Adventures of New Zealand's South Island

The trip was well planned. The response from Zicasso’s travel agency was prompt and helpful while planning and during the trip.

Our driver/guide was awesome; very knowledgeable in all aspects of travel and photography, well mannered and very helpful.

The ferry from Wellington to Picton was in awful condition. Most of the toilets did not work and the scenery was nowhere near as profound as described by the agency.

The three nights in Queenstown for senior citizens like us (65+) was too long if you are not into bungee jumping, rafting, kayaking, etc. Instead, it would have been nice to spend a day or two in a place like Wanaka, or one night in Te Anau near Milford Sound.

While the train trip from Greymouth to Christchurch was great and scenic, the agency should have booked the seats on the left side (facing the front of the train) as most of the nice views were on that side.

The hotel in Christchurch was way below the four- to five-star accommodation requested by us.

Overall, however, we had a great trip!

Having explained to the travel agency that we wanted them to arrange a package based on our itinerary, not theirs, they eventually came up with an excellent tour plan at around half the price of the other competing company for almost the same itinerary, so that was a big positive.

Unfortunately, our trip was then delayed for three years by the Covid pandemic.

Our trip was replanned for 2023, but through no fault of the company, some amendments were necessary due to hotels and excursions being fully booked or just not available as New Zealand opened up to tourists once more. This seems to have been at least in part the reason for the poor execution of our itinerary which eventually caused us to lose all confidence in the company.

We first noticed that the written amended itinerary supplied by the company had errors such as transfers being shown from hotels booked on the original 2020 itinerary instead of from the replacement hotel booked for the 2023 tour. We queried this and were given the assurance that everything including transfers had been updated as necessary.

Our arrival and stay in Auckland was very satisfactory, but in Rotorua, our second stop, our hotel had been changed.

On our day of departure to Rotorua airport (for our flight to Wellington) our taxi to the airport failed to arrive at the hotel. After some minutes we managed to get through to the taxi company on the phone, to be told the taxi had gone to the original hotel. Our itinerary had not been amended. Thanks to our own efforts and the kind cooperation of the local taxi firm, they got us to the airport but check in had closed. Luckily, a member of the airport staff noticed our arrival and rushed our luggage through and we boarded the plane. Had this been three or four minutes later or in a larger airport we almost certainly would have missed our flight with inevitable disruption to our itinerary.

I called the office regarding this error and I was assured that they would recheck our transfer arrangements.

Following this incident, we took it upon ourselves to contact each transfer company in turn to confirm the arrangements.

We had an escorted tour to New Zealand with a big tour company, but wanted to add on a few days at the end without the tour company. So I contacted Zicasso, who we have used for African safaris. They set us up with our trip planners. From half a world away, I could have booked the three hotels and rental car myself, but I wanted the expertise and back-up of somebody right there in New Zealand in case of problems. And I am glad we did. Our agent was always available by phone or email to answer questions. We picked up the rental car at Queenstown airport, then had two nights at Mount Cook Village, with spectacular vistas of the Southern Alps, then two nights at Wānaka, another of the scenic spots of the South Island. We met our agent at the tour office on our way out of town. Then, the last night was in Queenstown.

The trouble started the next afternoon while waiting for our flight home from Queenstown airport. All flights were canceled that afternoon due to heavy wind shear. They booked us for the next day. Hundreds of people were scrambling to get hotel rooms, like we were. We just could not find anything on our own and were thinking we would have to sleep in the bushes, since the airport closed at night. But then I called our agent and, within a few minutes, she had us booked in one of the last available rooms in Queenstown. This is what I meant by “back-up in case of problems.” I am very glad we went with Zicasso’s tour company and will use them if we go back to New Zealand.

Shelley was absolutely amazing. She prepared a trip for us that included every detail I had in mind for my son and me. One thing I was absolutely firm about was being able to stay in a Hobbit hole, and while other companies I had checked with said this couldn't be done, Shelley did everything to make our dreams come true.

We were able to see so many of the Lord of the Rings filming sites and the Dark Sky resort at the hotel in Mt Cook was completely mind-blowing. My review could take pages to write, but I will simply state that if you want to plan a trip to New Zealand, then this is the company to plan it with.