New Zealand Self Drive Tour Reviews

We highly recommend First Light Travel to organise any NZ adventure. We are from the Uk, and visited Aus, NZ and Fiji over a 6 week period during October & November.
We organised our accommodation and activities in Aus and Fiji, but wanted expert local knowledge for our 3 week visit to NZ without paying double commission to UK and NZ agents!
Michelle Srzich was outstanding in listening to our wish list, and then providing suggested accommodation and activities for our trip! We had a couple of back and forths and ended up with a bespoke trip that we had compiled from stories we had from friends who had visited NZ.
A key requirement was to spend a minimum of 2 nights in each location, so that we had time to explore and experience the places we visited rather than just passing through! The trip worked out exactly as planned apart from our boat trip from Kaikoura to see whales. A helicopter is sent out each morning to see if the whales were playing ball! Unfortunately they were not on the day we had planned! We were offered the chance to rebook or receive a refund! We chose the latter, and FLT were able to refund this! The highlights of our trip were:

• Queenstown, TSS Ernslaw boat trip across the lake
• Mt Cook, glacier walk and visit to “The Old Mountaneers” restaurant in Mt Cook Village.
• Return Train trip from Christchurch to Arthur’s Pass
• Kaikoura dolphin boat trip
• Bleinham vineyard cycle tour
• Edwin Fox historic boat museum visit in Picton
• Ferry crossing from Picton to Wellington
• Lake Taupo and Hukka falls visit
• Rotorua - Waiotapu thermal Park

When we started to look for a company to plan our travel to NZ, we were concerned that we would inadvertently find a fly by night company and commit hard earned dollars that would disappear. First Light had great reviews but we also knew that you can pay for people to write false reviews online. It also seemed like all 5-star reviews were a bit suspect. We took a chance and reached out and talked with Anna.

Anna was quick to respond and listened to what we were looking for and sent us a few agendas for us to review. We worked together over time to make it just right. Once we got to town, we had a few self-created glitches and Anna was quick to reply and help out.

We had a great time and First Light Travel was completely legit. We would recommend highly.

Louise planned 4 week vacation in Australia and a 4 week vacation in New Zealand for me. Communication was superb, choice of activities excellent and catered to my interests. Very highly recommended!!

I loved the itinerary, and the service at First Light Travel. It made everything so fuss free, and the detailed itinerary was so helpful in assisting us - from the time to reach certain places, to reminding us to call to confirm certain attractions - it was all very clear for me when I look at the itinerary every morning. The prompt email responses was also so great, and I don't have to worry about having to send reminder emails or waiting long to get the answers I needed. Louise, Katarina, Gina and the team were all so helpful! Thank you so much. 

Thanks to First Light Travel and Joanna we had a wonderful 13-day self-driving trip around New Zealand’s South Island. Working with her was so easy and she selected interesting and exciting daily activities for us to enjoy, ranging from a heli-hike on Franz Joseph Glacier to hikes at Mt Aspiring to a cruise on Milford Sound and a lot more.

All the driver who picked us up at the airport, train station and other places were extremely friendly and knowledgeable and always on time. The accommodations were all very good.

Overall, we loved our trip to the South Island and would wholeheartedly recommend First Light Travel to anyone planning a trip to this part of the world.

Our favourite activities were: Cathedral Cove Boat tour was great, Hobbiton was of course wonderful, the Glowworm Caves were fun, Tranzalpine train was a highlight for sure. Doubtful sound was very scenic albeit a very long day but worth it. the Penguin tour near Dunedin was one of my favorites!
Oh we last minute booked a couple other activities that I thought I would mention in case they are on your list and you can still count us a good review or you can possibly add them to your list of fun things to do!
. We did the Coromandel Driving Creek Railway Train which was honestly a ton of fun for a little train!
We also ended up doing a second boat tour with Coromandel Ocean Adventures. They were super great. We were the only ones booked on the tour and though it was also a bit windy Richie took us out and showed us some of his favorite spots and we had a really great time.
The other fun/silly thing we did was visit the EnkleDooVery Korna Wallaby Park. It was cold and pouring down rain but Gwen was very funny and she had gumboots for us to change into and handwashing stations and the wallabies were worth every penny!We had a really wonderful time!

Not having to plan every detail really saved me personally this year. I had too much going on and simply couldn't do it. It was really wonderful and I'm in charge of planning a family history trip to Croatia/Slovenia next year and I am going to consider finding a similar travel company over there to help me organize everything!

New Zealand Trip of a LIfetime!

Gina was great to work with! She was very patient with all the changes I had putting the 4 1/2-week trip together. It was a fantastic trip, and we loved every minute of it! It was so nice to have everything taken care of in advance and not have to worry about reservations. Every hotel was booked, every flight was booked, every SUV reserved, and every excursion was booked, as requested. There were no hiccups at all, and everything was taken care of. For a trip that was 4 1/2 weeks long, it was hard to believe that there were snags! I really appreciate all her and her team's hard work...and being available to us when we had some last-minute changes along the way!

I would highly recommend First Light Travel if you are interested in doing a trip around New Zealand. Rachael, Neelah and their colleagues listened carefully to our preferences during the planning stage, and organized a wonderful itinerary for us that included top class accommodations and excellent tours. They also responded quickly and professionally to address our questions before, during and after our trip.

This was "the trip of a lifetime!" New Zealand is a unique country. The scenery and terrain are so varied and close together. Everyone we met was so friendly and eager to make our visit memorable. Everywhere we went was clean and neat and demonstated a definite "pride of place." 

The helicopter ride, the tour through the countryside in Wanaka, the floatplane trip to Orakei Korako and the Doubtful Sound excursion were definte highlights. The Maori experience, the Black Swan, sitting under a tree listening to the tui birds at the Boatshed provided memories we won't forget.

First Light Travel is a highly professional company with remarkable attention to every aspect of the travelling experience in New Zealand. Michelle and her staff supplied us with a detailed itinerary, precise information about each stop, organised tours and experiences, and phone numbers to call in any moment of need. As it turned out, every aspect of our trip to New Zealand fell neatly into place. At one point on the North Island, we called Michelle to help organise a specific kind of car; she dealt with this request immediately and succeeded where our own phone calls to the rental car provider had failed. The organisation and support of First Light Travel were therefore invaluable. We recommend them warmly to future fellow travellers.