NZ LOTR Tour Reviews

We used First Light for a trip to the North island in January 2025. They put together an amazing itinerary, found great lodging and interesting activities that I don’t think would have been easy to organize in our own. They were very useful and helpfulfor our trip!

First Light Travel planned an unforgettable 16 day trip to Fiji and New Zealand to celebrate our 15 year wedding anniversary. I can attest that this one of our all time favorite trips. We experienced so many unforgettable experiences such as paragliding, jet boating, swimming with wild dolphins, and Hobbiton. Our travel planner, Gina O'Neill, was exceptionally detailed and thoughtfully took all of our feedback to craft our dream vacation. She made our trip seamless and completely stress free. Can't say enough good things about First Light Travel! Highly recommend this service!

First light travel (Taylor) organized our 8-day trip to the South Island of New Zealand, and she did a great job of organizing our itinerary, accommodations, and activities to make our trip comfortable and enjoyable. Next time I want to travel to the North Island of New Zealand, I will definitely book with them again.

Nicole did a great job learning our interests, matching our interests with activities, and making the arrangements. The Sydney Bridge Climb was fun and memorable. The Sydney Aquarium was excellent. We surprised how wonderful it was. We appreciated the unscheduled time that allowed us to wander and discover this gem. We loved the Lord of the Rings venues--WETA and Hobbiton. We are grateful that Nicole mentioned the Hobbiton Evening Banquet possibility early enough for Nicole to make reservations. All other activities suggested were terrific and enjoyable. The Maori events (Te Puia/Te Ra and the Te Po Indigenous Evening Experience were much appreciated. In Aukland we totally enjoyed the SkyCity Orbit 360 dining experience, and the Waiheke Island experience, as suggested, was a great way to end our once-in-a-lifetime vacation. Thank you, thank you!

If we had tried to plan this trip on our own, it would never have been as memorable as was. Nicole at FirstLight took the time to discuss our interests, get to know us, and plan activities that exceeded our expectations. Nicole was responsive to our preferences and made every activity one we enjoyed. Having a detailed and complete itinerary relieved us of the pressure of figuring out almost all of the details, yet allowed us enough unscheduled time to explore.

Driver (Terry) is very professional and familiar with the tour route. Attentive to details. As he is familiar with the route, he knows where has good food and coffee places. As our helicopter ride was postponed (weather condition - Franz Josef), and we do not have next plan. Terry is quick in planning where to go next and also taking consideration of my mum walking speed. He followed us throughout the walks / hiking make sure we don't lost our way too. Very lucky, we able to take the Helicopter the next day! The original plan was delay a little bit but we manage to complete all the places that was plan in the itinerary. Thank you First Light Travel and also our driver Terry Looyer. After so much fun in South of New Zealand (Christchurch, Franz Josef, Queenstown), I love New Zealand! I will be back again to visit Auckland and Rotorua and will also definitely get First Light Travel to plan my trip again!

Had a great trip, and got to see many amazing things in NZ. Looking back, the only thing I may have changed would be to extend our trip by a week and have some down time with nothing scheduled so we could just relax between the activities. Not your fault, I told you I wanted to see as much as possible, it was just hard to know on the front end just how tired we were going to be. Loved the activities, the country was amazing and I would love to come back.

Fantastic trip. It was nice not having to figure out all the logistics myself. It made the trip pretty simple since everything was planned for us.

I would recommend Heidi Gillingham and her team to manage your NZ travel Throughout the whole process they were prompt and helpful, extremely patient and solutions oriented Well done and our thanks to you

Loved it all but sea kayaking and swimming with dolphins were our absolute favourites Kirsty did a brilliant job of listening to our wish list and packing in our requests without making us feel rushed. We even managed to add a few extras along the way!

The travel itinerary was well laid out and met our expectations on what we wanted to see in New Zealand. We particularly enjoyed the overnight stay on Doubtful Sound, the scenery in Milford Sound was spectacular and the ice berg tour on Tasman Lake at Mount Cook exceeded our expectations. Overall we were very pleased with First Light Travel. It was good to have a knowledgeable person providing us with recommendations on what to see based on our budget and schedule.

One recommendation I must make if anyone is staying in Blenheim the restaurant at the Chateau Marlborough was next level. We ate there all 3 nights and each time it was fantastic with great service too. There was a change of our itinerary due to sale of accommodation a few weeks before departure but the alternative offered was excellent.

First light travel were a joy to work with from start to finish. I normally do all our research and reservations but as we had an incredibly busy year including moving states, retirement and family obligations I chose to use a travel agent. I have no regrets it was so easy and everything went according to plan. . I highly recommend and would use FLT again.