Just got back from an 11-day trip to New Zealand, and I have some honest thoughts to share...
I joined a small Chinese tour group with three other girls. We were all around the same age, and we got along really well. We took photos of each other and chatted about gossip, which was a lot of fun!
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I really want to recommend this small tour group! Our tour guide was really nice, and I genuinely want him to have more customers. First of all, he was a good driver. It was already spring when we went, and we could take a helicopter to hike on the glacier! The mountain roads here aren't great, and I was worried about safety if I drove myself. The tour guide drove the whole way, and we didn't encounter any danger.
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Here are some things I liked about this small tour group (I promise I'm not lying to my online friends!).
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Transportation: We took a 9-seater business car 🚗, and our luggage came with us. It was spacious and comfortable. Although the roads in New Zealand aren't great, our tour guide was a good driver, so we didn't get carsick. He even took us to see the aurora! We saw it in more than one place! It was so beautiful that I cried.
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Hotels: The hotels booked by this small tour group were really nice. When I was researching, I found that many tour groups take you to designated hotels, which are very noisy 👯. So before I booked, I specifically emphasized that I didn't want to go to those hotels. I wanted to be comfortable, which would make the travel experience better.
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Food: To be honest, food in New Zealand is quite expensive 🌮🍤🍧🍛🌭🍖. But since I was there, I had to try the local specialties. I asked the tour guide to recommend a few restaurants. Fergburger in Queenstown was really good. The burgers were bigger than my face, and I couldn't finish one, haha. The lamb chops at a local restaurant next to Wakatipu were also delicious and fragrant, with no mutton smell! The tour guide also helped us book a table at the famous Mt Cook Alpine Salmon farm. The salmon was really delicious! It was just a bit expensive.
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Group experience: I went alone, so I joined a small group to meet people and make new friends. It turned out to be a lot of fun. If you're going to New Zealand for the first time, you can consider joining a small group 💞.
Cost: Tour fee + airfare and visa + extra food and drinks + Cook Mountain glacier hike + other shopping, totaling 32,000 yuan.