Reviews of The Ultimate 21 Day South Island Self Drive Tour

Our 21-day trip through the South Island of New Zealand was simply amazing, thanks to Micala at First Light Travel. She planned everything perfectly—fantastic sights, great accommodations, and incredible activities—all running like clockwork. We absolutely loved every moment and couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Highly recommend!

Our trip exceeded our expectations! Kirsty Marriott listened to our requests for customizing our self guided South Island New Zealand trip and included everything we wanted to experience plus some. We highly recommend First Light Travel and Kirsty Marriott

First Light Travel created a well organized and well designed itinerary which allowed us to concentrate on the beauty and novelty of New Zealand. he suggested and provided activities were suitable to our interests and abilities. Given that this was a self driving tour, we had a great deal of flexibility to go where and when we wanted to. As a result, we were less dependent on organized activities than would be the case with a larger group. Nicole strongly suggested that we do the Doubtful Sound overnight cruise which was a very good idea.

There were no worries about surprises awaiting us. The trip proceeded like clockwork. Thanks for the good work.

Our plan in visiting New Zealand was to experience a variety of places and outdoor adventures this extraordinary county has to offer. We did enough research to pick out highlights but did not know how to fit that into a month. Danielle at First Light Travel was a wealth of information and provided great suggestions to build an itinerary that fit our interests and allotted time. She hooked us up with interesting places, great hikes high in the mountains, strolls on stunning beaches and experiences we might not have known to do including searching for kiwis at mid-night. (They are nocturnal and we saw three). We recommend First Light Travel to get the best of New Zealand.

 This was a daunting trip. The other side of the world, new experiences and a new travel company.
What a delight, was made very easy by Natalie, she was always at the other end of an email and didn’t disappoint. When there was a minor issue during the trip – she was on it and resolved.
I cannot thank her enough for her professionalism.

Wonderful trip to New Zealand

We’re just back (Dec 2023) from a trip that included a three week self-drive, mostly through New Zealand’s South Island, organized by First Light Travel. For many years, while travelling the world, we’ve wanted to explore New Zealand. And we couldn’t be more pleased with the results from First Light, especially Danielle, our travel advisor there. In fact, they exceeded our expectations! It was a perfect trip for we 70-year-olds to celebrate our 45th anniversary.

Danielle began our interaction by asking what we enjoy, activity-wise, and what type of accommodations we prefer. So, right out-of-the-gate, this was clearly going in the direction we wanted: a trip customized to our wishes, and not a cookie-cutter itinerary or a check-list of activities.

Danielle is a great listener, very patient, is easy to get ahold of, and a joy to work with. A draft plan was created from that first conference call (which was the response to our emailed contact point). We reviewed it, changed some of our wishes, partly from the great alternatives tabled for us to consider and the opportunity to do more specific research. We started our planning over a year in advance, so this allowed this itinerary to evolve over time and the subsequent calls we had.

The final itinerary was very detailed, including contact phone numbers and vouchers for each activity and hotel. Since many of the activities that we chose were weather-dependent, such as boat trips, a hot air balloon ride, and a helicopter trip, we needed to call and confirm beforehand. One of those numbers went to a recorded message indicating it was out of service. So I simply called First Light Travel’s emergency line and they took care of it for me in a matter of a few minutes.

We thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of our trip. The drive, the scenery and activities were wonderful. Yes, weather affected two of our excursions, but First Light tracked these and issued a refund for the missed ones within a week of the completion of our trip. And it was fun to run into another Canadian couple, at the Clay Cliffs, whose trip had also been arranged by Danielle.