New Zealand Self Drive Tour Reviews

From the first email I sent to Shelley, she was prompt and very patient in answering my questions and setting up our itinerary for us and we exchanged a LOT of emails! Our whole trip was smooth from the transfers to all the accommodations that we had and the car rentals. I highly recommend Shelley and First Light Travel for any trip to New Zealand. We had a fantastic holiday in this beautiful country and went home with some great memories.

Thank you Shelley and First Light Travel!

Kareena Mirpuri - Phillipines

Hi Jo, Yes, the trip was wonderful. We had a great time. Specifically the cruise in Dunedin unearthed a friend of an old friend. Loved the Larnach Castle. As mentioned previously, Steve Hanrahan, our driver to Queenstown was fabulous. In Addition to driving, we stopped at Gibbstown Winery and Arrowtown. We upgraded to a junior suite at the Rydges which we liked a lot. The cycling experience proved challenging 3 x 25 year olds and us. But fun any way. Matt the driver was very cool delightful and reliable. Wellington, though a rainy, was wonderful. We visited Te Papa, with an incredible Gallipoli exhibit a fabulous Cyndy Sherman exhibit at the City Gallery and a tour of Parliament. We had dinner at Dockside on the Harbour. The Sofitel was fabulous. We loved it and our room. The Saturday tour was great and our guide, Daniel, delightful. Likewise our Sunday venture to Wakaike ( sp?) very pleasant. Carmen our guide very good. She took us to an artist's home and we are contemplating buying a piece.

All in all a fabulous trip!

Best

Carol & Howard Wayne - San Francisco

This trip completely exceeded our expectations!! We are grateful to First Light Travel for helping make this "bucket list" trip a reality for us. Kasey Yee was incredibly instrumental in taking the information we provided about where we wanted to go, what types of activities we wanted to do, and the types of lodging that we preferred, and creating an awesome itinerary for us for the entire month of March!  She found lodging accommodations within our budget that were exactly what we asked for! It's hard to believe all of the work First Light Travel agents do for their clients at no cost!! We have already recommended them to family and friends interested in traveling to New Zealand - especially once we came back and shared our stories and pictures!

Thank you again for helping us with this dream vacation!! 

Michael & Dawn Jennings - USA

We enjoyed a trip of a lifetime! We put our trust in First Light Travel to build us a personalized itinerary that took us to the best spots in NZ with at a relaxed pace so we had time to enjoy our beautiful surroundings. 

We wanted a moderately active holiday and we really enjoyed the activies that were planned along the way- biking, hiking and kayaking. We stayed in beautiful accommodations and enjoyed meeting so many warm and friendly Kiwis. We came back to Canada with a huge smile and wonderful memories of our time in this beautiful country!

Kathy Hilsenteger - Canada

Dear Jo,

Thank you for your e-mail and sorry for my late reply as only today I feel like a normal person after having some bad jetlag and trying to deal with loads of e-mails that appeared here during my vacation. I want to thank you SO MUCH for making my dream come true! It was really above of anything I imagined before. I definitely want to come back to this wonderful country and dig deeper into the history there. My trip schedule organized by you was just perfect! I only wish I would have had more information about the prices in NZ for a solo traveler before starting to organize my trip in order to be more realistic about the planning, as I must admit - it is one of the most expensive countries I visited (maybe Moscow, Singapore and Norway could be in the line), and I have visited 45 countries so far, then probably I would afford myself something more in terms of some accommodations. But it was worth every dollar spent and more! And guess what - while I was affording myself this luxury of 3 weeks vacation (I have never in my life have had such long vacation before), my boss has increased my salary! So it's not true, that you can t have everything.

Once again - thank you so much for letting me have the time of my life!

My best regards,

Linda Rode - Latvia

This was a very professional and transparent experience. There were no hidden fees or secrets and all the activities and accommodations were just as we expected. No surprises (except for the champagne in some of the rooms for our honeymoon) and that is just how we like it! It was just the right pace for us and all the activities were up to our standards. We had an amazing time and would go back in heartbeat!

Brendan Jensen and Amber Beckley - USA

We have never used a travel agency before. We generally research and plan our own trips. We found First Light Travel very informative and flexible enough to provide us with the perfect itinerary for our New Zealand vacation.

Dale & Lisa Hillman - USA

Hi Kasey,

We had a wonderful experience, everything went very well, with all arrangements complete and right on time. In all, a trip of a lifetime and it was very complete and well planned. Congratulations to you for such a thoroughly thought out trip. When I download the pictures from the camera I will send you some of the great ones. Feel free to use any of this info as you choose.

Philip Tower & Roberta O'Connor - USA

Good morning Chrissy,

We had one wonderful time in your beautiful country. Dmitry could not have been a better guide/driver/friend. Every detail was well taken care of. 

Overall our impression of everything First Light does is and was first class. One of our friends (In India for a few months) says she wants to talk to us about the trip and how we planned. I will let you know when Helen returns to the US.

Murray and Linda Acheson - USA

Sophie was very professional and experienced in designing our New Zealand travel plans which covered all our requirements. In additional, there was a last minute cancellation from one of my travel mates due to family matter and Sophie was very helpful to sort out all the hassles.

Karen Ng - Hongkong