New Zealand Self Drive Tour Reviews

Memorable family trip to New Zealand
My husband and I and our two teens just returned from a wonderful 2.5 week Self Drive trip to both the North and South Islands of New Zealand! Communication with First Light Travel and their Travel Designers was top notch right from the start. From the initial phone conversation to the many emails back and forth with itinerary adjustments it almost seemed to good to be true - that someone else was handling all of the details of our trip and all I had to do was show up in New Zealand! I'm glad I took that chance as it truly was the case. First Light took care of our airport transfer, car rental, accommodations and most of our activities. The majority of the accommodations that we stay at were perfect for our family and the cars that we rented were fuel efficient and comfortable. The highlight for my family in the North Island was Hobbiton and the Milford Sound Coach and Cruise from Queenstown was our South Island highlight. Gina's quick responses during our planning process and even when we were running late to check in for an activity were much appreciated. I highly recommend this company to anyone planning a trip to NZ. Thanks again First Light!

First Light did a wonderful job with all activities, accommodations and scheduling. They made a big job a very simple thing. Easiest and best trip ever.

My wife and I traveled in March 2024 for over three weeks to New Zealand on a trip organized by Anna at First Light Travel.

The trip planning was a great mixture of activities, sightseeing time, touring throughout the country, very nice accommodations, and great service. First Light handed every detail from car rentals, accommodations, activities such as wine tastings, boat and sailing trips, and LOTR tours. Every single thing on our itinerary was well planned and communicated, and First Light also gave great suggestions on driving times, things to do, and quaint out of the way places. They even sent us an email during the trip advising us of road construction and to plan our drive time accordingly. They also recommended two cities (Hanmer Springs and Kaikoura) that we would not have planned to visit that we absolutely loved.

We have shared our great experience with others and plan to use First Light when we plan a 2025 trip to Australia.

First Light was always prompt and courteous with their responses, and really helped me to think through everything we needed for our trip.

Thank you Anna and the entire First Light team for a wonderful vacation!

Gina at First Light Travel did a great job planning our trip. Most everything was easy, itinerary was well planned out. We wanted to see a lot within a two week period and that we did! Our trip was based around seeing LOTR sites and I have to say it’s a great way to see New Zealand. Especially nice was the Hobbiton tour and dinner, the Tongariro Crossing trek, Weta Workshop, and I could go on and on. If I could change anything it would be that I wish we had one day where we could just do whatever, no driving or tours, maybe an extra day in Queenstown as there’s so much to do there, but we only had so much time so now we will know for next time. Also would have been nice our first driving day to not to have to Uber back to the airport from Auckland as we did see a rental car place right near the hotel. Accommodations were nice and Gina booked multiple rooms each time as we are a family of five adults, so having our own space was nice. Especially loved the QT Museum Hotel in Wellington, the Swiss-Belsuites in Auckland and the Kinross Cottages outside of Queenstown. Until next time NZ and First Light!

28 Days in New Zealand – the trip of a lifetime, thanks to First Light Travel

We just returned from 28 unforgettable days in New Zealand, organized by Gina O’Neill at First Light Travel.  FIVE STARS!  We could not recommend Gina and First Light Travel more highly.

Gina organized a top to bottom adventure- and activity- packed trip which met our budget, responded to our desires (and “non-desires”), and exceeded our expectations, including both North and South Islands.  Every day we did something “cool” – there were no wasted travel days or waiting-around days – Gina organized the logistics so that we never had to drive more than 3 hours in a day and could always do something fun every day.  Reservations worked flawlessly – every hotel and every activity had our reservation handy, and off we went. 

I would also say, without looking an itemized budget for every hotel and activity, that we felt we got very fair value for our money.  In many instances, we stayed in hotels we would have been too cheap to book ourselves (!), so we were frequently surprised by the quality and comfort of our accommodations.  In addition, all of the “activity providers” (be they rafting, boating, kayaking, hiking, ballooning, etc.) were excellent: professional, super friendly, safe, funny, engaging, simply first rate.  We never could have found these folks by ourselves, nor felt secure in advance that we had found the right people even if we had.  In short, Gina made great recommendations and choices for us.

Finally, this is the first time we have ever worked with a travel agent.  I am typically skeptical and usually arrange all our own hotels, cars, activities, etc.  But I can say that we are unequivocally HAPPY that we engaged Gina at First Light Travel to do this work on our behalf, so that our only responsibilities were to have a BLAST in New Zealand.  Thank you.  
Sam and Linda.
 

The primary reasons we chose to travel with First LIght Travel were: Price, Service, Ease of planning/booking and quality of information. We were pleased with quick responses to all our inquiries. A quick adjustment was made to our itinerary when we had an unforeseen change made before a tour. 

We would highly recommend First Light Travel to our family and friends traveling to New Zealand and Australia. Our experience from start to finish was exceptional.

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.

Nicole at First Light Travel was very helpful. She arranged our two weeks vacation in New Zealand and my sister and I had a wonderful time on our adventure. Everything went very smoothly on all of our stops and the accommodation was top notch. Exactly what we had expected. The scenic drives were beautiful and we had a very enjoyable trip. Would recommend them to anyone.

We had the pleasure of working with Toni who planned a perfect trip for us! We gave her an idea of what we wanted to do and she came up with our awesome itinerary.
 We enjoyed all the trips that were planned for us. We especially appreciated that we were able to weave some free time into each of the locations we visited. It helped to make our adventure so personal to our needs.
First and foremost I have to compliment Toni on the choice of accommodations. They were all just perfect for the locations and our needs. All of them had kitchen facilities and in room/or on property laundry. All were perfectly located to what we wanted to do. 

For example we were planning on hiking in the Abel Tasman National Park and we could walk to the park's entrance from our chalet, which was just fantastic.


First Light Travel was very responsive when we had to cancel the last 5 days of our trip due to COVID-19. We appreciated how quickly they got back to us.
All in all we would say that our adventure to Australia and New Zealand was everything we hoped for and more. We know that Toni and First Light Travel helped to make it happen.

We cannot wait to come back to New Zealand. We will certainly have First Light Travel plan our trip.

Barbara and Timothy Orourke - United States of America

Hi Narissa

Just wanted to drop you a note to let you know that returned home to Australia on the 13th March safe and sound after our most enjoyable holiday in New Zealand.

We were so happy with all of the arrangements you made for us and were extremely pleased with all of the accommodation you put in place. All of the accommodation was clean and comfortable and we were able to cook quite a lot of our meals as most had cooking facilities. All of our tours you booked for us went very smooth and we were grateful that you booked us on the Doubtful Sound tour after Milford Sound was closed for people like us travelling independently.

We had such a wonderful trip and no doubt the highlight for us was being able to land on Fras Jozef Glacier. It was cancelled twice due to the low cloud but we were fortunate that we had the time to wait and were successful on the 1pm trip.

We had no hiccups anywhere with tours, accommodation and vehicles.

Thank you once again for all your help in ensuring we had a memorable trip. New Zealand is such a beautiful place and hopefully we will return one day.

We will have no hesitation in recommending you and First Light Travel to our friends.

Cheers

Heather and Brian Harley - Australia