Dec 22 2009

Trip of a Lifetime with Brendan Vacations to New Zealand

Dear Julie, 

I thoroughly enjoyed my 2-week tour of New Zealand and came home with 1,209 photos!  Went kind of nuts, but the two islands are so beautiful that they really inspired the photographer in me. What a beautiful country!  

One of my favorite New Zealand cities is Christchurch, the "Garden City" with substantial English influence. The city has a beautiful Botanical Gardens. I snapped a shot of this lovely canal that runs through the city, and is popular among the locals for walking and canoeing.  I love "old" architecture so New Zealand provided a lot of great photo-ops for me, including a shot of one of the buildings that surrounds the "square" in Christchurch.  There were so many lakes and I was able to get some good photos from right through our coach window. We visited a big castle outside Dunedin, a city with Scottish influence. There were so many viewpoints around the castle to get a lot of great shots of.

New Zealand houses a huge "rain forest" on the south island, where we enjoyed beautiful scenery during our daily hikes. The foliage is lush and, along with the kiwi bird, the giant fern is also one of the country's logos.  You see why!  Fern grow well over six feet high (and higher, I'm sure) in the lush rain forest. We saw many waterfalls along our boat trip through Milford Sound, South Island.  Milford Sound is considered by some as the 8th wonder of the world.  It's incredible!  Our day trip was pretty rainy and misty, but it gave the Sound a "mystical" feel.  Very beautiful.  Even say a couple little penguins playing -- and of course, plenty of seals.  

This tour was SO PERFECT in every way, Julie. I'm so glad that we did the guided tour vs. being out there on our own, as getting the history from our tour guide while we enjoyed the sights made all the difference in the world!  I absolutely loved the "structure" and soon realized that if our AAT Kings guide or our coach driver said we were going to be somewhere at a certain time, they meant it! AAT Kings did a fabulous job -- and I would hook up with that company again any time!  
 
The accommodations and meals provided during our trip were excellent.  Every once in awhile, we'd have something a little "sub par" in our room or something, but they were just minor things -- not even worth mentioning.  I'm not a fussy person, so I really consider the trip accommodations A+. 
 
In fact, I have "marketed" this trip to many friends since my return.  I've really pushed the Brendan Vacations connection -- including your travel service -- heavily.  I plan on contacting Brendan again when I plan a trip.  I definitely feel a very strong trust with this company -- as every single minute detail of our New Zealand trip was planned to a tee and was exactly as we expected.  I THANK YOU for that!  I know that you were the prime reason our trip was so very successful.  I'm hoping that we get to work together on a future trip -- and will personally request you as my point of contact.  You never let us down -- and were so very reliable. 

Again, thank you Julie, for making our trip to New Zealand a "trip of a lifetime." 

Sincerely,
Joyce

About Julie Northington

I am a designated accredited travel consultant (CTC) with over 25 years of industry experience. My true passion is helping clients realize their life-long vacation dreams. Tahiti is one of my specialties, and I just recently became a Paul Gauguin PEARLS Agent, which coupled with 10 years as an accredited Tahiti Tiare Specialist, affords me many resources and experience to make your South Pacific travel plans seamless and very memorable. Education is very important to me. I have completed several comprehensive destination training courses on preferred cruise lines and tour companies, in addition cruising on and visiting many popular worldwide vacation spots. Please call me—I am eager to assist you in planning your next vacation whether by sea or land!