Auckland, Waitomo Caves, Rotorua, Christchurch & Queenstown Tour

We were 3 couples from New York looking to plan a trip of alifetime visiting French Polynesia, New Zealand, and Australia. Welooked at cruises, land tours offered by tour companies and couldn't find anitinerary that captured all of the bucket list items each of us had. Icompleted a Zicasso travel questionnaire and they connected us with a travel plannerfrom this travel company.  Our travel planner was phenomenal from the start - responsive, attentive,understood our travel objectives and immediately began putting together anitinerary for us. With us in New York and our travel planner based in New Zealand you mightthink the time difference would complicate the planning process - not at all.We worked collaboratively over the phone, text, and email planning our trip (aU.S. number was provided so there was no international communication charges).Our planner drafted an itinerary (including destinations and air flights); offeredtour options, suggestions and recommendations; and wherever possible providedsmall personal tours. With our travel plan nearly complete we decided to dropone of our destinations (Melbourne) and add a new destination (AyersRock/Uluru). In order to make this work the Australia part of our itinerary hadto be reworked. No problem at all - our travel planner quickly had all of the hotel, flight,tour and transport arrangements made and the pricing finalized. Our finalvacation plan had us traveling almost 4 weeks visiting Moorea, Auckland,Rotorua, Queenstown (NZ), Cairns/Port Douglas, Ayers Rock, and Sydney - allwith amazing tours to enrich and highlight our destinations. 

About 2-3 weeks before our trip we received our detailed electronicitinerary complete with flight, hotel, tour, and transport (to/fromhotel & airport) information. Also provided was travel tips for each of thecountries being visited and local contact information should we have any issuesat all during our journey.

Our trip started in Moorea where we stayed at a Resort and Spa. The pool was closed due to renovation - something we and our travel planner did not know when the reservation was made and found out about 3 weeks prior to arrival - but the hotel provided us a room credit and upgraded our accommodations to an OTW bungalow. The hotel beach was beautiful, accommodations amazing, staff warm & friendly and our stay in Moorea incredible - would highly recommend this island and hotel. While in Moorea we did two tours - Private Sailing Cruise on the Taboo - Half Day, and Private 4WD Safari Tour - Half Day. I would recommend both tours but the Sailing Cruise on the Taboo was exceptional and highly recommended.  

From Moorea our next destination was New Zealand - we spent an evening in Papeete, Tahiti to catch an early morning flight to Auckland. The hotel in Papeete we stayed at - we would not recommend this hotel at all. It was dated, very low level exterior nighttime lighting, and a host of other problems and issues. I strongly suggest staying at a better hotel on the outskirts of town.  

Our New Zealand itinerary was magnificent. In Auckland we stayed at a Hotel (highly recommend) and took the Auckland Luxury Day Tour. We enjoyed the tour and our guides (our primary guide and driver and our Maori guide) - Our primary guide was excellent (knowledgeable, informative and fun) and our Maori guide flavored the tour with Maori history, culture and traditions. Our next tour was a coach tour taking us from Auckland to Rotorua stopping along the way at Hobbiton and Waitomo. Hobbiton was beautiful and although the six of us did not read the books or see the movies we all loved the tour, the beautiful landscape, and the stories provided by our guide. The Waitomo caves and glowworms is something you should see but we found the tour groups large and clustered to close together making it difficult to hear the guides. Our day ended in Rotorua where we stayed at a lakeside hotel - a nice hotel located on Lake Rotorua. In Rotorua  we did a Geothermal Hotspots and Boat Cruise. This was a small personal tour and our tour guide was excellent providing the history, insight and science to this geothermal park. That evening we attended a tour of a Tamaki Maori Village, dinner, and a cultural show - a fun time had by all. Our last stop in New Zealand was Queenstown where we stayed at a beautiful and charming hotel - located on a hill top overlooking the lake and walking distance to town - we loved our stay here and highly recommend this hotel. From Queenstown we did the Milford Sound Nature Cruise - this is a long day with a lot of hours riding the coach bus but the cruise and beautiful landscapes are well worth it. Our last tour out of Queenstown was the Dart River Jet Safari. Our tour bus driver to the start station and river was fun, knowledgeable, and very passionate about the beautiful natural resources and landscapes of this wonderful country. The jet boat part of the tour was exhilarating with scenic stops coupled with jet spins and zooming down the scenic river. From Queenstown we left New Zealand for Cairns/Port Douglas Australia.

Australia was incredible. Our first stop was Port Douglas. Here we stayed at a Resort and Spa – a boutique type hotel that was just a few minute walk to the town and restaurants. We loved our poolside rooms and enjoyed the pool after a day of touring – definitely recommend this hotel. Our first tour here was where we explored Daintree National Park. As we cruised the river, hiked in the rain forest, walked the beaches, and toured the park, our tour guide was terrific providing information and  insight into the cultural history, the ecosystem, wildlife, and plant life. From the rain forest one day to the Great Barrier Reef the next - here we experienced the reef - Outer Reef and Snorkel Tour. Our tour group of 10 boarded the beautiful catamaran and was greeted by the captain and two mates. It was the crew that made this day fun and special. There were some that were apprehensive about swimming/snorkeling the reef - they took the time and patience to make sure everyone was comfortable and had the opportunity to enjoy this magnificent experience. The next morning was a very early start to catch our 6:25am flight to Ayers Rock. At Ayers Rock where we stayed had a beautiful room with a view of Uluru. Given the early start, we had a chance to relax and enjoy the pools our first day here. Two of our friends did the helicopter tour of Uluru in the early evening and thoroughly enjoyed the spectacular views from the air. The next morning we did the Desert Tour Including Breakfast with our guide. We enjoyed a pre-dawn breakfast and witnessed the beautiful sunrise over the desert and Uluru, and then toured Uluru where our guide told us about the history, culture, people, and geology of this incredible landmark. That night we enjoyed the A Night at the Field of Light with the Dinner tour. Here we were able to see the breathtaking views of Uluru across the desert at dusk and the sunsetting on Kata Tjuta, enjoyed an outdoor buffet dinner, and walked the pathways through the Field of Light - a wonderful way to cap the end of our last night at Uluru. Our last destination - the beautiful city of Sydney. Here we stayed at a Sydney Harbour  hotel - a beautiful boutique hotel with friendly attentive staff, delicious food, and is walking distance to many restaurants and city attractions. Our first tour, was a full day tour that took us to the Featherdale Wildlife Park (where we were able to feed kangaroos and pet koalas) and tour Blue Mountains National Park. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and due to the cloud cover we were only able to get a glimpse of this beautiful park. We did get to see kangaroos in the wild and our tour guide made the outing fun and informative. Our last tour of this incredible journey was the Full Day Sydney Including Harbour Sailing tour. The tour included all the key city points of interest, and a pretty drive through the suburbs to Bondi Beach, all insightfully narrated by our guide. Our tour continued with a sailboat cruise around Sydney harbor. We had some on and off rain during the cruise but the captain made the trip enjoyable with his knowledge, tidbits of information, and stories about the surrounding harbor sites and homes.  From the tropical Port Douglas; the deserts of Uluru; to the harbor, sites and mountains of Sydney - this was an amazing Australian adventure.  

There were many moving parts to this trip of a lifetime, and everything executed like precision clock work. I have to complement our travel planner and her attention to detail for the seamless execution that allowed us to fully enjoy this amazing journey. What also made this special were the tours - most of our tours were small personal tours of  6-10 in very comfortable luxury vehicles with guides that were engaging, knowledgeable, friendly and made the experience both informative and fun. 

We just recently returned from a two week getaway to New Zealand and Fiji that was arranged bythis travel company. I worked with Lindsay to complete the itinerary for a trip of the lifetime. We started in Auckland for a trip to Wahiki Island with a private van and tour guide for the day. The next day we were off to the Waitomo Caves, and since there had been a lot of rain we had our tour changed to another activity when we arrived. Next we made it to Rotorua for a white water rafting and mountain biking trip followed by a Maori dinner experience that night. Lastly, we hopped on a plane to Queenstown where we visited the Milford Sound and golfed at Milbrook. After a few days in Queenstown we left for relaxation and sunshine in Fiji. The entire experience with this company went smoothly and Lindsay was very informative during the entire planning process. Once we arrived in New Zealand and Fiji we were picked up right away and given important documents for our trip. There were a few hiccups during our stay, but nothing that the travel agency could control. Once we returned I informed Lindsay of the issues (mainly cancelled activities because of weather) and she is looking into each issue so we can be refunded. I would definitely work with this company again for a future trip!

Overall this was a successful trip that proved to be equal parts relaxing, fun, and memorable. This was my first time traveling to both New Zealand and Australia and good impressions were left by both places. I can already imagine going back.

Before diving into the on-the-ground experience, I'll first say a few words about the travel company. Overall I'd give their role a B letter grade, owing not as much to what they got wrong as to what they failed to do. My impression of the company is that they are more of a logistics firm in the business of stapling together prefabricated tours, and so the planning process and actual trip ended up feeling less "custom" than some of my other journeys. An example is when I asked for advice on places to eat and received not follow questions asking for likes and dislikes or any other conversation starters but instead links to two pre-made company handouts with blurbs about a handful of restaurants in each major city of the countries I was visiting. Another example were small errors on my itinerary like the short description of an activity not matching up with the longer form description below, a clear sign the language was already there and just cut and pasted. Ultimately, none of this was a big deal nor did it negatively impact my experience. I only raise the issue because I genuinely feel there wasn't any value added to having this company assist me. Everything they did I could have easily done myself, and have done on past trips. In my view, the whole point of looping in travel agents is to get expert advice and guidance and a tailor-made experience that's not possible to get on your own.

As for the actual adventure:

Hotels: The general trend was rising quality as the trip went on. The hotel in Auckland was a basic 3-star experience, and a little weird as I didn't realize until check in it is a mixed use building that doubles as a residential apartment building. It was a comfortable stay, but didn't impress. Also, upon arrival we hit a snafu with our bedroom accommodation; we were given a king instead of two twins as requested. The next hotel was an improvement, a 3.5-star experience owing much to its location on the beautiful lake front and tasty breakfast as to the actual room. The staff there were super friendly as well. Rydges World Square was a solid 4-star hotel, excellent location, beautiful room, and there I had (oddly enough) the best steak I ate while in Australia. The resort we stayed at was also a solid 4-star, maybe 4.5. The room was huge, complete with an enormous bathtub with water jets, we had a beautiful and spacious balcony overlooking the pool, and a nice comfy couch and dining table right next to a kitchen. 

Tours: I remember our time in Auckland being mostly disappointing. The city tour on day one was nice, but largely deprived us of any great photo opportunities as the large bus was unable to stop in the most photogenic places. I thought a simpler hop on/hop off tour or a bus with an open roof might have been better. The day trip to Waitomo was overall good (extremely surprised at the quality of the boxed lunch we recieved, very good), at least the tour of the caves. The rest of the day was a let down. I thought the stop at the Agrodome was a waste of time, time that might have been better used at Te Puia. There we seemed to be rushed in and out. Our time in Queenstown was much better. The helicopter tour and Milford Sound cruise were awesome, kudos to our agent for recommending that, I was initially reluctant but happy I ended up including it. The safaris tour was less impressive, not a waste of a day because I did get to see some more beatiful sites but ultimately it was geared towards fans of LOTR, which I am not. In Sydney, the Opera House tour was what you'd expect, nothing amazing but I'm still happy I did it. The harbour cruise was nice as well. In Port Douglas, the day trip out to the Low Isles for reef snorkeling was overall very nice. We sailed on a beautiful catamaran, were guided by a friendly and knowledgable crew, and had a tasty lunch. I did end up wondering though whether it would have been more worthwhile if we had visited a location in the Outer Reef where I hear the corals are more colorful and teeming with life. I won't complain too much though, we did end up seeing a reef shark and a turtle, so all in all not bad. I will criticize the tour company for not making any GoPros available to rent, I would have loved to have filmed what I saw down there. Our last activity in Kuranda was a mixed bag. Tjapukai sounded like it would be an amazing experience, but honestly I thought that was a complete waste of time, time I wished I had later on when I couldn't visit the butterfly sanctuary or heritage markets in the village. After a 15-minute documentary video made back in the 1970s and 15-minute cultural performance, the aboriginal guides led us to three stations (medical/weapons show and tell, boomerang throwing, and spear throwing) for quick talks and demos and then shuttled us to a pretty bad lunch. The Sky Rail trip over the forest was also kind of lame, but I suppose was the fastest way into the village. In the interest of time we rode it straight to the end and didn't bother getting out at Red Peak or Barron Falls (which you could see perfectly well from inside the cablecar anyway). The best part of the day was the 1.5 hours I did get to visit the Koala Gardens and Bird World. The Scenic Railway experience was nice, I'm happy we upgraded to the Gold Class as the regular cars looked really uncomfortable. The views weren't very impressive though so it ended up me just enjoying a train ride and drinking a bunch of Australian sparkling wine. 

Pace: I think I shocked my travel agent with the aggressive timeline I pushed for. In the end I got it mostly right. The time we spent in Sydney and Port Douglas was perfect, we had enough time in both places to do everything we wanted to. The same is true for Queenstown. With Auckland its hard to judge given we were there over Christmas. I think rather than the day trip to Rotorua we did, which felt rushed, we maybe should have overnighted down there on Christmas Eve, given that Christmas Day ended up a total wash since everything in Auckland was closed. At least that way we could have spent more time in Te Puia learning about Maori culture and enjoyed the hot springs in the area.

Our travel agent recommended that we stay the majority of our vacation in Queenstown (south island) and it turned out to be a good recommendation.  We enjoyed the scenery and activities in this area.  The Routeburn Track (guided nature walk) was superb!  Then we flew to the north island and spent two nights in Rotorua.  We had a multi-adventure day there that was amazing.  This included mountain biking, rafting, and kayaking.  We also enjoyed our visit to the Waitomo Caves on our way to Auckland.

The agent handled our flights to New Zealand from Los Angeles and all our flights within New Zealand.  In addition we were not willing to be the driver in a foreign country and she secured all our ground transportation which was all on time and professional. The packing list and general information provided by her was very helpful.

I already recommended this tour company to a friend who is traveling to New Zealand later this year.