New Zealand Self Drive Tour Reviews

Hi First Light, We had a wonderful holiday, everything ran very smoothly largely due to your effort and expertise in putting our itinerary together for us. If anyone we know intend visiting New Zealand we won’t hesitate to recommend you to them. Apart from the spectacular scenery, the highlight of our holiday was the Lake Wanaka Island Nature Walk, and that was almost entirely due to our guide Chris. His unique character really makes the tour special. I have attached two pics taken on this island walk to show you how spectacular it is. 

Kind regards

Tonia Benn & Kurt Werner - Australia

Hi Guys,

Thanks for a really good tour, the guide did know a lot about the rainforest and nz history and was also very good with our group atmosphere. We were only 10 people (between 22-70 years old) which was really good. We were overwhelmed once more about the spectacular scenery NZ has to offer, Piha Beach is just stunning.

Thank You sooo much!!

Cheers,

Anne and Anne - Germany

Kia Ora

We are so glad that we booked our holiday with First Light Travel. Thank you Dawn for preparing such a lovely itinerary and perfectly organising our trip on such short notice. It was a lovely self-drive tour and we highly enjoyed each day as it unfolded. A few highlights include the Waitomo caves, Te Puia and Hobbiton, and the kids loved every bit of the guided two hour mountain biking in Whakarewarewa. Thank you Dawn and First Light Travel – highly recommended! 

Asesh, Monash & Nikhil Sharan - Australia

We had a great experience in New Zealand with First Light Travel. From our initial enquiry, Chrissy took very good care of us - understanding our needs, recommending itineraries, and answering our questions - while our guide Dmitry was awesome! Thanks so much! We will happily recommend First Light to any friends traveling to NZ in the future.

Maria & Jonathan - Hong Kong

Loved working with Amelia! Even though it was Christmas when we decided to look into a trip for mid January, Amelia gave amazingly prompt responses and suggestions. The "canned" itinerary that you send at first inquiry gave us a great jumping off point to plan our own fly/drive vacation! It really gave us a good idea of travel times and suggested stops. Then Amelia helped us find appropriate and lovely accommodations for our needs. For example, we wanted to have a washer/dryer in our room every 3rd or 4th day so we didn't have to pack so much. She lined it up perfectly. She also suggested activities that we had not considered in each city and booked those that we wanted to try. They ended up being our favorite parts of the trip! She also warned of long drive times (Which we still did, and she was right - it was long). Amelia also booked things like lunches after a kayaking trip which ended up being a life saver as we only had minutes to eat before heading into another activity. Every hotel and activity was booked just as she indicated; we had no problems with reservation glitches at all. We also appreciated the list of things to see in each city on our daily itinerary, as we could pick our favorites and hope we didn't miss too much that we wish we had seen. 

Amelia at First Light Travel was extremely professional and efficient. 

Thanks for a great trip!

Dee, Mark and Madeline Dehart (USA)

Hi First Light Travel, 

Thanks for all of your hard work and organisation to ensure we had such a beautiful, unforgettable trip in New Zealand. We especially enjoyed the sand surfing, mountain biking and sea kayaking as well as spotting whales and leaping dolphins in the wild.

Rotorua was remarkable with all of its thermal energy and we loved the fun, youthful atmosphere of Queenstown. Thanks for everything - we thought this was a once in a lifetime trip, but now we think we should come back again one day!

Greetings, 

Lian & Rene - Netherlands

First Light Travel, in particular Shelley Kirk, gets our five-star rating and strongest recommendation for anyone planning to vacation in New Zealand and/or Australia.

We are frequent travelers, prefer independent over group tours, and rarely work with a travel agent or agency. But knowing little about the lay of the land in Australia and New Zealand we decided to "try" working with an agent while planning our first, month-long visit. After Internet searching and reviewing the New Zealand Tourism site we sent a request for proposal to 4 agencies, including First Light Travel. We roughly described our schedule, interests, preferences, and budget and waited to hear back.

We received just 3 proposals, with one agency saying our budget was too small for them to even entertain. Shelley Kirk was the first to respond, provided the best proposal on every front (quality, cost, variety, etc.), and most importantly, she was willing to work with us on every facet of our trip. Shelley was able to put together an independent travel itinerary with the perfect balance of pre-planned activities and free time for us to get the absolute most out of our travel at our desired pace and price. In the face of changes and suggestions she was unfailingly open-minded, flexible and fun to work with!

It is rare to have the experience where everything on a holiday goes as planned; something always seems to go awry along the way. But honestly this vacation went off without a hitch: no surprises, no failures, and no problems with any aspect (flights, cars, transport, lodging, activities, etc., etc.) of our bookings. Our travel pack from Shelley included all the details and was an easy reference for each day of our holiday. While I can't credit Shelley with the weather (or can I???), even that was perfect during our stay!

If you're looking for someone to plan your dream vacation in Australia or New Zealand (or perhaps anywhere!) you should contact Shelley Kirk. A proposal costs you nothing and you may be as pleasantly surprised (thrilled) as we were at how well they meet or exceed your expectations.

We would be delighted to serve as a reference for Shelley Kirk and First Light Travel. Please feel free to message me if you have questions or would like additional information about our holiday plans. Best regards to Shelley and all the staff at First Light Travel. 

CJ and David Lambert
 

 Bethesda, MD USA

What a great piece of luck we found on the internet by connecting with First Light Travel and Shelley. Through e:mail and a couple of quick phone calls, Shelley matched our personalities with activities and accommodations that led to a flawless trip of a lifetime to New Zealand. We left New Zealand anxious to return! We highly recommend Shelley and First Light Travel for booking activities and accommodations in New Zealand.

Barry and Leigh Groves (USA)

Hi Verity,

We had the best trip ever!!!!

Our guide, Terry was EXCELLENT! He was so knowledgeable and helpful—a perfect fit for us. We are still basking in the memories of your beautiful country!

Here are a couple of photos—but I took over 1,200, I need time to go through them.

Susan Lapham and John McKently - USA

Hi Suzie,

I'd like to give you some ideas I've gained from talking with friends here. They have no idea that one can have a company plan a trip as you did. They seem to think that the only two ways are to take a tour, or do it on your own. They have been surprised about this way of traveling. We had done this for our vacation to Costa Rica, so we knew. I'm not sure how to get the word out, but maybe you need to advertise this as another way to travel.

Thanks for everything. You helped make our 50th wedding anniversary even better.

Art & Helen Poland USA