Reviews of The Classic 14 Day South Island Explorer

There is an advantage to using a local travel agency to assist in planning a trip to an area that you are not familiar with. While you can research on your own, it's likely you would miss something memorable. Our two week+ self-drive tour of the South Island really was marvelously executed. The timing of the stops, hotels, and activities was well thought out. We did a fair amount of coastal cruises, wine tasting, wine tasting, helicopter flights, the whole thing. Most everything was small groups, and sometimes just by ourselves with a guide. No big buses. Highly recommended.

First Light Travel made booking a big trip for two families of four, travelling together from Australia, a breeze. We found an itinerary online from First Light which was close to what we were thinking, then reached out to and worked with Bernadette and Katarina to tweak and fit in everything we wanted. They took care of all the bookings, which was too overwhelming to do on our own! The accommodation selections were great, recommended tours and activities all enjoyed and the trip was hassle free. We absolutely loved our South Island adventure, thank you!

Taylor booked for us a self drive from Christchurch, to Mount Cook, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Wanaka, Franz Josef Glacier ending with a TranzAlpine Train ride back to Christchurch.

She was very responsive and took notes of our requirements and needs, making sure the holiday was slow and well paced as we requested. We didn’t want to see everything but instead, savour the memories together. Throughout the booking process, she listened patiently and went through multiple iterations of the itinerary until we crafted what we were looking for.

The lodges were well chosen, a mix of luxury hotels and well curated lodges with friendly and knowledgeable local hosts. The experiences were bespoke and we especially enjoyed the horse riding experience in Glenorchy which allowed us to the experience the great New Zealand Outdoor off the beaten path with our enthusiastic guide.

When things didn’t go as planned due to weather issues, she was quick to response in country and help us resolve and find alternatives.

Looking forward to our next holiday with First Light Travel and Taylor.

First Light Travel made me and my husband’s honeymoon a wonderful, stress free experience! I originally tried to plan a trip to New Zealand on my own, that proved to be very difficult. There’s so much to see and do!! So, we reached out and ended up working with Jasmin and she was THE BEST. She got to know us a little and we told her we loved the outdoors and wanted to experience NZ but didn’t know where to start! We decided to use our two week honeymoon completely on the South Island. Which included: Christchurch, Mount Cook, Dunedin, Te Anau, Doubtful Sound, Queenstown, Wanaka, and Franz Josef. She kept us busy with both large and small group adventures which we loved. Wildlife cruises to see albatross, island nature walks with great views, and our all day cruise to Doubtful Sound just to name a few! We had something almost every day, but she did schedule in a couple free days for us to explore. Her communication skills were amazing, she gave us an itinerary, to which she made it easy to change a few things (we live in MN so we didn’t want to kayak or jet ski, we do that every summer). She finalized booking, and saw us off! We wouldn’t have had this experience without her. Thanks Jasmin and First Light Travel! 10000/10 would recommend.

We did an adapted version of First Light Travel's Classic 14 day South Island Explorer as added in a few nights initial stay in Wellington, ferry to & overnight stay in Picton, and a 5 day hike of the Queen Charlotte Track (through a different company). The trip was brilliant. It mostly worked like clockwork and if we hit a small hitch First Light Staff were on hand and responsive to our queries. The varied experiences were wonderful and fun and the accommodations were again varied but very comfortable. We particularly loved the Mornington personalised wine tour, the Doubtful Sound, the Glowworm caves, the nature tour on Lake Wanaka, the wildlife cruise near Dunedin, the Mt Cook Glacier lake trip, the Gibbston Valley e-bike tour, the train trip from Greymouth to Christchurch and the drives through much beautiful scenery. If we could do it again we'd have 1 more night in Queenstown with a free day as there's so much to do there and 1 extra night in Wanaka as it's so beautiful. Our trip from mid Nov to mid Dec 2024 meant there was still snow still on some peaks and it was very green with lots of spring flowers. The days ranged from 7 degrees to 23 - fortunately we'd packed for all seasons. Overall, we were lucky with the weather with only the Franz Josef Heli Hike being cancelled due to rain (150mm in 1 day!). Can't recommend this tour and First Light Travel highly enough.

I would highly recommend First Light Travel to create your NZ holiday itinerary. We did a self-drive tour of the South Island in October 2024. I had planned this trip several months before and First Light presented 3 to 4 options to try and match our needs and places and activities we wanted to experience. Gina was our travel designer and she stayed with us throughout the planning process until we made our final decision. Gina was patient, knowledgeable and very experienced. Our holiday was a great success from the car hire, hotels and activities. Our highlight was the Franz Josef Glazier Helicopter ride. The scenery throughout the South Island is simply spectacular. You can rest assure and book confidently with First light.

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.