Search here for a New Zealand tour
Description
Route map

Search for tours by location matching

See all current specials




 
 
 

Our guest book

The following feedback from our guests is unedited and might help you with your decision or planning. The feedback below is unedited and uncensored as our company philosophy is based on honest, useful and relevant information and applying this to your tour experience in New Zealand. If you have a specific question about any feedback comments don't hesitate to let us know.

You can specify a specific subject to search for feedback by entering this into the search box below i.e. enter Milford to see what guests have to say about this.

Robert and Diane Rawlings, 21 day self drive tour, Discover New Zealand, April 2010
Hi, Just wanted to thank you for organizing a wonderful holiday for us, everything went well and your package on arrival with the wonderful atlas that you had even bothered to high lite our route for us was a great help.  Unfortunately we were caught up in the heavy rain while in Te Anau and were unable to get to Milford Sound as the road was flooded and had to take a detour on leaving Te Anau because a bridge had been washed away [just bad timing] The Tranz Alpine Train was well worth doing and the cars to take us from there and also to and from the airport were on time and a great help. Your country has some great scenery and the people are really friendly.  We had a wonderful three weeks.
Your instructions for finding hotels was very good but I hope you don’t mind me just mentioning a couple of things for your reference for future travellers was that on the street map of Wellington the ferry terminal was marked in the wrong place and on arriving at Dunedin the instructions said to turn right at the Octagon and it should have been left, also that the Scenic Circle Dunedin City Hotel is on the right and there again it was on the left.  Apart from that it all went well.
Thanks again and I certainly would recommend your company to anyone else thinking of seeing New Zealand.

Diane
Jo-Anne and Hugh Jarvis, Australia, 12 day self drive tour, South Island, May 2010
Hello David, Here we are back from our trip.  Just wanted to say thank you very much for all your organisation, the trip was fantastic and everything ran very smoothly.  The map book was incredibly helpful!  Weather was lovely, just missed out on a couple of things we wanted to do on the only two days of rain that we had, but otherwise it was magnificent.
The room at the Hermitage with the huge window was amazing as was the bus trip with Real Journeys down to Milford Sound, what a great day that was!  Weather was perfect at Milford Sound and the scenery awesome.
Everywhere people were friendly and helpful, and happy.
We will definite recommend you to anyone else planning a self drive around the South Island.
Take care and thank you once again, Jo & Hugh
PS We'll be back!
Peter Isaac and Natalie Antonenko, Canada, 20 day self drive tour, Bay of Islands to Dunedin, April 2010
Hello David! We've made it back!  What a stupendous trip!!!  We covered 3500km amounting to roughly 48hr @ the wheel, an adventure in 'eye candy' at every turn.  We were delighted with the tracks you layed out for us, and certainly would never have covered the distance we did otherwise.  I don't think we had a stop that we didn't want to prolong!
The atlas you provided was invaluable - thank you so much for that.  It wasn't until we strayed from the path that we 'clicked' to the carefully traced green highlighter ink you left for us ( ! ).  We 'wandered' up to Cape Reingi on the 5th of April and discovered 2 wild-in the-downpour-at-night windy gorge roads (on the 'wrong' side of the road) stretches that got us very quickly adjusted to driving - !!  It was a dramatic way to 'see' just a little bit more of the north island!  We got a little bit off the beaten path on the south island too - venturing a bit deeper into the Catlins (to the Slope)  and of course we had to indulge in a feed of Bluff oysters out of Bluff... (we still salivate at the memory!).  We didn't realize that petrol pumps close at dark in the Catlins though, and only just managed to get into Dunedin - on fumes (whew!).  We got up to the Moeraki boulders (and could have spent the entire day wandering that beach) but couldn't lunch at Fleure per your suggestion (it is closed on Tuesdays!).  We'd have loved it though, I'm sure, and certainly enjoyed the spot!
It was a blissful way to travel, with all of our accomodations looked after this way.  We have highly recommended you to many people in our travels.  Digging for anything to improve required a bit of thought, but we did have a little trouble relying on some of the in-town directions ( a few left turns were right turns, and many turn-offs were missed - especially in Wellington) but we had no critical problems and always got to where we were headed in the end.  By and large the driving times you allowed were pretty close (allowing for my many many many camera stops!).  Next time (and we think there certainly will be one in the hopefully not too distant future!) we will be much better able to decide where we want to be and take a bit of the 'urgency' out of the driving !  We had a fabulous trip!!

Thank you again SO much for all of your help.  We would hope to deal with you again on our next visit to your absolutely wonderful country!
Very Sincerely, Natalie & Peter 
P & J, Australia, 18 day self drive tour, Southern Coast, April 2010
Hi David, More feedback on our NZ holiday as promised ... Everything went really well thanks.  We greatly appreciated the itinerary you'd put together, which saved us from having to do lots more research and planning.  Your documentation containing the bound itinerary, road atlas and brochures was a great help.  The loan mobile phone was a great help too (and thanks for reducing the included call credits from $50 to $20 - we used less than $10 I think!).  The three Christchurch transfers were all very good.. I appreciated your driving suggestions and the yellow highlighting in the road atlas.  However you could perhaps make more mention in future of some of the more scenic routes.  For example we drove to Akaroa via Littleton and the Summit Road around Akaroa, both of which were lovely drives.
Accommodations were all fine, some being better than others of course.  We loved the Heritage Hotel in Christchurch, which was in a great location.  The Akaroa Village Inn too was a great location.  The Hermitage Chalets in Mt Cook were very good, and we really enjoyed the new Sir Edmund Hillary museum and planetarium there. 

The Wilderness Lodge at Lake Moeraki was a real highlight - a lovely place, very good hosts, great food, great walks, etc.  We were very impressed and would certainly recommend this place to others, although there were only 2 couples staying there that night so it was perhaps not particularly representative.
Punga Grove Motel in Franz Josef, while spacious, didn't have much charm and was the property I liked least.  Not that you expect charm from a motel, but our room was pretty bland.  Maybe there's another motel there which has a bit more character.
The tours were great too: Akaroa was good, Dundein was very good, the nature walk on Ulva Island was good, the Dart River jet-boat was great (despite the wind chill in the 0-degree temperature), and the helicopter onto the glaciers was fantastic.  The overnighter on Doubtful Sound was tremendous - we were really glad that we chose that over a short cruise on Milford.  We enjoyed the Tranz-Alpine train back to Christchurch, but with no snow on the mountains at that time, the scenery was a bit disappointing after all we'd seen earlier.
Invercargill was a city which didn't impress us much.  Particularly compared to Christchurch which we loved, and Dunedin which was good.  The slow pace of Stewart Island was a real pleasure.
The Toyota Corolla worked out well, with one significant issue:  Europcar says (and you repeat it on your own website) that the boot holds 2 large suitcases.  However that must occur is some parallel universe where "large" means "small", because there was no way it would take our two "not particularly large" suitcases together.  We were concerned that we'd be driving around and leaving luggage visible on the back seat as a magnet to thieves, but this didn't cause any problems as it turned out.
One other small change I'd recommend - get rid of the confusion between "Fine Tours New Zealand" and "New Zealand Self Drive Tours", and just call yourselves the former.  Whenever I had to refer to your agency I was never sure what name to use, and your documents contain a mix of names.
We'll be back to tour more of NZ in future, and we won't hesitate to use your services again David.  And we'll definitely recommend you to anyone who asks about our NZ trip. Thanks again.
Michael and Dawn Hyde, Australia, 16 day self drive tour, South Island, April 2010
Just a short note to say thanks for all your help in organizing our resent holiday in New Zealand we had a wonderful time and that is in part due to you and your team, so please pass on our thanks to all involved.
Best Wishes, Michael
Anne and Graeme Lange, Australia, 10 day self drive tour, South Island, April 2010
Hello All, My husband Graeme and I arrived home to Queensland last week after touring the Fiords,Glaciers and Mountains 10 day self drive tour with your company. We both wanted to thank all the staff and especially Julie who was so helpful with any enquiries we put to her.We had a fantastic time, and we can see a lot of thought and planning has gone in to these tours to make it so relaxing and enjoyable for people to tour this wonderful part of New Zealand. The accommodation was just what we wanted, as the units were self contained to enable us to cook if we chose to.  I feel you captured the real NZ for us to experience and have no hesitation in booking another tour with you. We have told friends about our trip and some have decided to holiday in NZ with your company.
Thank you for your attention to detail which was greatly appreciated.
Cheers Anne and Graeme
Kevin and Denise Goss, Ireland, 9 day self drive tour, South Island, April 2010
Erin, Just a note to say thanks.  Everything worked extremely well.  We really enjoyed our stay in New Zealand which was helped in no small measure by the service you provided.
Regards, Kevin
Suzy and Larry E. Strouse, USA, 9 day self drive tour, South Island, March 2010
David; We have returned from our extended holiday in New Zealand and Australia with jet lag. When we arrived in Christchurch we were met and transported to the hotel that you had arranged.  As they had a large group in they opted to upgrade our room to a suite.  We experienced the same in Queenstown.
The tour inclusive of the accommodations, planned meals, tours, wines, etc. were all superb and contributed to a very lovely holiday experience.
I wish to thank you for your professionalism, your delightful itinerary, and all the service you provided in making our New Zealand experience wonderful.
Sincerely, Capt. Larry E and Suzy Strouse
Rick and Tina Martin, 7 day self drive tour, South Island, February 2010
David,
I want to thank you and group for a fantastic tour with great places to see and stay.
Rick and Tina
Anita Szprega and Peter Willemse, Australia/Belgium, 24 day self drive tour, North & South Islands, February 2010
David... Sorry in responding to you so late after my holiday with Peter my friend from Belgium... about our holiday over to New Zealand which you helped organise in March.
Overall, it was very good with a lot of driving which I did most of... hate to think how many kms I covered! Everything ran smoothly but we always started off late in the mornings...but always got to our destinations. the road travel atlas you planned for us was a great help... and we would have been very lost without it.

Read the entire feedback from here
Alan and Carolyn Scrimshaw, Australia, 16 day self drive tour, North and South Islands, March 2010

Hi David, Many thanks to yourself & all others involved, for the excellent organisation of our holiday. All went very well, we had a wonderful time & were very well looked after in all the places we stayed.
Kind regards, Alan & Carolyn
John and Lilian Edwards, UK, 27 day self drive tour, North and South Island , February 2010
Hi David, I would just like to thank you so much for organizing such a wonderful holiday on our behalf. We have come home feeling we have just been on the holiday of a life time and much of this we feel is down to your companies outstanding service and attention to detail. The detailed presentation of the tour routes and the locations of our 15 accommodations were excellent .We choose motel accommodation and the standard in most cases was first class. As you know we had an initial problem with the first hire car but that was quickly resolved by your good selves and we were soon on the road starting with the scenic tour to Mount Cook and the beginning of our wonderful adventure. We have already recommended your company to are friend who may be looking to tour New Zealand in the future.
Thanks again for all your efforts in making this such a memorable holiday.
Kind regards, John
Bruce and Jean Ings, Australia, 26 day self drive tour, North & South Islands, February 2010
G'day David (and Kerry, if I may), It would be remiss of me not to let you know that we had a great holiday in New Zealand, made that much more enjoyable by your excellent tour arrangements.  The package you put together was first class and our trip went like clockwork.
With one or two exceptions, our accommodation was more than satisfactory and, in the main, we were made to feel most welcomed at all our stays.  The folk in Christchurch, Queenstown, Martinborough, Rotorua and Coramandel deserve particular mention in that regard.
The chap who did the commentary on our cruise at Milford Sound; "George" our jet boat driver at Queenstown; and the compere at our night out at the Matai Maori Village in Rotorua were excellent, or should that be "ixcillent", and made those occasions even more memorable.
We will be back and, most definitely, we will keep your company in mind for our return.  Until then, be assured that we will speak most highly of your very friendly and professional services to any friend or acquaintance contemplating a holiday in New Zealand.
Regards, Bruce
obo Bruce and Jean & Ruth and Geoff.
PS. We caught Art Deco in Napier and trout in Lake Taupo.  Great! 
John and Joanne Rees, Australia, 17 day self drive tour, South Island, February 2010
Hi Julie, Well the trip is over and we are back in Sydney.  We would like to thank you for putting the itinerary together at such short notice. We are more than happy with the arrangements you made.
Thanks and Regards, John
Rosanna Ellis and Catherine Le Grys, 19 day self drive tour, New Zealand Custom design, February 2010
We both wish to thank you for arranging our great tour and how good it was to meet up with you We were very impressed by your level of organisation and appreciated the detailed information pack and map book.We shall definitely recommend you to other travellers. The places we stayed were very suitable; our favourites were Punga Grove and Fenton Lodge for their hospitality and excellent facilities. The Camelot were also very helpful whilst Robin at Lakefront Lodge in Te Anau was very attentive. Garden Court in Queennstown was well equipped whilst Lake Tekapo had outstanding views. The Waldorf in Auckland was luxurious (wish had been there longer!!!) whilst the B&B in Napier was very comfortable with many added touches. The only slight disappointment was Karaka tree in Taupo where the kitchen lacked a hob, only had a plug in fry pan and had little equipment. The spa bath however was good. Just a note, our instructions in Napier were as if we were entering from the north, but we found our way. It was not a problem but we thought you should know in case you used these instructions again.
Thank you again and please add us to your list of satisfied customers!!!!!
Rosanna Ellis and Catherine
Rick and Beverly Stanley, 20 day self drive tour, Auckland to Queenstown Classic, January 2010
We wanted to thank you for a delightful trip in January. We were pleased with the accomodations, the people and the trips. Thank you for everything!
Chris and Rhonda James, 10 days self drive tour, Southern Alps & Southern Lakes, February 2010
Hi David, Just wanted to drop a quick note to say thank you very much for our holiday in NZ. Things went exactly to plan, your services were as promised and certainly made for a no drama pleasant experience. Again thanks very much.
Regards, Chris and Rhonda James
PS  - Even appreciated you organising the fine weather for us. 
John and Barbara Kessinger, 23 day New Zealand Discoverer North to South self drive tour, October 2009
Hi David, Sorry we are so late in our THANK YOU to you for arranging our wonderful self drive tour of your beautiful country! The trip was so well organized!  Everything worked perfectly!  The atlas and written directions were such a big help.  We didn't get lost once and had such fun visiting all the cities and driving through out the country. We figured we drove about 2400 miles.  Your suggestion to stay in B&Bs was the greatest!  Every B&B was top notch and the owners were so kind and hospitable and that made our trip so enjoyable.  The breakfasts were out of this world!!  The weather was better than we expected.  We only had a couple days of rain and they were not complete wash outs.  Milford Sound was probably the highlight, we had a perfect day, bright sun and beautiful blue sky.  The drive to and from the sound was spectacular and the boat ride was certainly the way to enjoy the beautiful scenery.  The Dock Bay Lodge was exceptional! We have so many fond memories of the trip and many beautiful pictures that we have shared with our family and friend. We certainly appreciate all you did to make the trip work out so well.  We have recommended your services to everyone we talked to about New Zealand! Again thank you for a job well done! Have a Happy and Healthy New Year. John & Barbara
Peter Euler and Yong Mei Hao, 28 Day self drive tour, North to South Island, October 2009
Hi David, it is not good to be back in reality. I would like to thank you and your staff for arranging a most memorable holiday.You even managed to fix the weather only two small rain days.When we needed the weather it was picture postcard stuff.The only disapointment was no whales on our days at Kiakoura but that is nature. It was made up by the other things that we did or saw. It will be in our thoughts for many years. I would recommend your organisation to anybody. Good luck in the future and keep me posted as we will be back when I retire.
Kind Regards,
Peter
Linda and Philip Bott, UK, 14 day self drive tour, North and South Island, November 2009

Dear David & Kerry, We just wanted to say thank you so much for organising such a fantastic tour for us.  Everything was spot on and we have just returned from our wonderful trip down under. Not only did you arrange our transport and accommodation, you also arranged for royalty to attend our visit to the Antarctic Centre in Christchurch - talk about friends in high places! 
As you know we were a bit nervous about choosing a company from the internet, but we need not have worried.  The standard of accommodation suited us just fine and we loved the friendliness of the people we met and were particularly impressed by how you all embrace the Maori culture.  We thought the information package you put together was excellent and the guide and map book was particularly impressive.
May we make a suggestion?  Perhaps the routes for each day could be highlighted in a different colour to avoid confusion when travel is shown more than once on a page?  The route shown on the map for the journey from Rotorua to Auckland did not go via Waitaimo as listed in the itinerary, but we worked it out ourselves o.k.  With hindsight, we think this is the one thing we would have omitted from our tour as it was a long way out to visit the caves.
In addition to your suggestions, as mentioned above we visited the Antarctic Centre where we spent all day, called in at Cromwell and Arrowtown for a bit of recent history, went toboganning above Queenstown and even went on the tour of the Parliament buildings in Wellington which was an unexpected bonus.  We enjoyed the Polynesian Spa in Rotarua and went to the Maori hangi dinner in the evening.  We went over on the ferry to Devonport on our last morning and had a wonderful lunch in one of the cafes. We saw dolphins, seals and penguins on the Doubtful Sound day tour and a whale out at sea from the Trans Scenic train.
We thought we were going to come away without seeing a Kea or Kiwi, but we were able to do the night visit to the Rainbow Springs wildlife park as an add on to the Maori evening so even that wish was fulfilled.
We will have no hesitation in recommending you to everyone we come across and wish you well with your businesses.
New Zealand was one of the places on our must visit once in a lifetime list  .... but we just want to return to see more now!
Thank you once again for all your careful planning on our behalf . 
Kind regards,
Linda & Philip


Judy and David Wang, 9 day self drive tour, South Island, November 2009

Hi David, We came back from new-Zealand, we really enjoyed our trip and all your arrangements, my husband and I were impressed.We joined the Miford Sound nature cruise. At Queenstown we played one round of golf in Arrowtown and rode the Queenstown Gondola.  We also did the half day glacier hike  in franz Josef Glacier.  We visited the International Antarctic Centre before we departed.  Dock bay lodge , Elizas manor on bealey, Hermitage hotel and Westwood lodge accommodation  were excellent,especially Elizas manor and Dock bay lodge, Ann from Elizas manor on bealey let us earlier check in at 10 am and prepared good breakfast for us when we arriving, They treated you like old friends,Dock bay lodge have good view and very new,next to  golf course, They able to provide two set of golf club for us and later check out if we plan to play golf, but we decided to join Milford sound cruise.
You are first person I would like to say thank you to. Thank you for making our wonderful New Zealand trip come true. It would have never happened without you. Thanks again.
Best regards,
Judy
The Graham Family, Australia, 12 day self drive tour, South Island, October 2009
" Dear David,You certainly organised a fantastic trip for us. Can you take responsibility for the weather also? We seemed to be one day away from the rain and wind. It was lovely and sunny most of the time. We even had snow at MT Cook.Thanks for your tips on the overnight at Doubtful Sound. It was certainly the highlight of the trip. Real Journeys are a company that know how to deliver a great experience. We also got an upgrade to a cabin with ensuite. All the accommodation was great, and courtsey pickups took a lot of the hassle out of commuting. Thanks again, you were very patient with us in the planning stages, and the end result was a credit to you."
Jeff, Jennifer, Hailey, Ainsley and Chloe Gardiner, Australia, 10 day self drive tour, South Island, September 2009
" I just wanted to thank you for doing such a good job with our accommodation and itinerary, we had the best holiday in our lives, the kids weren’t bored at anytime and the wife thinks I’m the best. We went skiing at Queenstown and the kids picked it up in ten minutes and absolutely loved it, in fact we are thinking of coming back next year for a skiing holiday, perhaps you could organize that for us, I will let you know. I have also referred your name to some friends, so hopefully you get some extra business. As it turned out, we were happy that we couldn’t get the train, as it gave us the afternoon in Christchurch, and in fact the drive through that area just about follows the train line anyway, so we didn’t feel as though we missed anything. Thanks for you honesty with regards to that, you could have told us there was no difference in the price for the additional car hire, but you didn’t and it’s great to see there are still people in business with integrity. Thanks again, if you want to use me as a referral to any Aussies, feel free, as I couldn’t recommend you and your company enough."
John and Mary Mcauley, Australia, 22 day self drive tour, South Island, April 2009
" Hi David, we have arrived home safe and sound. We thoroughly enjoyed our holiday in New Zealand which we feel was brought about by your attention to detail. We wish to thank you very much and we will certainly recommend your services to our friends and family."
Kris and Lilian Tan, Australia, 10 day self drive tour, South Island, March 2009
" It has been more than a month since we got back from the NZ holiday. We would like to thank you for arranging that wonderful trip. We had a very pleasant trip and enjoy our holiday very much. New Zealand is such a beautiful country. I have recommended a few friends about this self-drive holiday. We might go to the North Island next year.Thank you for the wonderful holiday."
Michael and Jacqueline Pratt, UK, 17 day self drive tour, South Island, February 2009
" My wife and I would like to thank you for organising for us, what turned out to be, a superb holiday. The presentation and detailed planning of routes, accommodation and activities made our daily journeys easy and enjoyable. We both fell in love with New Zealand and it was sad when the time came for us to leave. Our memories of the breath- taking landscapes will remain with us forever, as will all of the activities we indulged in - Speed jet boating, Quad biking, helicopter flight over the glaciers, snowballing on the top of Mount Cook, whale watching etc. To all those in your organisation who took part in planning our trip to your part of the world we cannot thank you enough, and trust we will be able, at some future date, to ask you to do a repeat operation. With kindest regards to you all."
Anna & Tony Mackin, California, USA - 5 day self drive tour, North Island, September 2008
" We are now in Sydney awaiting our flight to Ayers Rock. I wanted to thank you for the lovely itinerary. Some comments and suggestions; Kruse was nice to have for music, would have preferred more touring info, basically did not have a lot of info on most area's and just played music. Phone was nice and easy to use, both were easy to drop off at airport, the Budget gal took the Kruse for me and the phone easily slid into the post box. Kamahi Cottage was precious, she is an excellent cook, lovely time there. Highly recommended. The Chateau was very nice, lots of skiers. My husband's back was hurting so we did not get to do very much hiking. Excellent little road cafe "Licorice cafe" excellent food! Driving was very nice, beautiful countryside everywhere. Lucky for us weather was beautiful. Waitomo Caves were great, In Aranui we were the only 2 and so had a private tour. Huka Lodge - what can I say "Heaven on Earth" most unbelievable" so glad I changed for 2 nights. Everything in bloom, staff unreal and great, got my husband a massage right away while I went on the Jet Boat. Huka jet boats - so nice, I didn't even ask about a refund and they offered it when my husband couldn't make the ride, they even dialed you up and did the credit (very nice, and I didn't expect it). Volcanic air, sooooooo NICE. My husband's back was still hurting and we got there early, the young woman at the desk dialed up a friend and Chiropractor and got my husband a treatment there in the office before our flight, so gracious. Please let her know my husband is feeling much better today. The flight was wonderful, our pilot was great and of course we had the luck of a sunny beautiful day. Had to cut short the Buried Village, but very interesting and a definite must see, especially the museum, very well done. Loved the trip, will be back to do South Island. Again thank you so much for the maps and info, all very helpful.
Continued...
Only got Lost in Christchurch a few times... even while walking through the Botanic Gardens! The guy who I think is the manager for the accommodation we had in Dunedin was a strange character... a bit like Basil Fawlty! Motel on York.... in Dunedin. On arriving the first thing this guy did was look down at the navy blue carpet mat in front of the the reception desk and comment of the mess we left there from our shoes... which happened to be beach sand... he was not happy.... he made us feel like we had committed a major disaster... and he was very adamant that we not get any further sand in his motel room...  Anyway... lucky for us we  still liked 'Fawlty Towers' despite the few little hiccups... there.
All the other accommodation was good too... and the boat trip on Doubtful Sound wonderful.. Overall... I have to say... I had the best night on the last night with the friendly and helpful owners of Wilderness House at Akaroa... and the best evening meal... at a restaurant just down the road that Jim and Liz recommended to us.......the accommodation and their breakfast was also the best!
So... I'd love to get back to NZ one day... at least... I know what's on offer... thanks again for everything!
Thanks again and all the best.... Anita and Peter.