Our Guest Book - Tour Reviews from Recent Travellers

Erynn set up things to allow for maximum utilization of our time.   We saw and did so much plus stayed at some perfect hotels and lodges...of particular note Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel, City Life Wellington, Mt Cook Lodge and Waitomo Boutique. Too many highlights to mention them all, but a few personal do not misses...Glacier Explorers, Milford Sound Tour, Tei Puia, Bay of Islands cruise,..plus throw in some zip lining, jet boating and zorbing...you will not regret any of it. Thanks so much Erynn you were super helpful and wonderful to work with. We will recommend you to all that are headed your way and if we get the chance again you will be one of the first to know. Take care.

Our hotel accommodation were perfect and the extra touch to meet our request for a few special places to stay were spot on.   We also hiked the Milford Track and WOW, that was the highlight to the trip. It did help greatly that the weather was perfect our whole trip. I must also commend the country and people of New Zealand. They are very helpful, kind and pleasant. Their roadways are great and easy to drive, even on the left side. Also, there was NOT one hiccup to the trip. All our cars were where they needed to be at pick up, all taxi services were waiting as expected and reservations at all accommodations were perfect as well as the train and ferry. It truly was a perfect trip and much thanks to New Zealand Self Drive Tours and especially Shelley.

We enjoyed the Doubtful Sound outing and would recommend it though the bus ride at the beginning and end are long but the scenery is beautiful. Thanks for building in the included picnic lunch. We wondered whether to pack a lunch, plan to eat on the ship or something else but didn't have time to do anything specific with our late afternoon arrival in Queenstown and the Earnslaw getting pack to town about 9. When were given our tickets when boarding the bus, we saw a decision had been made for us. BTW the picnic lunch was excellent and ample. The airport pickup and drop offs went off without a hitch. Until I saw the delivered itinerary I didn't realize we already had transportation to the Christchurch airport included. The inter-island ferry went without a hitch. It rained the day of the ferry but the crossing enjoyable anyway. It was pouring in Picton and on the way to Kaikoura but it was cloudy the next morning. The sun came out as our whale watch boat left the dock at noon. We managed to see 4 sperm whales. Car pickup and drop off went well. Now I am a veteran of using GPS and driving over 1000 miles on the left side of the road. Would have never made it from Auckland to Waitomo or Waitomo to Roturua without GPS. All of the accommodations were very comfortable. The ones in Auckland and Queenstown in particular were very roomy; the one in Wellington was borderline cramped but more than adequate and the location was good, within a block or two of the main streets without any noise. The one is Queenstown was over the reception (though there was no noise from reception or the street traffic) on the second floor and afforded us a beautiful partial view of the lake over the tree tops. Never had a bad meal the whole trip. NZ wine gets deserved credit but the beers are GREAT too. You're a right-Te Papa is a great museum. All in all, a great trip and wonderful vacation. Your help, experience and advice made it better than if I had done it myself. Thanks for a great job! Frank

I will highly recommend New Zealand Self-Drive Tours and our "ace" agent Narissa, who made our New Zealand dream come true. Look forward to returning someday. Reatha and Neil Sorensen, Maui, Hawaii

Our only regret is that we did not have more time to explore out of the way points of interest in your wonderful country another 7 days would have been better on this trip to fully appreciate, it’s our fault, My wife says next time we come over we will take more time to explore the missed areas.

It was so nice to be met at each hotel by people who were expecting us and knew our names. There was no need for vouchers--everything was on record! Our itinerary was ambitious and we drove a little more than 4000 km in four weeks. Can't imagine trying to see and get to know the country any other way! Thanks for making all the arrangements that made this adventure possible for us! Marge and Jeff

Both islands were included at a pace that suited us (a relaxed tour) with multiple nights at lodgings rather than moving to a new place every day or so. Almost everyone of our locations for lodging included a washer/dryer which was extremely convenient. My favorites experiences: Waimangu Volcanic Valley walk - spectacular views, steamy hot water and exotic vegetation Hobbiton near Matamata - completely charming sets from the LotR movies and so so green wine tasting in the Marlborough region - OMG, their SAUVIGNON BLANC is the world's best! Pelorus Mail Boat - beautiful scenery and great, fun commentary from the captain ferry rides between the north and south islands - stunning views The water is pure, the air is clean, the stars (when visible) are spectacular. There are so very many places and experiences to enjoy in New Zealand. Next time, I want to include the Fjordland National Park, and stops at knitting sheds and shops on both islands. Thanks very much, Christina! Carol (& Paul) McCormick Sacramento, California, USA

We had an excellent time, even though the weather was against us at some points (torrential rain at Milford Sound and on the ferry to South Island), and the cyclone stopped us going to Kaikoura. But we still had some very sunny days too! That's New Zealand! We were very happy with the choice of good hotels and motels-and we especially liked the Pebble Beach Motor Inn at Napier-very well run and excellent breakfasts delivered each day to our room, -the warm welcome from our hosts at Blue Ridge Boutique Bed and Breakfast at Te Anau, and the views and service at the Hermitage Hotel. Some fantastic scenery which we will remember for always and we really enjoyed all the trips- especially the helicopter trip onto the glacier at Franz Josef, and the Queenstown gondola and luge were fun-though we didn’t manage all the 5 luge runs! Thank you also for processing the refund so quickly back to our card account. We shall certainly recommend your company as the way to really see and experience New Zealand. Again, many thanks. Best wishes Sandra and Peter Heaviside

Our self drive trip was preceded by a cruise which allowed us to visit the coast from Dunedin to the Bay of Islands. The flight seeing around Aoraki and the Earth and Sky experience on Mt John were awesome. We added a flightseeing over Lake Wanaka with U-Fly which was fantastic. I learned about a person who would fly you in a P-51 Mustang in Wanaka, but unfortunately he was getting his plane ready for the upcoming Warbirds show(not sure I could have afforded it but would have been a unique experience). The weather in general was great considering we experienced Cyclone Gita. We missed the kayaking adventure in Abel Tasman but had driven to Kaiteriteri the day before and seen the beautiful beaches. Buller Gorge was beautiful. The Fiordland Navigator overnight in Doubtful Sound was incredible. There are no words to describe the beauty of Fiordland NP and how tiny you feel with the mountains rising into the clouds. Home two weeks and I already miss NZ. What changes would I make if doing this itinerary again, I think adding 2-3 extra days with the possibility of staying an extra day at a given location. The rain in Aoraki NP resulted in missing the chance to do some hikes I had in mind.(don't know how it would have worked to deal with the extra night accommodations without messing up other reservations.) (The day we left Marahau was beautiful and we might have been able to work in the kayaking adventure.) The roads were great in general. (Too many exceptional views with no where to stop for photos only drawback) Construction sometimes added travel time but was not a major factor. I rarely completed the segment in the estimated driving time due to stopping for photos, lunch stop, or to do a walk but in general the intervals were appropriate. The only other change to the itinerary would be to the drive from Franz Josef to Westport. We had previously spent the night in Punakaki and driven from Westport to Greymouth enroute to Arthurs Pass. Spending that night in Hokitika before taking the Tranzalpine from Greymouth might have been better? I had originally planned to drive down to Jackson Bay from Haast but had some concerns about getting assistance if I had trouble with auto and not knowing if the road was traveled enough to get help. All in all the trip more than met my expectations and was fantastic. You have a wonderful and beautiful country. The people of NZ were most friendly and gracious. I would end by saying thank you for your help with planning and arranging our trip. Thank everyone for help in navigating after Cyclone Gita and the closed roads. Your availability and assistance was greatly appreciated. Natalie-thank you again for all of your help.

On day 2, we picked up the car we had requested. One point to check on when picking up your car, make sure the GPS you pick up for directions has current software. Outside of Wellington and Christchurch, the GPS we had didn’t recognize the new roads. It kept directing us to turn off of the state highway and use back streets, streets that no longer had off-ramps off the highway. This was somewhat confusing and stressful. But we did get to all of our destinations using the GPS. Upon departing Auckland, we drove north as our itinerary suggested. We had no problems other than two Americans learning to drive on the left side of the road. We encountered our first road closure about 30 minutes from our second hotel. This is something one would need to consider when driving NZ. There may be road closures and many road maintenance delays while driving during their summer months. In our case, we had four road closure delays and detours, some as long as two hours. Also keep in mind that we flew in on the tail of a cyclone and this cyclone changed direction and came back to NZ, causing many of the road closures. At one point we had to contact NZ Self Drive Tours to determine what to do next. But we finally made our second hotel. This hotel was not a four-star accommodation, at best two-star. No air-conditioning, no screens on the windows or sliders, and it was really hot. They brought us a fan, but it was still very warm and uncomfortable. The room appeared well used. After two nights, we moved on to our 3rd hotel. This hotel (actually a motel) was also not a four-star accommodation. It was a very clean motel with a very nice host. But again, no screens on the sliding glass door or windows (still very warm), no elevator (we were on the second floor) and no air-conditioning. However, our host did provide us with an oscillating fan. This was in addition to all of the crickets that came in through the door and windows, landing on the bed and dropping from the window into the shower. Fortunately, we had only one night at this location. This completes the negative portion of my review. Now on our way to our 4th hotel and we finally had an accommodation as nice as the Sky City in Auckland. It was a very nice room in Rotorua, which we had for 2 nights. And from this point on, our accommodations were pretty much what we expected. After arriving on the South Island, all of our expectations were met. The car we picked up on South Island was nicer than the one provided to us on North Island. Although we still had road closures, detours, and many road maintenance delays, all went well with our accommodations. We thoroughly enjoyed our South Island tour. We even stopped by to meet our tour director, Lauren, in Wanaka. In summary, we really enjoyed our tour. Lauren Neville did a fantastic job designing our 23-day drive tour. The accommodations and excursions set up for us by Lauren, went extremely well. All reservations were ready and we had no unexpected surprises. Other than the exceptions noted above, the tour more than met our expectations. Lauren always responded to my questions and concerns before and during our tour. We would definitely recommend both Lauren and New Zealand Fine Touring for your self-drive tour of New Zealand. They both provided a wonderful experience to visit their beautiful country.

From our pick up at the airport in Christchurch until the time we dropped the car off at the airport for our flight home, everything went very smoothly and easily. The hire car was perfect for the four of us and our luggage and we travelled very comfortably and problem free for our entire two weeks. We had requested mid-range motels and check-in was a breeze! These were perfect for what we needed and we had comfortable nights in all of them. They were all within walking distance of a number of restaurants which made things very easy. Our favourite motel and village was Franz Josef which also has a wonderful variety of good restaurants. Narissa had pre-booked tours to Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound and there was no doubt, that these trips were the highlights of our tour. The other highlight of our trip was staying in Mount Cook village and seeing Mount Cook in all its snow-clad glory with a bright blue sky behind it. All in all, this trip was everything we had hoped it would be and I say a huge thanks to Narissa for having put it all together and organised it so well for us. Well done and thank you from the four of us.

The weather was disappointing at times, but we may just have to go back to see the things we missed (especially TranzApline Railroad and Milford Sound) and some places we wished we had more time for. The people were so nice and helpful everywhere we went. The food was delicious and the activities we planned were wonderful. (It is hard to pick a favorite!) For the most part, the hotels were in great locations, clean, and very comfortable. The van was a great size and very economical on fuel. GPS was very helpful. Now, we get to sit down and relive the trip sorting and sharing our thousands on photos! Thanks again for your expertise and we will definitely recommend you and your company to our friends and family. Kia Ora! Gail, Rich, Wendy, Mark, Karen & Neil (left to right...sort of)

We had an excellent time, even though the weather was against us at some points (torrential rain at Milford Sound and on the ferry to South Island), and the cyclone stopped us going to Kaikoura. But we still had some very sunny days too! That's New Zealand! We were very happy with the choice of good hotels and motels-and we especially liked the Pebble Beach Motor Inn at Napier-very well run and excellent breakfasts delivered each day to our room, -the warm welcome from our hosts at Blue Ridge Boutique Bed and Breakfast at Te Anau, and the views and service at the Hermitage Hotel. Some fantastic scenery which we will remember for always and we really enjoyed all the trips- especially the helicopter trip onto the glacier at Franz Josef, and the Queenstown gondola and luge were fun-though we didn’t manage all the 5 luge runs! Thank you also for processing the refund so quickly back to our card account. We shall certainly recommend your company as the way to really see and experience New Zealand. Again, many thanks. Best wishes Sandra and Peter Heaviside

We had great experiences- from zip lines, kayak and the Redwoods of Rotorua at night. Can’t wait to return.

From picking up the car, accommodation and the train journey back to Christchurch from Greymouth. We would very much like to do another tour, maybe just North Island as we really didn't spend that much time there this time and it would be nice to see more of it. If we do, we will certainly use NZ Self Drive again.

The weather was disappointing at times, but we may just have to go back to see the things we missed (especially TranzApline Railroad and Milford Sound) and some places we wished we had more time for. The people were so nice and helpful everywhere we went. The food was delicious and the activities we planned were wonderful. (It is hard to pick a favorite!) For the most part, the hotels were in great locations, clean, and very comfortable. The van was a great size and very economical on fuel. GPS was very helpful. Now, we get to sit down and relive the trip sorting and sharing our thousands on photos! Thanks again for your expertise and we will definitely recommend you and your company to our friends and family.

We experienced a lot and it was really interesting and the people were very kind and helpful. Of course I feel sorry about that my beloved husband never got possibility to make this journey that he looked forward to very much. Hans, Nina and I myself were very satisfied with our journey. Best regards, Carin Lyckéus

The problem is working out how much time to spend driving (= how much of NZ you see) and how much time to enjoy the lovely places you do see. We really enjoyed The Bay of Islands and the day we had there without any travel. That was probably out best day. But pleased also to have seen Thames, the Coromandel region, and Rotorua. We found the Swordfish Club at Paihia a wonderful place to eat and talk to locals, we had a fabulous view from the verandah where we ate looking over the Bay. Next time we will probably ask to spend two nights at where ever we stay. The accommodation was all good. No air conditioning at Rotorua but we are accustomed to the heat, and is was not too hot leaving the motel door open all night. Maybe thats not best practice! You are welcome to put this on face book or where ever tourists write a review. Thanks Lauren for you planning of this holiday. John

When we came there the lady said the agency booked for 4 adults and she changed it to 2 adults, 1 kid and 1 (free) infant. The refund would go through the booking agency. Don't see it on your list, do you know what happened here? Thanks, Mirjam Piët

Salli tailored the trip to meet our needs and even made a last minute change for us without a problem. She was readily available once we were in country to help us with anything that we needed. Throughout the trip, we did not have one glitch; not one! It was like some toned down version of the "Amazing Race". You show up, get an itinerary, car, GPS, and Map and you are off. It was an awesome way to see the islands. Everywhere we went, we were expect whether it was at our lodging or our scheduled activity. The lodging was first class, the people were warm and inviting, the food was excellent, the activities were very fun, the scenery was spectacular, and, most importantly, the trip was relaxing; what vacation should be!! I cannot wait to go again, and when I do, I will only use this company!!

Auckland: Love the hotel. That location is amazing, and the setup is so perfect for our family. We were able to walk to the waterfront and walk to the sky tower so easily. There were also two amazing food courts so close by that basically let both of us eat exactly what we wanted. I’m sure you know the names, but I can’t remember them right now. The large room with extra space, kitchen and laundry was fantastic. The train ride to Wellington was so beautiful. Amazing views and great amenities. There were some rough points for Poppy, being partially confined for such a long time. I think if I was advising another family, I would suggest waiting until the kiddo is a little older like 4 or 5 before doing the full train ride. Luckily, she was able to get a good nap in and we spent more time in the dining car where she had a little more freedom, so the afternoon went much more smoothly. Much easier than driving and more beautiful than flying. Wellington: Another amazing location for the hotel. We got to the hotel so late, and were a little hangry for food. Luckily, the hotel recommended a Chinese restaurant around the corner (I want to say it was called the Pearl or something like that). It sounded a little sketchy, but was honestly the best meal of the entire trip (minus the Chinese banquet Lorraine’s family was hosting, but that’s not a fair comparison ;)). Anybody who goes to Wellington has to eat at this restaurant. We only wish that we had had more time to spend in Wellington. Definitely will come back if we ever make it back to New Zealand. We took a quick cruise through the Te Papa gift shop, and it looks so intriguing. I think Poppy wouldn’t have been able to tolerate the museum at this age anyway, but definitely looks like a super cool museum. Zealandia: so gorgeous. Still can’t believe how many birds we saw, and just the scope of the space.Also good to get out and stretch our legs. The drive: (This is Chris) So first time driving on the left side of the road but I LOVE driving. There was a mountain pass on this section that might be one of the best driving roads in the world. Napier: another town we really wish we could have spent more time in. By far, the best accommodations of the entire trip. We could’ve spent a week at this one hotel, taking advantage of all the amenities and being right next to Hawkes Bay. Seriously… That hotel was amazing… Chris has an affinity for one soap in the world made by this company called CO Bigelow. It’s in some high end hotels and the little hotel pack costs $60. Needless to say they had it and he was delighted. Cape Kidnappers: This was super fun. I’m not sure that Poppy got much out of the tractor ride, but she definitely got a good nap. But, I think that she liked the birds, and we met another family with a little 3 year old girl, who was super fascinated by Poppy. Chris and Lorraine definitely enjoyed the ride and learning about the geology and history of the area. Oh, and we saw a super cute seal pup on the way back. Rotorua: Accommodations: Egh.. the hotel was ok. The “spa” tub was HUGE but really noisy and not a jet tub so not massaging so we didn’t use it. The room didn’t have AC and it was a bit warm at times. The sulphur smell was not awesome. Getting to restaurants was a little further than would have been awesome. Te-puia: Very Cool. The guide was awesome. The hot springs were very cool to see. It felt like a very New Zealand activity and was great to see the culture up close. Agrodome: Lorraine and Poppy loved it. Chris grew up near farms so seeing them with sheep for the first time was cool. One note if Americans come you might warn them that this will cause some difficulties at customs “visiting a farm”. Glowworm cave: REALLY cool and those things are NASTY.. :) Poppy was way to young for this one. Maybe 5 or so would be better.. Crying in a cave sounds cool though. Wedding stuff Paihia: Hotel here was in a decent location. Walk to downtown and to a beach. Room was decent. We really loved the area and could spend more time here as well. We enjoyed the hole in the rock boat trip. The beach, that we can’t remember the name of it (Chris claims it’s uru pukapuka), where we had lunch was amazing. We could also have spent a week at this beach it was so beautiful and isolated. The motel was also in a great location. Walking distance to a great playground (despite the naked kid on the slide), beach, restaurants and a countdown. Auckland: We also managed to go to the Tarlton aquarium and the zoo. The zoo is amazing. Really one of the best. They were also in the process of moving an orangutan into a new dwelling and the orangutan in the silver cage was not happy about it, which made interesting watching for the grownups of our group. Overall: We cannot thank you enough for all of your amazing work. We would never have seen and done as much as we did without all of your prep work. We are so grateful. The only thing that would have been helpful for us was to have some restaurant recommendations, as we were often arriving very close to dinner/bedtimes, which made finding restaurants close calls. But, overall, bravo! Thank you and happy holidays, Lorraine, Poppy and Chris Baker

Milford Sound was incredibly beautiful and it was also great to visit Abel Tasman National Park and Marlborough Sound. The motels were very comfortable and some of them had fantastic views. Thank you New Zealand Self Drive Tours.

,and we really felt like we got to know a lot of different aspects about the country. We were very grateful to be able to see so much in just two weeks, and even though it was a busy itinerary, we wouldn't have wanted it any other way for our first trip to New Zealand. We'll have so many memories to last a lifetime and great stories to share! Thanks again for all the work you put into planning the itinerary. It was perfect! Take care, Leticia, Jim and Isabel

Everything ran smoothly and beautifully, due in no small part I am sure to your impeccable organization, along with the wonderful people, without exception, who transported us, accommodated us, took us on tour and generally looked after us so attentively for our whole stay in your beautiful country. (Plunged into grandparent duties the minute we got off the plane! Yes, I think they might have missed us a bit :-)) Also please forgive us for neglecting to tell you sooner how very much we appreciated your kind gift waiting on our table on Christmas night - so unexpected, it was the perfect accompaniment to the fare we prepared on Christmas night - that wonderful New Zealand lamb fillet, cheeses, fresh veg (picked up in Dunedin), and delectable Christmas cake (courtesy of the most amazing little cafe at Kurow). And the best Pinot we'd had since we had been in New Zealand (and we'd had already some pretty good ones!). It was just the icing on the cake to make our Christmas day perfect ... having traveled the Southern Scenic Route most of the day, spending generous time at Curio Bay, I was already in 7th heaven! We did also want to say particularly how much we appreciated your efforts to find us the loveliest places to stay, with the most amazing views to wake up to in the mornings - we have photographs of breakfasts set in the most stunning contexts (the humble kitchen table backed by the most amazing landscapes)... every place different and each with their own particular take on New Zealand hospitality. Just gob-smacked in Mt Cook, stunned by the warmth of welcome at Christchurch and that beautiful, precious Christmas tree (Merivale) reminding us of the joys of the season, and blown away by by the quaint and beautifully restored nostalgia of the Edgewater at Te Anau - I can honestly say it was an absolute joy to prepare those Tautapere sausages on that solid, original (I suspect) 1950s range, and to see all those authentic and original kitchen fittings restored to their inherent lustre & purpose. We might have complained a bit about getting the luggage up the stairs, but it was certainly worth the effort (I can say that as Peter was the one who insisted on carrying up the heavy ones, lol). Congratulations on even managing to get the weather to perform for us! I can't believe it was only really fully rainy for one day (Franz Josef) - and even here we managed to squeeze in the twin helicopter flight early the next morning, while the sun momentarily shone over those particular mountaintops for us! Arriving in Greymouth early was definitely very advisable (rush hour it seems comes at 1pm). Other flights and commitments worked a treat too - everything went ahead as planned or contemplated - the bi-plane flight at Twizel I think should be on more people's itineraries - it was just stunning and exciting and we were lucky enough to have experienced the best weather that season apparently. Chose the 25 minute Lakes/Lord of the Rings battlefield circuit and the water colour, views etc were just breath-taking. We found the pilot to be very professional, knowledgable, reliable and most interesting to talk to. Doubtful Sound just lovely (if a little compromised by the huge volume of people needing to be transported and looked after too, naturally as one would expect at Christmas time). And very excited to have been able to see the fur seals, little blue penguins in their burrows and those splendid albatross soaring above the cliffs and bobbing in the water on the Monarch tour, also conducted very well, very professionally, and quite a profound experience as the mist rolled in. It seems everything just aligned for us ... as we arrived at Lake Tekapo and hopped out in our excitement to take photos of that reflective water with the moody skies and mists, we realised that a wedding shoot was in progress over on one of the far shores ... yet another of those 'wow' moments to add to the already spectacular nature of the experience and photographs. I must say how grateful we were for the late check in opportunities in summer too - not having to be at a destination till 7 or 8ish, and the long summer days enabled us to fit in so much more than we otherwise might have (we are not experienced summer travelers, having usually only holidayed in shoulder season here to enable hiking in comfort, without the crowds too). Even the hikes that we anticipated were managed without a hitch. Again, the Hooker Valley track, though spectacular, was very busy - but still well worth the effort. So many 'wow' moments. I think the ultimate one being arrival at the glacier face and our picnic high on a rock overlooking that spectacular lake. So glad we could manage this one and also Key Summit - I can see why they say if you only have time to do one walk in the South Island it should be this one. Another one of those magic 'picnic on a rock on top of the world' experiences which we will never forget. Very pleased also to be able to drive the Corolla (rather than a 'similar' car) - it performed like a trooper, never missed a beat and had pretty much everything we needed in the way of technology and comfort. Also, thank you so much for including great specific instructions and points of interest in the itinerary, but also particularly for that detailed road atlas - I am a map reader of old, and feel quite disoriented with sat-nav as the only means of navigation. A great thought and much appreciated (and it did save us from a few dodgy sat-nav shortcuts down the odd country lane with the odd un-crossable creek/river too!). Always a good idea to second-guess one's sat-nav, in retrospect! So finally, thank you once again, from the bottom of our hearts, for organizing such a fabulous, jam-packed, beautifully performing South Island holiday, and throwing in such gorgeous weather as well! You seemed to second-guess everything that would delight us and ensure that we had the most wonderful, unforgettable holiday ever! Cheers and all our thanks and good wishes, Peter & Narelle Palmer :-):-)

which included: - Snorkeling and exploring the Poor Knights Islands through Perfect Day Ocean Cruise - Exploring Hobbiton at sunset and enjoying dinner in “The Shire” - Floating on an inner tube in the Waitomo Caves in the dark with the magical lights of glow worms - We were surprised by the majesty of the North Island Volcanic Plateau - Enjoyed a calm sunny day and admired the beauty of crossing from Wellington to Picton on the Interislander Ferry - Taking a water taxi to be dropped off and explore the beautiful Abel Tasman National Park - Driving through Lewis Pass to Kaikoura - Being awe struck in seeing and hearing a magnificent Sperm Whale off Kaikoura - Seeing the amazing Botanic Gardens in both Christchurch and Dunedin - We were really moved by the “personal stories” that we heard at the Christchurch Earthquake Museum - Driving up Mt John to the Canterbury University Oberservatory and seeing the panoramic views on our way to Mt. Cook National Park - Seeing the Stars while staying at Mount Cook and waking up to a Rainbow across the mountains - Seeing the hundreds of waterfalls on a rainy day cruise of Milford Sound - Taking the excursion to see Doubtful Sound which turned out to be a beautiful sunny day - Our best dinner by far occurred through the TSS Earnslaw cruise to Walter Peak (including gourmet BBQ Dinner and farm tour) and we were stunned by an amazing sunset as we returned to Queenstown on our steamship - Taking the Gondola to see Queenstown from a mountain peak and watching the hang gliders - Driving to Glenorchy and seeing the mountains that were featured in Lord of the Rings - The mountain scenery, rain forests, Blue Pools and aterfalls on our drive from Wanaka to Franz Josef - Walking up to the Franz Josef Glacier shortly after dawn and watching the sun rise on the Glacier and Mountain walls - Exploring Okarito Lagoon on kayaks and seeing close-up a majestic White Heron - We enjoyed stopping in quaint towns like Warkworth, Bull, and Hokitika to walk around and enjoy tea and/or a meal - Travelling coast to coast (Greymouth to Christchurch) on the Tranz Alpine Scenic train was breathtaking - Being Canadians, we found the meals to be quite expensive (double what we pay in Canada) and we were fortunate that most of our motel rooms/apartments were equipped with kitchens so we could make ourselves many breakfasts and dinners. We liked the local Boutique Motel Rooms that were chosen for us. - We were there for 26 days and had a rental car for 24 days. It surprised us that we drove 5000 kilometres. The windy two lane country roads with many one lane bridges makes getting around much slower than you would think. We were too ambitious in trying to cover as much as we did on both the North and South Islands. - What was especially nice was being picked up from Auckland Airport, from Christchurch Train Station and being dropped off at Christchurch Airport - all the drivers were quite friendly, helpful and on time so we always felt well looked after We will be recommending New Zealand Self Drive Tours and in particular our travel agent, Shelley Ryder, to our friends and family who are planning to visit New Zealand.

We planned our trip with relatively short lead-time, which made Natalie's job tougher and forced us to make a few trade-offs. Through this process, Natalie did a wonderful job communicating the decisions we needed to make and providing helpful guidance on pros/cons of each option. And of course, the actual trip was perfect: accommodations (mostly motels) were very nice, driving plan was well laid out, and excursions (Doubtful Sound overnight is a must!) were amazing. Overall, it was a treat to work with Natalie planning our trip. We would happily do it again!

My legs gave up on mt cook and never really recovered. Apart from the hiccup at the arrival everything else went smoothly. Even the rough ‘lodge’ on night two was fine as we all slept well. The Hotel in Queenstown was excellent. All of our events went well. Going through Te Anau I discovered that my son had a passion for glow worms! Luckily for him he managed to photograph them near the hotel in Fox Glacier. As it was raining he got drenched but I have never seen him happier! It was a rush to get the train in Greymouth but we managed in the end. I have heard from Miriam since they returned and they enjoyed the north island as well. All in all, a great trip ! Our thanks go to you and your colleagues for the wonderful organisation and we will surely recommend you to others! Thanks a lot! Beth Spencer

New Zealand is AMAZING and I am so jealous that you live there! Everything went smoothly and according to the itinerary. The devil is in the details as you know and there were a couple of hiccups, but overall the trip was great! The challenge now is trying to save money again so that we can do the trip again. It is either that or having to find a job there and relocating! I'm so glad that you wrote since I've been meaning to but I've been too caught up with work. Your email served as a good reminder and motivator. I tried the link below but it does not seem to work anymore so I'm going to provide the feedback to you via this email instead. First off, this section is a no-brainer. You should be proud of your work and our trip is a result of your hard-work and WONDERFUL support and assistance to us. Not sure how I measure against other clients, but I certainly peppered you with sufficient questions which you were able to address and/or took care of in a timely manner. Anyone should be very lucky to get you as their travel agent and we were very blessed to be assigned to you, given your patience and flexibility. I felt that you took our requests/responses to heart and, where not possible, you took the time to let us know accordingly. There was true empathy on your part with the clients which is so necessary in your line of work. I felt from the communication we have together you understood where we were coming from and thus able to "tailor" a trip together to our liking and wallet-size. Second, because of you, the activities, transportation and accommodations were all great. We found them - Bella Vistas, Terrance, Rydges, etc. - perfect for our taste and comfort. Of course, there are lodging which have more stars (and more costs) but the chosen were great for us and we would use again in a heartbeat! One negative comment. When we are arrived at the Skotel Resort, we were assigned the standard rooms instead of the superior rooms which apparently they ran out of at the time of our stay. I want to say that we were charged for two nights in the superior rooms, but instead were given the standard rooms instead which in the end were fine but they were definitely the standard rooms. Finally, absolutely, I would refer your travel agency and you, of course. I really enjoy our correspondences and you are AWESOME, Joanna. Please feel free to use the above and do not hesitate to ask should you have any questions. Thanks again for all your support and assistance to us, Joanna. Susan

We had the opportunity to see the beautiful landscapes in the South Island coupled with exhilarating experiences like bungy jumping from Kawarau Bridge, heli-hiking up Franz Josef glacier, and watching 3 sperm whales up close!

Everything went smoothly! Will definitely recommend my relatives and friends to get in touch with you should they contemplate a holiday in New Zealand. Thanks.

 The bus tour in Christchurch was eye-opening and we appreciated the way the driver was so passionate about his city and its recovery. The Merivale Manor was out of this world and Wayne and Karen could not have been better hosts. The garden tour was beautiful and what a treasure to have in the middle of their city. Franz Josef was amazing and good exercise and Aspen Court was great. Queenstown was so picturesque and we got to see you! Milford Sound was beautiful and we loved the apartment we had at Blue Peak apartments. We never did get to see Mt. Cook because of the fog, but the scenery was gorgeous. The ride from Christchurch to Picton was a bit grueling because of all the roadworks, but the scenery was fabulous. I have to say the accommodations at Aldan Lodge Motel in Picton were not even close to the standards of the other places we stayed, but the young couple who are running it were very pleasant. (To be fair, we weren’t actually in the main lodge, but a back building that was a bit tired with the bathroom off the kitchen.) The ferry from Picton to Wellington was a real highlight – beautiful and peaceful. City Life Wellington was a bit hard to find (as the GPS didn’t recognize the address) but once found, it was terrific. We LOVED Rotarua. We went to Wai O Tapu and were intrigued by the colorful thermal pools and the Geyser. The Kiwi encounter was great and the Mitai Maori Village was fabulous. Loved the Quest Rotarua Central as well. The Hobbiton tour was also a highlight. We didn’t expect to enjoy it nearly as much as we did, as none of us are particularly Lord ot the Rings or Hobbit fans. The enthusiasm of the tour guide was contagious in one of the most beautiful settings imaginable. The Hamilton Garden tour was fabulous and the Picnic Basket they prepared for us was incredible. Cathie enjoyed catching up with her old schoolmate in Hamilton and then we were off to Auckland. All in all, it was just a GREAT experience. New Zealand is truly a gorgeous country with the most friendly people. We so enjoyed meeting you in Queenstown and appreciate your literally going the extra mile for us! (Hope you enjoyed your birthday) Please pass along our kudos to your bosses and co-workers. We won’t hesitate to recommend your company to our friends. Thanks again for everything. Hugs, Bev, Cathie and Frankie

Laura provided us excellent options including emergency insurance and with my research on some other interesting options she found out how we could do those too. From the pick up at the airport to rental car to daily motel lodgings (2 bed/one bath/kitchen/living room options), all went very smoothly. All of the lodging was conveniently located near city centers with great food options and mostly quite up to date. Only one lodging had limited wifi options in Christ Church. We drove some good distances between regions which were gorgeous drives (SUV 4WD and garmin was a must!) and flew between the islands (watch carryon restrictions). Some of our highlights included Doubtful Sound overnight ship excursion-(#1 experience), hiking on White Island live volcano, hiking on Mount Cook in a foot of fresh snow, all-day wine touring in Queenstown region (loved the group upscale tour), Rotorua hiking in the geothermal regions and Mauri dinner show (also had a wonderful reception in a Mauri visitors house in town), Waikomo caves and Kiwi santuary, bungee jumping in Queenstown, Antarctica Museum at Christchurch airport, thermal spas in various locations after long hikes, amazing food at every meal (gluten free options everywhere) including country cafes in the middle of the mountain routes! Used Tripadvisor for dinner options in each region-all great! Good weatherproof gear was essential in early Spring, but we had only one day where it was a monsoon pour, so were able to experience so many diverse experiences. Been to 40+ countries and this is one of my top 3 all-time favorites! Thank you New Zealand Self Drive Tours and Laura for making it one of our top touring experiences-couldn't be happier with the services provided!!! Cheers, Blaire

The challenge was taking my elderly parents along as they do have physical limitations. Joanna was prompt in her responses when I came with questions and her assurance that the trip would be enjoyable and not physically exhausting for my parents totally got me sold. Even when I was travelling and needed her help to make a dinner reservation, she went beyond and above, taking the initiative to settle for me despite being cut-off due to lost connection when I was up in the mountains. She even enlisted her colleague, Kelly, to follow up with me on a weekend to make all the arrangement. I was deeply touched as the dinner would make a great closure for our trip in Queenstown coupled with sumptuous food and a spectacular view to behold. A wonderful way to immortalise our unforgettable road trip. Thank you Joanna for everything. You’ve been our Kiwi angel! Happy New Year Joanna and have a blessed year ahead. :) Best regards, wendy

The itinerary folder that you provided was so helpful and detailed that we looked forward to where the next days adventure would lead us. Fun excursions as we enjoyed the waitomo caves. Very fun, from just gearing up into the wet suits helmets and boots. The guides make it very safe, informative and it was thrilling even though dark scary and cold water!! We loved both private kayak tours. Two great girl guides who were very eager to make our day fun. Bike excursion also just perfect. It ended up being just the two of us so a private great ride throughout the station seeing sheep and beautiful country scenic hills and great views with lakes and a nice boat ride. very enjoyable. We even ended up with 2 of our hotel rooms that had washer and dryer in room. And 3 hotels with laundry facilities that we also used as well. Lots of clean clothes were brought home so that was nice. And your country has such good food I must say. We ate at White and Wong and whitebait in Wellington and many great restaurants in Nelson. And we tried pies and pavlova all the pineapple lumps and fish and licorice. Very enjoyable. We learned so much at the treaty grounds and as well at the hangi dinner in Rotorua. We even went mountain bike riding for 2 hours and made my way up to the intermediate course. so proud!! We of course went tramping everywhere. Even in fiordland on the way up to mitford sound. I thought I was in a movie or something as it was so beautiful. Hiking at Mt cook was great to see the glacier and all. I would not recommend the stargazing as it was not that greatly organized. Other than that all went well. People are so friendly in New Zealand. And mountains everywhere, sheep and great food and nice roads even though they are not that wide and windy!! thanks for the great planning and itinerary. best Janet

I expect you probably don’t have a chance to visit all of the properties we were booked in so I thought I’d quickly mention a few things about them. Grand Mercure (Auckland and Wellington). Modern nicely appointed hotels and rooms. The rooms were somewhat small, but modern and new. Breakfasts were ample and delicious. Both locations were good. The Princess Gate Hotel (Rotorua): The only one I didn’t like at all, although the location was fine. Listed as a historic hotel, that means it’s old. The floors were squeaky, sound carried from the hallways, the rooms had had a bathroom added, which meant the bathroom was squeezed in and really small, and while the room had 12 foot ceilings, the bottom of the mirrors were attached at the 5 foot height. I am only 5 feet tall, so I couldn’t even see my head! You may wish to reconsider this hotel unless your clients say I love old and squeaky. And of course the entire town smells like Sulphur so of course the hotel did too – it permeated the place. Scenic Hotel Te Pania (Napier): Fairly modern and just fine. It had on site laundry facilities which was helpful. Breakfast were less ample than at the Mercure, but totally acceptable. Location quite good, right across from the shore. Vintners Retreat (Blenheim – Marlborough): Basically a ranch style duplex house, with two bedrooms and two baths, a full kitchen, living room and laundry in the garage. In a somewhat isolated location, but since we had a vehicle, not a problem. More space than we needed, but a nice variation to our hotel room stays and having another laundry facility was a bonus as well. They brought a bagged breakfast to the refrigerator in the room so we were not limited as to the time of partaking of breakfast. The food was extensive, especially for a continental breakfast (although perhaps in NZ continental merely means not cooked on site?). There was granola, fruit, yoghurt, juice, milk and muffin. Merivale Manor Motel (Christchurch). Friendly owners, pleasant, relatively small modern room . There was a two burner stove (no oven which we didn’t expect or need in any case) and small fridge. Continental breakfast was two slices of bread (which we picked up at the front office), various cereals, milk, jams. The location was on a busy street and wasn’t close to downtown, but since we had a car it didn’t prove to be a problem. As well it was near several restaurants and a small mall which was convenient. They had big front windows to the rooms, so we had to keep the curtains drawn as it felt like we were in a fishbowl otherwise. Franz Josef Oasis Hotel [you called it “Lodge”, but that name was nowhere to be seen] (Franz Josef): Located outside of town, but not a problem. Weirdest thing was, no closets! Apparently, from what the very nice manager said, most people only stay one night and thus no closets. There was a restaurant on site which was a gem, really excellent, however very few customers and the second night we were there, it was closed without explanation. Breakfast, while called continental, was varied with boiled eggs, various juices, fruit, a variety of breads, jams and jellies. Having a laundry facility on site was helpful. Sofitel (Queenstown): Having the luxury room was a special treat. The view to the snow laden mountain was stunning. The breakfast buffet was ample and delicious. The location suited us fine as we could walk everywhere we wished to go. It was fun being able to go to La Club as it gave us a chance to meet and talk with other guests. You might wish to alter the estimated times for the drives – there was so much road construction during one of the segments (Blenheim to Christchurch) that while estimated at 5.5 hours our trip took nearly 9 hours. We counted 32 stops along the way for construction crews. Several of the other segments took longer than the estimated time. Avis car rental left something to be desired. Our first pick-up was on Labour Day in Auckland and the office had only two staff working while there were many clients. It took over an hour to pick up our car. And you know about the mix-up in Greymouth where they had no car for us. Was it just bad luck that these things happened or is Avis like that? Gordon indicated he received your email about the refunds for the cancelled helicopter and hot air balloon flights. Thanks. A disappointment but weather is not negotiable. All in all a great trip. Thanks for your planning and assistance. Wishing you most happy holidays as a newly wed!! Gabriella

What I valued the most was your listening ear while putting the trip together so we really got to experience what we wanted and it allowed us to implement some bike and hike tours. You really know your business. Followed through and was there immediately to help and correct an issue with the rental car company while touring. I will definitely recommend you and your company to my friends and family and for future clients; rest assure she has everything under control when you are enjoying the spectacular countryside of New Zealand. Thanks again Erynn! Ton

She found out what we wanted to see and experience and added a few extra days at our request. From the time we were met at the airport, our hire cars and our accomodation couldn’t be faulted. The only accomodation we weren’t happy about was our hotel room in Rotorua. The Bella Vista room was tiny and well below par compared to all our other accomodation. All the included activities were excellent and were certainly worth seeing and experiencing. Some of the other suggested activities were also well worth doing. Our travel distances and time allowances for travel each day were very helpful. The maps were very easy to follow. We really enjoyed the whole experience and would certainly recommend this way of seeing NZ to others.

Given a choice, I would rather the driving part be shorter with more stops and extra private time to explore more tourist attraction areas. I would highly recommend Rotorua, Lake Taupo, Kaikoura, Mount Cook and Queenstown to be provided with extra day of stay. I wish the rest of the long journey can be replaced by a tour bus or short distance flight, as driving a long way is tiring while we would like to relax as much as we could during a holiday. I love the cleanliness, fresh air and scenic places, but too many farm lands(like 70-80% of the journey) making the journey becoming a bit boring. I would strongly recommend Mitai Maori Village, Kaituna White Water Rafting, Kaikoura Whale watching, Mount Cook tracking, Queenstown activities. The road instruction is good but it is cumbersome(I wonder how many of your customers make use of it), I think it can be improved as most people are more used to using Waze and Google Maps tracking, perhaps include the google locations of key attraction area, or important places would be great. The GPS navigation tool seems not very user friendly and keys are less responsive than a handphone. My feedback is rather bald, and direct. Hope it helps.

I highly suggest visiting White Island, absolutely breath taking. Our tour guide/pilot was informative and fun. My only negative of the entire trip was the Heartland Hotel Cotswold in Christchurch. The hotel was very questionable, the bathroom had mold and the bed was very uncomfortable. In need of an update and a deep clean but the staff was very friendly!! I can not wait to come and visit NZ again, hopefully longer next time!

We looked at some of their basic tours, took some suggestions from family and friends that have visited the islands, and tweaked the trip a bit. We asked for a variety of accommodations, mostly modest, but occasionally an upgrade. We are able to walk several miles, but were not looking for long hikes with suggested excursions. The accommodations were positioned next to the activity we wanted to do in the cities, or by a bus stop, or within our walking comfort range. We chose the self-drive tour and did not find that a problem, even with the left-hand side of the road focus. We were also blessed with incredible weather for November. All the accommodation and excursion phone numbers and reservation numbers were emailed to us before the trip, so that we could let others know where we were and how to get in touch with us. Salli was always accessible by phone or email, and her responses were as soon as the working day started in New Zealand. So here’s a summary of our activities and places we stayed……..

Day 1 Friday 10th November 2017.

Private transfer from Christchurch airport to your accommodation - The representative was at the airport on time, took us on a small tour of the city, and gave us our documentation packet and borrowed cell phone. He did not explain anything about the packet, but that was not necessary, as everything was laid out in an excellent manner. We received a road atlas, brochures on each area we were going to visit, step-by-step directions to each location, vouchers for some of the activities and all the reservation numbers and information for each accommodation and excursions. My suggestion for the tour company in editing future additions for this part of the itinerary package, would be to add the mileage between roads, instead of just naming the next road that comes up. Even though the roads are rural, it makes a difference in unfamiliar territory, if the next road is 50 meters or 50 miles away. Accommodation Terra Vive Luxury Suites and Apartments (Room type: studio) This is a modest accommodation, which has a kitchenette, and a washer/dryer in the room, a big plus. Very nice manager on site, who greets you with a little basket of goodies. The room is clean, and the bed comfy. Most of the hotels had instant coffee and tea, hot water kettle, and milk in the refrigerator. Christchurch’s attractions are spread out all over the city, so there really isn’t one specific location to walk to everything, but this motel was about 20 minutes’ walk from the large attractions: Botanical garden, Cardboard cathedral, Cathedral square, etc.

Day 2 Saturday 11th November 2017

Explore Christchurch City - We walked about 3 miles this morning to the Botanical Gardens (very nice); the Cardboard Cathedral (very interesting) and Cathedral Square to see the progress they are making in reconstructing the earthquake damage. Great exercise after our long plane trip yesterday.

Waipara Valley Wine Trail with Lunch - We felt this tour was a good value. We ate lunch at the first winery, and then visited 3 others. We were glad we did not decide on a full day tour. After your third winery….well, unless you’re looking for that perfect bottle to take home with you, an afternoon is enough.

Day 3 Sunday 12th November 2017

 Private transfer hotel to Christchurch train station - the driver was on time, and not only took us up to the station, but took our bags back to the luggage area for us, so that we could stand in line to get our tickets.

Tranz Alpine Scenic Train Christchurch to Greymouth - SO glad we chose this aspect of the trip. Awesome scenery. They have snacks and beverages on the car and very large windows to take photos.

Collect your rental car – Other than the half hour wait to get to the Budget car desk, the ladies behind the counter were very thorough in helping us understand the conditions of the rental, the road navigation, and other tips for driving in New Zealand. We were really impressed with the insurance that was already on the car, and chose not to add additional insurance. The GPS navigational system worked ok. The suction cup to hold it to the car’s surface did not work, but that wasn’t a big deal, just annoying. The bigger deal was when it tried to take us through a weigh station. There are different settings on it: Easy, Fast, and Shortest trip. It was set on “easy”, which was fine, but often it did not match up with the suggested trip route in our navigation package. “No worries”, however, if the tour company would ask the car rental places when they last updated their GPS systems, it would be a good thing, as around the west coast of the North island, near Wellington, there has been a lot of new construction, and the GPS was more lost than we were. 

Greymouth to Franz Josef – We chose to take a detour to the Hokitka Gorge, which was a bit hard to find, but the swing bridge and views were worth the extra 1 ½ hours.

Accommodation Aspen Court Franz Josef (Room type: 1 x executive studio) Nice, clean accommodations, right across from the glacier valley walk tour center. The restaurants in the small town do not look impressive from the outside, but great food. The Blue Ice Café had great food. The Landing was fair.

Day 4 Monday 13th November 2017 

Franz Josef Glacier Valley Walk – Great hike, and great guide. Not sure it was worth the money, however, when you see the trail for free, right next to you. But as with most guided tours, we learned a lot of information about the glacier and did get a little closer than the general public. We did not take advantage of the hot pools.

Day 5 Tuesday 14th November 2017

Franz Josef to Queenstown (via Wanaka) – Easily the most beautiful part of our driving trip. So glad we were driving on our own to be able to stop wherever we wanted. We stopped at Fox Glacier outlook (very tiny view from the carpark, and Lake Matheson, a short drive down the road. On the coast, we stopped at Bruce Bay and Knight’s Point. Through the Haast Pass, there are three waterfalls, all beautiful and different. Then the swing bridge at the Blue Pools. Lots of photo stops on the way to Wanaka, where we stopped in to see our tour organizer, Salli. She had suggested taking the Crown Ridge Road to Queenstown, which was an excellent suggestion for the views alone.

Accommodation Garden Court Suites and Apartments (Room type: 1 bedroom courtyard apartment) Very nice, clean apartment with a pretty view of the lake. Parking is in a separate stall under the apartments. Queenstown was the largest city to drive in so far on our trip, and actually what we liked best about this location, was the easy way to drive to the apartment as well as to leave the city on a Friday morning in traffic. Walking around and looking at some of the alternatives would not have been fun. The streets are very hilly, and parking at a premium, so we elected to walk everywhere.

Day 6 Wednesday 15th November 2017

Experience the wonders of Queenstown – We walked around Queenstown, since our flight for the Milford Sound Excursion had to be cancelled for today due to the weather. We opted to sign up for the same excursion the next day and hope for the best. When it was officially cancelled, it took about 2 hours to rebook everyone and return us back to the hotel.

Spent the day at Kiwi Park (a lot of money but better than many of the other options in New Zealand, as this one had other animals, shows and walkways. Then we went to the wharf and watched all the wonderful water sports, and then to Queenstown Gardens.

Skyline Gondola and Buffet Dinner – We opted to take a taxi to the restaurant and walk back, since back meant downhill…..The ride up was fun, the meal itself very good and the views fantastic. It is a very noisy place, however, so you don’t go there for a romantic meal. But it is fun nevertheless.

Day 7 Thursday 16th November 2017

Milford Fly-Cruise-Fly & Dart River Safari – This excursion was by far our most expensive and the most worthwhile. The weather allowed us an early takeoff for the Sound, with wonderful views. The cruise was on a boat that had drinks on board, but we opted to have a picnic lunch ready for us. They gave it to us by 9:30 am, so we had all morning to snack. The cruise was very pretty and we were glad that we had choses to see the Sound by air and sea, not drive 6 hours to get here. (Be aware that many come prepared to get wet on the bow of the boat as it goes under a waterfall.) The flight to Glenorchy was even prettier as the cloud cover was gone. Our boat crew picked us up and bussed us first for a small hike through the national park and them on to the Dart River, where we donned our vest gear and thoroughly enjoyed the fast-paced ride on the shallow river. Bus ride home was fine, as we were so tired, it didn’t make any difference

Day 8 Friday 17th November 2017

Queenstown to Mt. Cook National Park – First we stopped at the Kawarau Bridge to see the bungee jumpers. They don’t start jumping until 9:30, but they have a café, so we had breakfast until they were ready. So glad we stopped as it was lots of fun to watch. Lots of beautiful views to Mt. Cook.

Glacier Explorers Mt. Cook – Our “nature trail to the lake” turned out to be a gravel trail you had to take to get there….not exactly a tour guided trail. Then the “cruise the lake” was a small boat that did indeed take you close to some icebergs. Not as close to the glacier as we had expected, but it made sense for safety reasons. We would do it again, but it would have been better knowing what to expect. 

Accommodation Mt Cook Lodge & Motels (Room type: 1 x motel studio) This was the smallest of our accommodations, although clean, and comfortable. Our apartment was in the back of the main complex, and had a hostel, or community “feel”. Mt. Cook is a little tourist village that has four or five accommodations, and a couple of restaurants in the middle of nowhere, so you will be eating there. Plan on getting gas before you arrive, as the gas pump there is a bit pricey. The most expensive hotel, is where you are collected for your excursions, and has two of the three dining options, so you can’t help but compare where you are staying to this. That being said, we may have booked the same location, in order to save money for something else on the trip.

Day 9 Saturday 18th November 2017

Mt. Cook National Park to Christchurch – Four hours of beautiful views, looking forward to catching up on our emails, and doing laundry.

Accommodation Terra Vive Luxury Suites and Apartments

Day 10 Sunday 19th November 2017

Christchurch to Kaikoura – We were fortunate to travel on a day when the road was open to Kaikoura. Drove first to Seal Point, although the seals were somewhere else that month, but still a must-see.

Whale Watch Kaikoura – Second best excursion on our trip. With the construction on the roads, we knew by going here, we would have a 7 hour drive the next day to Picton, but it was so worth it. The excursion allowed us to see four whales close to the boat.

Accommodation Waves on Esplanade (Room type: 1 x 1 bedroom) Bearutiful accommodations…definitely a step-up. Large and spacious with a beautiful ocean view.

Day 11 Monday 20th November 2017

Kaikoura to Picton via Murchison – With all the road construction it was an 8 hour trip, but we did stop off at New Zealand’s longest swing bridge for a break. The views along the trip really allowed us to see New Zealand, and we felt like we were able to explore a lot more than just the touristy places. The area of Blenheim had wineries as far as the eye could see.

Accommodation Harbour View Motel (Room type: 1 x deluxe room (top level)) Also very nice accommodations. The only thing I would recommend was that anyone who wants to drive up to the reception area, not drive a stick shift. The road is straight up!

Day 12 Tuesday 21st November 2017

Interislander ferry Picton to Wellington – No problems in returning our car. Just left our papers in the outside drop box, and kept our GPS for the car on the next island. A very fun trip. The ferry is huge, with a café, so great snacking here.

Collect your rental car – Had no problems in line this time. Very smooth transaction.

Wellington Cable Car – Enjoyed the ride, the walk through the Botanical Gardens, The Wellington Museum and the Queen’s Wharf for dinner.

Accommodation City Life Wellington (Room type: 1 x 1 bedroom executive suite) The suite was awesome. Our nicest accommodation of the trip. Tourists need to be aware though, that when the GPS says you are at the entrance of the hotel, it means you go up a little path that looks like a service alley. The entrance is really hidden behind a wall. We parked on the street and kept walking around to find the entrance. Your final parking space will be in a parking garage for $15 a day. Also, when they advertise “free internet”, they mean a limited amount, which doesn’t take long to use up. No worries, but it’s nice to know that ahead of time. You can always buy more time, if you choose. Our tour company noted on our itinerary, for which hotels we would pay for parking. There were only two, but I really appreciated knowing this ahead of time. There were several hotels on the itinerary which indicated paid internet, but all of the hotels had free internet, albeit, some faster than others.

Day 13 Wednesday 22nd November 2017

Wellington to Waitomo – The areas around Plimmerton, Paekakariki and Paraparaumu had a lot of new construction, so our GPS was lost a lot, and once tried to take us through a weigh station. Having the Budget Car Rental Company update the GPS would be good, although with all the new construction, that may not be possible. Again the views along this route were beautiful. After checking into our B&B we walked about 5 minutes to the Ruakuri Bushwalk, which is “one of the 10 best walks in New Zealand”. It was lovely.

Accommodation Waitomo Caves Guest Lodge (Room type: studio unit (includes continental breakfast) This little Bed and Breakfast was charming. The manager greeted us with ½ little story of their town and the surrounding things we could do. The breakfast the next morning was fruit/cereal/croissants/toast/yogurt and coffee with homemade jams. Reviews on the TripAdvisor website are not all impressed, but we found this place nice, comfortable, and clean and we recommend it.

Day 14 Thursday 23rd November 2017

Spellbound Glowworm and Cave Tour – Another favorite excursion! We chose the Spellbound tour which offers two caves, one dry and the other with the glowworm experience and we were not disappointed.

Waitomo to Rotorua – Two hour trip with beautiful views. Spent the evening enjoying the night market and eat street.

Accommodation Quest Rotorua Central (Room type: 1 bedroom apartment) – This hotel’s entrance is located on what appears to be a pedestrian mall. The city of Rotorua is experimenting with “share” areas for cars and pedestrians. Once you figure it out, it’s fine, but again, we parked the car and walked to the entrance to figure out where to check in.

Day 15 Friday 24th November 2017

Rotorua Forest Canopy Tours – Another favorite excursion! The zip-lining was frequent, and swing bridges are included, as well as nature walk. We have been zip-lining in longer lines in Costa Rica, but thoroughly enjoyed this experience because of the diversity.

Exploring Rotorua seacoast – Walked around the seacoast thermal and spa areas. Great exercise and fun walk.

Day 16 Saturday 25th November 2017

Wei-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland – Another favorite excursion! The name of the place sounds hokey, but the area is spectacular. You drive separately to the geyser in the morning, and then back to the wonderland area for a walk at your own pace. Two thumbs up.

Tamaki Maori Village cultural tour and dinner – and yet another fun evening. Timely pick-up and visit to the village, show and dinner. Please let tourists know, however, that you will be standing for an hour for the greeting and walking around the village, before sitting for the show, and then another 20 minutes before dinner. So you will end up eating around 8pm. It was fine for us, but for people who cannot stand for that period of time, they might want to take a fold-up stool for more comfort.

Day 17 Sunday 26th November 2017

 Rotorua to Auckland – Nice drive until we met up with a Christmas parade in the center of Auckland near the street of our hotel. We drove for over an hour trying to figure a way to the hotel with all the blocked streets. The hotel said their street was open, but it had been closed by the traffic officers. So one of us sat at a McDonald’s, where we parked, and the other walked to the hotel to check in. They ended up giving us a room upgrade, but it would have been nice to have been notified that the roads were to be busy that day, and we would have just come later in the afternoon.

Auckland Sky Tower Admission - Fun

Accommodation Waldorf Stadium Apartments (Room type: 1 x 1 bedroom apartment) Very nice accommodations, once we got in Parking was in a garage down the road.

Day 18 Monday 27th November 2017

Walking around Auckland – Visited the Auckland Art museum and park. Drive to airport was a little squirrely, as the GPS took us on a scenic route, but fine. So we have been to Germany, Spain, England, Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Africa, Galapagos Islands, China and Tibet, Hawaii, Alaska, Portugal, Scotland…………………..and this was one of our most memorable trips. Thank you, Salli Smith and thank you New Zealand Self Drive Tours SO MUCH for all the organization, advice, help and patience in helping us make this a memorable experience.

Since we had never been to New Zealand before we leaned heavily on Shelley for advice and direction in planning out the itinerary and agenda which in the end was the best trip we have ever experienced. We had some great excursions included and even with one being cancelled due to weather, we were immediately booked on an alternate excursion which ended up being a wonderful experience. All our accommodations were excellent and we are giving all of them “5 stars” on Trip Advisor. Shelley set us up on Waiheke Island for three days around our actually anniversary date and directed us to a wonderful dinner spot. Everything that was put into our detailed agenda happened just like it was listed, from drivers meeting us for pick-ups to shuttles picking us up for the excursions. I could write a lot more but let me just say this, if you are considering a trip to New Zealand you will do yourself a big favor by calling Shelley and the great team at New Zealand Self Drive Tours. This is a “five star” company and a group of wonderful people

Without your professional advice and arrangements, we would not have enjoyed our holiday so much, and our trip would not be wonderful. It was a tour of a life time for us. All your bookings for hotels, attractions cars were excellent, only the hotel Scenic at Auckland was below our expectation. Because of your arrangement was obvious as you were able to provide introductions to the best accommodations and all the attractions we wanted to visit. Again, thank you very much. We hope to be able travelling to New Zealand by your tours again. Yours sincerely, William and Atoen van Dongen

Everything went to plan as per the itinerary. The document pack was excellent informative with easy to follow instructions . No problems were encountered . Excellent accommodation. Very enjoyable 10 days and have no hesitation recommending NZ Self Drive Tours to my family and friends.

We knew some of the things we wanted to do before we went, but some of the suggested activities were well worth doing. For example the glacier explorers tour at Mt Cook was one of the most amazing experiences we have ever had. We were particularly impressed with the accommodation choices. Whilst it was a mix of 3&4 star motels, the rooms that we were allocated were quite often in a prime position. Every motel we stayed at the staff we friendly and welcoming and happy to assist us. If anything we would have spent more time on the South Island and possibly only the South Island with a separate trip back to the North Island at a later date. The driving directions were very easy to follow and the customised itinerary just made it so easy for us. Every motel or activity that had been booked, we had no issues checking in. We had a family death a couple of days before departing for our holiday and nearly had to postpone or cancel and Shelley was extremely supportive and offered some options for us to consider. She contacted the staff at our motel in Christchurch and they were very sympathetic and gave us a small gift to welcome us there. It was very much appreciated. We would highly recommend this tour company to anyone considering visiting New Zealand.

The itinerary, car hire, accommodation, transfers and included tours exceeded expectation. The detailed information we received upon our arrival was very helpful and meant we didn't have to think about a thing. This was one of the easiest and most relaxed holidays we have ever had due to knowing that everything was organised and already in place for us. Thanks for the great holiday! Wendy and Murray Robertson.

This will be a long and fairly detailed review of the self-drive holiday we enjoyed in October, arranged via New Zealand Self Drive Tours. Planning: after checking the website, reading up a bit about New Zealand and deciding what our family would enjoy, I mailed NZ self-drive tours with an enquiry and our requirements. Within the next 2 days, I got a call from one of their staff, an utterly sweet, efficient, helpful person called Joanna Bullus. She got some details about our family, figured out what we would enjoy, made some suggestions, and mailed back in the next 2 days with a detailed itinerary. We mailed back and forth a couple of times until the plan was finalised. I had so many questions and concerns, and I really appreciate Joanna's patience. The payment was made in advance, online, by credit card. Trip: I normally make reservations for our many trips myself, and this was the first time I booked the trip through an agency. There were many advantages to doing so, however. Our car rental included GPS and insurance, the motels booked were centrally located, and very comfortable indeed, and the attractions were tailored to our family interests. Another huge plus: Our air tour of Milford Sound from Queenstown was cancelled due to bad weather. It took just one phone call to Joanna - she tweaked the schedule to arrange some activities on the day of the cancelled tour and arranged a coach tour of Milford Sound on another day. Post-trip: Refunds due to any cancellations reached me promptly. Driving in New Zealand: very comfortable, and not intimidating at all. They drive on the left side of the road, like us Indians, roads were very good, and not crowded ( except a HUGE traffic jam on the way to Auckland). Directions are clear, and the GPS was a great help. Other drivers on the road are courteous. Drivers licenses from India ( and I guess other countries too) are valid if they are in Engish. Tips: One suggestion would be to focus less on activities which are weather dependent - flights, for example - as the weather is notoriously fickle. VERY IMPORTANT: carry nothing edible from home - no pickles, ready to eat meals, preserves, fruit - because if caught, you will have to pay a fine of 400 dollars.

We had a great holiday on the South Island. There was a small problem at the car hire depot with the information on their computer but the staff resolved it. The best accommodation was at Te Anau, Lakeside lodges. They were very luxurious and the owners were very welcoming and told us about local places to visit. The Milford sound cruise was a little disappointing. We were held up at the pass due to a storm and arrived late for our cruise. Instead of letting us wait till the next two and a half hour cruise they put us on a one hour cruise but gave us buffet lunch. A lot of people were late due to the weather the night before. We understand that delays can happen and we did enjoy the cruise but felt a little cheated as we went to the mouth of the sound and turned back in. We were very great full for all the work you put into our holiday as it made a great trip and knowing that everything was pre paid and organised helped us relax. Having a chauffeur waiting for us at the airport and on our return train journey added to our excellent experience, we felt like stars! We would recommend staying at Mt Cook more than one night as there were lots of walking tracks but as we were only staying the one night we could not take advantage. We would recommend your company as you have catered for our requirements and helped shape our holiday in to being a great first trip to New Zealand. Thank you far all your help and input to achieve a fantastic first trip and an excitement to make us want to come back to see more. John and Margaret Carson

We were very happy with the accommodation select for us, it was a nice blend of hotel and apartments. Everywhere we traveled and stayed there was not a hitch and that was due to your work not ours. We were incredibly busy leading up to the trip and were totally reliant on your itinerary and paperwork. Thank you for your effort, we would recommend your services to all. Warm Regards, Marie and Michael Cristea, Ineke and Brian Willmann

And the staff at Arthur's Pass, Lime Tree Lodge and Azur were the most helpful, warm, accommodating people. They all made us feel at home and were so lovely to chat to. And Aspen Court took me by surprise. I've never stayed in a motel before but it was better than many hotels I've stayed in. It was so modern, clean and breakfast arrived on time both days. It was great to cook our own dinner one night too. We did almost get stuck at Arthur's Pass due to snow and we didn't have chains in the rental car however the weather just seemed to clear up anywhere we travelled. Thanks again. Kathryn Ebsworth and Andrew Stacy.

It has simply wetted our appetite to return in the future. We would have no hesitation in using your company again and I would highly recommend you to friends and family. Thank you! Regards, Alistair and Calum Parsons

All 3 of us really enjoyed our NZ trip!

All the inclusions were spectacular.There was not a hiccup during the entire holiday, with everything where and when it was meant to be, and the choices of accommodation were well received by my wife. She says thank you. Once again, thank you for your great team effort. Regards Bruce Ross

On two occasions, we had private tours which allowed the tour guides to spend more time to talk about the surrounding areas (not just LOTR). One addition to our tour package that was the highlight of our trip was the whale watching in Kaikoura – we had three sightings, the weather was beautiful, and the ocean was calm. All in all, a trip we will remember the rest of our lives (in over 4000 pictures). Laura Davidson did a great job setting up the trip and even rerouted/rearranged our trip to account for the closure of Highway 1 due to earthquake damage. We highly recommend the LOTR self-driving tour for anyone who has seen LOTR and The Hobbit. You’ll quickly see why New Zealand was chosen as the location for Middle Earth plus you’ll get to see the country at your own pace. There’s no way you’ll see everything in two weeks but you will see enough to feel that you got your money’s worth. We highly recommend going with New Zealand Self Drive Tours – you will not regret going with them either.

Also, Christina would call us in Canada several times during the planning stages which made it much easier than just corresponding by e-mail. The instructions/material we received upon arrival was excellent and very easy to follow with detailed information on the accommodation, sights worth seeing in each place and driving instructions. Highlights of our trip, which were pre-booked by Christina, were the Te Anau Glow Worm Caves, bus tour to Milford Sound, Mitai Maori Village, Hot Water Beach and Waimangu Volcanic Valley Walk. Every part of our trip went very smoothly including being picked up at the airport, check-in to our accommodation, activities we had pre-paid, two internal flights, one train trip, and the picking up and dropping off our rental car on each of the islands. The accommodation was very good to excellent with the exception of the hotel in Rotorua (Tuscany Villas Rotorua). This hotel needed to be air conditioned as it was 27 degrees with only a patio door for ventilation and no other windows in the room for a cross breeze. The hotel in Rotorua was the only hotel which was very strict about checking in before 2:00 and was the least welcoming. Each of our rooms had a microwave, fridge, two burners and half of the rooms even had a full stove. The hotel in Rotorua had only a microwave and fridge. We travelled 2800 km which was very ambitious within our time frame as the roads in New Zealand are very narrow and twisty with no shoulders. A couple of our driving days were over 400 kms which was over 5 hours of driving which made for a very tiring and long day so I would recommend shortening the driving distance between places if at all possible. Thanks for a wonderful trip to New Zealand! Debby and Bob Bullen, Ontario Canada

All the apartments were nicely appointed and within walking distance to town centers. If you're thinking of going to New Zealand in the fall, don't hesitate. The weather is perfect: Autumn leaves and snow-capped mountains, warm days and cool nights, and no crowds. And while it can be rainy, we were lucky and only had two days with rain during our entire trip. The key to packing is to bring layers, as we often were in short sleeves during the day and adding sweaters and jackets by nightfall (especially at Mt. Cook and in Queenstown). We didn't want to do the entire LOTR tour, but were very glad we included a visit to Hobbiton in Matamata, The Hairy Feet Tour near Piopio, and the WETA studios tour in Wellington. We also did the half day LOTR location tour in Wellington, which was fun, but not essential. Because the main highway on the South Island was still under repair from damage caused by the 2016 earthquake, we spent a lot more time driving than we had anticipated. The trip from Blenheim to Kaikoura, which is usually a 90 minute drive, was a seven hour journey across the island and back. It was tiring, but the scenery is so beautiful, it's almost worth the extra time in the car. Almost. For us, every stop on our tour was well worth the time and effort. The only real disappointment for us was Christchurch. Even though it's been more than six years since the earthquake that devastated the city, the center remains a boarded up, fenced-off, under-construction mess. Reading the local papers, we understand discussion are still in place as to whether to restore the Cathedral or replace it with a more modern design has completely stymied the restoration effort. A real shame. We had one small snafu with a hotel booking, but Erynn fixed everything while we were having breakfast. Otherwise, the trip could not have been better. Having New Zealand Self Drive Tours take care of all the arrangements made for a stress-free vacation. Thanks, Erynn!

Black water rafting just was not for us but we thoroughly enjoyed the cave tour. We also enjoyed the scenic train! Everything worked out smoothly during our trip. We were very pleased that every hotel or attraction we went to just needed our names to pull up the reservation, especially at the Greymouth rental car counter. All of our accommodations worked well and we would recommend them to others. 

We would also recommend having a car on Waiheke Island (we got one there and used it a lot), and the cars on the South Island were smaller and less practical than the one on the North Island. Finally, the GPS in the car was out of date; we used Navigon on our phone and it worked much better. But the overall trip and holiday was STUNNING. This is just to indicate our minor points of comment. We had a superb time and thank you so much for all your help!

Our main disappointment was our accommodation in Auckland. they were not very inviting and the hotel was right next to the Auckland City Mission. It was very confronting for our young children and my elderly grandmother to continuously walk past the many homeless which surrounding the street of our hotel. They would approach us and ask for money and many were under the influence of drugs or alcohol. I would not recommend staying in this part of Auckland with a young family. Unfortunately due to the Cyclone we were quite restricted with what we could do, the weather was not kind to us as the start however we made the most of what we could.

We have no hiccough on the car pick up and return as well. I would strongly recommend any of my friends to contact you all should they think of going to NZ. Special thanks to Annelise Redford for your kind and prompt attention whenever we needed you! In my Malaysian language "Banyak terima kasih" for such a beautiful holiday for all of us! This has marked another new page in my life!! Xie Xie!

Thirdly, it was a relief not to have to coordinate and search thru reviews to find 14 different places to stay throughout the South Island (all with their own cancellation fees, confirmations, availability and amenities) and also; knowing that if a problem came up, I wouldn’t have to have to figure it out on my own while on vacation. Lastly, I wouldn’t have to determine which car rental agency to choose and read all the fine print for hidden fees and insurance costs and on and on. NZSDT has it all covered. One fee covered all I needed including a GPS and auto insurance. Keeping all this in mind and knowing that in all my previous vacations, I have done all the planning on my own with no problems, I still took the step, released the control and went for it with Christina at New Zealand Self Drive Tours. I am so very thankful I did. From the first time I live chatted with Christina, I was very impressed by her helpfulness and willingness to listen to my needs. Since I am a planner, I asked a few hundred questions along the way and she never grew tired of me (well, at least not that I knew about!). Christina was patient, accommodating, kind, understanding, knowledgeable and professional. She was on top of whatever requests I had, whether it was through emails, phone calls or live chats. I loved the fact that I could live chat a quick question and they would immediately direct me to Christina, if she was available. When Christina was not available, anyone I dealt with was able to help me immediately. Even while we were on the trip, we had decided to try and stay an extra night at Mt. Cook and cancel a night in Dunedin. Christina was able to accommodate it smoothly in a matter of hours. I didn’t have to worry about a thing. I could just go on my way and enjoy our adventures. Another factor that impressed me about New Zealand Self Drive Tours was when I researched on my own and found some things to do Christina would welcome the opportunity to add new choices to their itineraries. The New Zealand Self Drive Tours website was extremely user friendly. I appreciated the different tabs in My Tour link, ie. Overview, Inclusions, Driving info, Costs & Pay, and Your Details. Clear and informative. No fine print. Upon arrival we received our packet, complete with a full bound itinerary, brochures and also a New Zealand Touring Atlas Book which was invaluable (even with our GPS). We spent 16 days on the South Island going all the way down to the Catlins. We chose the budget Motels itinerary and we were not disappointed in ANY of them. We were actually quite surprised at the quality of the places we stayed. Most of them had kitchenettes and an extra bedroom. They were just perfect for our needs. They were all very clean and the people were full of hospitality. Everything we saw and did was a 10+. We kayaked Okarito Lagoon thru Okarito Kayaks, glacier kayaked the Tasman Lake thru Southern Alps Guiding, took a smaller boat with Southern Discoveries on Milford Sound (no words to describe this place), went jet boat fishing on the Waiau River thru Fish Jet, and shot Class 5 rapids thru Rangitata Rafting. All past our expectations and all can be booked thru New Zealand Self Drive Tours. We fell in love with NZ and their people. We like to adventure out so we ended up going 1900 more kilometers than the itinerary of 2330 km! We got up early, headed out and ended up seeing everything we wanted rain or shine. EVERYWHERE we went we were not disappointed and EVERYTHING was a highlight for us. I am still going thru and cleaning up 9458 photo memories! In conclusion, I would be more than happy to connect with anyone who needs a recommendation for New Zealand Self Drive Tours. My heartfelt gratitude to Christina, for creating a dream of a lifetime trip for our 30th wedding anniversary. Sally & Brad

Napier was a interesting place with retro themes along the foreshore. Big drive to Wellington and now we know why its called the windy city as it was blustery when we arrived, which didn't detract from the whole scheme of things. An early morning cruise across Cook St into Picton was relaxing but didn't venture much outside as temps where a tad cool. Pleasant winery tour and accommodation in Blenheim. Huge drive thru to Christchurch due to East Coast road closed but the 'lost' scenic route was great and arriving to a majestic hotel being OGB, fantastic accommodation. weather wasn't on our side but we ventured out and investigated a city rebuilding. onwards to Lake Tekapo, what a jewel this place is and the sun was out so it just made you feel awestruck. locals friendly and easy to chat about everyting and nothing. local bar/ tavern accommodated our refreshments and meals a real homely feel. the observatory above Lake Tekapo is a must do which gives you massive panoramic views of the surrounding country side. little driving adventures were undertaken and got to see where locals camp and trout fish, brilliant place to relax/ visit. a slow drive to the majestic giant, Mt Cook, what a sight as you travel towards the snow capped mountain and once again a sunny day blessed us all the way. accommodation was great as we opened the curtain, there looking at us was splendid views of Mt Cook. leaving the following a change of scenery on the way to Queenstown with the autumn colours starting to expose themselves. he days spent in Queenstown and the surrounding areas was awesome. Milford Sound is a must but the only negative is the very long bus ride, maybe we should of paid the extra and flew back to Q, it didn't detract from the Sound's natural wonder be it a tad cold but braving it was worth every moment. sadly we then left and headed to Franz Josef which was an interesting drive as the west coast changes to sub-tropical. FJ was an interesting place, small but busy and the walk up to (close) the glacier was invigorating but it was a shame to hear how much the glacier has retracted and we didn't have the opportunity to walk on it unless you hired a helicopter. never the less it is still a great memory. form here we arrived at Greymouth where the vehicle was returned and we caught the train across to Christchurch. this produced some amazing sights and photo opportunities as we meandered through the mountains and down onto the Canterbury Plains. picked up at the station and delivered to our favourite place the OGB (the Heritage). spent 2.5 days here and the sun blessed us to which we took advantage and visited the botanical gardens, museum, tram rides, city walks and frequented eateries and shops, this place hums even though it looks like a war zone and construction is going on all around you, well worth visiting. finally we departed after what felt like forever and any less a stay would not of achieved an understanding of this lovely country which is only 3hrs max flying time away. our self drive gave us a lot and with Jane at the helm and sorting out best options and with my investigations I think we achieved one of our best drive holidays yet. next time we are going to look at going north of Auckland to investigate what wonders are up there....very satisfied and recommend this to anybody. Thanks once again Jane top job. Cheers Gary and Denise Forresters Beach NSW

No hitches, everything went smoothly with all bookings and connections, no worries at all. Fantastic B&B's booked everywhere, met some lovely people here, real NZ hospitality! A terrific holiday, and we will be back for the North Island, very soon!

Wendy especially enjoyed the Zipline in Queenstown. Hopefully you have some influence with the national parks people. If there is a shortfall in the tourist spectrum it is in the public toilet facilities, especially at Fox and Franz Josef where they are too few, smelly and dirty. Shelley, thanks for your organization of our trip. It all went very smoothly without a single hitch in regards to the arrangements you made. A very enjoyable holiday. Regards Allan and Wendy Quadrio

And all the people we interfaced with were very helpful, in particular the Hanmer Springs quad biking. The whale watching in Kaikoura was the peak (we were lucky with the weather). We had 11 days packed with activities and they all worked out as planned. Best vacation ever!

here were only a few minor things I think could have been handled better. I was under the assumption our car would be delivered to us on our 2nd day. I did not realize we would need to find our own transfer back to the airport to pick up our car. I think we should have been given the option to set up a transfer to the airport when we booked our trip, or have the car delivered directly to us. Luckily, I managed to set up a transfer (at an additional cost) with the gentleman who transferred us from the airport to our motel upon our arrival into Christchurch. It was a miner snag, but could have been set up better. Confusion at the beginning of a trip is unwelcomed. At several motels we were asked upon check-in if we were with 'Fine Tours'. Being unaware that this was the name of the actual company, I said 'no'. This caused a little confusion. I was under the impression I booked with NZ Self Drive Tours. It might be wise to inform your travelers of the 'Fine Tours' name...which appears nowhere in any of our paperwork. Again, just a very minor hic-up, but worth mentioning. When we arrived in Kaikoura, we found the motel we were booked at to be closed due to the earthquake back in November. Somehow this was not communicated to Jane. I called Jane for help and we were set up in another property in a very short time. This snag was handled fast and in a very professional manner. Jane re-booked us at a super nice property. This was a bit of a larger incident, but it was handled very well and we were pleased with the outcome. Would I book with New Zealand Self Drive Tours (a.k.a. 'Fine Tours') again? Definitely! All in all Jane did a fantastic job and we LOVED our trip. A small snafu just adds to the adventure of traveling. Thanks Jane for all your help and giving us an experience we'll remember for the rest of our lifetime! It was SUPER!

We particularly appreciate that you provided a suggested list of activities for each area that we visited but allowed us to pick and choose however much or little we wanted to do. You told us not to miss the Milford Sound cruise, and indeed, that was the absolute highlight of our trip! A couple of suggestion on things: 1. It would be nice to include distances with all the driving directions - for example, if a direction says "Head east on State Hwy 6" if would be nice to know how long we stay on Hwy 6 until the next instruction to "Turn left onto XYZ Road." 2. Some of the "driving distance and time" were underestimated. For example, Queenstown to Franz Josep Glacier (via Wanaka) took close to 6 hours instead of 4.4 hrs as listed (we didn't dilly dally and made only a quick lunch stop). Also, to drive comfortably and safely from Te Anau to Milford Sound really takes about 3 hours (would leave Te Anau *no later* than 7:30am for the 10:30am cruise). Aside from those few minor details, this was simply an amazing trip! You made the whole trip planning so effortless for us. And with everything pre-arranged by you, we were able to really focus on experiencing the beauty and the culture of New Zealand. Simply a fantastic trip with memories that will last a lifetime! Thank you, Salli!

Distances and travel time mentioned in the book were occasionally off. Lastly, I wish more details had been provided about the cave tour near Punakaiki. It was mentioned that the total tour would be of 2 hours duration - however, that refers only to the duration from entrance to the cave. What was not mentioned is that it takes another couple of hours to get to and from the cave entrance. The to and from journey to the cave entrance is quite arduous for the not young people. In future, perhaps this aspect can be clarified to prospective participants in this adventure. The 4WD adventure near Queenstown was off the beaten track, and wonderful. Please convey our appreciation to Andy.

We changed the road trip a couple of times on the advice from the locals on what to see and where to go, found Paua ( abalone) at Invercargil, had to google how to cook it, was nice. We did a lot of touring at Wanaka, between wineries, War Birds, Puzzle House and also the Gypsie Caravans were there, quite colourful, we just ran non stop, our accommodation was lovely, including the ducks. the scenery was amazing, especially Arthurs Pass, found a lovely place for lunch, some how we escaped the bad weather, was ahead of it most of the time. we had to change vehicles at Christchurch because the hire company had us returning it on the 10th, that was a bummer as it took up some wasted time, wanted to see more of Christchurch. Queenstown was amazing, and so was our helicopter flight. Anyway, thankyou for organising such a wonderful experience for us, now to save up for our next holiday in two years time, South East Asia. Will recommend your company to our friends. Cheers Mary Lee

This required a detour on a somewhat perilous drive through the mountains on a gravel road. We would have appreciated someone from New Zealand Self Drive Tours giving us a heads up on this as we were following their itinerary. The drive from Christchurch to Blenheim was very long due to #1 closure but we loved the Marlborough B and B. Lovely country setting, just the right location to relax. Not sure why we were booked on the afternoon ferry to the North Island. We could have easily made the morning ferry and this would have given us some time in Wellington. We enjoyed our short time in Christchurch but were not prepared for the earthquake devastation that still affects this city. It was disturbing but we are glad to have seen this as we better understand their situation. We really enjoyed meeting Catherine who now runs The Springs in Rotorua. She was very helpful with restaurant advice, what to see and do in Rotorua and even helped with weather forecasts and road conditions. She provides a hand drawn map of Rotorua which I will keep as a souvenir. When we asked for B and B the Springs and Marlborough B and B were the best and what we think of when B and B comes to mind. We like to meet the owner have a chat with locals. We did meet the owner of the Dairy when first checking in but not after this. Very positive experience and we would recommend to others.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time in your beautiful country and were amazed by the scenery and some of the stunning accommodation available. Star gazing in the outdoor bathtubs at Tin Tub Luxury Lodge is a memory that Jake and I will treasure forever. We would not hesitate to recommend your company to anyone! Lora and Jake

Franz Josef, they gave us an older apartment,after we had unpacked, I complained to the Manager, and in fairness, he then offered an updated one, but we couldn't be bothered moving.He couldn't answer why we were not given the better one in the first place. We did call into your Wanaka office, but you were in Auckland. Once again thanks and I will certainly recommend you to any friends contemplating a NZ tour. Don Baulderstone.

However some stood out for various reasons. Host of the holiday was Robin at the Red Tussock Motel Te Anau, he was such a character and we had a lovely fruit bowl in our room. He also went in and put the lights and heating on before we got back from our trip to Milford, so thoughtful and kind. He had a bird table so we spent quite a while watching the birds. Other stand out properties were: Aoraki Court Motel, Mount Cook, fabulous views of the glacier and a spa bath! Ocean View Chalets, Abel Tasman, again a fabulous ocean view and great deck for watching the sea and stars, lovely eco approach and amenities. Least favourite were: Albatross Motel Napier. It was on a very noisy main road, although there was a lovely view of the nature reserve. The cooking facilities were also rather basic. Blue Peaks Motel Queenstown, also right on the main road and rather noisy although the other facilities were fine. Camelot Motor Lodge Christchurch, rather run down and in poor condition throughout, though of course we appreciate the issues around Christchurch. As I've already said we were very impressed with the overall quality so this is being very picky! As to locations, being Nature and country lovers we obviously preferred those locations to the cities. The standout experience has to be the Doubtful Sound Cruise, we were so lucky to have wonderful weather, a dolphin pod bow surfing for ages and the best best time in the side fiord, awesome views and a most wonderful experience. Milford was also great and that road is an experience in itself. In fact the whole Fiord area was fab. The nature experiences around Dunedin too were wonderful, just seeing a penguin on the beach at Moreaki and all the seals and sea lions, just great at Katiki Point. We did a tour with Elm Wildlife Tours, which was fantastic. Abel Tasman was just lovely, we were quite tired by the time we got there and it was lovely just to have a breather for a couple of days. We took the water taxi up the coast and back again, lovely. Aoraki Mount Cook was wonderful, it was awesome driving up through the clouds from Christchurch to Lake Tekapo, the church on the lake was stunning. Walking to the glaciers was wonderful too. The Geothermal area around Rotorua was really interesting, we went to Oraki Korako, a bit off the beaten track and seemed less touristy than the other locations. We also walked around the lake and to the Maori Village, amazing to see the thermal vents in the middle of the street! We also loved Coromanel, birdwatching at Miranda and visiting the Thames School of Mines. Hot water beach was an interesting experience too! Auckland was great too and we walked up Rangitoto which was a great experience. We did the Hangi at Waitangi which was really interesting, would love to have had time to visit in the day but instead we did the Hole in the Rock cruise. We also visited Russell which was very quaint. Waipoua was majestic and rather moving, being in the presence of those huge Kauri. Least favourite location was Napier, not quite sure why but just didn’t feel it. We did do a wine tasting tour with Prinsy and had a lovely view from Te Mata. We also found Wellington a bit overwhelming, but enjoyed Te Papa. That brings me to another point, travelling times. We had driving guidance and sat nav to help but still found it much longer than estimated to get from place to place. We were obviously driving cautiously but still needed at least an hour longer than estimated. This affected our estimated arrival times and reduced time available to visit places. We did enjoy the driving and some of the great detours satnav took us on! We had great weather, considering all the stuff going on during our stay until the very end so our experience of the West Coast was restricted by the Cyclone! It looked stunning though and definitely an incentive to come back! We had our helihike cancelled due to the weather so we ended up leaving Frank Josef a day early and driving up to Greymouth where we visited the Pancake rocks in the pouring rain! So all in all we were delighted with the itinerary and all the organisation you put into getting everything to run so smoothly, we had no difficulties at all as we travelled round. Many thanks for all you help and assistance. Best wishes Julie Phillips

We had a great time on the Penguin Place tour, we all drove up to the Albatross Center (maybe ten minutes away). They were not doing tours because the weather had turned bad earlier... but when we arrived, the clouds were parting and we spent an hour photographing as many as a dozen albatrosses which flew overhead! Linda and Steven are big birders so this was a huge plus for the trip. (They also returned later for a Blue Penguin tour while Mary and I stayed at the lodging to catch up on laundry and relax some.) Penguin Place was a good location because it saved us the nearly hour-long drive back into Dunedin after all the tours... VERY convenient. Basic beds in rooms with shared bathrooms and kitchen... but location was everything (and laundry too!) We would stay there again in an instant. One pleasant surprise was that you provided TWO sets of all documentation, one for Mary and I, the second for Linda and Steven. That was unexpected and appreciated a lot. Both couples have these remarkably helpful guides to refer to at night and also as reminders after the trip. The maps and your daily turn-by-turn directions were very helpful. Those, along with the GPS in the car made it quite easy for us to focus on enjoying the scenery instead of being worried about being lost. (One improvement to your turn-by-turn directions would be to add the DISTANCE, in either kilometers or miles, before the next turn. Without that we needed to either do Google map searches or else just keep watching for signs that might come in 2 minutes or 200 kilometers later. Adding something like "... in 23 kilometers turn left on Pilsbury road..." would make it much easier for the navigator!) We found your directions to be really well thought out and useful, and followed them almost exclusively. We did stray on our route from Dunedin to Wanaka in that we traveled further north on the coast to see the Moravi (sp?) Rocks (a bit disapointing) and then inland to the Elephant Rocks (VERY cool! ...well worth the drive). This still got us into Wanaka early enough to play at the Puzzling World's labyrnth for hours (Highly recommended!) and walk the town at our leisure. I believe all of our lodging choices were spot-on... the right mix of convenience and cost. We typically made breakfast and dinner in our rooms, so the kitchenettes were perfect. Being able to walk to many of the city's attractions was a big plus... and the people we met running the places were, without exception, pleasant warm and helpful. I would share with you that the hostel at Mt Cook worked very well. It IS a hostel, but we were able to get a single (crowded) room with four beds all to ourselves. We still had the kitchen so cooking worked well for us... but the biggest plus was location. The only alternative was the Hermitage, which exceeded our budget... or else we would lose hours driving to/from the next closest lodging in Twizel. I mention this in case you have future clients torn with that same delema... If they understand the limits of a hostel (and this one was very clean, pleasant and well-run) then they may be able to make the visit AND stay on site. (We had signed up for the Stargazing Tour, which doesn't end until hours after sunset. Being faced with an hour+ drive to Twizel afterwards would have made for a much too long day!) As for the activities we did... I found the Hike on Milford Track to be a life's dream come true. My Grandfather visited New Zealand some forty years ago and he loved it. He planted in me a desire to visit your homeland, something that I finally was able to do. The hike was something I learned of later hand have been hoping to do for years. Beautiful, challenging, remarkable scenery and a very well-run system for hikers to visit a uniquely stunning area... I highly recommend it! The tour at Penquin Place was perhaps the ONLY way we would have seen yellow-eyed penguins, and certainly not so close or convenient than if we'd struck out on our own. It's only a few kilometers from the Albatros Center, so very convenient to do both... and they do a Blue Penguin tour also.) The Black Water Rafting was FANTASTIC!! Mary pretty much kept it to herself... but she was scared. But she faced the fear and did it anyway... and had a blast! I was quite pleased too... they do a good job. Drifting on the underground stream in the inky blackness with only glowworms twinkling overhead was a remarkable experience I am SO glad was a part of our trip. One other activity added was the Driving Creek Railroad. I'll admit that I first thought it a hokey touristy distraction (one I toyed with bypassing for perhaps more exciting stuff) ... but it was marvelous! Made me envious of the life he lived "playing with trains"! Keep including this whenever you can... and if anyone is thinking about ignoring it... think again! It was a blast! Our tour of Hobbiton was rainy and wet... and wonderful! We are big fans so it really didn't matter much. They do provide umbrellas, and there's a bus ride to/from the site. I'd do it again tomorrow, it was that good. (We had also visited the Weta Cave in a tour while in Wellington... that added a lot to the overall story and enriched our Hobbitton tour much.) For any prospective client who is concerned about the inter-island ferry... It really IS that easy. Drop off the car at the Picton terminal, walk up to the boat, and enjoy the 2-3 hour cruise. Get off at the other end and the new car is there at the Wellington terminal waiting for you. Easy peasy! One other thing I'll mention that we found adding a lot to the trip was the vast collection of Farmer's Markets, Artist's Markets and festivals. We especially liked the Dunedin Farmer's Market, the Wanaka Artist's Market and ... the CubaDupa Street Festival in Wellington. Turns out we were in Wellington for that annual street fair and we enjoyed it tremendously. A serendipitous addition to that city's visit which was a real hoot! So... I think you can see that we liked our visit a lot! ... I hope that you also know that YOU helped make that happen and we're really grateful. Tell your boss that you did REAL GOOD and these clients were wonderfully well served. Thank you! Cliff

The Barclay Suites was very nice and met our needs. We took a taxi to Budget Rent-a-Car the next morning and Vivian was the lady who helped us out. She did an excellent job in preparing us for our venture out on the roads. We drove out of Auckland and headed for Pahia. It was nice to be able to head into a motel office and just give my name and receive confirmation that all was looked after. All of our accommodations were most acceptable. We very much enjoyed the tour to 90-Mile Beach that you arranged. Steve the driver from Keri-Keri was excellent, and the drive along the beach amazing – including the boogie board slide down the dune and the visit to the lighthouse at the northern tip of New Zealand. Another couple of days in Pahia would have been nice to really get to know the Bay of Islands would have been welcome, but our time constraints didn’t allow for that. The next day we drove to the Kauri forest and saw the large tree. The drive from Pahia was most interesting. Our GPS worked well, but it’s too bad that the indicators (names of streets et cetera) given in the itinerary didn’t mention any of the names of the towns we were passing through. The estuary before we turned south was spectacular. We had lunch in Dargaville, and then a long drive to Snell’s Beach. The drive the next day to Coramandel was very interesting. It wasn’t a problem getting through Auckland. We really enjoyed the tour to Driving Creek Pottery and the train ride up the mountain. It was a highlight for both of us. Once again, the accommodation was excellent. We never ran into a problem with the motels you booked. The drive the next day to Rotorua was quite long. We stopped at the hot water beach, but didn’t have a lot of time to enjoy it. (Our fault for not devoting more time to the North Island.) We found our motel quite easily. The tour to the Volcanic Valley (I forget the name) was most enjoyable, as was the boat ride. A worthwhile excursion. I tried booking a hingi dinner that evening, but managed to book the following evening. Fortunately the lady at the motel was able to call the people and arrange to have my VISA account refunded, as we had to head to Wellington the next day. That was a very long drive through the rain and Wellington was a little confusing for both the GPS and the two of us. We found the hotel, but the parking was not close by (but not that far away either). We had time for a walk along the harbour and a nice dinner at the Hummingbird Restaurant, but didn’t have time for the museum, your parliament building or other sightseeing. We were a little concerned about the car drop-off at Budget at the ferry dock the next morning. As it turned out, all of Budget’s parking stalls were full. An indication as to what to do in those circumstances would have been helpful. I.e. There is an overflow return location not too far away. The staff at the ferry terminal helped us with that, as the Budget counter isn’t open at that time of day. We kept the GPS, but should have kept the GPS holder as well. That should be specified to future clients. We picked up our car at Picton. The employee didn’t have time to check the car for any damage, so we carried on. We were able to see a wee bit of Blenheim that evening. Then the long drive down to Christchurch. We got there about 5:30 and Steve met us at six at the Budget counter to drive us to the Heartland Hotel. We had dinner in Marivale (sp?) at a Thai restaurant and a good evening before joining our Active Adventure Tour of the south island the next morning at the hotel. Thank you for everything Christine. As mentioned – no problems with any of the bookings you made for us. Tom

Same for our walk on the Milford Track. All blue skies and sunshine. The naturalist on the Milford Sound cruise started by pointing out some of the things most visitors never see – mountain tops and blue sky. If you want, feel free to claim credit for the unusually fine weather. J Renting the car instead of taking the TranzAlpine train worked out well. Thanks again for helping us have an incredible trip through New Zealand. It was a joy to meet you in person. If you are ever in our neck of the woods, you are more than welcome to visit. Sincerely, Dave and Laurie

The only way to really appreciate the beauty of New Zealand is by road and self-driving is much, much better option than doing so by coach. We noticed this at every hotel with regimentation imposed on groups travelling by coach. We could come and go as we pleased, stop when we wanted to and have full control of our own schedule. We did all the activities you had booked for us. All the activities were definitely worth doing. The top three for us were Waitomo Glow Worms, the Tasman Glacier at Mt. Cook and Milford Sound cruise. However, the real joy of the whole trip was experiencing the beautiful country side, the lakes and the mountains as we drove along and stopping at lookout points. On a more mundane level, the availability of washrooms at the frequent rest stops was much appreciated!!!! Finally, the tour package. The documentation was very professional and we read the following days itinerary each evening. We referred to the atlas frequently. We will keep the whole package to remind us (together with photos) of the great trip we took down under. Thank you once again, Christina, and we will not hesitate to recommend you and New Zealand Self Drive Tours to our friends. Shiraz and Fareeda Satchu Toronto, Canada

The tours to White Island (Pee Jay) and Poor Night Islands (Perfect Day Ocean Cruise) were very professionally run, with high quality and safety standards. We were very pleased with all Motel accommodation, and the car - the Corolla being ideal for the winding roads. The Lighthouse Lookout and Waipoua Lodge were delightful - our only regret not being able to stay longer. Importantly, during our trip you checked in with us to check if all was going smoothly. New Zealand is an island of tranquility in these anxious times. We found the people of New Zealand very friendly and hotel and restaurant staff and tour operators very responsive. Yes, we have already made many recommendations to our friends! Cheers! Cornelis and Eveline.

The itinerary was so thorough and personal that it made the whole week totally stress-free. Your recommendations were perfect and we got to see so much! Also, we've put a 5-star review on your Facebook page because we'll be referring plenty of our friends to you! We've also been talking about coming back to do the North island next year, if you guys could assist us with that? Jye :)

The routes suggested in the itinerary were all scenic and covered some of the best sights in the South Island. The tours included in the price were very enjoyable too. I recommend this tour to anyone. Make sure you are a confident and competent driver. My next trip for will be a longer one with shorter drives between stops. Only downside was the cost of the tour which was considerably more than the advertised price and the considerable credit card charges did not help either

Queenstown - Garden Court. Physically great facilities. Being on the main road into town just between two turns, however, the traffic is intense. You could/should focus on places off that road. Milford Sound overnight - clearly a highlight! Te Anau - Marakura Motel - great facilities, location, but hard to find - no sign and hidden amidst a holiday camp. Mt Cook facilities - Hermitage chalets no longer part of Hermitage - they have been passed off to the Motel complex (but no signs yet up, very confusing) Speargrass in Arrowtown - really nice, we really enjoyed our stay there (and away from Queenstown) I will recommend your services. Best! Richard

We know that our advisor Michelle has moved on but her help, advice and efficiency in getting everything arranged and booked was excellent. We will most certainly recommend your services to all friends and family thinking of visiting your wonderful country and, should we be lucky enough to make a third visit in the future, then we will certainly be back in touch. Many thanks once more and best regards, David & Sheila Beecroft -  Colchester, UK

Both my husband and I knew that this was going to be a trip of a lifetime with our kids but we were both blown away with how relaxed we were ourselves the whole time. We have travelled long distance for 1/2 the time and felt stressed about details and timelines and Christina just took all that off our shoulders. She kept us informed of changes and made adjustments to our plans on the fly as we decided on different locations or attractions. If you plan to go to NZ for ANY length of time, I can't say enough about the quality of service you will get with Christina and Self Drive Tours. If only they were all over the world. ;)

A few notes - The Copthorn did not have a sea facing room. I am not sure if the rate is different, but if you were charged for a sea facing room, they did not have any left.  Also, the owners of the Lochiel Estate Vineyard Bed and Breakfast have the property for sale. They are retiring. Although our stay there was nice, I am not sure they are as "dedicated" to running the business as they are planing on retiring. No real complaint, except I was expecting that to be a bit more fun... no offer for a tasting or anything, just a place to stay. The facility is nice so no complaints in that regard. The remainder of the places we stayed were really enjoyable. Overall, a great trip, just too short, but that was our decision due to time constraints. We will return so we can see more of your beautiful country. Thank you, Walter and Mary

At Home Wellington has no parking. If had been a week day it would have been a major issue! If I had know there was an Intercontinental I would have grabbed it. The Hilton Auckland was perfect at the end and saved a lot of hassle and driving in town. We would not hesitate to use your services again and would recommend them to anyone. David and Bonnie

We only had six days on the South Island, we feel as if we were able to maximize our time seeing as much as possible without being rushed. We flew into Queenstown, toured Doubtful Sound, then drove over to the Southern Alps and the West Coast. From there we explored the area (including the glaciers) up to Greymouth where we caught the relaxing Trans Alpine train to Christchurch. We picked up another car to drive back down to Queenstown with several enchanting stops along the way including a most delightful farm stay at Glen Dene Station. My husband was able to fish on Lake Hawea and our hosts smoked one fish for an appetizer that evening. We thoroughly enjoyed our travel experience on the South Island and plan to come back (with Shelley's help) and do the same on the North Island. GPS, a wonderful atlas and pamphlets kept us informed and on track. Thank you again to Shelley and the NZ Self Drive Tours for a wonderfully planned trip. It would not have been the same without your excellent guidance and very personal touch!

We appreciated the fact that you could adapt the standard 30 day tour to suit our specific needs and that you got in touch with us to calmly sort out an alternative when a fire meant we could no longer return to Christchurch on the train form Greymouth. We have been recommending the company to friends and acquaintances currently interested in a New Zealand holiday.

You kept us posted when the train was shut down while we were traveling because of the landslide. The additional tours you suggested were excellent and completed the story for each area. We will continue to highly recommend you for anyone visiting NZ. Sincere thanks and we wish you continued success.

While we were in New Zealand, bad weather unfortunately cancelled some of our plans, but the company was efficient with refunds for activities that were cancelled, and Shelley was able to guide us through navigating past road closures that occurred due to unexpected storm damages. Now that we've been once, we know where we would probably like to stay and what we'd like to see in future trips to the South Island. However, having help to plan our first trip was truly invaluable, and again, I would highly recommend it!

Even when we ran into some problems on our end, she was understanding and we eventually worked out the slight hitch in our plans. It really was a pleasure working with her. The accommodations she sorted out for us were satisfactory - and some even more than just satisfactory - but still within our budget. Also, the tour booklet containing our itinerary, maps and driving routes proved to be useful during the trip. As such, with the assistance of Ms Smith, we were able to have a pleasant and unforgettable holiday to New Zealand. Thanks Megan

At one point we had thought we would have to cancel the tour due to a grave illness in our family. Natalie was most understanding and explained how she could maintain our tour even if we had to leave up to a year later. Our relief was overwhelming. As it turned out we were able to make the original schedule. Weather resulted in having to change 2 planned events but a phone call or 2 from Natalie corrected things most efficiently. We are delighted to meet Natalie when we passed through Wanaka. We are already thinking about a return visit to do some fly fishing and will definitely plan the tour with Natalie. Greg and Karyn

If we could make just a small remark, we were in Christchurch for new years eve. Just near our accommodation there was a French restaurant, however, booking was needed. If you have just said before, we could have booked. But it's really a small thing. There is to many things to do in NZ for those that like nature, hiking and so on. We also just missed the earthquake which occurred in Wellington just after our departure to the South Island. In conclusion really nice trip. And we have had almost a perfect weather. I'd like to apologise if my English is not perfect. Franck Picard

We especially loved the suggestions of what extras to do. We especially loved the Bay Hole in the Rock Cruise and the Bus Tour to Cape Reinga (even though we mislaid 2 of our tourists !!) The float plane trip by Volcanic Air Safaris was spectacular as was the Rotorua Forest Canopy Tour. Make sure that you get vouchers from NZ Self Drive tours; as this was sometimes problematic with the tour operators. Unfortunately some of the accommodation was not great, and it would be a good idea to get some feedback/reviews of the places booked. But otherwise an awesome holiday and we loved that the New Zealand people are so passionate about their country. We would definitely recommend using NZ Self Drive tours to plan your holiday. Thank You

My dad wasn't very fond of the canopy tours in Rotorua, because he hates heights, but even he completed it and smiled in the end. Everything that we did was loved by everyone, some more than others. I particularly loved the Mitai maori village, but everything was awesome. NZ definitely kept a piece of my heart and I want to return again. Our apartments were in top condition and clean and we had everything that we needed for self catering and my dad was particularly impressed with the BBQ (or braai as we call it in SA) facilities at some of the places. The accommodation staff were so helpful and friendly and were always eager to help when we asked. We also loved the fact that everything was so well organised in the file with all the ref numbers etc - that was such a huge help to us and the maps also helped a lot (my mom still believes that a paper map is better than a GPS so she sat with the atlas on her lap everyday). The distances we covered when we drove between places were adequate and we managed well (luckily there were lots of coffee stops next to the road for the family). The one thing we weren't really impressed with was Europcar. We didn't find them very helpful both in Auckland and Picton. In Auckland the GPS they gave us didn't work and it took them more than a hour to sort that out and give us another GPS. The lady that helped us even told us at some point that she doesn't know how they work anyway. After a hour we told them to rather just give us a Garmin, which they did, but it didn't have the holder that you can stick it in the window with so we had to improvise. Unfortunately we then missed the Driving Creek Railway train in Coromandel which we really wanted to do. In Picton we stood in a queue with many other boat passengers for more than 2 hours, only to hear they don't have a car for us, luckily after another 30 minutes they managed to get one for us. We didn't have any activities planned for the day, but the weather was cloudy and rainy so it became dark early and we couldn't stop along so many places as we hoped we could. However, the trip in general was absolutely fantastic and I would highly recommend you and your company to anyone that ever wants to go to NZ and when I do return one day (which I really believe I will) I will send you another email to plan something spectacular again. I can't thank you enough for this trip and tears were rolling down my cheek when our plane left the ground at Queenstown. I feel that words on this email don't do justice to how much we enjoyed every minute of every day in your country. You have such a beautiful country and your nature is phenomenal! We couldn't get enough of all the hikes and loved the fact that we could just stop at a place and take a quick 30 or 45 minute walk through the forest. The fact that there aren't any dangerous animals is definitely a plus and made the walking so much better. The colours of your nature are so vibrant and rich, you just want to take a trillion photos. Thank you again for everything x infinity and all the best for what's to come! Kind Regards Laetitia

On the driving times, we found them to be very low estimates. Even when we accounted for stops, we just never made the distances in the time stated. It seems like you would have had to drive at the speed limit of faster for every minute, which was never possible. This was no problem, as we were not in a hurry. Early on we kept seeing those billboards "New Zealand Roads Are Different" and "Allow More Time", and we did and it was all good. You might want to consider adding at least 30 minutes to most of these estimates. Also, we would have loved directions that show the distance to the next turn. We loved all the walks listed in our itinerary and did many of them, usually one or two a day of the shorter ones. We felt like with the driving times, we never would have had time for the longer walks. New Zealand was much as we remembered it from 1988. As soon as we retired, we plan to spend a lot more time there. So this was a wonderful trip and reaffirmation of how much we enjoyed NZ. Thanks for all the help. You all did a good job for us. Thanks again. We gave your contact info to a couple named Saudek, hope they call you. We actually went thru Wanaka twice, and it wasn't until after we left the second time that I remembered that, so we are sorry we did not stop to say hello. But of course our first pass was on Christmas Day (we took a slightly different route to get to the ultimate destination)( and I went swimming!) and you all would have been out for the holiday. We passed through the second time as stated in the itinerary, but just didn't think of it. Best, Susan

One follow-up question, and one comment. The roundabout drive to Christchurch from Blenheim was absolutely grueling. Pretty, but grueling. Hopefully the direct route opens up soon, but we found it a very long day. Not sure if the feedback helps, but maybe finding a way to break that up or stay halfway rather than at Blenheim would help after the ferry. Anyways, we rate the trip 10/10 we really enjoyed the experience, and would certainly recommend you to any of our friends. Regards, Philippe & Terilyn Limondin

There are so many place we just loved and would return in a hurry. Some places, very few indeed, that we did not take to but that could be bad timing or the fact that you spoiled us so much with the beautiful locations you selected for us in comparison. Many high lights: helicopter flight and glacier trek was awesome! Mount Cook, magnificent! West Coast roads, Arthur’s Pass, the ferry crossings - wow too many to mention. Although we list the bad here, we must reiterate that by far we had a fabulous time, so please take these as constructive criticism and not any reflection on the planning. We covered 3,400km by car; a bit too much in the time we allocated. We took thousands of photographs with many stops along the country roads adding much travel time, but it was worth it. The hotel in Christchurch (Heartland Hotel Cotswold) was a disappointment but nothing compared to that in Taupo (Suncourt Hotel.) The room was shoddy and more akin to a motel (has a feel of a truckers stop.) The room had fused light bulbs and was dingy. Although you organised a full breakfast we were refused orange juice (and all the other usual options like cereal!) The waiter said that it was not included when we questioned her admonishment of us. We felt very uncomfortable and decided not to spend the last night there, forgoing the cost (it was worth it.) On checkout I lodged my complaints with the duty manager, who failed to enquire as to the reason for our early departure. He gave only a cursory apology and then we had a very rude interjection from the restaurant manager where we had breakfast and dinner the previous evening. So a sour end to a glorious holiday! OK - enough of that. Next year, oops this year or even early 2018. We are thinking of a fjord boat trip (we saw one advertised on our previous trip that spends five to eight days cruising the South Island fjords) combined with a few nights in one location before moving on rather than a single night at each stop/location. A star rating - nah - you’ll be off the scale - top marks Natalie! Thank you! Blessings for 2017 and safe passage to Canada on your break. Kind regards, Richard & Rozz

Your recommended visit to the sky tower was spot on and we had dinner booked independently which was superb. Sebel hotel position is excellent and we were delighted with all the externally-available facilities/restaurants etc. Hire car Rav4 from budget rent a car promised GPS on your schedule but the vehicle offered came without GPS, confirmed by the person behind the counter. As we were running slightly against time for heading south, I didn’t argue. I just wonder if GPS has been costed in when we didn’t get it (ended up using Google maps on iPhone). Your booking for us at Hobbiton movie set was seamless and we had a great time. It’s a genuine attraction and the staff were first-class. Princes Gate in Rotorua is very ordinary. First offering was an upper floor room without air con or ceiling fans, but standing fans available from the cupboards. Way too warm for comfort given there is a warning about flies if windows are left open. Business has just changed hands so there was work underway next to the lobby. Request for an air con room after realising first room was relatively airless was met with little resistance, but carpet in 42 was stained, shower curtain seams mouldy, bathroom furniture shabby and phone didn’t work. No way 4-star, though we got the heritage ambience. Saving grace was the on-site restaurant which served us with great food (service ditto) at dinner and breakfast. Restaurant staff wonderful. Polynesian spa recommendation spot on: we loved it. Teenager and I then did the Waimangu Volcanic Valley self-guided walk. Can highly recommend; not as busy as some of the other hugely popular attractions so could be a plus. And so to Queenstown. Flight arrangements from Rotorua superb and seamless; car hire in Queenstown ditto, but no GPS. This is not too much grief because as mentioned I use Google maps, but again has it been costed? Blue Peaks apartment 613 is just superb. Couldn’t be better. Great view (thank you). Helpful staff and, importantly, within easy reach of services etc. Can highly recommend, even after one night. OK. The resort was fabulous and the staff so professional and welcoming. I have seen a couple of negatives on Trip Advisor about the Maori welcome, but we loved it - it's all about going with the flow. I guess we were in such a wonderful frame of mind because of the drive from Queenstown (and a superb stay there at Blue Peaks - we'd go there again without hesitation) in excellent weather. We made a note to selves to stay in Wanaka for a spell next time - what a glorious spot. It was relatively early morning and the lake was shimmering in the sunlight. We parked up on the lake shore. Beautiful. Lunch at Haast, a coffee from a coffee cart parked next to a windswept stretch of beach close to Fox (and such a friendly person!) and then on to Franz Josef. Again blessed by the weather and the accommodation (thank you). The degustation dinners were superb both nights with a little preference from us for the second over the first. Our 13 year old even had a go and loved it. He and I did the glacier valley walk and then did the Fox walk later in the day while Bern made the most of a spa birthday present at the resort. She loved it. So did the Boy and I. What amazing scenery. We had the chance of a chopper trip but decided to save it until next time. On to Greymouth, and your travel estimates (admittedly good weather) were spot on. The Budget staff were superb and welcoming. What a train trip. The seats were great, the commentary first-class and hugely informative, the scenery stunning again. It made me want to do the Auckland-Wellington train trip next time. Christchurch. Greeting seamless, Rydges Latimer staff excellent and the accommodation spot on. The city? Wow! What spirit. Still so much to demolish/rebuild but there is such a defiant, winning confidence about the place. We walked the CBD and the gardens, saw the cardboard cathedral, wandered through the new mall etc etc. Such friendly people. We were a tad apprehensive because of recent (and less recent) events, but felt humbled to be part of the vibe. Pick up from hotel seamless again. The airport is good. And home. Thanks again, Christina. You made it what it was, which was just superb. I wouldn't hesitate to come back to you and your company - and best of all you have inspired us to see more of NZ. You have a magic country. You are blessed. We loved it. All the best for Christmas and 2017.

The tours we had booked just got better as we went. The highlight was our overnight trip into Doubtful Sound - a magical place. The jet-boat trip was such fun, too. A thousand thank-you's, Laura, for your brilliant management of our bookings and for your help in compensating us for our missed glacier flight (due to weather). This was a holiday to remember, especially as it was our 50th wedding anniversary treat.

Milford Sound cruise good except it rained and sand flies were very annoying. Queenstown truly beautiful. Gondola ride and Earnshaw cruise was excellent. Drive to Franz Josef was spectacular but disappointed the glacier trip was cancelled. Enjoyed train from Greymouth to Christchurch and enjoyed tram ride through Christchurch. In summary an excellent holiday.

From the time we arrived to left everything went off without a hitch. The gentleman who picked us up really set the mood, he was friendly, professional and just made us feel like we were on cloud 9. All the accommodation was fantastic (location and quality) and the car choice was fantastic (we named her Jade). All in all this holiday has been one of the best we have been on. A few suggestions * Craters on the moon Lake Taupo, was a fantastic little find we made, along with the Huka Honey Hive. I totally recommend these to anyone stopping over in Lake Taupo.

They are both very close the Huka fall jet boat. *The only time we got "lost" was on the day of the Hobbit movie set tour. We went to the I-site not the Shire Rest, and while the instruction did state the address of shire rest the blurb stated that the tours left from the i site and thus thought we had to be at the i-site to be driven up to the set (similar to the canopy tours, where you went to the main office before heading to the forest as a group). Maybe it was just us, but I would recommend a blurb explaining that you can hop on the bus at the i-site or shire rest. *There is free parking at the Auckland bridge climb and bungy main office (105 Curran St, Westhaven, Auckland 1010, New Zealand), I suggest writing this into the blurb to give people options. Once again, thank you so much! Clare & Ross

Obviously situations beyond our control meant that there were disappointments along the way and we were wondering about refunds for missed trips.

The largest disappointment was of course the whale-watching trip from Kaikoura, but we also missed out on the Milford Sound fly-cruise-fly trip and the Mount Cook glacier trip.

Our TranzAlpine train trip on day one was delayed by 2-3 hours due to problems with the electrics. This involved waiting on board for an electrician to arrive, and during the course of the trip, an announcement was made, apologising for the problems and assuring us that everyone would be reimbursed 25% of the cost.

The drive to Nelson was a bit of a marathon but worth it in the end, and The Sails hotel was excellent. I gather you had probably not used them before, but they were friendly, helpful and the place was spotless and very luxurious and definitely to be recommended.

We loved the Canopy experience in Rotarua, and for Peter, who is very wobbly at heights but determined to “have a go” it was a very positive morning. The guys were excellent and very supportive. For a 70 year old I felt extremely proud of myself, even managing to fly the final Zipwire upside down, to cheers and support from the others so all in all, a great experience; As was the River Dart trip earlier in the holiday.

The weather was appalling with heavy mist and rain, and visibility very poor, but we had a blast! So all in all – Well done you! We enjoyed a brief “respite” with relatives in Auckland and from leaving them to drive to the airport, to walking in our front door, the journey was 40hours! A trip of a lifetime, and hopefully we may return to experience the things we missed. Thank you again for your efforts, we shall recommend you to anyone who might want to come to NZ.

Have a good Christmas and New Year, and we look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Kind regards and best wishes Wendy and Peter Hunter

After the earthquake in November 2016 NZ Self Drive had to change our itinerary at very short notice, We were diverted from the coastal route via Kaikoura to the inland route via Hanmer Springs and Lewis Pass and we loved it. We will certainly be booking with NZ Self Drive when we return next year. We rate NZ Self Drive Five Star Grant and Raelene Bolton Perth WA

You have asked for any thoughts / suggestions, but we only have a few that may not be highly useful, but we thought we had best put them down while we can think of them:

1) When we attended our heli-hike at Mt Cook the tour operator had a few issues confirming our payment. This was partly due to a communication issue on their part with their head office (it was sorted quickly following a few phone calls), however, perhaps including copies of the emails / voucher in the booklet that can be ripped out and handed over to the service provider could be helpful. A number of the places we visited needed to photocopy the booklet you put together as proof of our booking, etc. We had one voucher for the Queenstown gondola/luge event, but that was the only one.

2) The Quest serviced apartments in Wellington were fine, but their lack of parking facilities was a nuisance. We realise this is not unusual in a major city, but $30 for a park in a parking station several blocks away from the accommodation, and one where you could only enter and exit them once, was a little annoying. It was actually a better option to just pay the parking station directly given we stayed on a weekend and they offer better rates than the so-called "discount" Quest was offering. Perhaps putting a warning in the booklet about sorting out your parking ahead of time (the reception closes at 5pm so you can't organise the parking after that) would be really helpful. The location itself was great and very convenient for the ferry and Zealandia (the night tour was amazing by the way).

3) Not that this really is important for you, but the 4WD tour of Edoras (Lord of the Rings) tour from Christchurch was pretty poor. Even though they said we would be picked up from our hotel at 9am and returned by 5pm, we were not back until 7pm. The lunch was atrocious (and was not provided until after 3pm), no water was provided on the tour (and we were wedged in their vehicle for hours on end) and frankly we couldn't wait until the tour was over. If you ever encounter customers with medical conditions such as diabetes, etc. I would highly recommend that they avoid this tour. We have provided feedback to the tour operator, and your customers choose what they want to do, but this tour should be attended with caution.

Other random feedback about your service: - Tour booklet (physical copy): awesome and extremely handy - Customer service: excellent. Every enquiry put through to your team either via email or phone was dealt with quickly and kindly. Our change in itinerary due to the Kaikoura disaster led us to Hanmer Springs, and the motel your team organised was brilliant! At no stage were we stressed about any changes as we felt confident your team was all over it. Your service meant our holiday was stress-free, even in the face of events beyond anyone's control.

Uncle, our greeter at Auckland airport when we arrived was excellent. What a lovely gentleman and that simple service guiding us to the hire car desk and handing over the tour package was lovely. Thank you once again for organising our self-drive holiday; it was wonderful. We will highly recommend your service to anyone we meet thinking of a driving tour of New Zealand. This package provided the perfect holiday for us given it was our very first visit to New Zealand. We honestly feel like we had a holiday, not a whirlwind visit, and that is a testament to how well constructed the tour itinerary was. We hope your business is not slowed by the recent earthquake event, and wish your company all the best in the future. Kind regards, Paul and Fiona.

Day 1:

Bella Vista Christchurch was quite nice – we had to wait over an hour or more to check in as there were police and special personnel trying to find accommodation for those affected by the big earthquake and landslides of the day before. We understood – some were distressed, so we just went for a walk and came back later.

Day 2:

Trans Alpine – good seats, tickets waiting for us. Sunny to start, miserable fog and rain in the middle, sunny at the end. Perfect.

Car hire efficient: we changed models from the one allocated. No problem with that.

Aspen Court Franz Joseph superb –we were upgraded to a two-bedroom unit with spa. Heaven.

Day 3:

Franz Josef to Queenstown via Wanaka – we took so long doing walks and sightseeing that we didn’t get to Wanaka until nearly 7 pm – no chance of a catch-up with you. Phoned ahead to Queenstown to say we would be late arriving – they left a key for us under the mat. No problem there.

Highview Apartments in Queenstown – really poor, and this was disappointing as it was the most expensive. Very tiny room, minimal facilities, and having to wash dishes in a bucket in the bath was a bit third world. And no parking. But we loved Queenstown and enjoyed our stay there.

Day 4:

Queenstown to Te Anau: lovely sunny day, superb scenery (you really have too much of it!), a bus trip to Milford (rain, rain, rain but that’s normal).

Bella Vista Te Anau really nice – comfy.

Day 5:

Te Anau to Dunedin – sunny, Cable Court Motel was good too – a long walk to the city centre, but that was OK with us.

Day 6:

Dunedin to Mt Cook – even better scenery if that was possible – brilliant sunny day –arrived late as usual.

Mt Cook Lodge unit was lovely with a view of the mountains outside the door. They misinformed us about meal times, so we almost missed out on dinner: had to plea to the manager to get some food. Worked, though!

Day 7:

Best day of all – superb sunny weather, long walk to Mt Cook – all the touristy stuff, which meant we arrived late as usual in Christchurch but we phoned ahead again, and they left a key for us.

Day 8:

Car return at the airport was efficient and quick. Please inform future clients that there is no petrol within 5 km of the airport – we thought we were in good time for our flight but had to go back into the city again to get petrol which was time we couldn't spare. Home again!

All your brochures, maps, contacts were excellent. We didn't really need a GPS in the car as signposting is very good. Needed it for Christchurch but it was really inefficient as it kept asking us to go down one-way streets the wrong way, or into streets which didn't exist. We coped.

Next time:

Longer stays in places as there is so much to do. Everything you said would happen, did happen – such a load off our minds. And you have way, way, way too much scenery. We would have made all our arrivals earlier if we didn't have to stop so much to admire the views. Thanks again - Jeff and Chris

In addition, the trip was well paced. Even on days with a four hour or more drive was so enjoyable because the scenery is so beautiful. Regarding your staff, on the two occasions that we had questions and called your office, your staff was so kind and helpful. This was especially appreciated the day after the earthquake in Kaikoura. Since our return to the USA, we have told everyone that they should go to New Zealand AND they should contact  New Zealand Self Drive Tours to organise it for them. You guys are rock stars. Thanks again for making this the trip of a lifetime. Joan & Gary Whitaker

We were so happy to be able to meet you face to face, albeit under circumstances that we wish not to repeat (hopefully never to leave an item on an airplane again), it was just so good to put a face with a voice.

In our 22 day itinerary we both would have just two things we would do differently, one of which we discussed; 1) the Albatross Hotel, while nice, was not a great location, and 2) we both felt the nighttime tour of Zealandia was overrated - while our tour guide was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic there was really very little to see. A day time tour would most likely yield better viewing. Could have been the wet night we were there but not sure.

Regardless, we thoroughly enjoyed all the other excursions and glad we did the Queenstown TSS Earnslaw cruise and BBQ dinner which occurred on my birthday. While it was touristy, the boat ride was fun and the BBQ was excellent with the added bonus of the farm tour and sheep shearing demo - made for a great evening. Continued happiness in your life in Wanaka, and on the off chance Margaret can recover from the trauma of the earthquake (what's a trip to NZ without an earthquake?) maybe we'll see you sometime in the future. Happy holidays. Peter & Margaret

We were impressed that there was not a single glitch our entire trip except for the GPS dying about 3 days before trip end. We called the NZ Self-Drive office and they arranged for us to pick up a replacement at the nearest car rental office. We practically were met at the door with the new GPS and were in and out in 5 minutes.

We were asked many times on the trip what we had most enjoyed so far. It was impossible to say because we enjoyed everything we did ... seeing the magnificent Kauri trees in Waipoua Forest, taking tours of Hobbiton and several Lord of the Rings filming sites, visiting the thermal pools in Rotorua, International Antarctic Centre in Christchurch, the Tasman glacier boat ride at Mt. Cook, overnight cruise on Milford Sound and much more!

But maybe best of all was driving at our own pace, soaking up the beauty of the country and meeting friendly, helpful people along the way. We heard many compliments about NZ Self Drive Tours from the various business people they worked with to make our arrangements. We agree and will definitely call again to help plan our next trip to New Zealand.

Although all of our accommodations were good to great, I would say that our favorite stay was at the Fiordland Lodge at Te Anau. We spent three wonderful nights there. It's a spectacular building and the meals were outstanding, served by personable and more than competent staff. While there, we took the Milford Sound cruise on a beautiful sunny day and hiked through a beech forest on the Kepler Track on another day. Our time in New Zealand exceeded expectations, and we are reliving our memories as we share them with family and friends.

Given my limitations of an arthritic knee, we did short hikes to see gardens, waterfalls, glaciers, and Mt. Cook. We strongly recommend the gondolas at Christchurch and Queesntown. My favorite excursion was Cape Kidnappers Gannet Beach Adventure. My wife's favorite was the Doubtful Sound trip, as we experienced a full rainbow over Lake Manapouri. We visited Auckland Museum which gave us a good introduction to Maori history and culture as well as Natural History of New Zealand. Later we toured TePapa, which is the best showplace of New Zealand museums. Unfortunately for us the Maori Marae was closed that day. We visited other small museums and found them informative: Waipu, Arrowtown, Kauri were the best. Your guide book on the self-drive tour with accompanying pamphlets was terrific. Each evening we would scout out the driving route for the next day and select the activities we wanted to do. We missed out on some of them due to need for a long or arduous hike (i.e. Cathedral Cove) or we felt were too expensive (i.e. Jet Boat ride). But, overall we felt we missed out on little. One additive piece you might consider adding: Today's major event at (city name) is .........! We found streets blocked and detours up at Oamaru due to the Victorian Festival. We also ran into a Marathon at Auckland and Napier causing traffic changes. In regard to your "Tour Driving Directions," we used the included New Zealand Touring Atlas as backup. It was very helpful. A few times we went off grid thinking we could take a shortcut. But, we found your guide directions to be the best routing with the least traffic. Unfortunately, your turn by turn directions do not give approximate distances between turns. They would vary between 1 block and 65 km. Occasional warning mileage would help the navigator. Lastly, we drove from Nelson to Havelock over Queen Charlotte Drive in the rain. On our return trip to Blenheim, at Havelock we chose to stay on State Highway 6. I had no desire to do the Queen Charlotte Drive a second time. The earthquake experience was memorable. We were glad to be in Blenheim and not Kaikoura. One day later and we would have been. For us the detour to Cape Foulwind and Arthur's Pass was a pleasant trip. Then finding out that you do keep tabs on us when Camelot Inn reported us missing. That was reassuring. Weather was detrimental on only three occasions. First, we did not see Abel Tasmen due to rain, wind and rough seas. Second, although we did get our tour of Ulva Island with Peter Tait (accomplished on arrival; was instructional and rewarding), the next day torrential rain fell. Third, we had a rainy day in Christchurch, but we were able to see the Botanical Garden and Tannery Mall. On arrival the afternoon before, we went to Willowbank Wildlife Reserve where we enjoyed seeing Kiwi and Kea. There are so many spectacular vistas to see. We started monitoring the atlas for marked lookouts to anticipate pulling off the highway. For us the very best drive was from Queenstown to Glenorchy/Paradise. Next best was a tie between the approach the Mt. Cook or the approach to Queenstown from the south. For a panoramic view we especially enjoyed going up atop of Mt. John near Lake Tekapo. But, just as mystically lovely was the Red Tussock Conservation area on Mossburn Five Rivers road with the tussocks waving in the wind. The rental car was perfect. It was seamless getting the car in Auckland, dropping off the car at the Interisland Ferry, picking up the car in Picton, and dropping the car off in Greymouth. Every EuropCar Rental agent was cheerful and helpful.

Lastly, we want to give Kudos to the Balmoral Lodge Motel receptionist for there gracious handling of the booking mistake. With your help, they were able to redirect us to the Tower Inn nearby. They went beyond expectations making sure we were taken care of.

Finally, we will strongly recommend your agency to all our friends interested in visiting New Zealand. As I daily posted on Facebook, several of my friends showed early interest in your company. I will be telling them about the many reasons to use you. If you have any specific questions, please don't hesitate to email your inquiries. I would be happy to answer them. Thank you for a splendid trip. Sincerely yours, Gordon Kellett

One down point is that The Quality Suites motel in Kaikoura suffered significantly from the quake (just based on my observations - I’m sure there will be an official assessment). Also enjoyed the 4WD Safari in Wanaka (pass the word on to them that George Scott was a proper host and good driver). We were in Kaikoura during the earthquake and enjoyed the warmth and efforts of NZers for what they provided for travellers stranded in Kaikoura and during the subsequent boat ride to Christchurch, as well as having a place to stay plus meals to enjoy upon arrival in Christchurch. The emergency services which became active after the quake were very effective, keeping a potentially bad situation very civilised and safe.

Eventually, it turned out to be way awesome than what we expected. Jamiee was the personnel who we engaged when we started to enquire on the road trip and etc... She was really helpful and whenever we posted questions to her, she would respond to us promptly and patiently. The coolest thing was we could totally customise our tour and with the first scratch of draft tour/route that we sent to her, she did not change much and she tried her very best to accommodate all our requests pursuant to our budget and on top of that she would also recommend/propose which place to stay, which car rental agency to pick for, what else should we go etc..... We felt so relieved as this was our first time stepping in to NZ and we wouldn't want all these uncertainty to ruin our trip, worry not, she modified our draft while maintaining the tourist-must-go spots to save us all the hassles (by booking all the hotels/car rental/entrances to some tourist spots/transport etc...). Thereafter, upon finalising the itinerary, Salli came into the picture in which she was super nice and passionate in answering all our queries including the payment method. She also gave extra tips on how was the traffic condition, weather etc.... No regrets, we love our entire trip without any complaint and hesitation. The hotels they booked for us were way higher than our expectation (most of them were studio apartment/unit which come with a fully equipped pantry/kitchen) and the car (while being budgeted) was comfy and we were able to travel safely with 2 huge luggage. Simply because we made the right choice by engaging NZ Self Drive Tours (Don't get me wrong, when I said this, I didn't get any commission by promoting them, they were really helpful, in all ways). Eventually, I fell in love with NZ, every place, every scene and all the friendly people there. Though the price of the food was on the high side (perhaps only the tourist spots), the rest were awesome, unforgettable and awe-inspiring. Once again, thanks so much for the assistance which save us all the hassle. We enjoyed every piece of the journey and we will definitely come back to NZ again.

Anyway, thanks again for everything. It was a great trip.

Best wishes, Doug & Bev Emek Ross & Donna Emek

Unfortunately the quality lessened at our last stop, the Puka Park Resort. The breakfast buffet was clearly inferior and they demanded an unacceptable credit card surcharge. The most luxurious accommodation we had on our trip, namely the exceptional "Peppers on the Point" suite hotel we had in Rotorua. We had a spacious very modern, romantic suite with fireplace, all the amenities and a perfect outlook directly on Lake Rotorua, complete with outdoor Jacuzzi. The staff also was extremely nice. All was super and we were very pleased. Thank you very much for an unforgettable experience!

When we arrived at our first motel the package containing our itinerary, maps, vouchers and leaflets was waiting for us and it was so useful to have it all planned out for us, with estimated travel time and suggestions where to stop off en route. The cars provided were of a high spec and really comfortable, important when driving for along time and we are all tall.

The accommodation booked was without exception clean and comfortable. Hosts at all motels were helpful and friendly. Waipoua Lodge was amazing and really worth the treat. My only regret? We only had one night there.

The two train journeys with Kiwi Rail on the south island were awesome and the level of service from the staff at the station and on the train was second to none. Just so sorry that one is out of action post earthquake for a while. All pre booked activities were excellent, the Wilderness Jet Boat Safari will be the outstanding memory.

I am so glad we chose to use Real Journeys to visit Milford Sound as it is a long drive - rather than self drive. This way the designated driver got a rest and to see the awesome scenery. And Milford Sound is wow just wow even if it was a very long day trip.

Hobbiton was brilliant and top tip here, book the last day tour as you get the place to yourself unless you can get the evening banquet tour of course. I would not hesitate to recommend this New Zealand Self Drive Tours to anyone planning to self drive New Zealand

Scheduling the latter from Greymouth to Christchurch was a more interesting direction and something we would not have known by ourselves. We also enjoyed the intimacy of the Footwhistle Glowworm cave after seeing the large car parks for the larger venues. Also, suggesting we take an early cruise on Milford Sound avoided the crowds waiting to board in the afternoon. We feel like you helped us see much more of New Zealand than we would have if we planned the trip on our own as we usually do when travelling.

We particularly enjoyed seeing the blue whale, penguins, touching a glacier and our trip to Doubtful Sound. All the accommodation was very comfortable with a good variation from hotels, motels and tree houses. A trip to remember, thank you.

Doubtful Sound was another highlight. We saw a sea lion colony and a pod of dolphins. But the best part were all the cascades and waterfalls due to the rainy weather. It’s one place where you appreciate the rain! And of course the food and crew of the Fiordland Navigator were superb. Our last 4 days at the Millbrook Resort were a treat. It actually snowed the day after we arrived, making the mountains even more spectacular. Queenstown and Arrowtown were both fun. The day trip along Lake Wakatipu to Glenorchy was spectacular. We highly recommend it. Our meal atop Queenstown’s Skyline Gondola was memorable. I’ve never seen such a buffet selection. And you can’t beat the view! The Rav 4 was an ideal vehicle for the South Island. It was comfortable and we never worried about dirt roads. The South Island is a truly beautiful place wherever you go. Thanks again Michell for helping us to have a carefree adventure. We would highly recommend you and New Zealand Fine Touring to anyone considering a visit to New Zealand. Cheers! Dave & Gina Newcombe

The water is so clear and blue! It's so beautiful! I think our favorite areas were Mt. Cook, Milford Sound and Queenstown. In Mt. Cook, we hiked to the Hooker Valley Lake which was breathtaking! We didn't quite get enough after that so we hiked 2200 steps up to the Red Tarns for a magnificent view of the mountains and valleys! Milford Sound was stunning! We got lucky and had a beautiful sunny day! We are so glad we made the long trek! And we just loved the vibe of Queenstown! We would love to explore there a little more next time! We also really enjoyed hiking on the Franz Josef glacier. That was a cool experience! We can't wait to come back next time and take more time exploring the south island! Thanks again for the hard work!

We had no problems with any of our accommodation or tour bookings. We enjoyed all the planned day tours which included Auckland Harbour Cruise, Discover the Bay Hole in the Rock Cruise and our scenic flight to Cape Reinga, Waitangi Treaty Grounds, Driving Creek Railway and Potteries and Mitai Maori Village experience. The City Highlights Inspiration Half Day tour was also exceptional as we had our own guide for the morning tour. Unfortunately, the flight to Cape Reinga could not land due to wet ground. We weren’t surprised about this given the time of year (Sept) that we travelled. Overall the accommodation was excellent. The motel room in Tairua was considerably smaller than the other places we stayed. If staying longer than one night, we would suggest booking a larger room. In hindsight, as we are not very much into wines, we would have only stayed one night in Martinborough and had another night in Wellington. Our attempt to visit Cape Palliser from Martinborough was hampered by wet weather and washed out roads. It may be worth considering a winter and summer option for this leg of the journey. We appreciated the tour book containing detailed instructions of our itinerary and bookings. We didn’t really use the driving directions given. On a couple of occasions these seemed a little confusing. For example, when travelling to Snells Beach and Rotorua. The road atlas was our preferred map and was much used. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and would highly recommend your company to others. Frances and Denis McFaul

The family-owned Fenton Court was the least "fashionable" of the properties but it was very clean and spacious. Also, the family (husband and wife) who own and operate the property were exceptionally service-oriented. They went out of their way on a few occasions to be of service. Almost all of the properties had very good to excellent service. The one exception to this was Blue Peaks in Queenstown. It wasn't just that they wouldn't give us a late checkout, in general they were rather disinterested in us and any inquiries we made. Also, they did not let us know that our hot water was limited to the internal tank. We ran laundry and showered on our first morning and Dana, the last person in the shower, had a freezing cold experience. It would have helped to know in advance. However, that is an excellent location with beautiful views of the surrounding snow-covered peaks. One final item. It's not necessary, but I really do enjoy coming back at the end of a long day of sight-seeing to a newly tidy room. Of course the motels, Fenton Court and Punga Grove did provide this service. I understand that being apartments, some of the properties do not offer this as part of their regular service. However, the Quest Apartments (Wellington & Christchurch) did provide the daily room refresh. The Waldorf in Auckland and Blue Peaks did not. At Blue Peaks we were required to take our trash to the dumpster on the morning we checked out. (That's OK, we take out the trash at home!) I hope this is a helpful review. Please don't focus on the few negative comments. The accommodations were great and definitely exceeded my expectations! A few words about our transportation services. Uncle, who picked us up at the Auckland Airport was great! Warm, friendly and accommodating. He patiently waited when we picked up Evan at his apartment. We went to see the rooms Evan lived in for 4 and a half months and took some pictures. Uncle was gracious and understanding. Karen, who picked us up at the airport in Christchurch and took us to the Trans Alpine train a couple days later was lovely, timely and helpful. Our coach drivers were safety-oriented, courteous and informative. They stopped for photo-taking, rest rooms and refreshments, often pointing out sites and describing features of the scenery and wildlife. Franz Josef to Queenstown was Chris & Ayoto. To and from Milford Sound was Simon. All went smoothly with the rental car. Convenient location to Waldorf Apartments. in Auckland and our agent, Viviane was helpful with advice and directions. Activities - WOW! We had so much fun and saw so many AMAZING sites! Day 1, Auckland: Evan showed us "his" sites, Campus, Albert Park, The Domain (lovely), Queen St. (busy & chaotic), view from Skytower was spectacular. Day 2, Auckland: Ferry to Rangitoto. Panoramic views of the city and surrounding waterways from the top! Lava caves were cool. Hike was reasonable. Day 3, Auckland: Walked through charming Parnell District and visited the museum in the Domain. Most interesting exhibits were the Maori and volcano displays. Day 4, Drive to Waitomo, Matamata & Rotorua: The Waitomo Glow Worm Caves were extraordinary! This was a highlight! Hobbiton was also super! The tour was excellent and tour guides knowledgeable and accommodating. We took lots of photos. The Feast after touring was incredible! Delicious and plentiful food served family style in the warm, beautifully appointed Green Dragon Inn. This was one of our very favorite days. Day 5, Rotorua: Wow, it smells like sulphur! Visited Hellsgate geothermal reserve and then got into the mud baths. We loved this too! It was fascinating and fun! Day 6, Rotorua: Walked along Rotorua lakeside and past the Bathhouse Museum; Gondola Ride with beautiful views from the top and fun luge ride. Later, boys tumbled around in an OGO "bubble!" Mark and I watched and laughed. Day 7, Drive from Rotorua to Taupo, lunch in Taupo then drive to Wellington: We stopped at Huka Falls to marvel at the massive amount of water and enjoyed lunch in the charming town of Taupo. Beautiful scenery through the countryside and along the lake. I drove on the left side for the first time! Day 8, Wellington: Lively city and we visited a friend living nearby in Hataitai. In the afternoon, we took the ferry around the harbor getting off at Days Bay to walk on the beach. Day 9, Wellington: Visited Weta Cave in the morning for an interesting, informative tour. In the afternoon, we drove up Mt. Victoria. Fabulous views of city, harbor and ocean! Finished the day with a walk through the Botanic Gardens. More views of the city, lovely greenery, sculptures, and fragrant flowers. Day 10, Wellington to Christchurch: After flight and settling into our new apartment, we went for lunch at the Restart Mall. It was great! Food booths with all types of food and shipping container stores. We loved this creative place! We took the tram tour and marvelled at the earthquake destruction and the amount of reconstruction currently underway. Day 11, Christchurch: We went for High Tea at the Casino. Yes, the Casino has an excellent High Tea! I was skeptical but it was highly recommended. It was in a lovely room and I think I had the best scone of my life. Also, High Tea was only $20 NZD! We would have paid twice that amount in the states. After tea, we explored the Avon River Walk & visited the Transitional Cathedral. The Cardboard Cathedral and the White Chair exhibit honoring those who died in the earthquake were very moving. Day 12, Tranz Alpine Train to Greymouth; Coach to Franz Josef: We had a bit of rain during the train ride -- good timing for rain. Spectacular scenery on both the train and the bus. It was a lot of travelling, but the scenery kept it fresh and rewarding. Day 13, Franz Josef Glacier: This was an AMAZING day! We had an epic thunder, lightning, and rain storm in the night. It poured, dropping more snow on the spectacular peaks surrounding us. The morning cleared and the sun came out for our guided hike. Ellie was a great guide and the hike to the glacier was another highlight for all of us. In the late afternoon we visited the Glacier Hot Pools. Lovely setting and relaxing, warm baths. It was a great way to end the day! Day 14, Coach to Queenstown: Another big travel day, but the sun came out to shine on the endless gorgeous scenery. We saw snow-covered Mt. Cook in the brilliant sunshine! Day 15, Queenstown: In the morning, we walked through the downtown shops while it drizzled on us. In the afternoon, we took the Nomad Safaris LOTR tour. Jenny, our tour guide explained that the weather was looking bad to see the sights and there is an alternate tour she can lead if the weather doesn't clear. As if on cue, the weather clears and we have an exceptional tour of all the surrounding LOTR sites with Jenny! This was another highlight for us fans of LOTR! Day 16, Queenstown to Milford Sound: Just when we think it can't get any better -- we go to Milford Sound. What can I say? A boat cruise down that spectacular fjord in the bright sunshine with snow-covered peaks and rushing waterfalls. Then, to top it off, a pod of dolphins play next to our boat. It doesn't get any better than this! Yes, it's a long, long drive. But, we slept on the coach ride home. Day 17, Queenstown: In the morning, we took the steamboat to Walter Peaks Farms. We actually had some rain during the sheep-shearing show, but happily we were under cover. Then we had tea and treats in the lovely farmhouse and the weather cleared, again(!). Feeding the animals after our tea time was another treat. I'd been wanting to get up close and personal with some sheep! We opted for the tea instead of the barbecue because the boys have decided to go bungy jumping for their last day in New Zealand! I'm brave enough to go and watch. We take the Gondola up and they jump from The Ledge. Wow, that was something to behold! I'm glad it's over and we do a few luge trips to unwind. Day 18, Queenstown to home: Happy to be going home, sad to be leaving. This is probably more than you wanted, but once I get started, I can't stop! It was such a great journey for all of us! I am very grateful that you followed up with me online by asking if you could give me a call. I know our trip was so much better because of your advice, guidance and preparations. You were always friendly, professional and easy to work with. THANK YOU! In a few years, I'm hoping we'll do a trip like this to Italy. If you switch jobs to Europe/Italy, please let me know. Or, maybe you have a friend there? I'm attaching a selection of photos of us that you could use in your promo materials. We have many beautiful landscape photos, but I know you can take those on your own, so this selection includes our smiling faces. best to you with gratitude, Lori

Driving was easy on the well maintained roads. The GPS gave us trouble so we stopped using it and relied on the map you supplied! We loved our apartment in Queenstown, perfect location to town! The hike on Routeburn track was fabulous! It would be difficult to choose a favorite as everything we did was fantastic! We were surprised to have enjoyed Hobbiton as much as we did! We typically like to spend our time in nature, but it was a lot of fun, with excellent tour guides. Of course, we cannot say enough about Milford Sound and Franz Josef Glacier. I particularly loved our hike along Marian Creek to the falls! Abel Tasman area was breathtaking and we loved our accommodation as well. It was lovely to meet you and the staff in Wanaka. Your town was also a favorite, what a beautiful place to live! Thank you again for all of your efforts putting together this trip for us Shelley. By the way, could you send the photo of us in your office? Thanks Margie, Jim and Jillian Kuntz

Quay Room was so warm and romantic! But we wanted a kitchen. So, we upgraded ourselves to the Lakeside suite with a full kitchen. This is the best accommodation of all the holidays we've been. We got what we asked for - clean and comfortable and great view. And we got that and even better view. Thank you very, very much! Also, the vehicle we got was great! And to have it sent to us at the hotel - WOW! The itinerary was relaxed and just right for us. Oh, just a note on the time taken to travel from one place to another: The estimated time you gave was based on driving by locals I think. We took much longer. This was due to the winding roads, and unfamiliarity with the surroundings. At some points we were driving below 20km/hour, even though the speed limit was 35 or 45. But no worries, we had the GPS to guide us on the distance travelled. Oh the scenery was awesome! NZ has really, really lovely scenery. And of course that slowed us down further. Can you believe that we took 5 to 6 hours to travel the estimated 3 hours? We visited the Observatory at Lake Tekapo twice, to drink in the 360 degree view from the highland. The drive up and down gave us good practice for the upcoming winding mountain roads. Queenstown was OK for us. I did not know that it is such a busy place. Then driving along the highest roads in NZ was plain heaven! Wanaka - my favourite place of all. We wish we had arranged to stay there 5 nights, instead of 3. That's our kind of place to rest and relax. We walked from The Moorings to Edgewater Resort twice for lunch. Edgewater is a really great place to stay, too. The restaurant has delicious food. Oh, The Moorings has the most compact kitchen of all. I love that place, too. Franz Josef was another sweet surprise! Such a variety of food in such a little village. The walk to the glacier took us 2 hours, but the view was definitely worth it. Arthur's Pass was easier to drive than the other mountain roads. The Alpine Resort was small but surprisingly comfortable. We almost wanted to spend another night there. Well, all too quickly the holiday ended. We're back to reality. Well, we will definitely recommend New Zealand Self Drive Tours to anyone who is looking for help and advice for a self drive tour in NZ. The tour pack that you prepared for us and the customised itinerary was fantastic! It was really helpful and we depended on it all the way. Thank you so much once again. We look forward to another holiday in NZ and will contact you when we do.

The service you offer is excellent and everyone we have shown the black satchel with all the goodies inside is most impressed like we were upon receiving it. They all want the map booklet but they are not getting it. Anyone we know is intending to travel to NZ we will certainly recommend for them to contact you. Thanks for your assistance it was really appreciated.

 3. Phones: Worked well throughout, though data was sketchy in many places. The fact that free wifi was available almost everywhere was a great boon. In fact free wifi was way better than the phone data in all places. 4. Car: The car was good, the built-in GPS functioned beautifully. Never felt the need for Google maps or a paper map. I faced only one problem at the first time I was going to fill gas – nowhere was it indicated (not on the fuel cap, nor in the documentation given by Europcar) whether the car takes petrol or diesel. However, I made a call to Europcar’s customer services who confirmed that it was petrol. 5. Laundry: this was a surprise for us. Almost every hotel/B&B had a free laundromat which made things so convenient. You should mention this in your booklet; it’s a great facility for travellers. Normally hotels charge an extortionate amount for laundry. 6. Documentation: You guys did a terrific job in putting all of the stuff together. The driving directions, hotel and activity details were comprehensive. A few suggestions: a. The only place where I had to rely on your driving directions and b. It would be helpful if you could include some suggestions of 7. Accommodation: Your choices were superb. We loved every one of them. Notable among them were – Elizas for their hospitality, Te Waonui for the food, Rees Hotel and Mount Cook Hermitage for the views, Dock Bay Lodge for everything and Bolton Hotel for the luxury. Specific shortcomings were: a. Te Waonui Lodge (Franz Josef) – the room was a bit far from the b. Dock Bay Lodge (Te Anau) – no laundry service (Awesome c. Fletcher Lodge (Dunedin) – no coffee maker in the room (one gets d. Classic Villa (Christchurch) – No coffee maker in the room, no 8. Food: Sheela did have an issue with food in some places, especially in Franz Josef, Te Anau and Mount Cook. While vegetarian options do exist on the menu, these were mostly salads which don’t make for a wholesome meal. Breakfast was good throughout; the Doubtful Sound overnight cruise served a fine selection of vegetarian dishes. Italian, Asian, Mexican and Indian restaurants at many places served reasonably good vegetarian fare. As I said earlier, please include suggestions of some restaurants in the booklet you give out. That would be really helpful. 9. Activities: We did almost everything we wanted to. The ones we missed due to bad weather were the heli ride at Franz Josef (we made up by doing it at Mount Cook) and the whale watching at Kaikoura. We also couldn’t do the Maori culture thing (because of late arrival into Christchurch) and the bus tour at Wellington (we got up late!). Apart from these, we did the adventure boat ride on the Shotover river and the gondola ride at Queenstown and a hike at Mount Cook on our own. I did the kayaking at Franz Josef on my own as Sheela’s shoulder was acting up. The Doubtful Sound cruise was a nice experience, though the weather was not the best one could have hoped for. In terms of what were the most memorable it was the heli ride and glacier landing, the hot air balloon, Milford walk, the kayaking and the Shotover river boat ride. 10. Hot Air Balloon: The only point I have on this activity is that after the balloon ride, the guests were asked to help fold the balloon and put it back inside its “tent”. This was hard work and I’m not sure if elderly guests would be able to do it. These guys must find some other way of getting it done. And that I would think is the feedback on our trip. In summary, it was a fantastic trip and you did an awesome job of putting it all together. I don’t think Sheela and I could have celebrated our silver anniversary any better. Thank you so much, Shelley. Please do let me know if I have missed out anything or you need specific comments about anything else. With best regards, Vinodh 16/April/2016

Our feedback on a few items. 1. The hotel in Dunedin was not air-conditioned. We would have been fine with a fan except the room was over a parking lot where buses idled and their noise and fumes came into the room often. I'd suggest you have the hotel book your travellers in other parts of the hotel. 2. In the Bay of Islands, we hit a big Harley-Davidson weekend, especially at our hotel. They were outside our room with the motorcycles being ridden on the grass. The hotel staff did work to get them to stop. I'd suggest changing your itinerary to avoid those types of weekends (I'm sure the hotel could tell you, as it is an annual event). 3. Our driving instructions from Auckland to Rotorua indicated we were to backtrack north to Matakana and then head to Rotorua. We found the mistake and headed directly to Rotorua. 4. I would suggest, if possible, when a hotel charges for parking, include that in your total cost up front, as it would be one less thing to worry about. 5. Finally, in your driving instructions, it would be helpful to list distances between each turn. Sometimes we didn't know whether it was 400 meters or 60 kilometers, etc. before the next turn. Fortunately the GPS was great for that. All in all, it was a fabulous experience. Thanks for all your great help! I will enthusiastically recommend your company to any friends who will be visiting New Zealand (and that may be several after they saw our photos!).

Now to the details: Upon arriving in Auckland we were met at the airport and transferred quickly to our hotel. It would have been nice if we could have understood our driver a little better but English was not his first language although he made every attempt to answer our questions and was most friendly. The Heritage Hotel in Auckland was lovely and elegant and the breakfast the next morning was meticulously laid out and kept in pristine condition by the staff who seemed to take pride in making sure items were displayed in an appetising manner. From there to the car rental. I would not, ever, recommend Europcar to anyone. Extremely slow, very disorganised and understaffed. Lots and lots of not happy people waiting for their cars. From there our journey began. The Arcadia Lodge in Russell - quite lovely and great breakfasts, Snells Beach Motel - clean and comfortable, Buffalo Lodge in Coromandel Township - Evelyne is a most delightful person and the rural setting is lovely; be warned however, that the road in to her home is the most treacherous piece of vertical driving you will ever want to do and that is if you don't meet anyone coming the other direction! The tour of Driving Creek Railway was amazing, don't miss it! The Regal Palms in Rotorua was a great spot and the evening at the Mitai Maori Village was outstanding from the cultural demonstrations to the meal, it was all thoroughly enjoyable and did not have that 'touristy' feel to it. Pebble Beach Motel in Napier was probably our most favourite spot of all! Right across the street from the ocean, lovely room and a most interesting city. Take a city bus tour of the art deco building - great value and tons of info. Wellington was an overnight stop to catch the ferry and turned out to be a very interesting harbour city but would not recommend the Ibis Hotel - rooms are so small you almost need to go outside to change your mind! The ferry crossing was AWFUL and we arrived a little seasick in the driving rain to find Europcar car again understaffed and disorganised. This time the car we got was not even properly cleaned inside. The south island! Kaikoura was our first stop and the Anchor Inn was a clean and comfortable place to stay. Again, right across the street from the water. From here we made the drive to Akaroa. This may have been the one mistake in all our planning. It is beautiful, without a doubt, but the road into it is very narrow and very winding for the last 40 to 50 kilometres. This would not be too bad if you were to stay here for a few days but we had only one night and then had to face that road again! Our place at Le Voyageur Apartments was absolutely spartan and really quite tired looking. The kitchenette had 2 glasses, 2 cups, 2 spoons - you get my drift. We left wishing we had stayed in Christchurch rather than make the extra drive to Akaroa for just one night. Next up was Dunedin. What a great place! Next to Napier, this was a favourite of ours. Again, take the 2 hour city tour, you won't regret it! Then get out and walk! The Motel on York was the perfect spot. A lovely, well cared for motel within a five minute walk of the lovely historical area in the centre of the city. Te Anau is set in gorgeous country and our spot at Te Anau Lodge (an former convent) was quite lovely. The trip to the glow worm caves on Lake Te Anau is another not to be missed experience and very well presented. Our guide was an articulate young lady who really knew her stuff and made the whole tour a great treat. Finally, we ended our tour in Queenstown. The Heritage Hotel there needs to take some serious lessons from the Heritage in Auckland. We were there for three nights and the breakfast buffet was in less appetising condition day after day. Things were not kept refilled and things were left untidy and unappealing for long periods of time. Unless you are part of one of the big bus tours, do not stay at this hotel. Our final tour was a cruise on the TSS Earnshaw and supper and a farm demonstration at Walter Peak Station. This was our poorest choice in all our tours. It was very 'touristy' and the meal was just so-so. The boat ride was lovely however and the farm demo of sheep sheering and the working dogs was quite interesting. From here we made our return journey to Canada. We would never been able to see or do all the things we did without Michelle's help in all the planning and arranging. Folks we met along the way, who were doing their own tours, could not believe the level of detail in directions, maps and itineraries that we had been provided with. We will definitely recommend Michelle and New Zealand Self Drive Tours to anyone we know who wants to plan a trip to New Zealand. Hats off to you for a great job!

Danish:

Vi havde Shelly fra New Zealand Fine Touring til at arrangere en fantastisk kør-selv tur rundt på Sydøen for vores fem-personers familie. På ingen tid fik hun sammensat den perfekte tur-plan som omfattede hvad vi havde af ønsker, gav en masse andre tips om hvad der var værd at se. Som respekterede vores præferencer ang. hotelstandard og køre-afstande og alt i alt gav os en uovertruffet afslappet og skøn tur rundt på øen. Shelly tog sig af fly-bookings, lufthavn tranfers, dejlig stor udlejningsbil, overnatninger og diverse aftalte bookninger. Alt sammen meget tilfredsstillende og næsten umuligt at gøre selv.

German:

Shelly vom New Zealand Fine Touring hat eine sehr schöne 16 tägiges selbst-fahrer Tour auf dem Süd-Insel für unsere fünfköpfige Familie organisiert. In kürzeste Zeit setzte sie den perfekten Tourplan zusammen mit all unseren Wünschen und vielen zusätzlichen Vorschlägen und Sehenswürdigkeiten. Weitere Wünsche hinsichtlich Hotelstandards und Fahrabstände wurden berücksichtigt und alles in allem hatten wir eine unübertroffene interessante und entspannte Rundreise. Shelly organisierte Flüge, Transfers, Mietauto, Übernachtungen und diverse Reservierungen. Alles sehr zu unserer Zufriedenheit und bestimmt besser (und sicherlich auch günstiger) als wir es jemals selbst hätten organisieren können.

Also, your response time on the 3 issues we had was awesome and it was all quickly fixed with no impact to our travel. I feel that the trip was very well arranged from a visit standpoint and amount of time in each spot. All the lodging was very nice and we stayed in some types of lodging that we had not done before (The house in Christchurch) and was very fun to try new things, while maintaining the high level/quality feel of the each of the stays. My only suggestion for improvements would've came in Wellington and then between Mt. Cook and Queenstown. For Wellington, I would make the night tour an optional add on, vs being included as it really doesn't allow you to experience much of Wellington. You arrive in the mid afternoon on the ferry, get your car and then check in to hotel You really don't have time to get dinner before the night tour and don't really get to experience much of Wellington. Also, we loved both Queenstown and Mt. Cook. The Mt. Cook experience was amazing and we ended up doing a helicopter tour the morning we checked out before heading to Queenstown. Queenstown was also very cool and was nice and relaxing. For us, it would've been better to do 2 nights at Mt. Cook and 2 nights in Queenstown. Part of this probably had to do with the fact we couldn't do the jet boat tour and had an extra half day in Christchurch. Again, it is not a compliant as we loved our time in Queenstown (and the 800 I won at the casino ) and was relaxing to end the trip that way. We just felt an extra day in Mt. Cook vs. 3 days in Queenstown would've been great as well. Again, I just want to thank you for making our trip to New Zealand unforgettable. I have been to 32 countries and can say that New Zealand is my most favorite I have visited! Tommy

We especially enjoyed the "things to look out for on the way" between destinations that you included.  Every day was a great adventure and there was not one thing we did not enjoy, although Christchurch was an eye opener as there is still so much to do to get the city back on its feet.
The walk in the forest at Rotorua was very good and I must say our guide was an excellent chef, creating a fabulous lunch on a primus stove - although he gave us far too much to eat. Plus the hot springs and the waterfall he took us to was stunning.  We enjoyed all three wine tours and were quite the experts by the time we  had finished swirling and sniffing and tasting - although we did agree that we do not like a Riesling.
 
The 2 highlights were Mount Cook, just to look at the glacier in sparkling sunshine- it was beautiful, the bonus was opening the bedroom curtains  in the morning and it was there in front of you.  The other was The Tiger Moth flight, and the lunch was good too.  Claire does not like heights, or flying, but thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this excursion and we would definitely love to do it again!  Can't say whether it was good value for money though as we didn't see the cost but we both loved it.
 
We loved your beautiful country, especially Queenstown and Wanaka and would hope to come back to visit again
We have been telling everybody here in Singapore about your company so hopefully you may get a booking or two.
Once again thank you for making this the best holiday we have had in years
 
Regards
Graham

The weakest accommodation was the Bay Plaza Hotel in Wellington. The lobby was great but the room actually had broken windows. One small glitch was the driving directions to the Pavilions Hotel in Christchurch which were very vague and we had to stop at the AA to figure out. But that was really minor. If we come back to New Zealand we would definitely book with you again.

On a more personal level. Things that we would suggest you look at would be - the driving instructions included in our tour package. Initially we received two sets of driving instructions. We later found out that one was incomplete and this led to some confusion when driving. We would also suggest that when listing the route that you include Highway numbers, possibly mention only the names of towns/cities that you drive through. Only give street names and cross streets when getting close to final destination. We found that we were getting names of streets in towns that were not relevant because were we far away from our final destination. The first night in the Auckland Hotel, after we got the rooms size straightened out, was great. However, on our last night our room was not what we requested. Frankly, at this point in time, although we did mention it to the front desk, we were too tired to make a room switch. We were disappointed that they had not followed through with our request for a corner room with a queen bed. Aside from this the other hotels that we stayed in were very much to our liking. We loved our time in N.Z. and would consider going back and possibly arranging another tour with your services. Thank you, Shelly.

Something you should be aware of - the one glitch we did have, nothing to do with your booking was at the George Hotel in Christchurch on our second stay - we checked in quite late about 7.00 pm from the train and were given a very small room at the rear of the hotel next to the lift and the restaurant kitchen exhaust duct. There was an exchange of words with a very defensive receptionist who was adamant that this was an executive room and stated that none of their rooms were as described on your voucher.  I asked to see the manager but was told he was not available. I had intended to continue the 'discussion' in the morning but later that evening an envelope was passed under the door offering an apology and a refund of the night's charge. I should also mention that we were unable to get dinner before 9.30 in the hotel as the restaurant was fully booked. Found a great Italian a $6 taxi ride away though.

Honor was satisfied but I do not think the George should demote earlier bookings as they did - otherwise a great hotel but could become a victim of its own success.

To repeat we were delighted by all of your arrangements and are thoroughly recommending your firm to others Please pass on our thanks to all involved - it was a pleasure dealing with you.

Kind regards

Ken and Rita Sangster

The Hollyford Track was fantastic can't recommend highly enough if you have not done it you should it is well worth the money. We went to the wonderful cinema in Wanaka - what a treat and the walking tracks were great. We looked for your office in Wanaka but failed to find it but thanks for arranging a great trip. Only complaint was Browns hotel in Queenstown where they were very nice but the fridge in our room was so noisy it kept us awake and we couldn't find the plug to pull out, also the view was of a roof and chimney stack of adjoining property so a bit disappointing still only one night or we would have asked for a transfer. Anyway many thanks. Kind regards Jennifer & David Morritt

However a few notes for your future customers:

Quest Hotel, Wellington. The room facilities were of a high standard however it was far too hot and very airless and stuffy and without air conditioning which left us with two options. We either closed the windows  or we left the windows open (still hot) and suffered the considerable outside nightly noise. We tried both and had no sleep at all - not good. Parking cost $29 not $10-15, and no reparking allowed unless one paid  a further $29 each time we went out. We believe now that there is free street parking after 6pm, worth checking?

We loved Palm Beach at Raglan even though the provisions were rather dated.

Brinkley Resort Methven, studio with kitchenette, room was excellent but the area was an out of season ski resort so Bar & Restaurant closed and the village not much better , although 4 Square in village was excellent and with a deli counter, a life saver! Not an ideal summer stop over.

White Morph Inn  Kaikoura, was really fantastic. Sadly for them the restaurant had had a fire and was closed but the recommended eating places in the village were very good.

Terrace Motel Franz Josef. This was our last stay with the car so we had decided in advance to sort our luggage out on arrival. We therefore moved into our room, removed everything in the car into the room and while Anthea used the laundry I went and bought food for our evening meal. On my return from the village we realised that although the accommodation was a Motel the room had no cooking facilities (rings or microwave) or kitchen sink, while fridge, cutlery, plates etc were provided, so we were unable to cook. We approached the manager who said that it was a hotel studio which therefore did not provide cooking facilities but we could, at a cost, be upgraded as he had vacancies. We explained that everywhere we had stayed, studios, motels etc had such facilities and our information stated that such facilities were provided and that we did not want to move as we had already occupied the room and emptied our cases and the car as it was our last day with the car.

The room meant that any food washing up had to be done in the bathroom sink, a planning and health issue? The whole issue was daft as the room, if redesigned , could well accommodate kitchenette facilities and the manager could well have offered us a microwave to over come our situation. His attitude was that Franz Josef was a Premier Resort in NZ and because it was not a ski resort and seasonal, prices were higher than elsewhere and that might be the reason why we were booked into a lower priced accommodation. This rubbed me up the wrong way as we had not set a price limit to the accommodation we had asked for. We would not recommend this place.

All other places we would highly recommend and in many cases were well above our expectations.

In the area of road routes we found your information and road signage was excellent however the scenic route from Kalkoura to Methven is badly signposted where certain 'T' junctions lacked signs and a compass proved useful! The route to Raglan , I think due to road works, missed a Raglan sign at a main 'T' but we got there!

Please do not take the above as complaints but feed back as we had a wonderful time and we will certainly pass on your details to any friends who might wish to tour NZ.

Yours sincerely, Peter & Anthea Leslie

Regards

Alison & Jim

Next, the hotels ranged from good to fabulous!

The Auckland Heritage hotel was a little" faded" but non the less reasonable.

The standouts were the hotel in Kaikoura: The Hapuku Lodge and Treehouses, the Hermitage hotel in Mt. Cook village, and the George Hotel in Christchurch. Wonderful stays!

The cars provided for us were excellent. One was brand new!

We found the information you provided in our "booklet " was excellent. We used your information as well as that of "The Lonely Planet to plan our tours. We actually took a side trip to Hanmer Springs as you mentioned it being a great detour. We loved it! Also, we took the Scenic Coastal route, at your suggestion, from Dunedin to Invercargill and thoroughly enjoyed it.

The one negative were the maps and directions you provided. I called them "GPS maps" and found them very frustrating.No cities mentioned. No towns mentioned. Just street names which were not always easily identifiable. We resorted to using "International Travel Maps" of New Zealand, and when we approached a city center, we used "The Lonely Planet" that had many maps of city centers to help us find our way.

We will definitely recommend your company to others - just work on your maps!     Sincerely,  Allan Deborah Boivin

There were only 2 that did not live up to our expectations: the one in the Bay of Islands was in a great location, but the bar and the restaurant were a bit like a Butlins holiday camp. We also had problems with the one by the Franz Josef glacier, the food and the service in the restaurant was not great, obviously they had problems in the kitchen, however the manager on our departure apologized and refunded the price of both meals, so the hotel's response was great. ( thanks to the manager) Suggestions. 1. There is so much to see and do round Rotorua, another night there would have been great. 2. The drive from Nelson to Akaroa was very long and tiring, and we had no time to stop in Kaikoura and go whale-watching. Perhaps a night there would allow that. 3. We arrived in Christchurch late in the evening and had to have a 3 am wake-up call to catch a 5 am transfer to the airport. Therefore we did not see much of Christchurch, and the hotel was so nice it would have been nice to stay another night. Of course you can not see everything in New Zealand, and we saw a lot, and I appreciate that time was a limiting factor. One serious problem: the driving instruction. Please have a look at these given out. They are so confusing! Driving from one place to another we got 1.5 pages of instructions, telling us to drive 0.3 kilometers and then go here or there, where in fact we were staying on the same road, and the whole instruction could have been given in a few lines, like stay on road number ... For ... Kilometers, and eventually turn left/right on to road number ... Towards ..... If you carry on a particular road number you do not need to be told to go on the same road each time a turning comes, you only need to be told of the actual road number towards whatever town that you actually have to turn to. I ask you when you are driving who does actually look at their kilometer clock and check every 0.3 kilometers? Also, we could not work out what it meant when the instruction said: (just one example) starting from 3 go east on Napier Road. Starting from what 3? What were all these numbers? We got lost so many times, so when we talked to other English people they said they were automatically given GPS in their cars and had no problem whatsoever. We do not normally need a GPS but what we need is clear driving instructions. It looked like the ones we received were downloaded from Google or some other website and each day a maximum half a page instruction would have been much more sufficient. Please take the time to read one of these instructions that are handed out and try to see it with the eyes of someone coming from a foreign country. Seriously, it did not spoil the holiday, but I think it is useful for you to get feedback from your foreign customers is useful to you, as something that is obvious for a native of New Zealand might not be for people from other parts of the world. All in all the feedback from us is very positive and we thank your company for a fantastic holiday and we shall certainly recommend the same to our friends. Kind regards: Elizabeth

But if I have to mention something, I have to say to do bicycle tours in the wine areas, both in Otago and Renwick, is a great way to explore the vineyards and area. And a nice and different way to see the landscape is to do the Tiger Moth Flight in Wanaka. Beautiful lake and nature and what an adventure – felt you were part of the movie “Top Gun”! Even if we didn’t had the best weather when we did the boat trip in Milford Sound – we saw dolphins! That made my day! All accommodations we stayed at were cleaned, great located and had great hospitality. The most charming place were the Walnut Block Cottages in Blenheim. Arriving to this new built cottage towards the afternoon and finding the farm's Sauvignon Blanc well chilled in the fridge and just sitting back and enjoy the view over the vineyard, mountains and the walnut tree is an unforgettable memory. The cottage is spacious, of high standard and extremely well planned. There is even a Weber standing outside ready to use. We liked the way the breakfast was arranged. All the thing we needed were already in place so we could enjoy the breakfast at our own pace without either having to buy in advance or set a time. We made a detour, after read in the great atlas that was provided by the New Zealand Self Drive Tour, to Orakei Korako. Well organised boat services takes you quickly to the thermal springs where you can stroll around on a prepared foot path. A lot less busy than most of the other sites in the area but just as impressive. Next time I hope we will have more time to spend and then we will do more hiking and I just have to visit Akaroa and I am curious about the little city Dunedin. And one more time, Shelly did a great job. Everything went smooth and no mistakes! I am impressed and so thankful that my dream came true.

The tour was amazing. The accommodations were excellent and we can say without reserve that we did not have a single bad accommodation experience. The accommodations were primarily in high quality bed and breakfasts and lodges, many of which had amazing chefs for dinner and breakfast. All were friendly. A couple gave us upgrades to full suites. Every week we were booked into apartment complexes that would allow us to wash clothes and relax quietly. All were excellent.

We asked for a couple of changes in the Itinerary during the tour and these were arranged rapidly and very efficiently with accommodations that were as good as those which had been booked much earlier.

We were scheduled on a number of tours and special site visits such as the White Island and the Bay of island boat tour as well as the helicopter ride to Fox Glacier. There were all wonderful experiences that we may not have considered on our own.

The highlights were the Milford Trail 5 day hike and the Deep Abyss tour in the Waitomo caves.

Overall we had one of the best vacations of our lives and we travel a lot. We cannot speak more highly of the tour arranged by Shelley or the service that we received. We would recommend New Zealand Self Drive Tours and especially Shelley to anyone considering a tour of New Zealand.

Scott and Joan.

Your own input was great and at all times you responded promptly and helped make the holiday great - your help and the trouble you took to arrange the three doctors appointments for me to have my INR checked was appreciated and worked well within the overall itinerary.

Yes we did cancel the Dune Riders day trip the main reason being with a long days driving down to Auckland scheduled for the following day we did not think that spending hours on a bus travelling the 400 kilometers involved would be the best use off our limited remaining time in NZ - we actually spent the day in Russell and caught a display by the NZ Royal Navy band, we visited the church and the catholic printing press for bibles which proved when combined with the lovely sunshine that day to make for a very pleasant day. Thank you for posting the credit to my credit card.

A few general comments which you may find useful, as follows

a) We found the "Google" type driving instructions useful for the first/last few kilometers when locating our motel for the night but in general terms not meaningful to try to follow street names and a succession of short distance measures for the journey. I know we had map details with the associated photos in the NZ photo atlas you gave us but we found that by purchasing two maps (North and South island) - the Kiwi maps - pathfinder range  - cost $9 each  - to provide all the information we needed and they were very easy to follow and navigate from.

b) We found the standard of accommodation offered good and without exception clean. The only two negative comments we have are - (1) The poorest motel in terms of how it was equipped and located was in our view the Bella Tuscany on Kennedy Napier  - it was small, minimally equipped, and in the wrong location for easy access to Napier town -6km to the sea front with only some basic supermarkets and limited takeaways in reasonable walking  distance no restaurants/pubs were within walking distance - there appeared to be plenty of motels close to and on the sea front which all showed vacancies at the time of our visit so we were a bit puzzled as to why the Bella Tuscany was chosen. (2) The Edgewater Motel at Te Anau needs refurbishment if we compare it with the standard of the other accommodation we visited  - loose wiring under the TV and "odd" connections to the cooker etc but the location and extent of the facilities was good. (3) To balance the above comments the best accommodation we had was in our view the Clearbrook Motel and Serviced Apartments at Wanaka! Which were excellently equipped and located.

c) Two places we enjoyed and felt that your briefing notes did not do justice to were Arrowtown and Russell - this inevitably is a very subjective view and your notes do refer to both locations - we spent a full day at both and found the respective museums and points of interest in both very good and a lovely river walk at Arrowtown - it undoubtedly help that each day we spent at those locations were in glorious sunshine!

Overall we had an excellent tour and will have no hesitation in recommending your organisation to friends etc we tried your 24 back up service twice and received a call back on both occasions within minutes of my call so that system works and is reassuring.

It was good to meet you when we called into your office on the 16th January (six weeks ago already!) and I hope that we did not embarrass you in any way - I had thought that there must be a nice person behind our trail of E mails and it was good to be proved correct.

Our thanks for your efforts on our behalf the above comments are meant to be helpful I hope you find them so. If we should plan a visit to NZ in future we would certainly contact you.

Best wishes

Regards

Ian Reid

The tour enabled us to see as much of both islands as possible in the 2 weeks we had there. The Northern Explorer Scenic train was a wonderful way to see the North Island; wonderful way to see so much of the island in a relaxing way. Other highlights were the Whale Watching at Kaikoura, a Lord of the Rings trip to Edoras( Mt Sunday), the Penguin Place in Dunedin and the TranzAlpine train from Greymouth to Christchurch. The transfers organised were perfect; we never had to wait and the people were very friendly, especially Uncle who met us at the airport in Auckland. The photo Atlas you provided with the tour information and vouchers (which made everything so easy and painless) was really helpful; it allowed us to chose places to stop and explore whilst driving around the south island and was a good way to see more detail about where we were driving. All in all a fantastic tour, brilliant people who arranged everything for us and I would use the company again if/when i come back to New Zealand

Working with NZFT gave us the flexibility to choose the activities we wanted while in NZ and let us tailor the trip to meet our needs. It was a great trip and I would recommend NZFT to anyone visiting NZ.

Would love to visit again! Just one flaw, though, it would be great if the van came with a GPS, unfortunately we had to rent the GPS from Europcar. Thank you again Jessica for arranging everything. FAUZIAH ALI

Your website is one of the best I have seen for this type of touring. That combined with your ability to customise your offerings made the experience something special.

Highlights:

1) The ski plane tour around Mt. Cook with the glacier landing. This was a unique experience that was well worth the time and money

2) Dart River Safari. Also wonderful. We had some inclement weather that day but it did not detract from the fun of jet boating. We also added on some jet boating on the Shot over River in Queenstown as well. Not to be missed!

3) The Glow worm caves in Te Anau were one of our favorites too.

To be skipped:

1) The eco tour around the Otago Peninsula was a little slow for us. We would probably have preferred to do our own driving on the Peninsula that day and move at our own pace. The tour was nearly 10-hours in length which made for a long day.

Accommodation:

All of the accommodation met or exceeded our expectations! To be honest, we often felt like we had the best room in the hotel. The one exception was in Queenstown where we were given a room that faced a busy highway. We elected to upgrade for a modest fee to take a room with a view of the Lake which was much quieter.

Again, please note that I really had to stretch to find negative comments.

One thing we really enjoyed was the car service to/from the airport and from the train station. Also, having the car rental company meet us at the hotel was very convenient. These were extra touches that made a big difference to our peace of mind on the trip.

Overall, I would strongly recommend New Zealand Fine Touring to anyone looking to vacation in New Zealand (and I already have).

I wish you continued success in your operations and look forward to my next trip to New Zealand when I will use your company again.

All the best.

We left New Zealand feeling that we had seen the best part of both islands and have a real understanding and love for your country. New Zealand rocks! My husband is a beekeeper and was especially enchanted with the honey cafes and the beehives we saw all over the country. I couldn't get over the absolute beauty of the country, the openness and kindness of the people and the enchanting small towns where we stayed many nights. Thanks so much. Sallie Walker

Everything went like clockwork (I don't know if that's a saying you have, but here in USA, it means it was perfectly timed.).  The drivers you chose always picked us up promptly, and were so very courteous and friendly as they took us to our destinations.  The hosts and

hostesses were exceptionally gracious and helpful.  The food they offered to us was always very good.  We look back at our pictures and have the very best memories of everyone.  The accommodations seemed to get better and better as the trip progressed.  I didn't think it was possible, but that's just how it seemed to us.  We lucked out with the weather, and that may have contributed to our fantastic experiences, but everything you planned for us was beyond our expectations.  

I hope that your bosses appreciate the great job you are all doing.  We couldn't have been more impressed with your company.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts... again, not sure if that's an expression you are familiar with, but it is a very sincere THANK YOU!

Patricia and Steve Cuellar

The other thing was that we were told we would be met at the Auckland airport hotel by someone from Europcar, but after waiting over half an hour in reception nobody came and I called someone at your office (was it you?) to find out what was going on.  Another half hour passed and still we were waiting.  While standing up I noticed the Europcar office across from the hotel in the terminal building and walked over.  We picked up the car after that but the point is we were told we would be met at the hotel but Europcar don't provide that service apparently - customers have to go to the office itself.  Again, no big deal, but we had got up early to make sure we were in reception to meet the Europcar rep., and then wasted over an hour before we left the airport.

So, altogether a fine experience and well organised apart from those two little glitches - easy to sort, I think.

Thanks too for the little briefcase, directions and souvenir map book, which we appreciated.

Thanks again for asking how things went - we had a great time.

Best regards,

Bruce.

Within a few days we received an almost perfect 34 day itinerary. We wanted to change just a couple of things which were no problem at all. The booking was paid along with the deposit and then eventually the final balance 6 weeks before we were due to travel on 3 Jan 2014.

However, the unthinkable happened on 27 Nov 2013. My husband Alan, suddenly without warning, passed away. Apart from the obvious shock and all things attributed to the passing of your  soul mate, best friend and partner for 25 years, I was left in turmoil about what I was going to do about our holiday of a lifetime in NZ. Alan had wanted to visit NZ since he was a young boy. And I was torn between going or staying. According to the terms of NZ Fine Tours I was out of the cancellation policy period. Of course I had travel insurance but I really did not know what to do. I contacted NZ Fine Tours literally a couple of weeks before we were due to travel. I explained ( in a very confused and teary state) to Jessica my contact there. Her approach to me was exactly what I needed. Caring, level headed and above all sensitive. She immediately offered flexibility and understanding. I will never be able to thank her enough for this at a time when I really needed it. I decided, in the end and after much soul searching, to go but it meant many changes to the itinerary and the excursions that Alan and I had previously booked. At every step of the way during this period, Jessica conducted herself in the most professional way. Nothing was too much trouble. Even sending me the odd email here and there to just see how I was. So after many changes, all efficiently and sensitively dealt with, I was on my way on 3 Jan 2014.

The trip itself was outstanding. Everything was so slickly and efficiently organised. NZ itself was everything and more that I thought it was going to be. Obviously my trip was challenging to me personally, but not in anyway for any other reason.

For the purposes of effective feedback there were just a few things I would like raise but they are given in the context that they in no way detracted from the most fabulous holiday I have ever had.

GPS System

Overall, the system worked OK. I thoroughly enjoyed the commentary of the country. I feel I really learned a lot about the country in a way it would not have done had this aspect of the system was not present. However, the actual GPS side of things were somewhat lacking. On several occasions I was taken on non sealed roads often taking me on long and on one occasion very, very scary detours to my destination. Furthermore, I am of the absolute belief that the system had not been updated for some time as it did not recognised some of the roads I was on (in that  the roads this happened on were relatively new roads). As I mentioned, the detours it took me on really did add significant time to the destinations, averaging an extra 2/3 hours! The very, very scary one was on my way to Snells Beach when it took me on a single track in the middle of a forest with u bend sheer cliff sides to my right. This although in itself was quite scary, but it was the huge logging trucks coming in the opposite direction to me at speed that made it extremely dangerous and scary. I have never been so terrified on a road before. This detour took me 1 hour 45 mins on top of the scheduled journey time. One other aspect of feedback for the GPS system was the repetitiveness of the background music played. Bearing in mind I was using the system for 33 days. The loop of the music was replayed ever 2/3 hours so you can imagine how many times I heard the same music. Of course I could have turned the background music on but the system does not allow you to have a normal music station on at the same time as using the GPS system.

The Accommodation

I felt the overall standard of the accommodation was fabulous with the exception of 2/3. These being Motel on York Dunedin and Martinborough. The 3rd was that at Tairua. I'd like to feedback on each one separately.

Motel on York - Dunedin

I was not impressed with this place immediately I arrived in reception.

The woman on the counter was abrupt bordering on rude who clearly felt I was disturbing her. She stated that she was only looking after the place and if I had any complaints I shouldn't bother her. I was given my key to my room ( I'm sorry I can't remember the room number) and was quite shocked with not only the standard of the room but also the smell. It smelled of damp and wet dog. The standard of cleanliness the kitchen and bathroom areas was also poor. In fairness I was not enamoured with Dunedin as a destination anyway. I contacted NZ FT and asked to change my booking there from 2 to 1 night and to extend my next destination at Kaka Point by an extra night. This was done with immediate, professional efficiently by Jessica.

Martinborough

Whilst the room was nice, it too smelled of damp but it was the numerous cockroaches that I could hear scampering around during the night which left my skin crawling. I killed several of them ( 2 of which were on my bed). I didn't sleep a wink that night. Every time I turned the light on several scampered away. It was disgusting. I raised it with reception the following morning as was informed that it the room had been sprayed and unfortunately that's what happened when you stay in the country. Not the type of response I was hoping for.

Tiarua.

This is not so much a complaint but more of an observation. The location of the place was perfect but the room were so dated and in no way to the standard to which I had become accustomed to during the trip. The room was small, which was not in itself a huge problem but the decor, furnishings, kitchen and bathroom areas were little more than very, very basic with the fridge smaller than the one I use for camping. Perhaps just an update of bed linen, curtains and kitchen equipment along with a fresh lick of paint could make a huge difference.

Apart form the points above, I have absolutely no other 'developmental'

feedback to give.

I had an outstanding time, despite my circumstances and I will be forever grateful and thankful that we picked NZFT our our tour company. I was so impressed by the services of the company I have recommended them to two of our friends already who are looking to travel to NZin late 2014/ early 2015.

So, thank you Jessica and the rest of the team at NZFT for all your hard work, patience and professionalism.

Very best regards

Jackie xx

Thank you again and kind regards,

Ester and Mario