New Zealand Self Drive Tour Reviews

My family spent 4+ weeks this past August exploring the North Island of NZ, the very northern part of the South Island (Abel Tasman NP), with 10 days on the East coast of Australia. First Light Travel was very very patient with our requests and really shaped our trip into a logistically approachable and sane journey: so much ground to cover! And with an 11 and 13 year old in the mix. We were self drive outside of the major cities, and they offered us unique accommodations along the way, with lovely hosts who really made the trip feel grounded and intimate.

Kelly Miller & Stephen Carter - USA

Spot on Jo Taylor! We loved every day of our 2 week trip - getting better with each new day. Lord of Rings fans - we were so impressed with Norm at Waitomo Glow Worms Cave Tours, Kate at Hobbiton, Shane with Pelorus River Kayak, Michael with Hassle- free tours and the crew at Real Journeys in Doubtful Sound. We got to meet real Kiwis— so proud of their beautiful country, eat authentic Maori Hangi meals and sit in relaxing hot spring spas. One-stop vacation shopping! This company will not disappoint!

Mary, Monohon & Lance Humphrey - USA

My wife and I had a great trip to the south for 2 weeks, we enjoyed every bit of it! Big thanks to Dawn, our coordinator, for her fabulous planning for our trip. It was hassle free, packed with variety of activities we get to do and space for us to explore. And the pace was perfect for us. No stress! Thanks for making our trip a pleasant one. We love NZ!

Koh Tuan Hong & Fu Qixin - Singapore

Hello Michelle - Thank you for checking on us !  We have just arisen from a 15-hour sleep! Yesterday's 36-hour flights/layovers schedule was something of an ordeal for two old fossils like us!  We will take this opportunity to thank you most appreciatively for all your efforts to make arrangements for us during our short stay in New Zealand.  Every one of the hotels and attractions/amusements vendors had our names in their computers and ALL went slick as silk.

Michelle, everything you arranged for us was most pleasurable and, again, flowed smooth as silk....thanks to your very diligent and professional efforts on our behalf. 

Kindly,

Ann and David McIntire - USA

Hi Kasey,  

We are about to board to leave for Fiji.  NZ was fantastic.  We were fortunate with weather in Abel Tasman.  Off season is nice as not crowded.  The kayaking was perfect as we lucked out with the tide and paddled into the lagoons on the way.    

Will miss NZ and leave with wonderful memories of your beautiful country.  

Thanks for your help in this!   Cheers, Rob. 

James (Rob), Linda, Robert & Adrienne McNeill - USA

I’d never used a travel agent before but when we started to plan our trip from Midwest United States (Minnesota) to New Zealand we knew it would be the trip of a lifetime and wanted to get it right. We chose First Light Travel to help us and Rhodri Howell responded to my email. Rhodri answered all my questions quickly and made creating the itinerary and securing reservations easier than I ever dreamed it could be. Everything was very organized and laid out well for our self-drive tour. Rhodri was able to include the adventures we wanted combined with beautiful locations for our overnight stays. We had an amazing time and, when I asked my son and my husband which was their favorite activity, they said “everything!” And if that isn’t enough, my son has an allergy and requires a special diet which is a fact I only mentioned once in one of my first emails. Not thinking more about it, we were pleasantly surprised when the airlines and some of the hotel restaurants served allergen-free meals. We are very grateful and highly recommend Rhodri and First Light Travel for service above and beyond!

Bob, Jake, & Lisa Langeslay-Glenn – Minnesota USA

We would like to express our sincere thanks to our consultant, Chrissy, for her patience and prompt replies. She took time to understand our needs and preferences, and planned out an exciting and easy-to-follow itinerary.

I was so impressed that the properly-printed itinerary and travel vouchers together with the rented GPS (even a self addressed envelope for returning with instructions) were couriered to our first accommodation.

From then on, everything was a breeze! I just had to tear out the vouchers and hand it to the vendors for every activities and accommodations, and we were checked-in almost immediately! Unfortunately we had to cancel one of our activities due to the weather, Chrissy also handled the refund promptly.

We have since return to our home country for almost a week, but have been talking about our well-planned holiday every single day. First Light Travel was mentioned and recommended to our families and friends who asked about our trip. It is really value for money and most importantly, saved so much of our time and efforts in planning and make bookings.

Thank you Chrissy once again! Cant wait to visit NZ again!

Sandy Sim and Family - Singapore

It was a very good experience to use this service; especially it is our first time to travel in NZ. We saved time to book the local tours and accommodations. Travel with them, we feel more safe under their advises, we planned to travel north and south part in 10 days, Shelley arranged the transport to us on perfect time, we no need to worry about the transport, Due to the climate situation, we need to do the skydive on another day, Shelley rearrange it for us quickly.

Helen Lau - Hong Kong

Shelley Kirk, our consultant from First Light Travel did an amazing job organizing our 6.5 week trip to New Zealand. We found First Light Travel on the internet and were extremely happy about the product they prepared for us. Shelley solicited lots of information from us and then organized a brilliant trip. We saw more of New Zealand than many Kiwi and had many wonderful experiences. Each day was a new adventure. Everything went off like clockwork and we met other travelers who had experienced lots of hitches. Shelley found us great accommodation, consistently, and there was good variety. When a scheduled outing was cancelled by the provider, Shelley was on top of it and quickly arranged a similar outing in a different city. When we ourselves had to cancel an outing, again Shelley was responsive and took care of it. One of our accommodation hosts commented to us that she liked working with Shelley because of her high level of organization, sending a reminder email the day before a guest was arriving. With the detail provided by First Light Travel, our Lonely Planet guide to New Zealand was superfluous,not needed and of zero help. Thanks so much to Shelley and First Light Travel for organizing a trip of a lifetime, which was a celebration of 50 years of marriage.

Walter and Janice Hambley - Canada
 

First Light Travel, and our agent Chrissy Sun, helped us plan the trip of a lifetime to New Zealand. We are a mother (age 64) and daughter (age 35) who executed a self-guided vacation involving many transportation modes (boats, planes, helicopter, bus, and car rental), excursions (bush walk, glacier, cave, and sounds), and places (Auckland, Wellington, Picton, Queen Charlotte Track, Punakaiki, Franz Josef, Queenstown, Lake Tekapo, and Christchurch). The trip was beautifully organized and easy for us to execute on our own due to the thoughtful attention to detail provided by First Light Travel. All of our accommodations were first rate – comfortable, centrally located to our activities, and with great views. The vendors handling our excursions were very professional and gave us unique experiences as we explored New Zealand. The cost of our trip was very reasonable, giving us great value for our money. The professional advice and expertise offered by First Light Travel was invaluable – they listened to our desires and developed a customized vacation plan to meet our requirements. And they gave us the confidence to execute the trip on our own because we knew they would be there to help us out if a problem arose (luckily, none did). I highly recommend First Light Travel for planning your dream vacation to New Zealand!

Elisabeth (Lisa) & Anne  - USA