Flying Kiwi offers the opportunity to incorporate some adventure cycling tours of New Zealand into your vacation. Cycling sectors are outlined in the itinerary. These adventure tours are not your usual tours. Flying Kiwi offers special “off the beaten track” experiences that will ensure your adventure tour is awesome!
Transport Bus Travel Flying Kiwi Adventure Tours
Flying Kiwi Adventure Tours
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4.8 (2) |
December 09, 2007 Hits: 2575
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| Name | Flying Kiwi Adventure Tours |
| Address | 4B Forests Rd |
| Suburb | Stoke |
| City | Nelson |
| Provence | Nelson |
| Phone | 0800 693 296 |
| Website | http://www.flyingkiwi.com |
| This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it |
Flying Kiwi Adventure Tours at 4B Forests Rd, Nelson
User reviews
Average user rating from: 2 user(s)
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Flying kiwi tours - amazing experience
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
i am so pleased i found these guys who are a less well known alternative to the main bus companies. i wanted to do all the touristy things but also have some independance and get away from the crowds - thats exactly what i got and couldnt have asked for anymore. the guides were great - big thanks to neil - and a good mix of nationalities and ages on the bus who all got on well. it worked out very well price wise as you could eat heaps at meal times and the food was good. if your thinking of heading to nz then id definitely recommend checking out these guys
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Very good, but not for everyone
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
I did a tour of New Zealand with Flying Kiwi in December of 2009. I chose the Ultimate Explorer option, i.e. the complete tour of both islands, in 4 weeks. Overall, it was a very good experience and I gladly recommend it. However, I feel that the Flying Kiwi’s website is not very clear on certain important points, so I hope that this review will help you decide whether this tour is right for you. If it is still not enough, please email the Flying Kiwi office: I’ve found them to be extremely responsive (but sometimes a bit vague).Flying Kiwi operates a fleet of camping buses, i.e. they stops at campsites. The buses travel along a set path, roughly circling both islands. In addition to the bus driver, a tour guide takes care of planning the day, booking most accommodations and optional activities, shopping for meals and making sure that no one gets left behind. This is why I picked this tour: I did not want to spend time planning this kind of trip by myself. Now, the most important detail missing from the website: New Zealand is a large and rugged country. The Ultimate Explorer trip is about 6000km long. That’s about 200km per day. Since the Flying Kiwi buses are pretty slow, you’re going to spend a lot of time sitting in the bus, between 4 and 6 hours per day, everyday. On a typical day, the bus will leave at 8:30 so the mornings are usually quite busy. While travelling, the bus is going to stop every 90 minutes for a short pause, usually in a small town or in roadside café. While the local food is interesting at first, it can get pretty boring after a while. Optional activities (free or non-free) usually take place in the afternoon. Dinner happens around 6-7, and is cooked by the “cook group” for the day. Usually there isn’t much to do after 8-9, so most people chill out, chat with friends, have a few cold ones, or simply go to bed. If you do lots of optional activities, the days are really packed. In larger towns (Christchurch, Wellington, Auckland) you will either spent the night or 2-3 hours during the day, which is usually more than enough. If you’re spending the night, the tour guide will help you book an accommodation (that you have to pay for yourself). During my tour most people stayed at the backpacker hostel recommended by the guide. I’ve found those places perfectly adequate. New Zealand really knows how to take care of backpackers so you will find cheap meals and Internet Cafés even in the smallest places. Overall I’ve found most shops and restaurants do be reasonably priced, except for bookstores: books in New Zealand are really expensive. So stock up before you leave or take advantage of the “book exchanges” (“take one, leave one”) set up in most backpacker hostels. Another thing: this is not a fully guided tour. The tour guide will rarely do the activities with you, especially if they are long/expensive/boring. The guide we had provided a modicum of explanations about the places with ride though and that was it. So you certainly do not have to pack a guidebook but sometimes it helps to learn more about each place. For example, if you want to do the Routeburn Track, you should research it in advance in order to know what to expect and what kind of gear to bring. This is a camping tour so the bus stays mostly at campsites, which means that you’re going to be sleeping in a tent. You can hire a tent and a sleeping bag from Flying Kiwi: the tents are relatively new and waterproofs while the sleeping bags are quite warm and large. Hint: hire a “single” tent. Most of the campsites provided full amenities (bathrooms, showers, kitchens)… WiFi and Internet stations are available in some camps. The places rented by Flying Kiwi are not “powered” which means that if you need to recharge your camera or your cell phone, you will have to plug them in the lounge or in the kitchen, which can be far away from your tent. Hint: buy a multi-plug bar when you arrive for 5$. Upgrades to cabins are available in some camps for a small fee (5 to 15NZ$) but not always, so you WILL have to sleep in a tent at some point. The bus also spends a few nights in “bushcamps” i.e. an unmanned camping ground with only a toilet and not much else. It is possible to rent a mountain bike from Flying Kiwi, and those bikes are in a really good condition. However from my point of view hiring a bike is a waste of money (the option is expensive). First, most trails are forbidden to bikers. Second, most of the biking rides offered are either biking ahead of the bus before it leaves the camp (which means waking up extra-early) or biking after the bus when it is getting close to the camp. In both case it means biking on a large road. The food is surprisingly good. It is usually cooked in the trailer, which includes a “kitchen” with several gas burners, a full crockery and the supplies for the breakfasts, lunches and dinners. The bus itself is equipped with a tank of drinkable water and a gas heater. I think that the only weak point is that all lunches are sandwiches so they that gets really repetitive after a while. But the bus stops at cafés so often that it is easy to have a pie or a muffin. A word about the weather: even in the summer, New Zealand can be a wet, windy and cold place so you should expect at least a few days of heavy rain. If the conditions are really bad, the tour guide will try to select a campsite where everyone can upgrade to a dorm room for a small fee. Nevertheless I would not recommend taking this tour outside of the summer season, unless you really, really like waking up in a cold, wet tent and having breakfast, lunch and dinner in the bus. Flying Kiwi says that they do not receive a commission on the optional activities they book, and I believe that: they do not actively push the optional activities. Flying Kiwi is a small operation so they do not receive discounts from the companies who run those activities. I guess the most important factor regarding the success of your trip is the people you’re going to meet on this tour. I was quite lucky to travel with a group of interesting and respectful people. When I hopped on the bus I was a bit skeptical regarding the profusions of goodbyes but when I hopped off I could not resist hugging my new friends. My personal highpoints form this trip: -- Diving on the Rainbow Warrior, -- Hiking the Routeburn Track, -- Hiking the Coastal Track in the Abel Tasman National Park, -- Skydiving, -- Bungee jumping (twice!). A note for Lord of the Rings’ fans: yes, lots of places look just as in the movie, but this is not a “Lord of the Rings” tour. So in the end, I think that this trip is not for everyone. If you want to see as much of New Zealand as possible without having to plan anything while sampling a range of “thrilling” activities (and if you don’t mind sitting on the bus for long periods of time), you will be OK. If you want to focus on a few activities (hiking, biking, sea-kayaking, visiting museums, etc), I think that there are better options. Finally, if you mention my name when you register (David Garnier), you will receive a 10% discount on the trip fee. |
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