APT River Cruises & Tours
View company profile →
Stunning scenery coach driver not good
Pete the tour organiser had a hard job due to the cyclone in Auckland and the fact he hadn’t got enough information on New Zealand to do the commentary. He only agreed to do the tour if he had a driver with the experience and information on the island. So we ended up with Benson! A nice guy BUT we couldn’t understand him, he would start a sentence then after 20 seconds or more finish the sentence. He would leave his Mike on and all we could hear was heavy breathing. (He seemed to have a breathing problem). In the end we just wished he would shut up. There was far, far to many toilet breaks. Sometimes just half hour from the hotel. So we would get up early rush breakfast then stop twice when we could have had more time at the hotel. Near the end of the tour he missed the entrance to one stop tried to get in the other entrance hit a parked car pushed the parked car into another car! At Christchurch airport he took wrong entrance tried to then reverse with all cars behind him and hit the concrete reservation 3 times scraping the underneath of the coach and making a terrible noise. We stayed at some beautiful stunning places but I dreaded getting in the coach. It was torture! Near the end of the tour we had four cases of Covid. No one’s fault. Peter was very kind and helpful to me as I left my iPad in Sydney. The hotel posted it to the hotel in Christchurch and Pete organised it for me. I was so disappointed we could not do Bay of islands & missed out on 3 days really due to the cyclone. So although the hotels were great and amazing breathtaking scenery the coach journey marred the tour.