Scenic Lord of the Rings Exploration of New Zealand

David and I were extremely lucky to have had Geoff of this travel company plan our 15 day itinerary in New Zealand, Nov 11 - 25. Our travel interests center primarily on nature, landscape and culture, and our early phone conversations with Geoff were extremely helpful in identifying areas of greatest interest. We talked to Geoff a few times going over an itinerary by email and phone that helped him create our trip of a lifetime vacation. Geoff’s own knowledge, advise and investigation for locations and experiences were amazing. Any sea animal, nature preserve, creature or bird we mentioned we would like to try to see were all worked into our inclusive, self-drive, private itinerary. Geoff and his wife, Libby were welcoming and helpful on our arrival in Twizel. Geoff gave us a great start and advice before we left and again whenever we needed it on our trip. David needed some minor medical care near the end of our trip and Geoff arranged and handled it both caring and professionally, which we knew he would. We drove the Southern Scenic Historical route which was fantastic. There was so much to see and take in at our choosing. Every small group excursion or tour we went on left us wanting to learn and investigate more on our own.

The accommodations Geoff arranged were exceptionally comfortable and beautiful. In addition, all of the staff we met were absolutely excellent and made sure that every need was met with genuine kindness and concern. When our luggage didn’t arrive with us in Christchurch one of the staff members at the hotel in Christchurch offered to pick it up the next day at the airport, because we would be out on an all day tour. Staying at the Lodge near Twizel was magical. Our bedroom opened to a pond filled with baby ducks, frogs and sounds that were delightful. One could have spent days there just watching the light and clouds change over the pond while in the background the Southern Alps lingered under the long white clouds. An entirely different memorable experience was our stay at the hotel near Dunedin where we dined at the Larnach Castle, while being able to tour the rooms and gardens. On Steward Island we stayed at a hotel, which were centrally located and easy to feel at home in. The Lodge was warm and inviting overlooking Te Anau lake, absolutely breathtaking. Lastly mentioned but not all of, the Hotel in Queenstown couldn’t make our final stay more accommodating or pleasurable when David was ill. 

Our family had the trip of a lifetime in Aotearoa New Zealand, all thanks to our travel agency! We originally planned our trip for December 2020. When the pandemic hit, Zicasso’s tour operator worked with us as we postponed our trip to 2021 and eventually 2022. We had constant communication over those two years, discussing options and tweaking our itinerary, and it was all worth it!

We spent 15 days driving from Auckland to Queenstown over Christmas and New Year. The trip was smooth from start to finish! Every step of the itinerary was flawless. The hotels were great. The excursions we asked for were incredible and better than we had imagined. The excursions they suggested that we never would have thought to try were phenomenal.

As we passed by Twizel, we got to meet up with them for coffee and they were as amazing in person as they'd been throughout the two years of planning. We are endlessly grateful to our travel team for making us feel well taken care of before, during, and after our trip!

Our family of four traveled to New Zealand for eleven days. We used this travel company to help us book our trip. I had an idea of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do, so based on that the travel company came up with an itinerary. We went through a lot of iterations to maximize our time and choose activities that were aligned to my family's interest. We finally went with this company as the travel planner seemed very flexible on changing and adding things for us. He was on the phone or email and helped put the plan together. During the process, we were not happy with our accommodation he had chosen for us and when we put in our deposit I specifically asked him to keep a look out. But, he started pressurizing us in going with his chosen motel in Queenstown, as it was a busy period and that was the last room remaining. We told him we found an Airbnb, but he asked us to throw that idea out as they are not reliable in NZ. We then finally went with him, though again reminding him to continue to find a better accommodation. We never heard from him on that matter. Our first night in Auckland, we had made our own accommodation plan, the rest were all through our travel planner. Our second night we got dropped at an Inn in Rotorua after our visit to Hobbiton. We were absolutely shocked at the room we were booked into. It was small, not a place we would have ever chosen, basic amenities only, tiny for a family of four grown ups/adults, stuffy and insects/spiders on our bed. We immediately called our travel planner and we started off a series of conversations to start changing our rooms, especially for Queenstown where we were planning to stay for the last five days of our trip. We told him we wanted our trip to end well and we found hotel rooms available on a travel website. He told us to hold on, meet him at Christchurch (we were flying in the next day) and we could discuss more. He also promised to start looking. We had been booked into a motel in Christchurch, and the lady who showed us to our room also mentioned that the room was too small for our family. But that was what our trip planner had us booked into. He came to take us out to dinner (a dinner he asked us out to, but he made us pay for our share!) and we clearly told him what we were used to and either he changes or we were happy to make the bookings. He asked us to wait and give him time till the end of the next day and he would have answers for us. We told him at least to start looking at an upgrade (bigger apartments in the same chain). We were booked into the same chain motel, in Queenstown too.  Anyway, next day he emailed us saying sorry too late to cancel. That was it, no mention of upgrade and nothing else. We went through our stay, completely unhappy, and felt duped. We felt more upset as he did not bother to check in with us after that email. IF he had at least called, texted or emailed to say sorry or ask how we were doing I totally would have understood. But since he did not I feel confident he totally duped us. Another reason we feel that way is because, he booked us expensive tours and tickets, he booked us a fancy dinner reservation for New Year’s Eve, so that means he kind of had an idea on what we expected. But he never asked us about choices for stay or gave a break up for hotel stay (we did ask for it) and one more thing is glaring at us, now that we are looking back. He started us off at better accommodations, we can say that as we see our first few itineraries, and also we saw those places during our visit. But towards the end, to make money out of us, he tricked us by changing the itinerary and booked us cheap accommodations. Our trip ended with us having a bad taste and constantly wondering if we should not have trusted him and done this on our own. So we sadly have a very negative feeling about our experience with this travel company. They charged us ultra premium for the entire trip, but the actual accommodations were totally not consistent with it. We have ended up overpaying and not getting that level of experience.

Is there a 10 star rating for this travel company?  

I have arrived home, "there and back again," from a 17 day NZ tour constructed by Geoff and Libby and Im sitting at my desk absolutely stunned and awe-inspired on the adventure I just came back from. I can't even begin to find words to describe what my family and I just experienced.  After 3 - 4 years of first contacting them and our trip being postponed because of covid until 2022, Geoff was right there the whole time coaching, instructing, advising on how to make this trip happen. He never felt like he was pushy or overbearing trying to get us to book a tour. Every time I reached out to him, I felt like he really wanted to best experience for my family. Kudos Geoff for being the perfect adventure professional!

Now to the trip, we are LOTR and Hobbit fans so the self-drive trip was constructed intentionally to meet our desire to see film locations and must-see sights. They also provided their Kiwi expertise and ensured we also immersed in the Kiwi and Maori culture, which was also so valuable and eye-opening to us. Hadn't we done these experience we would have left a lot of NZ value on the table. Make sure you ask them to provide their insights.  The itinerary and activities worked like clock work. Not a single hiccup in our trip. Geoff and Libby created our itinerary like a musical piece. From a strong beginning, crescendoing into the highlights of the trip at Queenstown! Ending a magical adventure that we will be talking about for the rest of our lives.  

Geoff and Libby, you became part of our lives forever! Thank you for changing it by sharing your country, your culture.