Self-Guided Tours of New Zealand

It was a nice balance of travel and exploration, having a couple of days in Franz Josef Glacier and Queenstown was fabulous while also exploring lots of Te Waipounamu. Our guide was really passionate about Aotearoa New Zealand and shared her love beautifully. She also managed all our free time add-on activities so smoothly. The coach was comfortable, clean, and expertly driven on some wild roads! The accommodation was clean and well located, though a kettle would have been nice in Queenstown lol.

Highly recommend booking this trip if you want to explore New Zealand. Our trip manager was so informative about the places we were driving through/staying as well as the Māori myths, legends and history. I’d recommend visiting in winter especially between July and early September as there’s more chance of snow in Queenstown and the other towns. The accomodation was good, mostly four per room then in Queenstown it’s a room of 8 pods that were super fun. Super easy to eat a lot and eat healthy with the included breakfasts and dinners. I can honestly say I was never hungry. Queenstown you get food vouchers for fergs for breakfast and they have so much to choose from! There’s lots of free time add-ons to do and lots of adrenaline ones if that’s your thing. I enjoyed the kayaking and quad biking in Franz Josef and the e-bike tour in Queenstown is a must if you want to explore the lake. Fair warning it is about 3-4 hours of biking and you go up and down hills but the scenery is stunning. I would’ve liked another day in Lake Ōhau as there was fog there the whole 24 hours we were there so we didn’t see the lake or mount cook but the three course dinner was 10/10 and it was such a cute place with the fireplaces. We also had to take a detour to Christchurch as the roads were closed from ice and it was sad not going through Twizel and Geraldine. If you’re thinking about doing this trip, it’s a nice one to start with and the views are extraordinary!

Overall, this was a great trip! All of the included activities were culturally relevant to New Zealand - the kiwi hatchery, going to a Maori village and the tour of the founding grounds. It was really awesome to see the cultural significance embedded into it from the start. The free-time add ons also highlight the adventurousness of NZ as well! Our Trip Manager was extremely knowledgeable, laid back, and level headed. He worked as hard as he could to ensure everyone was able to get onto every single activity that they wanted to and really worked to accomodate everyone's needs and free time wants on the trip. One thing to mention is that this a modular trip - some people will be joining halfway through, and other will be leaving. There are obviously dynamics internally that will arise because of this. All in all, this was a fantastic trip with people that are kind and respectful. I would recommend it to others! I wish I had stayed on for the South Island as well :)

The trip was amazing! Our trip manager and driver did such an amazing job at making sure everything ran smoothly and that everyone got a chance to do everything they wanted!

Perfect for a first time traveller to dip their toes in! Not too overwhelming or rushed, still very much a choose your own adventure type trip and a really good way to introduce yourself to the contiki vibe! Would love to do the panorama trip next to explore the rest of NZ!

Amazing trip managed, bus driver had such a great attitude and was great when things went wrong. Beautiful tour, so many fun activities to do, and so many lifelong friends made!