Travellers Testimonials and Reviews: First Light Travel

We had plenty of fun putting together a fishing and hunting holiday for a group of cousins from Australia and New Zealand - it was great to hear how much they enjoyed it.

Thank you for another great holiday - we were all most impressed; especially those of us who were visiting New Zealand for the first time. We had a fantastic time in the South Island and especially loved our fishing and hunting experiences. Looking forward to another visit next year!

Kerre & the ANZACS - Australia

We had a FABULOUS trip around New Zealand. Every activity we did was engaging, interesting and fun. Kasey did a phenomenal job of finding great companies to facilitate our excursions and organizing a trip that allowed us to see the most of New Zealand in our short timeframe. Thank you so much again for all of your great insight and help! -

Mandi & Oliver Kiefer - USA

We had a great experience in New Zealand with First Light Travel. From our initial enquiry, Chrissy took very good care of us - understanding our needs, recommending itineraries, and answering our questions - while our guide Dmitry was awesome! Thanks so much! We will happily recommend First Light to any friends traveling to NZ in the future.

Maria Luk & Jonathan Braun - Hong Kong

Thank you Jo Taylor and First Light Travel for planning me the Holiday of my life! I gave Jo a brief description of what I was looking for and she gave me an itinerary that was better than anything I had imagined. My trip was just laid out for me, stress free. It was made so easy and beyond enjoyable. Jo Taylor exceeded my expectations. She made my dreams come true and added a few I didn't even know I had! I am so grateful and so happy that I traveled with First Light!

We would most definitely recommend First Light Travel to friends considering a visit to New Zealand. The holiday was very good value and just right for our interests – Cathedral Cove was amazing, and the guided walk in the Coromandel rainforest as well as the geothermal walk in Rotorua were highlights of our trip. We are very satisfied and grateful to Chrissy for her patience and assistance.

Samera & William Baird - USA

Loved working with Amelia! Even though it was Christmas when we decided to look into a trip for mid January, Amelia gave amazingly prompt responses and suggestions. The "canned" itinerary that you send at first inquiry gave us a great jumping off point to plan our own fly/drive vacation! It really gave us a good idea of travel times and suggested stops. Then Amelia helped us find appropriate and lovely accommodations for our needs. For example, we wanted to have a washer/dryer in our room every 3rd or 4th day so we didn't have to pack so much. She lined it up perfectly. She also suggested activities that we had not considered in each city and booked those that we wanted to try. They ended up being our favorite parts of the trip! She also warned of long drive times (Which we still did, and she was right - it was long). Amelia also booked things like lunches after a kayaking trip which ended up being a life saver as we only had minutes to eat before heading into another activity. Every hotel and activity was booked just as she indicated; we had no problems with reservation glitches at all. We also appreciated the list of things to see in each city on our daily itinerary, as we could pick our favorites and hope we didn't miss too much that we wish we had seen. 

Amelia at First Light Travel was extremely professional and efficient. 

Thanks for a great trip!

Dee, Mark and Madeline Dehart (USA)

Hi Suzie,

Thank you very much for this wonderful trip you prepared for us. Booking direct from home with First light travel was easy and without any problem.
Our ideas were realised to perfection and included various events/attractions for a price we couldn't find elsewhere.

Thank You again

Hartmut and Norma Schnitzspahn (Germany)

Hi First Light Travel, 

Thanks for all of your hard work and organisation to ensure we had such a beautiful, unforgettable trip in New Zealand. We especially enjoyed the sand surfing, mountain biking and sea kayaking as well as spotting whales and leaping dolphins in the wild.

Rotorua was remarkable with all of its thermal energy and we loved the fun, youthful atmosphere of Queenstown. Thanks for everything - we thought this was a once in a lifetime trip, but now we think we should come back again one day!

Greetings, 

Lian & Rene - Netherlands

Hi Judith,

We feel so lucky to have travelled to the beautiful country of New Zealand. We loved the Milford track - it's the best and greatest walk in the world, no doubt about that First Light Travel is a reliable and very experienced company, with excellent tips and advice. They specialise in organising custom-made trips - and they're really good at it.

Thank you Judith and the First Light Travel team for all your fantastic advice and dedication in making this the best trip we've ever had.

Marcel van der Borden, Netherlands

First Light Travel, in particular Shelley Kirk, gets our five-star rating and strongest recommendation for anyone planning to vacation in New Zealand and/or Australia.

We are frequent travelers, prefer independent over group tours, and rarely work with a travel agent or agency. But knowing little about the lay of the land in Australia and New Zealand we decided to "try" working with an agent while planning our first, month-long visit. After Internet searching and reviewing the New Zealand Tourism site we sent a request for proposal to 4 agencies, including First Light Travel. We roughly described our schedule, interests, preferences, and budget and waited to hear back.

We received just 3 proposals, with one agency saying our budget was too small for them to even entertain. Shelley Kirk was the first to respond, provided the best proposal on every front (quality, cost, variety, etc.), and most importantly, she was willing to work with us on every facet of our trip. Shelley was able to put together an independent travel itinerary with the perfect balance of pre-planned activities and free time for us to get the absolute most out of our travel at our desired pace and price. In the face of changes and suggestions she was unfailingly open-minded, flexible and fun to work with!

It is rare to have the experience where everything on a holiday goes as planned; something always seems to go awry along the way. But honestly this vacation went off without a hitch: no surprises, no failures, and no problems with any aspect (flights, cars, transport, lodging, activities, etc., etc.) of our bookings. Our travel pack from Shelley included all the details and was an easy reference for each day of our holiday. While I can't credit Shelley with the weather (or can I???), even that was perfect during our stay!

If you're looking for someone to plan your dream vacation in Australia or New Zealand (or perhaps anywhere!) you should contact Shelley Kirk. A proposal costs you nothing and you may be as pleasantly surprised (thrilled) as we were at how well they meet or exceed your expectations.

We would be delighted to serve as a reference for Shelley Kirk and First Light Travel. Please feel free to message me if you have questions or would like additional information about our holiday plans. Best regards to Shelley and all the staff at First Light Travel. 

CJ and David Lambert
 

 Bethesda, MD USA