New Zealand Self Drive Tour Reviews

I would highly recommend First Light Travel if you are interested in doing a trip around New Zealand. Rachael, Neelah and their colleagues listened carefully to our preferences during the planning stage, and organized a wonderful itinerary for us that included top class accommodations and excellent tours. They also responded quickly and professionally to address our questions before, during and after our trip.

This was "the trip of a lifetime!" New Zealand is a unique country. The scenery and terrain are so varied and close together. Everyone we met was so friendly and eager to make our visit memorable. Everywhere we went was clean and neat and demonstated a definite "pride of place." 

The helicopter ride, the tour through the countryside in Wanaka, the floatplane trip to Orakei Korako and the Doubtful Sound excursion were definte highlights. The Maori experience, the Black Swan, sitting under a tree listening to the tui birds at the Boatshed provided memories we won't forget.

First Light Travel is a highly professional company with remarkable attention to every aspect of the travelling experience in New Zealand. Michelle and her staff supplied us with a detailed itinerary, precise information about each stop, organised tours and experiences, and phone numbers to call in any moment of need. As it turned out, every aspect of our trip to New Zealand fell neatly into place. At one point on the North Island, we called Michelle to help organise a specific kind of car; she dealt with this request immediately and succeeded where our own phone calls to the rental car provider had failed. The organisation and support of First Light Travel were therefore invaluable. We recommend them warmly to future fellow travellers.

This was always going to be the holiday of a lifetime and so we wanted it to be perfect. We asked Gina O'Neill to create a 16 day tour of New Zealand's South Island for us. We were happy to drive but wanted to be sure we didn't miss any of the main attractions and wanted a little bit of luxury along the way.
Gina did a fantastic job. Our holiday was perfect and the memories will be with us forever. Everything went smoothly from picking up the car, booking into the hotels and arriving for the excursions. It was totally seamless.
The highlight was our 2 nights in Mount Cook. The hotel was fabulous and the view from our hotel room was picture perfect. We can't thank Gina and First Light Travel enough and would definitely recommend the company to anyone considering a similar tour.

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.

Working with Danielle at First Light Travel was awesome from beginning to end. We were clueless of which island to visit and what activities to do. She was able to craft a perfect itinerary of relaxation and adventure for our anniversary trip to the South Island, specifically Queenstown and Wanaka. She organized excursions and transportation for us since we were not comfortable driving on the other side of the road. We visited Milford Sound, did a jetboat tour of the Matukituki River, a wilderness walk and a 4WD safari. My husband also had some fishing excursions! Whenever we had an issue, Danielle was quick to remedy it and did so with cheer. Highly recommend First Light Travel for anyone looking for some help booking their first trip (or second) to New Zealand!

Aloha Michelle,

We had an absolutely fabulous visit to New Zealand.  The weather was amazingly cooperative for us the whole time.  On the day of our glow worm trip, the 10am tour had to be cancelled due to rough waves on the lake, but by the time our 2pm tour came up it was fabulous!  Also, the all the tours to Milford Sound the day before ours had to be cancelled due to road closures and avalanche clearing--but everything was open again for us the next day and we had a sunny and warm boat trip with 100's of waterfalls!  All of our tours were absolutely excellent and I thank you so much for your organizing of all the tickets ahead of time! It was nice to just present the vouchers and all the vendors seemed to really like the process as well.  And you are right, lucky for us, there were no cancellations.  We also made some fun side trips on our driving days to the Christchurch Botanic Garden, the National Kiwi, Kawarau bungy jumping (just to watch!), Gibbston Winery, Salmon Farm, the Takahe bird sanctuary, the Otago Museum and the NZ Maritime Museum in Auckland!  Except for the problems with the one in Queenstown, the hotels were also great.   

Cindy Reeves USA

Hi Michelle,

Thanks for the follow-up.  We had a delightful experience in your lovely country and yes, your services exceeded our expectations. We were blessed by great weather.   All of your vendors were exceptional.   I would not have changed a thing. I was extremely appreciative of the fact that you encouraged us to visit the South Island.    Queenstown and Milford Sound really put an exclamation point on the trip.

We did get to see a World Cup game in Auckland.    We went to the game between Spain and Switzerland on August 5th. Attached are a few photos from our trip (we took over 1300!).

Mike Herbert (USA)

Danielle and the whole team at First Light Travel made our month long trek across both islands an enjoyable and well -planned trip. We were there during the 30 year Cyclone and even with the challenges that arose our trip was wonderful. I highly recommend using a travel agent and especially this company on a first visit to NZ. When our phones would only email (not call or text) the whole team worked to get our issues fixed: One issue was we were running late for Hobbiton (the evening tour and dinner). We had gotten ourselves lost and with little gas (always fill up on half tank if driving a lot and when it's available!). Even through our spotty internet/email First Light was able to connect with Hobbiton and when we rolled in 2 minutes past bus departure, there was a staffer ready with our tickets and ushering onto the bus, and not with a scowl, but a welcome! They knew all about our mishaps with the map/gas/travel and showed lots of grace, thanks to communication with First Light. We will use First Light again and could not be happier we did with this first trip to beautiful NZ.

Ann & Philip Duran, USA

Hi Natalie, 

I've been meaning to sit down and send you a thoughtful, detailed thank you. We had such a delightful time--everyone loved it. And we loved it so much that we're trying to figure out when we can return. My second child (the 15 year old) fell in love with kiwi birds at the Wildlife Centre, so much so that all they wanted for their birthday was to sponsor one. The sponsorship comes with the ability to visit the bird, so we will have a good excuse to return! I can't tell you how many lovely people we met. Strangers would approach to offer help, and were so warm and kind. Besides the natural beauty of the island, that's what really caught our attention. 

All of the accomodations more than met our needs. The only one that wasn't terrific, but was adequate, was the rental villa in Te Anau. The manager was quite frankly just odd, and seemed upset when we arrived a little early. The rental was adequately clean, but not nicely equipped. We wouldn't have been excited to stay for more than 1-2 nights, but it fit our needs. The apartment in Queenstown was stunning, and huge, and clean, and the views! It was easily accessible with a car, had parking, and was very walkable. What a terrific choice. We wished our vacation was a week longer, just to enjoy that space and the city. We appreciated the breakfast offered in almost every accomodation--it made our days a lot easier to know where and when we were going to eat at least once each day.  While I might have slightly preferred a more central Christchurch hotel given that we were walking everywhere, the family was all charmed by the Tudors, and the space offered was generous. We would happily stay there again. The rental car process was seamless and easy on both ends, and the roads were really great!

We adored so many of the experiences; it's hard to choose a favorite. I think most of us would say that it was the Doubtful Sound cruise, which was just lovely. The scenery was beautiful, and we were lucky enough to have a gorgeous two days after a rainy, windy, gray first 4-5 days. The train ride was also beautiful, and so relaxing. We would repeat all of the experiences again, with the exception of the Monarch cruise. I'll give my honest feedback: it was packed way too full to really enjoy, and we didn't get very near any wildlife. It was probably too short to see much, but none of us wished it was much longer when we were stuffed in like sardines in a can. My youngest was half way off the end of a bench to make space for everyone else, and refused to sit on my lap because she's at the elderly age of 8. We've been on wildlife viewing cruises before, and we know that no one can ever guarantee animal viewing in the wild. However, we spent that one drizzly, windy, overcrowded hour mostly looking at one albatross. The rest of the experiences were all delightful though! We will plan on stargazing and a ski plane next time, and are so delighted that we might get to return. If you ever have another client who ventures down to the Catlins, it might be worth a mention of stopping by The Lost Gypsy gallery. One artist has converted an old bus and some outdoor space into a museum of his automatons created from found items. It's quirky, weird, fun, and interactive. It's well worth the detour to Papatowai just for a 30-60 min visit. It made the top five list for several of my kids, and I loved it too. 

Arrowtown was so delightful, especially since we arrived about 45 min before the first tour groups. We had fantastic espresso, the best donut we've ever had anywhere, and panned for gold. The museum is fabulous, and has a great scavenger hunt for kids. Overall, we wished that we had an entire day to bum around, or maybe two. It was really quite charming. Too bad our vacation wasn't a month long!

We had phenomenal meals at the Redcliff Cafe in Te Anau (so so so good, and the kids dinner was one of the best I've ever seen for variety and quality), Vault 21 in Dunedin, and Gatherings in Christchurch. Seriously delicious, and something we'd visit again, and again, and again if they were near our home. We also enjoyed our Mrs. Fergberger coffee and pastries a lot. 

Whew! That's a lot, I know, and I'll resubmit a lot of it on the form. I just wanted to personally thank you for crafting such a fabulous trip. You were patient with all of our neurotic questions (ok, my neurotic questions), and the experience was so easy and seamless. I'd give it ten stars out of five if I could.

Thank you, thank you, thank you,

Molly