Reviews of The Grand NZ Self Drive Tour

First Light did a wonderful job with all activities, accommodations and scheduling. They made a big job a very simple thing. Easiest and best trip ever.

Penguins were awesome. Glow worm cave tour was unexpectedly great. Loved Abel Tasman area.

Hi Narissa

Just wanted to drop you a note to let you know that returned home to Australia on the 13th March safe and sound after our most enjoyable holiday in New Zealand.

We were so happy with all of the arrangements you made for us and were extremely pleased with all of the accommodation you put in place. All of the accommodation was clean and comfortable and we were able to cook quite a lot of our meals as most had cooking facilities. All of our tours you booked for us went very smooth and we were grateful that you booked us on the Doubtful Sound tour after Milford Sound was closed for people like us travelling independently.

We had such a wonderful trip and no doubt the highlight for us was being able to land on Fras Jozef Glacier. It was cancelled twice due to the low cloud but we were fortunate that we had the time to wait and were successful on the 1pm trip.

We had no hiccups anywhere with tours, accommodation and vehicles.

Thank you once again for all your help in ensuring we had a memorable trip. New Zealand is such a beautiful place and hopefully we will return one day.

We will have no hesitation in recommending you and First Light Travel to our friends.

Cheers

Heather and Brian Harley - Australia

Hi Narissa,

Thank you very much for setting up our wonderful New Zealand vacation (March 2020)! You did a spectacular job during the planning in 2019 to line up places to visit and activities to enjoy, and gave us an easy agenda to follow and see the beautiful sights of New Zealand. The accommodations were excellent, all providing nice inside space, great locations, kitchens and laundry to make our stays comfortable and close to the action. We really enjoyed the tours, boat outing in Bay of Islands with great island views and close interaction with dolphins and cormorants, having special tour guides in Napier (Ron and ’39 Packard for Art Deco tours, Tim for superb wine tasting and dinner tour), Waimarino Glowworm Tour, Wellington (Kate for Lord of the Rings and WETA tour, and some nameless kiwis in Zealandia) and Nelson (Robbo for kayak tour to Split Apple Rock and other features).

We really appreciated your support when the trip was affected by the Corona Virus emergency. 

You secured our US return flight early and kept us moving to safe places until we could get to Auckland and wait for departure. You were pro-active and always available to clarify things during that confusing time.

Overall, we had a very nice trip despite some challenging world events, we appreciate your flexibility and support, and we look forward to working with you for another trip.

Calvin and Janice Langford - USA

My dad and I travelled NZ for four weeks. We visited most of the NZ highlights and stayed in the most beautiful accomodations . We did have some trouble (hospital stay, road closure) but we had Judith! She arranged everything perfectly for us. We didn't have to worry about booking changes. I highly recommend Judith if you have NZ travel plans!

Corina Clement - Netherlands

The most important decision we made for our month long stay in New Zealand was to use Amelia at First Light. We just gave her our goals and parameters for our stay and the itinerary she created from all the activities to the accommodations was absolutely perfect. I cannot stress how worry free our vacation was. I would not change a thing and will be recommending her and First Light for years to come. My one piece of advice is to make sure you spend plenty of time in the small beautiful towns. The bed and breakfast options are amazing!

Thank you Amelia!

Jeannie and Robert Garner – United States of America

Dear Jo,

We had a wonderful time in nz thanks to your terrific advice, help, and planning of such a good itinerary. The trip was great and we want to thank you for your work in making this such a memorable experience. We will definitely use you again if we return to nz and will tell all our travel friends about First Light Travel. Your attention to lodging, places of interest, and transportation, all made the the trip so much easier than if we had tried to do this on our own. All you promised was delivered and the ease of contacting you made planning so simple.

Thanks again for your invaluable help.

Henry & Janet Capillary - North Carolina USA

Dear Chrissy,

Anne and I would like to share with you our experiences on our recent trip to New Zealand - A word that would best describe this trip is "WOW!". We both used this expression very often as it seemed that every turn in the road led to some terrific scenic views.

We also would like to thank you for a great itinerary. The accomodations were all better then I expected and car and NZ airline worked quite smoothly. I would be happy to recommend you to anyone planning a trip to NZ.

Hopefully Anne will be able to send you some pictures.

Thanks again,

Ken Mitchell & Anne Kanaby (USA)

Hi Chrissy,

These are just a few of the photos of us enjoying New Zealand! Here is the Emerald Lakes on the Tongariro Crossing

Ken McClain and Maria Bolanos (USA)

What a delightful holiday. Our travels were wonderful and Todd & I could not have been more pleased. He wants to move to New Zealand. Of course, just spending so much time with my son who I've not seen since August was very special. The accommodations were all very good with the only glitches being the Belle Vista motel and the unfortunate cancellation of our flight to Milford Sound due to weather conditions. We fell in love with Queenstown. All the vendors you used were terrific. Though we had many hours of driving, the scenic beauty made it worthwhile and I don't think I would change a thing. Thanks for all of your assistance. It was a special treat to meet you as well. I will definitely refer friends to you and encourage them to travel to your marvelous country. 
All the best, 

Mark Perelmuter & Todd Perelmuter USA