New Zealand Self Drive Tour Reviews

Hi Amelia

Just wanted to check in and send you  big thank you for the tour you arranged. It has been amazing so far and even the weather has been in our favour with most days being lovely and sunny. Been very blessed so far which has made it even more special. Also have attached a couple of pictures and just wanted to thank you for making that possible.

Will always be a special place for us now!

All the best

Ross McPhillimey & Pia Smithers – United Kingdom

First Light Travel was hands down the best company that I have ever worked with! They were so accommodating to every email. They called me several times on their dime just to get to know me and my holiday desires better. They worked with me countless hours to develop the perfect itinerary. Their services didn't cost us a penny! They even mailed us our itineraries in addition to emailing them and had a bag of maps for us at our accommodation in case our GPS didn't work. If you are going to Australia or New Zealand, and you don't use First Light Travel, you are nuts.

Joelle Moorman and Dylan Cullimore - USA

My husband and I debated for months where we should go for our honeymoon, but after our first call with Toni from First Light Travel, it became clear to us that New Zealand was the right choice. From the very beginning, Toni was friendly, informative, and just incredibly helpful. We quickly learned that New Zealand had so much to offer, with locations and excursions that fit perfectly with our personalities and desired trip. Toni took the time to listen to our preferences, understand our time frame, and respect our budget. We made a few tweaks to our itinerary, but it didn't take much work at all to craft the perfect 2 week excursion.

While the planning process itself was noteworthy, our actually trip exceeded our expectations in every way. Travel was not only easy, but enjoyable. Ever taxi, transfer, booking and reservation went smoothly and on time. Every hotel was stayed at was friendly and accommodating, and the materials prepared by First Light (and given to us upon arrival) provided just the right amount of detail to make sure our trip went off without any issue. We fell in love with New Zealand, and it's with thanks to First Light Travel for making sure we made the most of our time in such a beautiful country. We really couldn't be any happier with our experience!

Sarah Futernick and Matthew Peven - USA

Hi Kasey,

Bob emailed you letting you know how pleased we were with FirstLight, but I wanted to let you know how great Grand Pacific Tours has been. We have been treated first-class for the entire tour. The hotels have all been wonderful. Hotel personnel greeted us on the bus at each stop. They had the room keys ready and waiting and we were in our rooms less than five minutes from stepping off the bus. 

The bus driver/tour director, Roger Duncumb, has been absolutely outstanding. He has a great personality and has been very informative. Every excursion was precisely planned and he had us where we needed to be at the exact time.  The meals were all wonderful, but maybe we ate a little too much! The Ultimate bus is the only way to go and the small number of guests on the bus made the tour much more personable. We can never go back to a 48+ seat bus. 

We had a good time being the only Americans amongst a wonderful group of Aussies! I have been on other bus tours that were complete disasters so this tour set the standards high for future tours. 

I’ll be getting home in two weeks, so once I get my photos straightened out I’ll send some to you and also do some reviews. 

Thank you, Kathy
 

Hi, Sofie! I hope you are well.

I know this is UNFORGIVABLY late, but here are some photos from the trip Jessica Barrett and I took to New Zealand that First Light Travel booked for us in 2017. We had the absolute BEST time doing all things Lord of the Rings related. We cannot wait to come back, now that our journey is a few years behind us. Please feel free to use these photos as you'd like!

All best,

Jessica Barrett & Katie Moran

Jo Taylor and Suzie Thorp did an excellent job of coordinating all of our hotels, bus trips, and flights. I would highly recommend First Light Travel to organize your trip. I simply gave them a list of things that we wanted to see and she did all of the work...AWESOME!!!

Rebecca & Elizabeth Dowen – Indiana USA

Shelley at First Light Travel was awesome in putting together our South Island NZ itinerary. We are a family of four, with two teenage boys, aged 13 and 17, so wanted some adventure, whilst fitting in some relaxation and beautiful scenery. We already had an idea of what where we wanted to visit and some activities and Shelley was able to fine-tune out ideas for the better and made it an easy and seamless holiday. From the perfect accommodation for our family's needs (including kitchenettes in all motel rooms) to the hire car and pre-booked activities like rock climbing, cruises, gondola rides and zip lining. The choices are endless. The scenery is spectacular. I highly recommend Shelley and the team at First Light Travel, after a friend used them and recommended to me.

It saved us a lot of time and stress.

Narelle, Mark , Benjamin & Charles Aston - Australia

We got in touch with First Light travel in early 2019 as we were planning our trip to NZ around April and got assigned to our very own travel consultant- 'Deb Evans'.

I must admit we were very indecisive on the dates since the very beginning as we had a lot of changes happening on the professional front due to which we couldn't commit ourselves fully to the trip. Deb, however, was always patient and easily reachable to modify our trip and itinerary from previously an Autumn time itinerary to a Winter/Spring itinerary based on our requirements.

We finally visited NZ in Sept, 2019 and oh how the entire trip which lasted 16 days went like a breeze!! Everything was planned perfectly even though our requests were very last minute and all our requests to modify the stay/itinerary were handled and accommodated.

The hotels were beautiful with perfect locations and FLT also sent us a detailed itinerary with some places of interests around the area we were put up at which helped us enjoy and explore the surroundings better. Also, the fact that First Light travel guys were just a call away 24x7 - that was super comforting!

We would really like to thank Deb & First light travel for giving us our picture perfect getaway and are sharing a pic with you all which just depicts 5% of the fun we had on our 16 day trip to Kiwi Land!!

Kia Ora, First Light Travel!

Vinay Gopinath and Sneha Dubey – Singapore

First Light Travel should be your first and only option when planning a holiday in New Zealand. These guys are professional and know exactly what to do and how long to stay in each of your locations. Great attentive staff, especially Christine.

Judith & Michael Phillpott -  Australia

My dad and I travelled NZ for four weeks. We visited most of the NZ highlights and stayed in the most beautiful accomodations . We did have some trouble (hospital stay, road closure) but we had Judith! She arranged everything perfectly for us. We didn't have to worry about booking changes. I highly recommend Judith if you have NZ travel plans!

Corina Clement - Netherlands