Touring New Zealand ???

[DirtDiva]

All the tours that I've looked at seem to only do the south island. They start in Christchurch (which I've seen called the road biking mecca of NZ) and go to the west and ride along the coast.

It is the better island... The popularity of cycling has absolutely skyrocketted in Christchurch over the last ten years or so - truly the new golf amongst the corporate set. There are hills all along the South of the city, coast along the east and flatness to the North and West, so it's pretty easy to just go do whatever kind of ride you want. Fairly dry too.

The sort of route as listed in BadJuJu's link would be a fantastic ride. I know all those roads well, although I've never riden them. It would be a lot more hills than flat, with the really serious hills being Arthur's Pass, Haast Pass and the Crown Range. All three are absolutely stunning though. If you were wanting to go on to Australia afterward, you can fly direct to Sydney (and maybe some other cities) from Queenstown.