What‘s Included

Reviews

• Overall experience

  Patricia G,

  Oct 19, 2024

  - Viator

  4.00

  Day 1 went very well. My hotel was near the Auckland city bus Terminal so it was easy to to get to the city bus. I had a short walk to my hotel in Paihia. I waited in the reception area just like you said for the tour to Waitangi Treaty grounds. It went well and enjoyed the excursion. Day 2 was great. Tour bus (Fullers Greatsights) picked me up at reception area just as you said. The tour was great! Day 3 was just being in 2 city buses about 4 hours each. Really didn't enjoy that. We had one stop to use facilities that was planned. Could have used another planned stopped to use facilities. The Ready 2 Roll driver was waiting for me to bring me to my hotel (Sudima lake). Day 4 started off great. I was told to wait outside for the Greatsights bus and the driver was great. Hobbiton Day Tour was awesome. However I had a problem with my evening tour. Your instructions were that I would be picked up at the hotel. It didn't say outside or in the reception area for the Te Pa Tu evening Cultural experience. I waited outside on time and no one came to get me. Apparently they pick up at the Reception area. The bus driver/bus had to go right by me. He could have stopped and asked if I was waiting for the bus to the cultural experience. So I missed this event. I hired a taxi to take me there and paid for it but I wasn't allowed in because the performance already started. The taxi driver brought me back to the hotel where I had dinner. Needless to say I was very disappointed. Day 5 I was picked up by Flex Tours inside the reception are as instructed by you. The tour of the Waitomo Caves was great and the driver was awesome. She brought me to another location to be picked up by another driver to return to Auckland.

• So much to see in NZ, tour is a good sample

  Trevor F,

  Oct 10, 2024

  - Viator

  5.00

  Everything was fantastic, could have used more time at each location. Busses and transfers were well organized, drivers were excellent and gave a lot of information. Meals at Hobbiton and Rotorua cultural experience were fantastic as were the hotel breakfast buffets.

• This is a semi-independent tour. The...

  Jenny,

  Jun 19, 2018

  - Viator

  5.00

  This is a semi-independent tour. The travel agency arranges for hotel, buses between cities, transfers to and from hotel and excursions. You will not be traveling with the same people nor on the same bus all the time. We were very impressed with the logistics! Seriously, considering that we took different buses with different drivers each way between cities, excursions and multiple transfers, we were surprised that everything went without a single issue. All the buses and transfers were on-time except the last bus from Mata Mata to Auckland which the Agency reps mentioned that regularly 15 min late. They offered to pick us up at the hotel in downtown Auckland but because our hotel coming back was by the airport, they weren’t unable to accommodate that transfer and we ended up taking a taxi.

  The communication with the agency was good. I had called before the trip to let them know that I wanted to see the itinerary a bit before the 1 week mark and they complied by sending it two weeks prior. Please ensure to check your emails sent from Viator as they do not send the itinerary directly to your email. We read everything on the itinerary and made hard copies of it. During the trip I only called them to make a reservation to the Tamaki Maori Village dinner and cultural experience and on our last day as we were waiting for the bus to Auckland and were concerned because it was a few minutes late. I guess we had been spoiled with getting every single driver on time. The hotel in Paihia was ok, well situated in town’s center, close to everything. We absolutely loved our hotel in Rotorua, the Sudima hotel by the lake.

  This tour covers a lot of attractions in a very short time, therefore there will be a couple of days where everything will be jam-packed and there will be a lot of driving, but to be fair, unless you plan to drive yourself and stay on each location you visit, I don’t see how you can cover all these attractions in such a short time. This tour is perfect for people like us, that do not like driving abroad and have little vacation time. The third day, it is mostly spent on two intercity buses from Paihia to Auckland and Auckland to Rotorua. They do make a few stops where you can go to the restroom and a 45 min transfer at Auckland. We were worried about this mainly to reading other people’s review but we were pleasantly surprised as it wasn’t as bad as depicted. All you have to do is make sure is to take advantage of the scheduled stops and bring some snacks for the road. You can always buy lunch at the bus station in Auckland. We arrived Rotorua a bit early in the evening, the bar tender at the Sudima recommended to visit the Town’s center and check out the market(on Thursdays only) then we headed to the Polynesian Spa next door to unwind in their hot baths.

  Most drivers were very knowledgeable and extremely personable, only a couple were a bit weird. Most of them seem to be local therefore they provide good information while going sight seeing.

  The only thing I would recommend to the agency is to ensure to specify on the itinerary that there are any bus changes for certain excursions or if the lunches will be provided by a different bus driver than the one that you leave for during the excursions. On our way to Waitomo cave, the driver began by saying that the bus was going to Auckland instead of specifying that some people will be returning to Rotorua on a different bus. We got a nervous and began asking questions, and then he let us know that some of us will be returning on a different bus and that lunch was going to be served on that other bus.

  Overall an Excellent experience, this is a good way to see the main sights of the North Island is a very short time. Grey Sights and Gray line did a fantastic job coordinating this tour, we really enjoyed it.

• Not really a tour. More of an...

  Jayne S,

  Mar 28, 2018

  - Viator

  1.00

  Not really a tour. More of an itinerary. They use local Intercity bus lines- one trip from Pahai to Auckland had 10 stops- but no bathroom breaks. Grouchy drivers. We hauled our luggage 4 blocks both ways to meet their buses. If you've been on tours with door to door service or has a tour guide and enjoyed that experience- this is not the tour for you. This is an expensive do it yourself type thing.

• The actual tours we went on were all...

  James M,

  Mar 14, 2018

  - Viator

  2.00

  The actual tours we went on were all fine, but the transportation arrangements were not what we expected. On a typical day we had to get on 3 to 4 different buses/transfers all with different drivers and sometimes with different companies. The InterCity transfers on the third day were a complete waste of our precious travel time. Basically these were simply a city/state bus like Grayhound or Badger Coach that made multiple stops in different cities on our way from Paihia to Auckland to Rotorua without any commentary at all. It took all day to travel and the morning portion was 5 hours long without any planned bathroom/restroom stop at all. This is not the way to spend a vacation and we were very disappointed with this aspect of the trip. Okay trip if your a younger backpacker/tramper, but would not recommend for anyone that is looking for cohesive tour.