New Zealand & Australia Trip Review: Hiking near Punakaiki & Wanaka, Wai-O-Tapu, Farmlands of Napier, Marlborough Sound, Sydney

We recently completed a 3 week trip to New Zealand and Sydney, Australia. Our travel planner and this travel company turned our ideas for this trip into a wondrous adventure!! Working with our planner was fun, easy, and totally enjoyable even before the trip began! She offered hotel and activity alternatives, listened intently to our preferences, and made all the booking an absolute breeze!! Knowing our planner was available (in the background) during our entire trip was an added bonus when we experienced a hotel booking hiccup along the way. We contacted our planner with the issue (on a Friday evening while she was walking her dog on the beach!!), she went to work immediately to resolve it, stayed in touch with us via text messages and calls, and fixed the issue without hesitation. My wife and I were relieved and impressed with the integrity and professionalism with which the planner worked.
Regarding the trip itself, New Zealand is a gorgeous country with so many outstanding places to see. The travel company offered us a great mix of independent travel coupled with the right amount of "pre-booked tours and activities" to immerse us in the New Zealand culture. Whether it was biking the farm country around Napier, boating around Abel Tasman National Park or hiking the trails of Punakaiki and Wanaka the trip exceeded our expectations. When our tour of Milford Sound was cancelled due to weather related road closures, our planner quickly rebooked us on a trip to Doubtful Sound giving us the opportunity to still experience the beauty and tranquility of Fiordland National Park.
Sydney is an amazing city with an outstanding transit system. Book a Blue Mountains tour to see the countryside but don't miss out on exploring all that Sydney has to offer beyond the Opera House (the tour of the Opera House should be on everybody's list; a great take!). Manly Beach, the coastal walk from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach, Spice Alley for dinner, and the Sydney Fish Market are all not to be missed.