Silver Fern Holidays Traveller Reviews

We travelled from Heathrow and spent a couple of days in Singapore en route to Wellington. We stayed in Nelson and visited the Abel Tasman National Park, before moving onto Blenheim and enjoyed a wine tour. Whilst in Kaikoura we went whale watching. Christchurch was our next stop before taking the TranzAlpine train to Greymouth. After a stop in Hokitika we travelled down to Fox Glacier, visiting the Kiwi Wildlife Centre and Lake Matheson on our way. Three nights in Wanaka provided an excellent base for jet boating and fantastic walks. One of the many highlights of our holiday was the overnight stay on Doubtful Sound, truly breathtaking. Queenstown was our next stop where we crossed the lake on the steamship and rode the Skyline. Snow topped Mount Cook was our next destination before we travelled onto Lake Heron Station, which is definitely New Zealand’s best kept secret. Here we rowed the lake and was taken on a tour of station, whilst being fed excellent meals by our host, Anne. Our final night in Christchurch visiting Governor’s Bay before a stopover in Singapore and return to the Uk.

We contacted John from Silver Fern Holidays to plan our trip to New Zealand. We indicated when and for how long we wanted to be away, together with a few things we definitely wanted to do and places we wanted to visit. We also mentioned that we were active but not athletic. With all this information John put a proposal together. He hit the nail on the head first time and we did not have to amend any detail.

We had a wonderful 4 weeks driving around New Zealand in November 2023, incorporating a number of half and full day walks. Overall, everything went very smoothly, the itinerary worked well and we were largely pretty fortunate with the weather. The big highlights were the walk in the Abel Tasman National Park, the helicopter flight at Fox Glacier, the day trips to Doubtful and Milford Sounds and the stay at Mount Cook. We also particularly enjoyed our stays in Auckland, Wanaka and Queenstown.

John at Silver Fern was extremely helpful during the planning stage, adapting the itinerary to meet our wishes whilst also making helpful suggestions. One nice touch was the Zoom call a couple of weeks before departure to go through any final questions we had. We had a slight issue when we arrived in Auckland which was quickly sorted out by the New Zealand partner company, using the number on the card we had been given.

Tailor made self drive touring holiday in New Zealand

Silver Fern arranged flights, stop over, car hire and all accommodation. Also some tours and excursions. They suggested the itinerary. Excellent service and communication

We would like to thank John Lightwood, the team at Silver Fern Holidays and Pacific Destinations for a great holiday in Australia and New Zealand. The experience very much lived up to our expectations. The itinerary ran perfectly in both Australia and New Zealand, with every pickup arriving on time and every booked tour expecting us. This took away the stress and worry for the trip, so we were able to fully enjoy ourselves. The gift of two water bottles on arrival in Auckland was a nice touch. Overall, we were very happy with the chosen hotels and boutique B&B’s. We especially liked Te Awa and Sunlovers Retreat, and the 4- and 5-star hotels largely met our expectations, with the Park Hyatt in Melbourne who excelled themselves. We enjoyed all of the excursions particularly the Kuranda, Te Pa Tu, Hobbiton, Tranzalpine, Waimangu volcanic valley, Ridgeline 4WD and Otago peninsular tours. We also enjoyed the Tane Mahuta tour but as numbers were insufficient, we upgraded this it a private tour. We were extremely impressed with Singapore airlines with every flight leaving on or before scheduled departure and reaching their destinations slightly early. The Quantas flights were fine although every flight were 15-30 minutes late. Overall, we had a fantastic time and acknowledge that Silver Fern and their partners played a big part in this. When we go back to New Zealand, we will definitely use Silver Fern to book our trip.

Silver Fern Holidays prepared us with a custom tailored holiday for 5 weeks in New Zealand, 2 weeks in Australia and a 4 day stopover in Singapore. Although they are a specialist operator in New Zealand (their knowledge is really good) they happily arranged our trip to Australia as well.

We spent 32 days in New Zealand, on a self-drive holiday on both North and South Island. All the pre-booked accommodation and trips went to plan, leaving us free to enjoy lots of new experiences. We particulalry enjoyed the wonderful mountain scenery and the wildlife, especially the birds.

Silver Fern (John) was extremely helpful right from the time of our first tentative enquiry. He went over and above to make sure all the arrangements for our holiday were as we wanted them, communicating via email, telephone and zoom. Nothing seemed to be too much trouble for him.

John put together a 25 night self drive tour that included some specific requirements (starting and ending in Auckland to visit friends) and a full range of activities to keep all the family including 2 teens and a LOTR fan happy.

John and his team organised an amazing trip that included something for everyone. We absolutely loved our time in New Zealand. I also want to mention how helpful Kalwant was as when snow meant we were going to be delayed driving to Franz Josef, so changed our plans and decided to stay a couple of extra nights in Queenstown instead. We will have to save Franz Josef and that bit of the West Coast for our next trip!

Excellent three and half week exploration of both north & South Islands. Good combination of driving ourselves, trains and ferries. Activities and entertainments were booked in advance which made life easier and the transfers were need were prompt and gave good service. The weather was cool, but the sunshine and autumn colours on the south Island were wonderful particularly in Queens town. Also less busy than earlier in the summer other than tour buses of Asian visitors from time to time. We saw as much as we could in our time and will be going back again to visit the parts we missed.

Appreciated the knowledge and advice of the agent who spent time discussing our likes and dislikes and the type of holiday we were looking for. The itinerary was planned, drafted and amended as required, but overall worked out perfectly. The hallmarks of an agent who knows the destination well. We also appreciated a zoom call for over an hour going through the itinerary 2 weeks before we left which cleared up a few small points and gave good advice and built our excitement of the forthcoming adventure. Thank you.

We thoroughly enjoyed our well organised and entertaining itinerary for our New Zealand holiday. Everything worked well for us including the travel, accommodation, and trips. It was a pity that our whale watching was cancelled due to bad weather.

Silver Fern were brilliant at tailoring our holiday to New Zealand to suit our needs and budget. They kept us extremely well informed at every stage of the process.

Silver Fern sorted out an extensive itinerary for our group of 6. We drove ourselves in an 8 seater vehicle around both the North Island & South Island. This trip included the Trans Alpine railway from Christchurch to Greymouth - well worth it for marvellous views. As we were caught up in the Cyclone it was extremely helful & reassuring that Silver Fern has an office in Hamilton who were able to make rearrangements locally to our planned accommodation & itinerary.

They made all of the arrangements to suit our group requirements.

It was like a dream come true! Everything I had expected from my experience in New Zealand turned out to big bigger and better than all my research or imagination could have led me to comprehend. Seeing is believing!

It was wonderful to have so much detailed information before departure plus access to a person ( mainly John!)on the phone. Always ready to guide us using his own personal experience and happy to tailor everything to our own wishes. The travel and bookings were remarkable, every attention to detail made the whole trip run seamlessly!