we are doing a similar trip mid-October. I have posted our itinerary (with driving times as listed b

**Allow a bit extra on this drive, DoC say 2 hours 15 to stop you rushing to your cruise. Allow a bit more for parking etc. The drive back to Queenstown is at least 5 hours. Remember you are not guaranteed good weather.
Parts of this are good, and others are too hectic. Roads are slow, never assume you willl make more than 80 klms, and factor in lots of stops, These roads are slow, winding, very secnic, and you're often stuck behind slow moving camper vans.
27 October - why Punakaiki ? It's ok, but hardly a must see. And 5 hours fro Chrstchurch after an all night flight? No chance. Spend the day recovering, hotels in washington dc THEN drive straight to the glacier the next day.
28 Oct: Walk to the glacier in the day.You spend all day driving just so you can see seomthing as it gets dark? This is insane. Also, the weather is often very bad on the west coast, and it's hard to do things. The 45 minute walk to the glacier is free, a heli-hike will cost a fortune. I'd add another day here.
I actually quite enjoyed hotels in washington dc Punakaiki . We were lucky with our timing though. Spent 2 nights hotels in washington dc at a lovely retreat. On the first night it was the Rugby world cub final and the lady who ran the retreat gave us a lift to the tavern where we watched it with her family and her daughter gave us a lift home to a big party. The blow holes are best seen at high tide, it helps if there is a big swell aswell. They are pretty cool.
I was in Punakaiki in October and it wasn't that busy, the main issue you have is that there isn't much accomodation there, well, there isn't much of anything there apart from beautiful scenery, the tavern, the blow holes and a few places to stay. It may be an idea to have a look on something like www.hostelworld.com. I am pretty sure there was accomodation at the Punakaiki Tavern aswell. We stayed at a place called Te Nikau Retreat, hotels in washington dc loved it, the family that ran it were lovely hotels in washington dc aswell. Its a few minutes drive from the village. Booked it a couple of days in advance. When we got there the lady who ran it decided she didn't want to put us in the dorm room because the people staying there were a bit younger and more lively, ha ha, so she put us in a private room at no extra cost.
we are doing a similar trip mid-October. I have posted our itinerary (with driving times as listed by AANewZealand with rounded up minutes added to reflect reality. Still, driving times are all approximate.
This is our itinerary from Christchurch for a slightly less than two week time period. We are renting a camper van with shower, GPS and WiFi - we could have rented a Yaris from Eurocar hotels in washington dc and done B Bs for about the same price or cheaper.
We chose this because it would take us to all of the highlights, many of these places were used in LOTR, it involves only one really long drive, from Te Anau to Franz Josef, and it offers opportunities at times to just sit back and relax or to explore if we so choose. So one day we might hit a winery tour and then go for a trek, another day we might book a tour. The important stuff such as the Doubtful Sound cruise with powerhouse visit, Cadbury World, balloon flight and heli hiking, we pre-booked as we know we want to do those things. Queenstown we are leaving open - we will take it as it comes because there is so much to do and it depends how we feel.
We did Te Anau to Milford Sound and back on 19th October last year and the roads were absolutely fine. We were on a coach (Well, neither of us drive anyway) and that was great because the actual journey there is stunning aswell, it would be a shame to miss it by having to drive in my opinion. All looks pretty good to me, its a lot of driving but as long as you are O.K. with that why not! Not many choices for accomodation at Mount Cook so check out online and see what takes your fancy. We stayed at the YHA and thought it was lovely. I hope you get good weather on your trip. We were extremely lucky most of the time, just the odd bit of rain. At Mount Cook we got glorious sunshine one day and a heavy dump of snow the next which was pretty cool.