Luxury New Zealand Engagement Vacation Review: Christchurch, Auckland, Queenstown Ziplining, Kaikoura Whale Watching, Middle Earth

We had a very positive experience with this New Zealand travel agency. Our agent responded to our emails very, very promptly and seemed to really take our requests into consideration.  She made some great suggestions and our trip was truly fantastic. New Zealand is so beautiful and we're thankful that this company helped us see as much of it as we could during our visit.

Some highlights of working with our agency:

-When a hotel we wanted to stay at was booked on the date we wanted, our agent called them to see if there was any way we could get a room. The hotel ended up upgrading us to a nicer room and we were able to stay there when we hoped. This was absolutely awesome.

-As a general matter, the hotels our agent selected were clean and very comfortable and fit our budget.

-We generally REALLY liked all of the tours and activities that we did and imagine that we wouldn't have been able to find some of the tour providers on our own. 

-The car rental process was pretty smooth, which was nice. We had a number of pick ups and drop offs and were pretty impressed that it was so easy to pick up and drop off the cars. We did have some trouble with two of the three GPS units we got from Hertz, but they were gracious enough to refund us for the cost of the GPS unit.

-While we didn't always have free parking (see item listed in downsides below), after we emailed our agent about the issue, she quickly sent us a list of where parking was free and where we'd have to pay (and even included some details about different parking options and costs).

-When one of our activities was canceled mid-trip, our agent reimbursed the subsequent refund immediately (rather than at the end of our trip as they usually do) because she knew we were traveling on a budget. We hadn't requested that she do that, so it was nice of her to do.

-Our agent was really patient with us as we vacillated between ideas and decided about different activities.  

-We mentioned that we were traveling to Sydney, Australia before coming to New Zealand and that we were having trouble booking an activity we REALLY wanted to do. She ended up helping us get it set up, which was awesome.

A few downsides (which are the reason we aren't giving our agency a full 5 stars):

-We wish we had received free parking for the two hotels that didn't include it. I'm not sure if there was anything we could have done in advance in order to get free parking, but we didn't even realize there wouldn't be free parking at each hotel so we had no time to look into it. With that said, it would have been nice if our agency at least mentioned the parking issue (and even better if they were able to pull a few strings to get us free parking, but that's probably expecting too much).

-We had a train ride booked and the agent suggested we request seats on a particular part of the train (right side, close to the observation car) so we could get the best view. We hadn't realized we had to request the seats in advance, so by the time we arrived for check in and requested the good-view seats, they were already taken. Our seats were on the left side and were actually the farthest car from the observation car. We were disappointed and felt this could have been avoided if our agent simply made the request upon booking the tickets (and if this wasn't possible, by telling us that it's necessary to call in advance to request the seats - this could be tricky, though, as travelers' ability to make calls is obviously limited). At the end of the day, though, our train ride was canceled because of an earthquake - so we ended up not missing out at least.

-We had mentioned that we were on a budget and didn't need a private guide for a particular hike. We ended up with a private guide, which obviously had its perks, but we felt like we probably could have done without and saved the money.

All in all, we would definitely recommend this company and our agent specifically. There were just a few hiccups where we thought things could go smoother / be a little more tailored to our requests.