New Zealand Self Drive Tour Reviews

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

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

 Hi Kasey,

I wanted to touch base now that we are home and settled back into our routine to tell you what a wonderful New Zealand trip we had and to thank you for all your effort.  You did a wonderful job and probably picked some great experiences and places to stay that we wouldn't have thought about.  We hope to one day return and you will be our go-to girl when that happens!

Thanks again for all your help and planning.

Regards,

Edward & Deborah Danielczyk - USA

Jo is a miracle worker! 

I can’t say enough about how great she was to work with!  There wasn’t a pre-planned tour available for the winter season, so she took us under her wing and helped us to create a custom-designed trip of a lifetime.  She accommodated and exceeded our every need and request...and believe me there were many.  She took care of every detail from pickup and drop offs to detailed notes and phone numbers for confirmations.  We didn’t have to worry about a thing...and that made all the difference in traveling.

Our drivers and guides were treasures!  They took personal interest in offering detailed information about their beloved country as well as answering any questions we had with patience and enthusiasm.  The excursions she selected for us were fabulous...we were treated to the best of the best meals and service.  We called it our “spoil spree” adventure.   When there was a complication in our trip due to a flight cancellation, she was instantly available for us to problem solve and she personally handled arrangements to get us back on schedule.  Phew!  I felt so much better having her “on board” with us for the whole vacation process.    

We highly recommend First Light Travel to anyone and we are already making wishful plans for a return trip...now if we can just get her to branch out on a global scale for all of our traveling in the future!  What do you say, Jo?

Australia favorites:

The Sydney Harbor dinner cruise - beautiful scenery, AMAZING food with wine pairings, live music, and first-rate service.

Wendy Sorenson - USA

Dear Sofie,

As a seventy year old couple we had always planned our own trips. Our experience with you at First Flight Travel was exceptional. We could not have images a better adventure, experience which were “up close and personal” with the people, the culture and magnificent land of New Zealand!

As our first experience working with someone, you were always patient, knowledgeable and accomplish the results excessing our expectations! You identified unique experiences such as the Tram Restaurant in Christchurch and the PurePod, all glass cabin, in the mid of nothing but incredible landscape! These experiences coupled with the Paragliding at over 4,000 feet are memories we will never forget.

As a traveler we usually have some idea of what we want to see when we explore a new country but your attention to detail, your ability to understand what we needed and wanted was exceptional, thank you Sofie!

Throughout the trip if needed, you were always there. I would encourage anyone to work with an agent within the country they are visiting because the details are truly reflective by your knowledge, insights and extraordinary skills which can only come from living in a country.

I will email a few of my favorite pictures but if you see any particular ones you would like from Facebook, please let me know. I wish I had a picture of us at the PurePod together but I only have some silly ones of Bob being overjoyed!

I look forward to working with First Light Travel again when we visit Australia!

My very best,

Robert & Susan Mills -  USA

I cannot tell you how overly pleased we were with First Light Travel! Simply exceptional, and I would most strongly recommend FLT for any trip to New Zealand and Australia. We would approach a tour or a hotel or an activity, produce the voucher FLT had prepared for us and others around us would ask “Where did you get those vouchers?” We would respond, “First Light Travel” People would look at us with envy with the ease of our registration at the various hotels and entrance to the attractions. I wish I had had several business cards to hand out.

Rodney & Judy and Tyler & Kayla - USA

First of all, I would like to commend Our travel specialist Christine Goodger for doing such a great job in arranging our itinerary & putting up with several revisions on our itinerary. Her patience & sense of urgency are very impressive. She responded to our queries quickly & comprehensively. She also gave good suggestions which was a great help in organizing our itinerary. Andrew & Frank were both very courteous & approachable. They both helped us load & unload our luggages without being asked to do so. Andrew always took the tour vouchers from us & processed our attraction tickets so entrance to the attraction was a breeze. Frank was very knowledgeable about each attraction’s history & information. He also took us to places where we can try the best tasting salmon, kiwi, chocolates, manuka honey, & the yummy mixed berries real fruit ice cream! Overall, we had an amazing tour of New Zealand, so we’ll definitely be back!

Thank you First Light Travel! 

Julie Co, Edwin, Bryan, Michele & Krystyn Tiu - Philippines

Mellisa thank you so much for putting together the most enjoyable holiday for us, we would have missed so many exciting things had it not been for your expertise and excellent knowledge of the country, everything from hotels to suggested activities were well thought out and packaged into a very memorable driving holiday

Leslie Lloyd and Mae Elliott - Australia

We are Anita & Julian from Canada and we highly recommend booking your New Zealand vacation with First Light Travel. From the beginning to the end our experience was an amazing one. Michelle took her time to listen to our needs and wants and booked us an itinerary that was perfectly planned and well thought out. From each accommodation to our car rental to our boat cruise in Milford Sound, our first time visiting New Zealand will always be a memorable one. Booking with First Light Travel made it easy for us to enjoy our vacation without having to worry about all the little tiny details while we were there. We were able to soak up every amazing minute of it!!

Anita Del Corpo and Julian Fera – Canada

We are the Dreamteam from Belgium, a group of 8 traveling together to all parts of the world. After deciding to spend our holidays (almost 4 weeks) in New Zealand we were very happy to work together with a local travel agent. We have chosen for FirstLightTravel as they responded promptly and gave the right information needed. It was very easy to work with them and to book from Belgium. Their choice of accommodation was perfect. Everywhere we checked in either hotel, either booked excursions the service was perfect.

Thanks, Chrissy from First Light Travel to have been able to discover magic New Zealand.

Carl Das Group from Belgium