New Zealand Self Drive Tour Reviews

The holiday of a lifetime! Everything was fantastically well organised, the details on the itinerary were clear and helpful and the activities booked were all amazing! New Zealand must be one of the most beautiful places in the world, and its people were welcoming and gracious, we loved every single minute!

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.

New Zealand Trip of a LIfetime!

Gina was great to work with! She was very patient with all the changes I had putting the 4 1/2-week trip together. It was a fantastic trip, and we loved every minute of it! It was so nice to have everything taken care of in advance and not have to worry about reservations. Every hotel was booked, every flight was booked, every SUV reserved, and every excursion was booked, as requested. There were no hiccups at all, and everything was taken care of. For a trip that was 4 1/2 weeks long, it was hard to believe that there were snags! I really appreciate all her and her team's hard work...and being available to us when we had some last-minute changes along the way!

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.

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.

Salli really listened to what we were interested in seeing and doing. She was very helpful in suggesting activities we probably would not have found on our own. And she did this all in a very short time frame.

We loved Franz Josef glacier was definitely worth seeing. Walking through a rain forest to go see a glacier is absolutely phenomenal. The TranzAlpine Train was awesome! Coastal Pacific train. All the trains and the buses were a very enjoyable way to see the beautiful countryside. Corporate Cabs for private transfers made us feel like royalty.

Salli talked to us about our preferences and gave us an awesome trip!

Regards 

Bob and Sue Schuette - United States of America

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

I first came across First Light Travel when I started researching itineraries for my trip to New Zealand, at that time I was planning to book everything myself. However, their Journey to a Southern land was almost perfect for me so I contacted them and with a few minor adjustments, I was all booked and ready to travel. 



From the moment I landed at Auckland airport until the moment I departed the whole trip apart from being PERFECT went like clockwork. The organization was amazing, all connections, check-ins and day trips went exactly to their prepared plan. I was hugely impressed with the organization of my trip. And, when I had a fall whilst out hiking, Michelle quickly cancelled one long hike for me (with a full refund) and altered one other excursion that I couldn't take part in due to my injury (with the difference in price being refunded)



I had the time of my life and cannot wait until I can come back to New Zealand.

Adele Kitsanelis  - Greece