New Zealand Tour Review: Queenstown, Christchurch, Ohakune, Milford Sound, Mount Cook, Nature, Two-Week Trip

Overall, our trip was excellent. Despite some of our excursions being canceled due to weather and some car rental arrangements, etc, getting off to a rocky start, we had a great time.

Everywhere we stayed had excellent service and accommodations. Due to some dietary restrictions, we did struggle in certain places to find affordable food that we could eat. Most notably, this was in Christchurch. Most of the struggle was due to the location of our accommodation and the timing of activities planned from there. This made getting food suitable for our needs the following day impossible due to it being too far to reach any grocery store or restaurant before they closed. At this stage in our trip, we did not have a rental car.

One other instance we felt ill-prepared for was our visit to Mount Cook. We stayed at a lodge. Not knowing our room came with a kitchen, we did not come prepared with much food to cook ourselves and had to rely on the restaurant. It was disappointing to realize the nearest grocery store was almost an hour's drive back the way we had come.

We were also been informed by the tour company that they would inform the places we were staying at and dining with of our dietary restrictions. We assumed this was not done, most notably for our stay outside of Christchurch. They had prepared a beautiful arrangement of snacks and hors d'oeuvres, much of which we could not eat due to it not being gluten-free. We are not certain if this was the fault of the travel company not passing along the info or if this was the hotel's oversight. Either way, we still had a good time.

One other small suggestion we would make would be to note what accommodations do not include elevators or are not handicap accessible. At some of our accommodations, all of the rooms were on the second floor, with no elevators. Even those traveling with large luggage would find this information useful.

Again, overall this was a great trip and Zicasso's tour company was good to work with. They arranged and planned an excellent trip, and were easy to contact when we had difficulties with car rentals on the first day. We would recommend them to anyone planning their first trip to New Zealand.