots of walks around the place to see the scenery. You would need to book in advance...and there is a range of accommodation to suit most budgets. You can then travel thru to Queenstown and Wanaka which despite being very toursty are worth the look. You can continue on to Mount Cook (village is small, but scenery great and can walk to the glacial lakes...quite different to the coast in scenery) and then back via lake Tekapo to Christchurch....that could easily take a week, but you can do it comfortably in a few 4-5 days too. If you want you can take the train (Coastal Pacific...get the back packers seats for cheaper seats if you want...the carrage is older and has smaller windows, but if you can get a window seat (which is right side of train heading north) its still good views)...to Kaikoura to see the whales!! If you had more time....Nelson/Marlborough could be an option, but you would really need some time to see great white beaches like those in the Abel Tasman area...there is a reasonably easy coastal walk (called the Abel Tasman) that needs booking, but could be worth it, if you decide you would like to do that.