Let KAYAK do the searching
Based on KAYAK hotel searches, the most popular destination is Queenstown (33% of total searches to South Island). The next most popular destinations are Christchurch (33%) and Invercargill (28%). Searches for hotels in Dunedin (6%) are also popular.
KAYAK users have found double rooms in South Island for as cheap as R734 (Greymouth) in the last 3 days. The average price is R2 091.