The Ultimate New Zealand Vacation Package

Tracy, Anne, and Michelle did such a great job putting together our 49-day trip to New Zealand.  We traveled from the north end of the North Island most of the way to the south end of the South Island.  Most of that time was with wonderful, knowledgeable private drivers.  We stayed in amazing hotels and estates with fantastic chefs.  Along the way, we landed on Mount Tarawera, a volcano that erupted in 1886, and visited a Māori village that was excavated after the eruption; we went on a private tour of Te Papa Tongarewa with a Māori elder, and were the only two visitors that day invited to view their behind the scenes collections of Māori taonga (treasures); we spent 90 minutes in Footwhistle Cave photographing glowworms with the father of the cave owner; we walked through Hobbiton; the docents at museums in three smalls towns opened their museums for us; and we spent a couple of hours with a dinosaur hunter, who has an extinct species of shark named after him, viewing the K-T Boundary, the iridium-rich layer of dust left behind after the Chicxulub asteroid strike in the Yucatán Peninsula.  When we got home, friends and family asked us our favorite thing on our trip.  There was absolutely no way to answer.  We never ran out of things to do.  Each day was full of amazing experiences!