First Light Travel

First Light Travel Welcome to First Light Travel & Absolute South Pacific - Premier Experiential Tourism specialists.
(408)

Since 2001, travellers have trusted First Light Travel to deliver itineraries that exceeded their expectations. We are your gateway to premiere New Zealand self drive and group touring experiences. Choose from one of our many ‘Tried and Tested’ itineraries or have one of our friendly Kiwi consultants design a unique holiday just for you. If you prefer we can also arrange the flexibility and privacy of travelling around New Zealand with your own personal driver guide.

Well done team! That's 3 years in a row!
23/07/2025

Well done team! That's 3 years in a row!

Heidi impressed us with her complete knowledge and professionalism. Everything she said was true and she really helped u...
19/05/2025

Heidi impressed us with her complete knowledge and professionalism. Everything she said was true and she really helped us make smart choices. Another aspect we truly appreciated was that all price quotes stayed the same (one actually went down) so we had no surprises. That everything was prepaid and all reservations joyfully honored when we arrived at each site made it all quite stress free. Getting the logistics right is a genuine skill and we are most appreciative of her efforts on our behalf.
Touring NZ with First Light is the way to go! We loved our trip! We usually plan our own independent vacations but a little research showed folks are well advised to work with a local company. We chose First Light and we are so glad we did. We had an idea of what we wanted to do and the types of places we wanted to stay. After a couple calls with Heidi she created a personalized itinerary for us. Her suggestions for our 24 day, 1,500 mile adventure were spot-on. She had drivers meet us at airports to shuttle us to our hotels, arranged for our cars, booked wonderful accommodations, picked amazing excursions, provided vouchers for anywhere that required them, and put together a thorough itinerary with an overview of each and every place we’d visit. Her attention to detail arranging all the logistics was perfect and every reservation went smoothly. We would highly recommend going to New Zealand – it is an unforgettable experience. And be sure to call Heidi at First Light when you do!
Bill & Carol Robinette, USA

If you are thinking about travel to New Zealand (especially if you want to fly fish) you need to work with Nicole at Fir...
23/04/2025

If you are thinking about travel to New Zealand (especially if you want to fly fish) you need to work with Nicole at First Light Travel. My wife and I have travelled all over the world (Africa, several countries in South America, Japan, most of Europe, Vietnam etc) and we have always booked our own trips and excursions – it does not work like that in New Zealand (all 3 agents for my New Zealand trip which I interviewed told me I needed to work with an agent even if it was not them). That was the best advice I got and will share with you
From someone who has worked with lodging professionally for 30 years I can tell you the travel infrastructure in New Zealand is different. There is not as much information on the Web as most other countries. Booking for their summer (winter in the US) needs to be done 4 to 6 months in advance. Almost every town we were in we saw hotels flashing No Vacancy signs everywhere.
Most web sites provide lists of the best fly-fishing rivers to go to and are spread-out across the country. Even after fishing three of those rivers I do not know where to go next. Destination fishing lodges are few and can be quite expensive.
You need Nicole to help you plan your dream trip. She is professional, personable, a great listener to understand what you want your trip to be and truly cares about her clients.

Arthur Neudek, USA

https://www.firstlighttravel.com/nz-self-drive-itineraries/new-zealand-fly-fishing-tour

We were looking for something special to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. We started to check out New Zealand on ...
23/04/2025

We were looking for something special to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. We started to check out New Zealand on line and saw things we liked so we contacted First Light Travel. They came up with an itinerary on some of the things we wanted to see and they added to our list. The itinerary was what we had hoped for. It was well planned and everything was booked ahead of time. Our hotels, excursions and travelling were all lined up. This made for a relaxed and pleasurable trip .They also planned down time for us so we could do some exploring on our own. First Light Travel made this holiday something very special for us, we could not have done this on our own. We highly recommend this travel company. Thank you First Light Travel.

Elaine & Henry Janz, Canada

https://www.firstlighttravel.com/nz-self-drive-itineraries/classic/classic-new-zealand-vacation-package

New Zealand and First Light Travel were both awesome. Just go. The 21-day self driving tour by First Light was the right...
23/04/2025

New Zealand and First Light Travel were both awesome. Just go. The 21-day self driving tour by First Light was the right pace and allowed us to explore as we wanted. Booking was simple and the accommodations were top notch. The excursions were so well planned and there was not a single issues over the 21 days. We are so appreciative to Anna C. for her timely and knowledgeable advice.

Scott Drysdale, Canada

https://www.firstlighttravel.com/nz-self-drive-itineraries/both-islands/three-week-best-of-new-zealand-vacation-package

My wife and I had long dreamed of taking our bucket-list trip to Australia & New Zealand, but as we researched the vario...
11/04/2025

My wife and I had long dreamed of taking our bucket-list trip to Australia & New Zealand, but as we researched the various places to go and things to do, we quickly became overwhelmed by all the options. We saw great reviews for First Light Travel (based in Auckland) and we decided to hand over our list of preferences and have them book the trip for us. This was the best decision we made for this trip! They knew all the good places to go, the hotels, excursions, and all the transfers between travel points. Danielle was the one who booked our trip, and her friendliness and knowledge of the country made it all so easy for us! Every detail of our month-long trip worked out perfectly and on-time, thanks to Danielle’s great planning. Thank you, Danielle—if we ever go back there, we’re calling YOU!!

Don Durston, USA

https://www.firstlighttravel.com/new-zealand-and-australian-self-drive-tours/21-day-oceania-discovery-tour

We had a wonderful time during our 24 days in New Zealand, our longest holiday ever. Our only regret was not staying lon...
10/04/2025

We had a wonderful time during our 24 days in New Zealand, our longest holiday ever. Our only regret was not staying longer. We rented a car and driving was very easy. I think people don't realize how rural most of the country is, and that you are usually driving on two lane roads, with lots of single lane bridges! Not like the autobahns in Europe! And the scenery everywhere is breath taking. The itinerary from First Light was perfect - drive times, locations, experiences. I don't think we would have had such incredible encounters if we had booked this ourselves. We thought this would be a once in a lifetime trip, but we might be back!

Jane Damschroder, USA

https://www.firstlighttravel.com/reviews

We were so very glad we chose First Light to help us plan our independent touring time in New Zealand. Our first contact...
10/04/2025

We were so very glad we chose First Light to help us plan our independent touring time in New Zealand. Our first contact was with Bernadette where she inquired about our interests and desires for our trip and engaged in dialogue to help us refine our trip. Then we worked with Katarina who saw us through the rest of the process and answered questions at the last minute and also while we were on our trip. We were thoroughly happy with their expertise and assistance throughout the whole process. We ended making a couple of changes which they helped us through very smoothly. We loved not having to buy tickets for activities and having our hotels prearranged and paid. There was also the right amount of free time to explore on our own or just rest which we worked out together through the planning process.

Patty & David Johnson, USA

https://www.firstlighttravel.com/reviews

Our 21-day trip through the South Island of New Zealand was simply amazing, thanks to Micala at First Light Travel. She ...
10/04/2025

Our 21-day trip through the South Island of New Zealand was simply amazing, thanks to Micala at First Light Travel. She planned everything perfectly—fantastic sights, great accommodations, and incredible activities—all running like clockwork. We absolutely loved every moment and couldn’t have asked for a better experience. Highly recommend!

David Finkemeyer, Australia
https://www.firstlighttravel.com/nz-self-drive-itineraries/south-island/ultimate-21-day-south-island-self-drive-tour

We had a great trip! Essentially, it was everything we had hoped and thought it would be. We especially loved the South ...
10/04/2025

We had a great trip! Essentially, it was everything we had hoped and thought it would be. We especially loved the South Island (we thought this would be the case before our trip and it turned out to be so). Heidi listened well and heard us (activities we enjoyed, kinds of places we liked to stay). She patiently went back and forth with us and developed an itinerary that we thoroughly enjoyed.

Ray & Melanie Swan, USA
https://www.firstlighttravel.com/nz-self-drive-itineraries/both-islands/three-week-best-of-new-zealand-vacation-package

Address

85 Beach Road
Parnell
1010

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 8pm
Tuesday 9am - 8pm
Wednesday 9am - 8pm
Thursday 9am - 8pm
Friday 9am - 8pm
Saturday 9am - 8pm
Sunday 9am - 8pm

Telephone

+6492814481

Website

http://www.absolutenewzealand.com/, http://www.absoluteaustralia.com/, https://www.fi

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when First Light Travel posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to First Light Travel:

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Trusted Australian & New Zealand Tours

Since 2001, travellers have trusted First Light Travel to deliver itineraries that exceeded their expectations. We are your gateway to premiere Australian and New Zealand self drive and group touring experiences. Choose from one of our many ‘Tried and Tested’ itineraries or have one of our friendly consultants design a unique holiday just for you.