Reviews of The Classic 14 Day South Island Explorer

There is an advantage to using a local travel agency to assist in planning a trip to an area that you are not familiar with. While you can research on your own, it's likely you would miss something memorable. Our two week+ self-drive tour of the South Island really was marvelously executed. The timing of the stops, hotels, and activities was well thought out. We did a fair amount of coastal cruises, wine tasting, wine tasting, helicopter flights, the whole thing. Most everything was small groups, and sometimes just by ourselves with a guide. No big buses. Highly recommended.

First Light Travel made booking a big trip for two families of four, travelling together from Australia, a breeze. We found an itinerary online from First Light which was close to what we were thinking, then reached out to and worked with Bernadette and Katarina to tweak and fit in everything we wanted. They took care of all the bookings, which was too overwhelming to do on our own! The accommodation selections were great, recommended tours and activities all enjoyed and the trip was hassle free. We absolutely loved our South Island adventure, thank you!

Taylor booked for us a self drive from Christchurch, to Mount Cook, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Wanaka, Franz Josef Glacier ending with a TranzAlpine Train ride back to Christchurch.

She was very responsive and took notes of our requirements and needs, making sure the holiday was slow and well paced as we requested. We didn’t want to see everything but instead, savour the memories together. Throughout the booking process, she listened patiently and went through multiple iterations of the itinerary until we crafted what we were looking for.

The lodges were well chosen, a mix of luxury hotels and well curated lodges with friendly and knowledgeable local hosts. The experiences were bespoke and we especially enjoyed the horse riding experience in Glenorchy which allowed us to the experience the great New Zealand Outdoor off the beaten path with our enthusiastic guide.

When things didn’t go as planned due to weather issues, she was quick to response in country and help us resolve and find alternatives.

Looking forward to our next holiday with First Light Travel and Taylor.

First Light Travel made me and my husband’s honeymoon a wonderful, stress free experience! I originally tried to plan a trip to New Zealand on my own, that proved to be very difficult. There’s so much to see and do!! So, we reached out and ended up working with Jasmin and she was THE BEST. She got to know us a little and we told her we loved the outdoors and wanted to experience NZ but didn’t know where to start! We decided to use our two week honeymoon completely on the South Island. Which included: Christchurch, Mount Cook, Dunedin, Te Anau, Doubtful Sound, Queenstown, Wanaka, and Franz Josef. She kept us busy with both large and small group adventures which we loved. Wildlife cruises to see albatross, island nature walks with great views, and our all day cruise to Doubtful Sound just to name a few! We had something almost every day, but she did schedule in a couple free days for us to explore. Her communication skills were amazing, she gave us an itinerary, to which she made it easy to change a few things (we live in MN so we didn’t want to kayak or jet ski, we do that every summer). She finalized booking, and saw us off! We wouldn’t have had this experience without her. Thanks Jasmin and First Light Travel! 10000/10 would recommend.

We did an adapted version of First Light Travel's Classic 14 day South Island Explorer as added in a few nights initial stay in Wellington, ferry to & overnight stay in Picton, and a 5 day hike of the Queen Charlotte Track (through a different company). The trip was brilliant. It mostly worked like clockwork and if we hit a small hitch First Light Staff were on hand and responsive to our queries. The varied experiences were wonderful and fun and the accommodations were again varied but very comfortable. We particularly loved the Mornington personalised wine tour, the Doubtful Sound, the Glowworm caves, the nature tour on Lake Wanaka, the wildlife cruise near Dunedin, the Mt Cook Glacier lake trip, the Gibbston Valley e-bike tour, the train trip from Greymouth to Christchurch and the drives through much beautiful scenery. If we could do it again we'd have 1 more night in Queenstown with a free day as there's so much to do there and 1 extra night in Wanaka as it's so beautiful. Our trip from mid Nov to mid Dec 2024 meant there was still snow still on some peaks and it was very green with lots of spring flowers. The days ranged from 7 degrees to 23 - fortunately we'd packed for all seasons. Overall, we were lucky with the weather with only the Franz Josef Heli Hike being cancelled due to rain (150mm in 1 day!). Can't recommend this tour and First Light Travel highly enough.

I would highly recommend First Light Travel to create your NZ holiday itinerary. We did a self-drive tour of the South Island in October 2024. I had planned this trip several months before and First Light presented 3 to 4 options to try and match our needs and places and activities we wanted to experience. Gina was our travel designer and she stayed with us throughout the planning process until we made our final decision. Gina was patient, knowledgeable and very experienced. Our holiday was a great success from the car hire, hotels and activities. Our highlight was the Franz Josef Glazier Helicopter ride. The scenery throughout the South Island is simply spectacular. You can rest assure and book confidently with First light.

This was always going to be the holiday of a lifetime and so we wanted it to be perfect. We asked Gina O'Neill to create a 16 day tour of New Zealand's South Island for us. We were happy to drive but wanted to be sure we didn't miss any of the main attractions and wanted a little bit of luxury along the way.
Gina did a fantastic job. Our holiday was perfect and the memories will be with us forever. Everything went smoothly from picking up the car, booking into the hotels and arriving for the excursions. It was totally seamless.
The highlight was our 2 nights in Mount Cook. The hotel was fabulous and the view from our hotel room was picture perfect. We can't thank Gina and First Light Travel enough and would definitely recommend the company to anyone considering a similar tour.

Hi Natalie, 

I've been meaning to sit down and send you a thoughtful, detailed thank you. We had such a delightful time--everyone loved it. And we loved it so much that we're trying to figure out when we can return. My second child (the 15 year old) fell in love with kiwi birds at the Wildlife Centre, so much so that all they wanted for their birthday was to sponsor one. The sponsorship comes with the ability to visit the bird, so we will have a good excuse to return! I can't tell you how many lovely people we met. Strangers would approach to offer help, and were so warm and kind. Besides the natural beauty of the island, that's what really caught our attention. 

All of the accomodations more than met our needs. The only one that wasn't terrific, but was adequate, was the rental villa in Te Anau. The manager was quite frankly just odd, and seemed upset when we arrived a little early. The rental was adequately clean, but not nicely equipped. We wouldn't have been excited to stay for more than 1-2 nights, but it fit our needs. The apartment in Queenstown was stunning, and huge, and clean, and the views! It was easily accessible with a car, had parking, and was very walkable. What a terrific choice. We wished our vacation was a week longer, just to enjoy that space and the city. We appreciated the breakfast offered in almost every accomodation--it made our days a lot easier to know where and when we were going to eat at least once each day.  While I might have slightly preferred a more central Christchurch hotel given that we were walking everywhere, the family was all charmed by the Tudors, and the space offered was generous. We would happily stay there again. The rental car process was seamless and easy on both ends, and the roads were really great!

We adored so many of the experiences; it's hard to choose a favorite. I think most of us would say that it was the Doubtful Sound cruise, which was just lovely. The scenery was beautiful, and we were lucky enough to have a gorgeous two days after a rainy, windy, gray first 4-5 days. The train ride was also beautiful, and so relaxing. We would repeat all of the experiences again, with the exception of the Monarch cruise. I'll give my honest feedback: it was packed way too full to really enjoy, and we didn't get very near any wildlife. It was probably too short to see much, but none of us wished it was much longer when we were stuffed in like sardines in a can. My youngest was half way off the end of a bench to make space for everyone else, and refused to sit on my lap because she's at the elderly age of 8. We've been on wildlife viewing cruises before, and we know that no one can ever guarantee animal viewing in the wild. However, we spent that one drizzly, windy, overcrowded hour mostly looking at one albatross. The rest of the experiences were all delightful though! We will plan on stargazing and a ski plane next time, and are so delighted that we might get to return. If you ever have another client who ventures down to the Catlins, it might be worth a mention of stopping by The Lost Gypsy gallery. One artist has converted an old bus and some outdoor space into a museum of his automatons created from found items. It's quirky, weird, fun, and interactive. It's well worth the detour to Papatowai just for a 30-60 min visit. It made the top five list for several of my kids, and I loved it too. 

Arrowtown was so delightful, especially since we arrived about 45 min before the first tour groups. We had fantastic espresso, the best donut we've ever had anywhere, and panned for gold. The museum is fabulous, and has a great scavenger hunt for kids. Overall, we wished that we had an entire day to bum around, or maybe two. It was really quite charming. Too bad our vacation wasn't a month long!

We had phenomenal meals at the Redcliff Cafe in Te Anau (so so so good, and the kids dinner was one of the best I've ever seen for variety and quality), Vault 21 in Dunedin, and Gatherings in Christchurch. Seriously delicious, and something we'd visit again, and again, and again if they were near our home. We also enjoyed our Mrs. Fergberger coffee and pastries a lot. 

Whew! That's a lot, I know, and I'll resubmit a lot of it on the form. I just wanted to personally thank you for crafting such a fabulous trip. You were patient with all of our neurotic questions (ok, my neurotic questions), and the experience was so easy and seamless. I'd give it ten stars out of five if I could.

Thank you, thank you, thank you,

Molly