New Zealand Self Drive Tour Reviews

Our favourite activities were: Cathedral Cove Boat tour was great, Hobbiton was of course wonderful, the Glowworm Caves were fun, Tranzalpine train was a highlight for sure. Doubtful sound was very scenic albeit a very long day but worth it. the Penguin tour near Dunedin was one of my favorites!
Oh we last minute booked a couple other activities that I thought I would mention in case they are on your list and you can still count us a good review or you can possibly add them to your list of fun things to do!
. We did the Coromandel Driving Creek Railway Train which was honestly a ton of fun for a little train!
We also ended up doing a second boat tour with Coromandel Ocean Adventures. They were super great. We were the only ones booked on the tour and though it was also a bit windy Richie took us out and showed us some of his favorite spots and we had a really great time.
The other fun/silly thing we did was visit the EnkleDooVery Korna Wallaby Park. It was cold and pouring down rain but Gwen was very funny and she had gumboots for us to change into and handwashing stations and the wallabies were worth every penny!We had a really wonderful time!

Not having to plan every detail really saved me personally this year. I had too much going on and simply couldn't do it. It was really wonderful and I'm in charge of planning a family history trip to Croatia/Slovenia next year and I am going to consider finding a similar travel company over there to help me organize everything!

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.

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)