New Zealand Self Drive Tour Reviews

We had a fantastic experience with First Light Travel, choosing them for their excellent service, easy booking process, and quality information. Despite some time zone challenges, responses were always prompt and helpful. The itinerary was well-suited for the holiday, with accurate information provided throughout. Holiday experiences exceeded expectations, with activities perfectly aligned with interests, particularly enjoying island trips, hikes, and adventure tours. Accommodations met expectations, with favorites including Bay of Islands, M Social in Auckland, and Hermitage. While most activities were enjoyable, there were some issues with rushed tours. Overall, the value for money was exceptional, with commendations for the helpfulness in arranging transport and accommodations. Although there was a transition in consultants, the service remained helpful. and we would happily recommend First Light Travel to others and may consider recommending them to friends planning trips to New Zealand in the future.

I am so pleased. We appreciate all you did for us. This was the trip of a lifetime for 6 of us. Seamless. Wonderful. Professional. We love New Zealand and miss it already! Aroha and kia Ora are my two favorite words. The finest people and places on the planet can be found here in this paradise. 

28 Days in New Zealand – the trip of a lifetime, thanks to First Light Travel

We just returned from 28 unforgettable days in New Zealand, organized by Gina O’Neill at First Light Travel.  FIVE STARS!  We could not recommend Gina and First Light Travel more highly.

Gina organized a top to bottom adventure- and activity- packed trip which met our budget, responded to our desires (and “non-desires”), and exceeded our expectations, including both North and South Islands.  Every day we did something “cool” – there were no wasted travel days or waiting-around days – Gina organized the logistics so that we never had to drive more than 3 hours in a day and could always do something fun every day.  Reservations worked flawlessly – every hotel and every activity had our reservation handy, and off we went. 

I would also say, without looking an itemized budget for every hotel and activity, that we felt we got very fair value for our money.  In many instances, we stayed in hotels we would have been too cheap to book ourselves (!), so we were frequently surprised by the quality and comfort of our accommodations.  In addition, all of the “activity providers” (be they rafting, boating, kayaking, hiking, ballooning, etc.) were excellent: professional, super friendly, safe, funny, engaging, simply first rate.  We never could have found these folks by ourselves, nor felt secure in advance that we had found the right people even if we had.  In short, Gina made great recommendations and choices for us.

Finally, this is the first time we have ever worked with a travel agent.  I am typically skeptical and usually arrange all our own hotels, cars, activities, etc.  But I can say that we are unequivocally HAPPY that we engaged Gina at First Light Travel to do this work on our behalf, so that our only responsibilities were to have a BLAST in New Zealand.  Thank you.  
Sam and Linda.
 

Thanks for all your help planning our fabulous trip.  We love your country and appreciate your planning a trip for us that both allowed us to see so much, without feeling frantic.  We would not have dropped anyplace, and most places we would gladly have stayed even longer.  No hotels were bad, all -- as we requested -- avoided boring international style (except the first and nights in Auckland and the hotel the last night in Christchurch by airport but that was unavoidable) and even the very smallest studio room, the studio at Kaikura, had a plus as they lent us bicycles for free and have cycletracks right there. I am so impressed by NZ's conservation efforts and appreciation of Maori language and culture, as well as 100% friendly spirit and the feeling of safety and public order.

Excellent experience designing our journey from tip to tip of New Zealand. We stayed in amazing hotels and enjoyed all the attractions along the way. FirstLight was incredibly helpful!

Thanks for creating the perfect experience for us. The help in getting a spot on the back up cruise for Doubtful Sound is a perfect example of why working with a pro is so critical!  It was unfortunate the weather kept us off the Franz Josef glacier, but overall it was amazing how much we did in 30 days. So many great pictures it is hard to pick 1, but this is from hike in Milford Sound. 

Karen and I loved our trip to New Zealand. The country is exceptionally beautiful and unspoiled. The New Zealanders are the best; extremely nice and always helpful. Anna Caudle and the team at First Light Travel did a wonderful job helping us plan the perfect itinerary and arranging all the details. We did the self-driving tour with lots of hiking, and appreciated the chance to go at our own pace and explore on our own. Te Anau, Kinlock, and Wanaka were our favorite stops on the South Island. Mount Cook was spectacular and we wish we had more time and better weather while there. All-in-all, it was a wonder time and we're looking forward to visiting New Zealand again. Karen and I give Anna and First Light Travel our highest recommendation for their expertise and superb level of service and support.

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

We had a very nice and well-organized trip. The itinerary was tailored made for us, all was perfectly timed so we didn't have to rush and still we could visit plenty of places having also free time to relax. Some activities had to be canceled due to the heavy rains of February but we were informed well in advanced and offered several options instead. Everything was very smooth and we were so glad we have booked the trip with First Light Travel instead of doing it on our own. First Light Travel dealt with our itinerary from the very first moment, she was very friendly, helpful and took very well into account our demands to make a perfect itinerary for us.


New Zealand is such an amazing country and we enjoyed the trip very much

Sara Mateos and Jerome Bacot - Belgium

Hi Amelia,

I just wanted to reach out to you once again to express my appreciation for all you did in making our trip to New Zealand an absolute success. I did write a review on Trip Advisor but I'm not sure I submitted it correctly.

As I'm still on quarantine with time on my hands I thought I would share a few things about our trip that you may use in working with other travelers.

First, we were so grateful that upon arriving in Christchurch you had a driver meet us to take us to our accommodation. After that long flight I'm not so sure we could have figured out the GPS system, how to drive on the opposite side of the road, and get to our hotel without being totally stressed.  Our driver, Norm, was delightful...and we had him the next morning for our trip to the train station. Again, awesome to have had a driver.

The places and accommodations you selected for the four of us were spot on. You had us in lovely towns (or pretty cool remote locations like Waikiwa Bay), close to restaurants as we like walking to dinner when possible.  You picked some amazing houses/apartments, such as the Paparoa Beach Hideaway. What a way to kick off the trip. It was a very cool place.

We tend to lean towards more "off the beaten path" activities but we were so glad you suggested a few guided excursions.  Our Kepler Track heli-hike was a great one. We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with our knowledgeable guide Becs. We learned so much and had many of our questions answered. It was a delightful day.   Luck was with us when your office rescheduled our Southern Discoveries Milford Sound tour to a Trips & Tramps tour. We again learned so much from our guide. Plus he made several stops for short interpretive walks and afternoon tea at a lovely picnic area.  Another great day. Thank you for encouraging us to include a few guided tours.

To accommodate our "off the beaten path" natures, we purchased a book titled "NZ Frenzy" by Scott Cook.  The South Island edition breaks the island down by region and then lists and describes the top tourist attractions, well known second tier must sees and his favorite obscurities along with an "Obscure -O-Meter". We did his "Don't Miss" suggestions and had a blast exploring some of his obscure hikes.  Cannibal Bay in the Catlins with its sea lions was a treat, as well as a hike into Glacier Burn Valley near Wanaka. His book was a perfect resource for us.

One item for you to note is that we learned the Rippon Winery in Wanaka is by appointment only.  We opted for an obscure walk instead!

Funny story. The guides for our kayak in Akaroa were from our home state of Wisconsin. One of the guides is from a town only 45 minutes from our home! And in the summer he leads kayak trips on Lake Superior for the company we used for our kayak/camping trip a few years ago.  Small world! Great sea kayak trip; the guides were extremely knowledgeable about the area, history, geology, bird and marine life. 

The highlight of our trip was the overnight cruise in Doubtful Sound.  We were lucky enough to have good weather. The cruise was nothing like I had expected.  The ship was large, the rooms and beds were comfortable, the food was delicious and plentiful, and the Nature guide was impressive.  The water, scenery, stars and sunrise were beautiful to experience. Having done this first made Milford Sound seem small and extremely commercialized!   

Lastly I want to give a shout out to First Light Travel.  We called the office twice, both times on the weekend. The gentleman/men who answered the calls were extremely helpful. Our first call had to do with the Milford Sound bus transport issue.  Within minutes he had it resolved and before he could call us back with an update we already had an email from Trips & Tramps confirming our morning van pickup. Our second call was in regards to the US issuing a travel level 4 warning to return home immediately.  The Bokerns were quite stressed over this and the travel consultant they talked with in your office did a great job of calming their fears, talking through our options and giving sound advice. Your email response, though you were out of the office, was greatly appreciated as well.  We put our concerns aside and did another obscure hike near the Rob Roy track!

We had a fabulous trip...tramped over 200km, drove over 3000km, experienced the South Island from end to end and side to side. Thank you again for being part of our adventure.

Warmest regards,

Barbara & Michael Bartling, Emily & James Bokern - USA