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12.01.2010 |
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New Zealand Tour: Roslyn Kaplan (roz@arnon.co.il)
RA'ANANA, Israel |
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First and foremost, I would like to thank Susanne and the staff of Umfalana for the most perfect itinerary one could wish for. Your humour, patience and professional answers to the many questions I asked is certainly an asset to the company when dealing with clients via the internet. Now for our trip.
On our arrival at Christchurch airport, we collected our car – no problem said AVIS and as everything had been paid "up-front" we were out on the road very quickly. We had a very long way to travel (5 hours) in pouring rain, but the welcome we received from Eva and Roly made it all worthwhile. All our B&B's were very good, receiving good advice from them on what to see and where to go first. Only the B&B at Te Anau was not at the level of the others, nor was our hostess and instead of being able to sit in the living room (with or without the hosts as in the other places), we spent the rest of the evening in our rooms.
The descriptions and directions to the various places, including all the wonderful sights to see, was as good as having our own personal guide sitting beside us. It was spectacular, made all the easier by having the compact folder (in which we kept our passports, the papers of the car, and all other papers required at a moment's notice.
Thank you, once again and we sincerely hope that we will be able to use Umfulana again one day on one of our future trips.
Roslyn Kaplan |
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10.01.2010 |
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New Zealand Tour: Gene Heupel
Maple Grove, Minnesota, United States |
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Hello Susanne,
From the time we landed in Auckland to the time we took off from Queenstown, our New Zealand Christmas vacation was perfect. Every one of your arrangements went so smoothly, from the driver who met us at the airport to the rental cars, the B&Bs, the Interislander ferry, the Kaikoura Maori tour and Doubtful Sound. Your itinerary book was indispensable, the travel time estimates were accurate and your directions were good. (However, we highly recommend having a GPS!) The only way our trip could have been better is if you could have gotten the Kiwis to drive on the other side of the road…
Our B&B in Devonport just outside Auckland was the perfect place to start. The home was so beautiful with every amenity, and our host Judy went out of her way numerous times to help us get acclimated, especially to our car. In Rotorua, my husband and I were ready to move in permanently with Anneke and John. Christmas dinner in Blenheim with Heidi, Werner and their other guests was superb and an unforgettable evening. The rest of the trip was equally marvelous. Every B&B in Kaikoura, Christchurch, Tekapo and Te Anau was totally different from the next one, but every one had lovely rooms and usually an exquisite view and/or gardens to go with them. Every host made us feel immediately welcome, gave us great breakfasts on our schedule and excellent advice on what to see with the best way to get there. The final home in Queenstown took our breath away, and Derek and Margaret’s hospitality made it even harder to leave New Zealand.
Nineteen days allowed us to see some of both islands' highlights, but left us wanting to go back to some places for a much longer stay and curious about the places we missed. I'm glad you recommended that we spend at least two nights in each place; three would have been even better. Thank you, Susanne for your hard work in finding these wonderful accommodations, all of whose hosts spoke highly of Umfulana. Thank you especially for always being so prompt in returning our e-mails. You were a joy to work with!
Karene and Gene
Minnesota USA |
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28.12.2009 |
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New Zealand Tour: JinSik (Jimmy) Kim
Singapore, Singapore |
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It was a great experience and route in general. Most of accomodations were excellent. Ones in Queenstown and Dunedin were best because of diffent reasons. Queenstown host lady was great and the house was exceptionally great. Dunedin accomodation should be the best place for the family with children. You can't find similar one with great selection of pets and kettles to entertain kids.
If I have a choice, I will stay the second B&B in Christchurch than the first one. Rooms were large and the gentleman showed real kiwi hospitality.
I don't particularly recommend the Te Annu housing and the first Christchurch B&B. The near Hokitika B&B were not great location but kids liked dogs, horses etc.
Based on the advice, I filled up the gas at the Haast. But the girl at the counter were ready to take advantage of tourists' weakness. She said the credit card machine was not working for a few minutes which leave me only option of cash payment. She gave me less changes. When she saw me to study changes carefully, she gave me the rest. The most unpleasant experience.
In Queenstown, the Asian supermarket lady scanned my vegetable of small amount and changed it into the larger one's price. I was watching the monitor and challend. She changed the amount subsequently.
When we returned our rental car, AVIS at the international terminal was closed. It seems the one in the domestic is the one open all the time. Please advise folks to be prepared more times at the airport since i didn't know we should pay departure tax etc.
Other than those few occasions, we loved every minute of NZ. We all want to go back some day.
We appreciate your help and all the advice.
Best,
Jimmy |
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23.12.2009 |
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New Zealand Tour: Kirsten M.
Durban, South Africa |
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Hi Jessica
My brother and I had an absolutely wonderful time in New Zealand overall. It is such a naturally beautiful country and your careful planning of the itinerary was really great.
I just want to make some comments on the accommodation: Barry and Trish on Coromandel Peninsula were really wonderful and this was our top pick for comfort and hospitality. Trish did some washing for us and forgot my scarf on the line and sent it on to our next destination with a little note attached, which was really kind. The quality of the B&B in Rotorua was also very commendable as we stayed in one of the rooms off of the main house and it was very spacious and homey to have a kitchenette, cloak room, ensuite bathroom, huge bedroom with twin beds, plus a separate lounge with a couch and a TV, so that was really appreciated. The apartment near Wellington was also exquisite with its view and we enjoyed the relaxed self-catering. These are just 3 places that stood out for us but pretty much all of the places had unique aspects that we loved.
On the not so good side, we were only unhappy with one place – in Queenstown. We were put in a TINY room that had 2 twin beds squashed into it and the bathroom bizarrely contained a mixture of the hosts' (I assume) Radox bottles and other such bottles of shampoo etc. sitting on side of the bath, alongside individually wrapped soaps and brand new-looking matching towels. I found this extremely strange and the attention to detail in this respect was obviously not professional. [Umfulana: All pump bottles and bath soaps in this bathroom are for guests' use!]. I don't know what the room was like downstairs on this property, but we really left this B&B feeling a bit 'ripped off' because of how amazingly squashed we felt in this room. The hosts were very kind and entertaining hosts, and also very helpful and informative, but their personalities really couldn't make up for the second-rate bedroom and bathroom that we were given. Also, trying to turn the car in the driveway involved about a 20 point turn whenever we left and this isn't really desirable in a rental car, considering there were always also 2 and sometimes even 3 cars parked in the same area. We would definitely never stay at this B&B again and would not recommend it to anyone.
Other than the above, we had a fantastic time and the only other glitch was scraping the first rental car on the particularly steep drieway in Wellington (entirely my driving error). I was very glad to have so much insurance as a safeguard, although Avis did make the error of still charging me the excess, something which I sorted out at the Avis counter in Christchurch, and they assure me that the amount will be credited to my credit card.
Thank you all again for so much help and professionalism and I shall definitely book through Umfulana for my next round of international travel.
Kind regards
Kirsten M. |
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08.05.2009 |
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New Zealand Tour: John C. Vickerman (john.vickerman@manchester.ac.uk)
Kinver, S. Staffs, United Kingdom |
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Umfulana arranged a 26 day trip through South and North Island. Our specification was that we should as far as possible have 2 and 3 night stays in each place since we did not want to be driving every day and we wanted to have time to absorb the atmosphere and appreciate the scenery. Overall the trip that was organised fulfilled these requirements wonderfully, although we could have done with more time in several places. We stayed in a mix of high quality B&Bs and Lodges. The hosts were uniformly very welcoming and helpful. Although we knew we were travelling in the ‘shoulder’ season (April 5 to 30) we were surprised how few visitors there were around in many places. In fact in 5 locations we were the only guests, which meant we got extra personal attention from our hosts which we appreciated.
Being nature lovers we particularly enjoyed the South Island west coast and were awed by our experience of the rain forest around Wilderness Lodge at Lake Moeraki – the trees, the birds and the myriad of stars. Doubtful Sound was definitely a highlight, especially as we were fortunate enough to see dolphins, seals and albatross. We were a bit concerned as the first boat, that takes visitors across Lake Manapouri was very crowded, but the second boat had more space and the captain cut the engines for us to experience the silence broken only by birdsong. Another highlight was the Abel Tasman National Park where we had a wonderful day hike along the shore.
Inevitably rain played a part in our trip, and a planned heli-hike on the Fox Glacier was cancelled, however our hosts at Hokitika rescued the situation and got us a scenic flight around Mt Cook and the glaciers the following day in a very small plane. We flew amongst the mountains and we felt we were so close we could have touched them! Another highlight was when John was taken on a long walk amongst vineyards in the Marlborough area by our hosts’ labrador, Texas.
North Island was very different but just as interesting. We only had one day in Wellington, but could have spent longer in what proved to be a friendly and fascinating city. A lovely stay in a marvellous Lodge near the wine region of Hawkes Bay and the unique art deco city of Napier was followed by the inevitable trip through the volcanic activity of Rotorua. It rained almost the whole time but the region is fascinating and smelly! We found the buried village and Wai-o-Tapu park especially interesting and very well organised and presented. The highlight of North Island though was a sail we had on a rather rough sea in the Bay of Islands. The day before had been very dull and there had been heavy rain and we were afraid we would not see the Bay at its best, but the day dawned clear and bright and we had a wonderful sail and saw the promised dolphins. The final sight to amaze us was on our way back to Auckland, we took the scenic route and saw the awesome Kauri tree – Tane Mahuta.
The holiday fulfilled all our hopes, Susanne did a great job and kept an eye on things as we went. The rain in the west swept a road away and she kept in contact with our hosts to ensure we got through. She also rescued us when we failed to pay the electronic toll on New Zealand’s only toll road! We would certainly recommend Umfulana to anyone wanting a tailored tour in New Zealand. |
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