Lonely Planet New Zealand's South Island (Regional Guide) [Paperback]

Charles Rawlings-Way (Author)

Book Description

Series: Regional Guide | Publication Date: April 1, 2009

Nobody knows New Zealand like Lonely Planet, and our 1st edition to its show-stopping South Island brings you the best of the Kiwi adventure. Whether that's tramping in Fiordland, washing down oysters with wine in Marlborough, skiing the slopes around Queenstown, or taking a city break in Christchurch - you decide.

Lonely Planet guides are written by experts who get to the heart of every destination they visit. This fully updated edition is packed with accurate, practical and honest advice, designed to give you the information you need to make the most of your trip.

In This Guide:

New guide covering national parks, farmstays, wineries, galleries and more
In depth coverage of outdoor activities
Green Index to help make your travels ecofriendly

Product Details

• Paperback: 444 pages
• Publisher: Lonely Planet; 1 edition (April 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1741799112
• ISBN-13: 978-1741799118
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #915,445 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Hmmmm...????? WHY?, July 10, 2009

By 

Scott Cook "NZ Guidebook Author" (Hood River Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lonely Planet New Zealand's South Island (Regional Guide) (Paperback)

This "new" South Island-ONLY offering from LP is simply their regular country guide New Zealand (Country Guide)cut in half. This South guide has 444 pages vs. the full-country guide's 765 pages. The weight difference is about 7 ounces.

My take on this book is "WHY?". Even if you're traveling to ONLY NZ's South Island, I feel that you'll still benefit from LP's insights about the entire country. In your South Island travels you'll constantly meet folks who'll invariably tell you stuff about what they saw up North, and if you can't pop open your book to read a bit and gain a better overall insight to the country...then it's only you who'll miss out on getting the "Full flavor" of NZ.

This South guide, other than a few extra pages of "front matter" and a more exhaustive index...is word-for-word, page-for-page simply the bigger book cut in half. I looked thru it hoping to find more detailed insights about tracks or hot springs and such. Nope, just the big guide re-packaged and re-priced. I don't think that saving 3-4 bucks and 7 ounces is worth it. Get the full country guide. LP does a great job detailing all the history and culture stuff for NZ. I say get the full book rather than the half, I say don't overlook the hidden wonders of the North Island. I say that if you are going for only two weeks or less, then you should only choose ONE island to visit.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spot-On Advice, Particularily Good for Restaurants & Food., March 13, 2010

By 

Michael Buonpane "Buff Fan" (Colorado USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lonely Planet New Zealand's South Island (Regional Guide) (Paperback)

Having just returned from 3 weeks on the South Island, we found this LP guide to be a trustworthy companion, full of valuable concise information. Since we were only visiting the South Island (not too uncommon), why carry the bulk of a full-country guide? LP led us to many excellent out-of-the-mainstream restaurants and wineries. At times we traveled off the main roads, even on some gravel roads, but LP usually had current information for wherever we found ourselves. Without their suggestions it would have been easy to miss many interesting attractions.