We had a great time on the South Island Tour!! There is so much natural beauty on the South Island plus tons of good wineries. Some of the highlights included stargazing at Lake Tekapo, sailing on the Seafood Odyssey, wine tastings at Kinross and Gibbston Valley Wineries, all of Grant's great suggestions, and Svetlana treating us to dinner at the Blue Kanu in Queenstown. The star gazing was absolutely amazing - we lucked out having a new moon and a clear sky so watching the stars while lying on rafts in the hot pool was just spectacular! The sailing on the Seafood Odyssey was terrific, even though the wind didn't cooperate so we were under power the whole time and it was too chilly for swimming. Captain Emma did a great job cooking the green lip mussels and the king salmon and pairing it with a nice Framingham Sauvignon Blanc. Grant was the best tour guide ever and made the trip even been better with some surprise stops and great suggestions when changes to our itinerary were called for. For example, the Waipora Springs Winery ended up being closed due to a power outage so Grant set up a wine tasting at the Cellar Door in Christchurch with wines from the region and some yummy appetizers instead. It was an excellent alternative. We also ended up making a group decision to skip the town of Wanaka since they had a big agricultural festival taking place with huge crowds and traffic jams which Grant had caught wind of by talking to some fellow tour guides. Instead, Grant filled the day with a stop at a salmon farm, a stop at Highland's Race Park with it's hysterical Loo with a View, tasting the salmon from the farm by the waterfalls/pioneer power plant, and doing a wine tasting at Gibbston Valley Winery (and even getting them to show us their cave without taking a tour). Plus we still got to Kinross on time for our scheduled tasting. It ended up being a terrific way to spend the day. Many thanks to Svetlana for her generosity and treating us to dinner at the Blue Kanu. It was a fun restaurant and we were able to have a nice "day before our final Farewell" dinner. What a nice gesture and unexpected surprise. It was a great visit to the South Island. I just wish we'd had more time there. I guess it gives me a reason to go back again. We also would have loved to have Svetlana join us and experience the South Island with us but understand that she can only be away from home for so long.... The main suggestion I'd make if this tour is offered again is to make it 2-3 days longer so we can have some additional nights in some towns rather than staying one night in most places. Here are my suggested additions: 1) Spend an extra night in Pichon/Blenheim area - and if you do that, we could do a wine tasting the afternoon after we take the ferry over from Wellington since we are in the famous Marlborough region. If we did that, we could do the Seafood Odyssey sailing the next day and maybe do another Marlborough region wine tasting 2)Spend a night in Kaikoura- we really enjoyed our unscheduled stop at Ohau to see the colony of playful fur seals but didn't have much time Kaikoura (maybe 1 1/2 - 2 hours including lunch). It would have been nice to be able to do the Kaikoura Peninsula walk but we would have needed several more hours to add that in plus lunch and checking out the town. There were also lots of other activities if people didn't want to do the Peninsula Walk (kayaking, whale/dolphin watching boats, etc). There also seems to be a lot of nice restaurants in Kaikoura so we could have had a group dinner there 3)If we had an extra day in Kaikoura we could have perhaps done the wine tasting at Waipora Springs Winery the next morning and then gotten to Christchurch earlier. It would have been nice to have both an afternoon and full morning to explore Christchurch. We enjoyed our morning there on the hop on/off tram, punting, and walking through a small part of the botanical garden but would have liked more time in this town 4) Stay an extra day in Queenstown. We had very little time in Queenstown and spent the whole day we had there going to the Milford Sound. In retrospect, with only one day there, I'd have preferred to spend the day in Queenstown (perhaps combined with another wine tasting) as it was a very long bus ride for a 2 hour boat ride in the Milford Sound. Plus, it started raining and clouded in when we got on the boat so had minimal views of the Tasman Sea and fjords. When the sun did come out, the boat was so crowded on the top deck that it was hard to get good pictures/views and people weren't particularly nice about sharing the space. The other suggestion I have if you go again is to either eliminate the Milford Sound (if only spending one full day in Queenstown) or if a second day is added to look for a different company for the Milford Sound trip (and do it the first day). The coach we were on with Real New Zealand was nice and our guide for the day, Hygi, was very good, However, the boat we went on was jam packed. We were also herded like cattle through the buffet (which was mediocre compared to the meals we had been having). And as mentioned above, the other tourists on the boat were a bit rude and not willing to let others get in to take a picture and see the views. We had been so spoiled the whole trip with only 5 of us so being on a crowded boat our last full day was a bit of a bummer. Had the weather been better, our experience also would have likely been better. If you do go again, I'd look to see if there is a more boutique/less crowded boat going through the fjords. Also, a box lunch with some nice charcuterie or sandwiches probably would have been better than the buffet. Plus if you do not go to the Milford Sound the last full day of the trip, you could have a nice Farewell dinner the last night. Overall, the trip was just fabulous and we are so happy we went to both the North and South Island on the WineNot tours!!!

The North Island tour was fabulous with some great wine tastings, dinners, and site seeing. I liked that we combined visits to many of the key sites to see in the North Island like all the geo thermal pools and bubbling mud with wine tastings and fabulous meals....plus there was a nice combination of organized activities and free time. Every day was amazing including the trip to Waiheke Island, the Glowworm Caves, Hobbiton, the Te Pa Tu Maori Cultural Experience with a delicious Hangi dinner, exploring the Orate Korako Geyserland and the Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland, seeing all the gannets on the Gannet Safari, and lots more. Our tour guide, Grant, was also amazing, and threw in a few bonus stops that were awesome like seeing the dam open and fill the river at AraTaiTai dam and our stop at Te Puia to check out some of their Maori carvings. I loved many of the wineries we went to especially our bonus one Te Motu, Stonyridge, Brookfields, Craggy Range, and Elephant Hill. And several of our meals were over the top like the one at Embra's, Elephant Hill, and Mister D's. If I went again, I would spread out the lunch at Elephant Hill and the dinner at Central Fire House - both we terrific but we were still full from lunch so didn't fully appreciate dinner. I also don't know if I'd bother with the redwoods at night - might have liked seeing them during the day better though some of the light shows were neat to see. I had such a good time on this trip, I am already trying to figure out when we can go back. Svetlana really puts together a nice package with personal touches and I'd definitely join her on other wine trips she plans.

Great time, wonderful trip a few bumps with the itinerary. Anne Marie our driver was excellent but she had to move the itinerary around a lot due to lack of detailed planning by intrepid. For example they had us booked for a place that was closed for over a year and booked at times for others when they weren’t open or the time between events didn’t work.

We have done many trips with Svetlana so we may be somewhat biased. But this was a great trip - definitely one of her best. Surprisingly there wasn't as much wine/wineries as on most of her trips, but we expected that. NZ has so much going for it that a little less wine was not an issue. The overall itinerary was just super. Three geo-thermal parks, and they were all different and great. Hobbiton was even better than I had hoped. The wines were delicious. And the food was probably the best consistently from any of previous trips. The small group size of 18 or less is ideal (so much better than larger bus tours with 30 or 40 people). And all this is enhanced by the fellow travelers that were with us. These trips almost always are a combination of past travelers with a few first timers. There is just something about the people that travel with Svetlana. They are consistently nice, friendly people. And the groups always seem to come together with the seasoned travelers making sure they include the new ones. These trips aren't to be missed.

The South Island adventure was vert good ; however, the trip was rushed to maintain a schedule that was completely unrealistic. The trip should have had at least an extra two days for traveling the distance required. It was successful only through the outstanding efforts of our guide:driver, Ann Maria, where she adjusted the schedule to make it manageable. The hotel accommodations were marginal and the normal reserved dinners were nonexistent compared to the North Island experience. The sites of South Island were outstanding but were diminished by the travel time to get there. It was an exhausting trip but could be improved by adding additional days for travel and spending more time enjoying each individual region.