New Zealand Self Drive Tour Reviews

We discovered First Light on the Internet while searching for help in planning our trip to New Zealand. Even though we were making travel plans during the height of the season and with little time. Sophie gave us everything we wanted, within our budget. We loved everything.

Norm and Shirley Brooke - USA

First Light provides really good customized service for a good price. Besides sending us a hardcopy itinerary, they checked in with us 2 weeks before we left, and quickly updated us when a tour operator had to make a change. Didn't make noise at all even though I requested several last minute, troublesome changes. Excellent service! Well done.

Andre and Feng Lim – Singapore

I found First Light Travel when I searched "New Zealand Itineraries" and I'm so glad I did! We traveled in April/May of 2017, and found First Light Travel in late January/early February 2017. We worked closely with Chrissy Sun, who made the whole process - from booking our flights, to our excursions, to our accommodations - a stress-free process. This was our first international trip and she gladly answered all of our questions about traveling abroad and provided very helpful information about New Zealand in general. We let Chrissy know when we could leave, when we needed to be back, and when we needed to be in Rotorua to run a marathon and she handled the rest. Our itinerary was easy to follow. The voucher system was easy to use and made getting checked in for our excursions so easy. Once we arrived in New Zealand we were so excited to see our well thought out itinerary in action. The outfitters selected by Chrissy were great to work with and helped provide an unforgettable experience. We were in New Zealand for 20 days and Chrissy made sure that we did as many of the things on our wish-list as possible. We had fun at every turn and find it hard to pick a favorite!

Hi Jo, Yes, the trip was wonderful. We had a great time. Specifically the cruise in Dunedin unearthed a friend of an old friend. Loved the Larnach Castle. As mentioned previously, Steve Hanrahan, our driver to Queenstown was fabulous. In Addition to driving, we stopped at Gibbstown Winery and Arrowtown. We upgraded to a junior suite at the Rydges which we liked a lot. The cycling experience proved challenging 3 x 25 year olds and us. But fun any way. Matt the driver was very cool delightful and reliable. Wellington, though a rainy, was wonderful. We visited Te Papa, with an incredible Gallipoli exhibit a fabulous Cyndy Sherman exhibit at the City Gallery and a tour of Parliament. We had dinner at Dockside on the Harbour. The Sofitel was fabulous. We loved it and our room. The Saturday tour was great and our guide, Daniel, delightful. Likewise our Sunday venture to Wakaike ( sp?) very pleasant. Carmen our guide very good. She took us to an artist's home and we are contemplating buying a piece.

All in all a fabulous trip!

Best

Carol & Howard Wayne - San Francisco

Our experience with First Light Travel was amazing. They gave us great ideas for our trip to New Zealand and were there every step of the way for us. We encountered no problems besides an excursion that had to be canceled by a water rafting company in NZ, but that was because of rain making the river to high to water raft on where we wanted to go. But First Travel was very good at refunding our money and all the other experiences were once in a lifetime adventures that we will not forget. Thank you First Light Travel for making out holiday to New Zealand as memorable as it was and as cost effective as it could be.

Sincerely,

Joshua Casson & Clara Ho - USA

My husband and I had a wonderful trip of both Islands of New Zealand recently. First Light Travel made sure that we had everything in place. We had selected a self-drive holiday and our car was waiting for us in both Islands. Our accommodation was booked for us every night of our trip which made it easy to step from our car to our room. Attractions were selected to suit our interests which made it easy. We only had to produce our vouchers for the attraction and enjoyment was all ours.Thank you First Light Travel for your excellent service which made our trip so memorable for us.

Greetings from Australia.

Catherine and Mark 

Judith at First Light Travel was recommended to me by a colleague, and I’m so glad I took that recommendation! Having never travelled to New Zealand before, it was great to have someone with expert knowledge of the country to help me plan my itinerary…and right from the beginning Judith put in so much effort to start suggesting places to go and things to see. I didn’t really know where to start, so it was great that she put together an initial itinerary for me to then comment on.

All my comments/feedback were all taken on board absolutely perfectly, and even when I added extra requests into the mix, it was all handled so smoothly. After a couple of rounds of tweaking the itinerary, the final one was in place…

The itinerary included so many different places, and Judith had really listened to my thoughts on wanting a mix of accommodation.

It’s too hard to pick a favourite place as I literally loved every minute, but I’ve wanted to see Milford Sound for over 15yrs, so that was a particular highlight for me!

I’m already planning another visit to New Zealand, and would definitely recommend First Light Travel…I’ll definitely get in touch with them when I start planning my next trip!

Thanks!

Jayne Travis - Holland

This trip completely exceeded our expectations!! We are grateful to First Light Travel for helping make this "bucket list" trip a reality for us. Kasey Yee was incredibly instrumental in taking the information we provided about where we wanted to go, what types of activities we wanted to do, and the types of lodging that we preferred, and creating an awesome itinerary for us for the entire month of March!  She found lodging accommodations within our budget that were exactly what we asked for! It's hard to believe all of the work First Light Travel agents do for their clients at no cost!! We have already recommended them to family and friends interested in traveling to New Zealand - especially once we came back and shared our stories and pictures!

Thank you again for helping us with this dream vacation!! 

Michael & Dawn Jennings - USA

Our two week trip to New Zealand was a complete joy, and we credit much of that to Chrissy at First Light Travel. She was prompt, honest, and creative in the planning process and made accommodation and activity recommendations that not only fit our interests but also our needs (we traveled with a 4-year old). The pre-travel materials provided by First Light were helpful and their voucher system made the accommodation and activity check-in process a breeze. Thank you, Chrissy, for all you did to make our trip to New Zealand the adventure of a lifetime!

Kelly, Ryan, Sawyer & Mary Habbley - USA

Kia Ora,

I and a group of 5 friends traveled to NZ last March 2017, and Ms. Shelley from First Light Travel helped tailoring our itinerary to best-suit our interest, helped getting us the best experience for our budget.

Multiple email exchange, change of destination, modification of arrangement, she patiently helped us through all. We had an enjoyable 17 days exploring North and South island, one of the best trip ever. Best of success Ms. Shelley and First Light Travel.

Regards

Damar Pracoyo & Friends