APT River Cruises & Tours
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17 Day New Zealand Wonder Tour
LIKE 1 Our driver Matt was exceptional and the planned programme was achieved on time with one exception (visit to Huka Falls due to weather) It is worth remembering the early part of the tour was during the cyclone on North Island. Matt's local knowledge overcame most difficulties 2 Six of the hotels used were very good 3 Best of itinery was Kauri Museum; Bay of Islands; Waitomo Caves; Thermal Reserve; Hangi & Village experience; Dinner at Walter Peak; Milford Sound; Lake Taupo Overall enjoyed the tour, and saw what we wanted to see! Would rate 3*+ DISLIKE 1 Tour group was too large (44 people) some of the group leaving and new ones arriving on different days Many on the tour had been with APT on previous tours and they all said that previously the maximum on tour was 25-30 people 2 This resulted in not enough time allocated for coffee and lunch stops with the sheer volume of customers cafe's and restaurants had to serve in short space of time 3 No name badges. You can't remember 44 names. Other APT tour groups which shared the same hotels all had name badges 4 Not enough time spent at Kauri Museum (45mins); Lake Taupo (30mins) 5 Lack of scenic viewpoint stops which were signposted for photo shoots 6 whilst some of the stops I would question "was it really worth it?" eg Twig in the sea; Church of the Good Shepherd; Moeraki Boulders stop 7 Sub standard hotels at Grand Millenium Auckland (Breakfasts); Copthorne Bay of Islands; Millenium Rotorua; Smallest room ever stayed at Mount Cook 8 Couple of days sitting on coach with very little sightseeing