New Zealand Self Drive Tour Reviews

The trip was great – I requested a lot of activities over a short amount of time – many required complicated logistical support and would have been a nightmare for me to set up remotely. The logistics all worked with minor exceptions, and you were available to help us when we asked for help.

Gary & Nikki Kelley - USA

What a great vacation in New Zealand! We have loved the cities and activities that were part of our itinerary. Kasey's recommendations were brilliant. Thank you, Kasey and First Light Travel, for an unforgettable experience!

Helene Pepin & Marcel Lafrance - Singapore

We would give First Light Travel a billion stars ********!!!!

Everything was handled with such superb care that the trip we were planning to New Zealand would be tailored to our particular likes. Melissa R., our agent, was willing to refine the proposals over and over perhaps three times to make it fit. She knows her New Zealand! And the places to see and activities to do that she suggested were perfectly us! Plus when we arrived with our voucher booklet and itinerary everything went so smoothly; each hotel or B & B, each place of activity had us on their list. No hitches at all! Our only regret was that we couldn't have stayed longer than the 18 days we planned; there is so much more to do and see in NZ!

Joan & Robert Pilat – USA

Hi Shelley,

Well, Sinden and I just got back from our long anticipated trip to your neck of the woods and I just wanted to drop you a line to let you know everything went without a hitch.  All of the transfers were flawless, and we had no delays or issues of any kind.  So kudos to you for setting everything up for us and it working so well!  We never could have done it ourselves.  Here’s a little feedback from our trip:

The Milford Track exceeded our highest expectations!  What an incredible experience, and we had great weather the whole time, including a downpour on the third day of the hike which gave us the grandest waterfalls all around!  I will definitely do it again, perhaps in three years as I’d like to bring my son when he graduates from college.  Only this time I would like to spend more time in NZ, perhaps touring some coastal towns and more of the north island.  But plenty of time to think about it.  The last day in Queenstown we did an unguided bike tour of the Gibbston Valley wineries just outside of Queenstown which was the perfect way for us to spend the day.  We started in the small town of Arrowtown, did some gift shopping, and then biked about 5 miles or so to the Valley, crossing the original bungee jumping bridge in the process.  It was a great day sampling some wonderful wines in a beautiful setting!

The night we spent in Auckland awaiting our flight to Tahiti, we went to the city center for dinner and stumbled across the Grill.  While we didn’t have reservations, they accommodated us after a 20 minute wait, which we spent getting a cocktail at their bar.  Hands down the best steak my wife or I have ever had.  If we ever are in Auckland again, we will definitely return there!  Highly recommended.  Pricey, but worth it in our opinions.

Bottom line – we will definitely be back to NZ!  Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Thanks again for everything!!

Sincerely

Thomas and Sinden Schoedel - USA

Thanks to First Light and especially to Amelia - who guided us in advance and along the journey. It has been the best weeks of the last 20 years. We will come back to NZ and again with First Light as soon as possible!

Michael and Susanne Gruber - Germany

Booking with First Light Travel was a great experience from the beginning to the end, from the first proposal with specific highlights over the optimization and fine-tuning to the support during travel and gave us great advice and selected amazing places.

The flight and stay in Great Barrier Island was wonderfully at the end of the world. Abel Tasman discovery and the surroundings of Nelson were wonderful, between wine and nature. The combination of boat travel, visit of sheep farm and bike ride in Queenstown was an absolute highlight.

The lodge experiences with in-house food were fantastic, total top of the list of course HUKA Lodge and the Te Koi at Bronte, very different places but both fantastic. The Earthsong lodge is amazing for location and food and warmness of the hosts.

Reinardus Van Duijnhoven & Katharina Hoehne - Germany

We put this trip together very quickly only two months before, thanks to Rhodri’s itinerary suggestions and the arrangements he was able to make for us.  We felt very lucky about this as we were aware we had left it very late.  Rhodri found us good flight connections and great accommodations throughout New Zealand that were beautiful and yet connected to the local people and the surrounding environs.  My husband and I had requested an active trip and Rhodri delivered a variety of experiences for us so that we had a fabulous time.  We travelled for 16 days and did and saw a lot, giving us a very good appreciation for all that New Zealand has to offer.  Highlights include the Glow Worms Cave in Waitomo, hiking the Tongariro Crossing on a perfect sunny day, hiking along the Queen Charlotte Track after a water taxi ride on the Marlborough Sound out to the trail, kayaking both on a river in Havelock as well as on the ocean in Kaikoura, and the days we spent based in Queenstown.  From that beautiful city we did an excellent day trip out to Milford Sound and a day hike on the Routeburn Track, and very much enjoyed a “down day” where we cruised on a beautiful lake to Mt. Nicholas Farm where we learned about sheep farming followed by a 14 km cycle to Walter Peak sheep station where we partook of an incredible barbecue lunch.  All of our day trips were well-arranged for us and we just showed up and enjoyed the activity.  Many activities were guided, but we did a few on our own as well.  We added in a trip to the Redwoods in Rotorua, a stop at Waiotapu for the geothermal area and did some impromptu hikes in other areas including beautiful Akaroa.  Also a stop at a winery for lunch outside of Blenheim.  First Light Travel and Rhodri were so very easy to deal with and created a wonderful memorable trip for us.  When we needed to change the itinerary  to allow one more day, Rhodri was able to quickly do so.  He was very responsive to my emails.  Our flight arrangements were smooth, the accommodations were nicely appointed and well located, and the car rental went well.  It seems that everywhere we showed up, whether for a rental car, activity tour, ferry ride or the bed and breakfasts and small hotels, people were expecting us and made us feel welcome. 

We costed out the trip at the end and our calculations showed that we actually saved a few hundred dollars by booking with First Light Travel, rather than booking things separately ourselves.  My husband and I highly recommend First Light for anyone considering a New Zealand trip.

Maureen Hutson and John Chase - Canada

Our driving itinerary put together for us by Rhodri was excellent & helped make this one of our trips of a lifetime. There was a good mix of scheduled activities & free time to explore many of the regions of New Zealand. The scenery was stunning & everyone we met made us feel welcome. Hosts at all the B&B’s we stayed at were excellent making this a trip to remember. The only problem is we needed more time so we will have to make plans to come back again in the future!!

Stewart & Diane Brown - Canada

Just back from a whirlwind tour of NZ with First Light and Amelia did an awesome job of reading into levels of activity and accommodations. They all surpassed our expectations. We maybe had a little too much driving but that was our doing as we knew we wanted to “see it all” in only three weeks. Would we do it again. In a heartbeat and Amelia would be our go-to person.

Thank you for the NZ sampler....

Bill & Eva Fraser-Harris - USA

Our trip to the north island of New Zealand was amazing!!! We are so happy with First Light’s services—especially our travel agent Christine. She was very prompt and helpful throughout the entire process. We had a couple unforeseen events occur during the trip and she was there to help however she could. The hotels and excursions were on point for what we told Christine we wanted and were interested in. We plan on using First Light again for our next trip to the South Island!

Bethany Lee & Matthew Griffin - United States of America