New Zealand Local culture Trips

What a wonderful trip! Gorgeous scenery, good food, Maori culture, Lord of the Rings opportunities, wildlife, and great travel director and driver. The locations chosen offered a nice variety to see different parts of both the north and south islands, learn about the agriculture and farming, as well as the history of the country.

The itinerary covered the main areas on both the north and south islands. What was really great was the secondary tours that you could take to further enhance the tour.

Our tour guide, Hope, and driver, Mark, were first class. Mark never drove fast around winding roads which helped with motion sickness, was always pleasant and helpful. Hope was able to tell us so much about her home, NZ, and was never boring. Her lovely voice was easy to listen to as she pointed out so many interesting things on the way. Hope also was caring and had so much patience with the whole group. If things didnt work out because of weather she was able to come up with great substitutes.

The sights and experiences packed into this 19-day tour were simply unforgettable. Every day offered new adventures on land or sea. Our tour manager was knowledgeable, adding incite to the experience with stories and background information as we traveled the length and breadth of both north and south islands. My day on Milford Sound, including optional flight back to Queenstown, was one of spectacular beauty and exciting adventure.

This was a bucket list trip that we very much enjoyed. You never realize how large Australia is until you have to be on 11 airplanes for your trip. The trip to Uluru was very good, however, we felt like the order of travel could have been better arranged as we lost two days of travel getting there and back. The camel ride was excellent. We very much enjoyed Sydney, the Opera House, the bridge climb, and the national aboriginal guide that shared much information. Carin’s was a great experience, as scuba diving on the great barrier reef was a life list fulfilled. We are experienced divers and would have liked to have had a better experience there. Melbourne was beautiful and we so much enjoyed everything we did there. Wayne, our guide, gave us excellent suggestions as to things to see on our own. We loved New Zealand and would like to return there at some point. The flight that we took over the glaciers to return to our hotel was disappointing as our pilot did not share anything that we could see. We loved Mount Cook and that complete experience overnight. Wayne was so very knowledgeable in sharing everything about Australia and New Zealand. We also did the extension to Fiji. The Crowne Plaza resort was lovely, the excursions showed the Third World country that Fiji is. Fiji is a beautiful place, but it was not at all what I expected. The captain Cook excursion there was very nice. We also did scuba on that excursion, which was also disappointing. All in all, it was a beautiful trip that we are glad we experienced.

Our tour guides, Lia in New Zealand and Australia was awsome. Her knowledge of the land and people was remarkable. Lia has a personality that fits with any group that she tours with. Lia has personality plus! Our secondary guides, were also great, they fit our tour group perfectly. Tui, our guide in Figi was also magnificent.. Tui, made us all fell like we were part of his family and part of the Island. I love all the tours, but I must admit the snorkeling, bungi jumping, panning for gold and the Ramon Burr's Bertanical Garden were my favorites.