Make Your Next Trip Extraordinary

This is my 5th trip to NZ and first with Jean-Michel’s team as our trip planners. It was superb. The jet boat experience in Fiordland was one of my most favorite days ever in NZ.

Geoff met us at the Fiordland Lodge in Te Anua for our 90-minute drive to Lake Hauroko. Geoff is a chill Kiwi and former guide on the Milford Track. He plans to do a night trail run on the next cloudless full moon on the Kepler Track. In Fiordland, the mutable weather means rain every 2 days on average. We had a perfect day for our jet boat: grey clouds, warm air, and still waters.

Kevin met us at Lake Hauroko and took my wife and daughters, along with Geoff and me, across the lake and down the rapids of the Wairaurahiri River to the bottom of the South Island. The vastness of Fiordland National Park hit me more here than in busier areas that more tourists frequent. Kevin began to hike and camp along the coast alone with a buddy when he was only 13. Twenty years later now and here he hunts and goes out fishing for blue fin tuna. While we gazed out to Stewart Island, he noted that the South Pacific was as calm as he had ever seen it and that 5-meter great whites lurked below.

Lunch was at the Wairaurahiri Lodge a few hundred meters from the ocean. While Kevin and his stepfather prepared a great lunch of fresh venison and vegan dishes, Alan told us about the lodge on the 5,000 acres owned by a Māori tribe in Trust. He lives alone on the isolated lodge surrounded by a magnificent podocarp virgin forest. After a short hike past Rimu and Rata trees, we walked across the river on a new swinging bridge designed with a door to keep possums and stoats off. Kevin’s mom monitors 300 traps in the region, all baited with peanut butter. It’s working, as we saw many ducks, pigeons, and a pair of Kea parrots flying over the river.

From the bridge, Kevin picked us up and revved the engines for the ride back up the Class 2 rapids. On the eerily calm lake, we dallied at Teal Beach to skip rocks. We stopped on a creek to peer at eels and brown trout. We did donuts just below a waterfall. Before departing Lake Hauroko, we quietly passed Mary Island, where the remains of the Māori princess from 1640 lie in repose in a cave.

Geoff drove us back to Te Anua and I enjoyed the thousands of white sheep along the beautiful drive back. It was a stellar day in Fiordland.

Ellen and Gillian did a fantastic job booking our trip. We contacted them in late August for a trip over the Christmas Holiday and they set our expectations regarding how late we were to the game but also launched into planning and looking for great accommodations and an itinerary that would suit us. They came back very quickly and had most of the boxes checked on the first try. We made some minor modifications which they accommodated so quickly and professionally. The trip itself was amazing and all of their choices were thoughtful and all of the accommodations were very nice. We also felt like, given the limited time we had, we did get to see most of New Zealand yet we didn’t feel like we were constantly on the go. We had plenty of down time baked into the plan. For our time period it was pretty much perfect!

Jean-Michel’s office definitely added value by grabbing us great accommodations quickly right at the start of our planning process. We didn’t have time to wait and they worked that angle very hard in the beginning. They also booked dinners for us each night and provided some guidance on where to eat. This made things so much less stressful for us and gave us an anchor each day that we could rely on. Finally, they were incredibly responsive throughout our trip. We really didn’t have any problems but they were available to assist with anything that came up and did so with a cheerful attitude. We did have some re-bookings due to weather and they handled all of that with very little input from us. That allowed us to focus on our trip and not worry about logistics! Finally, they connected us with an amazing guide in Queenstown and spending the day with him was most definitely a highlight of our trip! Overall we would enthusiastically recommend Jean-Michel’s team to plan a trip to NZ. Thank you!

The Hancock family on top of a glacier in New Zealand's South Island.

The Hancock family explored New Zealand’s South Island by helicopter, flying past waterfalls, high alpine lakes, river valleys, and sharp mountain peaks before landing on a glacier.

We are the Hancock Family (Mom/Dad, children 23, 21, 18) who traveled to New Zealand 11/26-12/3. We used Jean-Michel’s office. Trip was outstanding. Could not have been more pleased from start to finish. Our 21-year-old son was studying in Australia. He was going to wrap up his trip in New Zealand. The idea came to us to make it a family holiday and meet him over there. The stars aligned and all schedules allowed it to happen. We reached out to Jean-Michel knowing we had limited time in NZ and a short lead time to make the trip happen. First off, Jean-Michel responded to our email inquiry immediately and we were chatting with him 10 minutes later. We tossed ideas around and he assured us we could cover a lot of ground in the 8 days we had. Gillian then reached out to us with options for an initial itinerary. She was great to work with. We were able to openly discuss the details regarding the accommodations and trip activities and what made sense. We tweaked the itinerary accordingly. Communication was always outstanding. Once trip time came we were in contact with Lynn, who was our day-to-day contact while on the ground. The whole team in Jean-Michel’s office, and everyone else including hotel staff, pilots, guides and drivers, executed everything flawlessly. We saw a lot of the South Island by helicopter, we hiked, we kayaked, went to a mountaintop whisky bar and hot tub, went off-roading, drank lots of wonderful NZ wine and cheese. Our accommodations were fantastic. We have traveled the world and Jean-Michel’s team are probably the best trip planners we have used to date. Would definitely recommend them and would use them again for sure.

Our recent trip to New Zealand was outstanding. We loved the country, the people and the activities put together by our travel consultant Clare. We covered a lot of ground (about 1,500 km) during our 2 weeks in country.

The hotels selected (The Dairy, Lakestone Lodge, The Mayfair, The Factory, Adrift, Belle Vue & The Hotel Britmont) all work very well. Great locations, friendly & accommodating staff, good food & very nice rooms.

We also enjoyed the activities:
* Routeburn Hike (a bit hillier than we expected but a good 3-hour workout with beautiful views).
* Sightseeing with Beau Rapley was a fun & interesting day. We didn’t do any bungee jumping but did do the wine tasting.
* While we missed the Night Sky Experience at the Lakestone Lodge due to full moon, we took advantage by getting massages instead.
* Coast up Close Charter was okay, but we would do something else next time. Maybe try E-biking.
* The Catch & Cook was one of the co-highlights. Had fun catching the fish and checking the crayfish pots for legal-size critters. The afternoon with Fiona & her assistant was great. We really enjoyed foraging around the gardens and then putting it all together. What a great meal—best of the trip.
* The day touring around the Takaka area was well worth it. Nice trails, great scenery, very nice lunch at a local pub and gin tasting to end the day.
* Kayaking with Taupo Kayaking Adventures was a very relaxing day. It was easy rowing in the double kayak going downstream. The Geothermal Park at Orakei Korako was pretty amazing and well worth the walking.
* The ‘Ko tahi Te ra’ day with Tom & Elizabeth was the other co-highlight. It was a bit of a drive getting out to the facility (2+ hours), but well worth it. We really enjoyed getting to know both Tom & Elizabeth and learning about the Maori culture and what the significance of the food preparation means to them. Awesome lamb & corned beef.
* We ended with a tour to see the glow worms with Russ at Footwhistle. Really glad with did this tour versus the larger one in town. We were able to get right up close to the worms and see how they live & feed. A great way to end the trip even though it is 115 steps to climb back up from the cave.

Picking up and dropping off the rental cars went very smoothly. No problems at all. Driving on the left side of the road really wasn’t bad.

Clare did an excellent job working with us to fine tune the itinerary so we got a really great flavor of the country while helping us stay within our budget parameters. Ellen & Fabienne also helped assist us while we were in country and communicated via WhatsApp. It was really nice to have that support.

A huge Thank You for making this trip a wonderful experience.

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