New Zealand Self Drive Tour Reviews

Our family had a memorable holiday in New Zealand in December 2019. This was made possible by Narissa Phipps, our Travel Consultant from First Flight Travel. She was extremely swift in her responses, pro-active in suggesting activities and ensured our comfort and safety throughout the holiday. She put together an amazing array of activities and detailed itinerary in a short span of time, and helped us finalize it.

Suggested itineraries were very detailed, listing out additional activities, if time permitted. We got a handy day-by-day account of where our holiday would take us, to the level of detailing how far apart two places were and how far we had to drive on a given day.

Such Planning to the hilt put us at tremendous ease and gave us great peace of mind. The activities and choice of hotels in each town / city was appropriate and suited our taste. We would give First Light Travel a huge Thumbs Up and will vouch for the fact that they are highly recommended.

Ganesh Family - Singapore

This review came a little late (more a year from our trip already) but I guess it's better late than never! We have only compliments for Jo and her team at First Light Travel. She was kind and patient with our questions and planning. It was our first time travelling to Southern NZ and we had ideas on what we were keen on but it was Jo who managed to piece everything together perfectly. We knew we were in good hands when an Earthquake struck near Kaikoura just a day before our flight and we knew we had to make changes to our route and Jo jumped into action by checking all of the routes we were about to take and gave suggestions on detours/re-routing. She even gave daily updates on the weather and checked on us every few days. We will definitely recommend First Light Travel and will hope to visit NZ soon!

Sheena Chee - Singapore

Christine and team from firstlightravel tailored the perfect holiday for us. Traveling as a family with a 6 year old child we asked for a camper van trip with a good mix of activities suitable for the whole family, not too long driving distance (max 2-3 hour) and not driving every day in order to have enough time to relax and enjoy as well discovering the various places.

And the trip was exactly as we were looking for. Having firtslighttravel doing all the planning and organization we didn't had to do anything - only enjoying our holiday.

From the first contact until the last day of our holiday, Firstlighttravel took much care of us.

It was one of our best holidays we ever had.

Thank You.

Jörg, Kristin, Renée Theis Germany

Dear Brent,

 I, Mr. Chi Piu WAN (English name Bill) on behalf of my group (total 15 persons), would like to express our gratitude on the excellent performance of your staff Ms Sofie Liu.   Her great performance has been well recognised by me and all of my group members.  She follows up closely and perfectly the trip planning including accommodations, meal and sightseeing routes for our group as well as quickly, precise and adequate communications with me over the past months since March this year.  

Her professional knowledge and her excellent working attitude have been proved throughout this period of time which is particularly demonstrated in resolving sudden incidents/problems of the recent road blockages due to heavy raining and land sliding at west coast of South Island.  As a result, the original planned activities for our group such as helicopter tour (30 minutes) at a Franz Josef and Fox glaciers arranged on 23 Dec 2019 were all affected, not to mention the booked hotel at Franz. 

With her excellent and quick rearrangement, helicopter tour (35 minutes) at Mt Cook as well as accommodation change can be arranged and confirmed within two days time which include the time spent for the communication via emails, back and forth,  between Sofie and myself (in Hong Kong).  

Actually, at the time of writing this email, I am still in Hong Kong and get preparation for departure with my group on tomorrow afternoon (21 Dec).

I have to emphasise herein that not just myself but also all my group members we are all appreciated for Sofie and therefore would like to express our big thanks to her and your company. 

Trust you and your company with great success. 

Cheers

Bill Wan - Hong Kong
 

Thank you, Christine and First Light Travel for a wonderful holiday. We usually research and book holidays ourselves so this is the first time we have used a travel agent. We were a little apprehensive, to begin with, but Christine soon reassured us with her cheery, helpful emails. We certainly needn't have worried, you have all been totally amazing in every way. We will recommend you to friends and family and of course, get in touch again if we plan a holiday to Australia.

Best wishes Anne & Tom Banks - UK

First Light Travel is a first-class operation. From beginning to end everything was perfect. Even when the weather caused problems, Shelley was there to make a smooth change in plans that was perfect. Always in touch and making a special effort to make sure we were happy.

For a stress and worry-free vacation you can't beat First Light!

Colin Leonard and Billie Cantwell - USA

Kia Ora Rhodri,

Just wanted to reach out and thank you for all your help planning our vacation. It was everything we could have hoped for and more. Your services and First Light will come highly recommended by us.

We made this little video that followed our adventure, and we wanted to share it with you.

https://youtu.be/K3GVyEwkKtA

Thanks again,

Erik Reynolds & Liz Kirchhoff - USA

Let me start with saying that we had about 30 days to plan a 7 day trip to New Zealand and we had no idea where to start. First Light Travel's website had so many ideas showcasing different types of trip options from self driving to small group tours that it was hard to choose what path we wanted to take. We settled on the South Island and decided on a self driving tour which I would highly recommend because there are so many stopping points along the way that we wouldn't have been able to stop at if we were on a group schedule. And once you are out of the big cities, driving on the other side of the road is not as intimidating as it seems. We worked with Deb at First Light Travel and she was quick to respond to our questions and put together a personal itinerary just for us that fit our budget. The printed itinerary was so exact with a day by day break down of each activity and hotel that we never had to worry about forgetting anything. Just read your itinerary! The entire trip was incredible and we had to pinch ourselves that we were in New Zealand! We experienced more than normal amounts of rain while we were there, but let me tell you that we were not disappointed. The South Island of New Zealand is a beautiful and diverse island full of amazing sights. YOU MUST VISIT!!!

Kara Brooks & Ryan Weaver - USA

First Light Travel created our trip of a lifetime. It was a 2 month vacation in New Zealand and Australia, and had many different activites, accommodations, travel arrangements and scheduling. Everything about our trip went well, with not one single glitch.

Patrica & Steven Aboud – Canada

The self-drive tour, arranged by First Light Travel, was more rewarding and exciting than we imagined it would be. We wanted to see as many rare New Zealand animals as possible! We saw marine mammals, the world's rarest penguins and flightless birds. Wally the Buff Weka's photo is here - an easy subject due to his approachability! Be sure to have a good wildlife camera.

Celia and Larry Carroll - USA