What an incredible experience! First Light Travel did an amazing job!
We had never ever been to New Zealand or Australia and we decided to plan a "bucket list trip" there for a month from March to April 2024, to celebrate 42 years of marriage. We wanted to make sure that we got the "best" advice and planned the "best" trip possible. Six months before our trip, we did extensive research online and concluded that First Light Travel would be the best travel agency to handle our customized travel experience. And they were the absolute best! Everything, and I mean everything, came off perfectly! From the air travel, to the lodgings, to local transportation and the excursions and all recommendations were spectacular!
Kia Ora! We started in Auckland, where a limo met us at the airport upon our arrival and whisked us to the Marriott, where we stayed for 2 days. A wonderful wine tour of Waiheke Island followed by a tour of Auckland started our trip on the right foot. They arranged for our rental car in Auckland on day 2 to start our 2 week driving trip of the North & South Island. On our driving trip, they arranged a visit to Hobbiton in Mata Mata, a cultural Māori experience in Rotorua, lodging at the spectacular Koura Lodge on Lake Rotorua, an Art Deco Car tour in Napier, where we stayed at the Hawthorne House - a spectacular 1900 vintage Victorian style house managed by Peter & Paul, our Hawkes Bay Hosts. From Napier, we flew to Christchurch where we picked up our second rental car and began our South Island Tour. From Christchurch, we drove to Oamaru to see the Blue Penguin Colony and then onto Mt Cook for 2 days, where our stay at the amazing Hermitage Hotel was incredible. A Tasman Glacier Boat Tour, followed by hiking the Hooker Valley Trail, and Star Gazing made our experience at Mt Cook out of this world. On to Queenstown for 4 days, where we had another series of great excursions -- tour of Arrowtown, a jet boat experience on the Shotover River, Wine Tour of Otaga Valley and the highlight of the trip - a helicopter trip from Queenstown to Milford Sound where we experienced a great boat trip around the sound, followed by a return helicopter flight that landed on a glacier. Just absolutely amazing!!
G'Day Mate! After New Zealand, we headed to Australia, where we decided to do a "Taste of Australia" with 3 days in Melbourne, 3 days in Cairns, (where they arranged a fantastic diving experience with Tusa Tours on the Great Barrier Reef), and finally 5 days in Sydney, where our experiences exploring the local culture, Blue Mountains, surfing Bondi Beach and immersion into the laid back Australian lifestyle left us in awe.
Thanks to Natalie for doing such a superb job and making our "bucket list trip" a memory that will last a lifetime!!
