Posted on: October 19th, 2015 by MelissaM
In December 2015, Air New Zealand will host direct flights from Houston to Auckland, New Zealand. This means traveling to New Zealand just became even easier with five Air New Zealand hubs in North America!
Training with Tourism New Zealand
In preparation for the inaugural flight from Houston, the staff at About New Zealand partnered with Tourism New Zealand for a massive training event Thursday. 24 vendors from all across New Zealand showed up Thursday morning and, after a Texas sized breakfast, the teams got to work.
The morning jumped right into fast paced training sessions for our staff. The vendors in town ranged from luxury accommodations to award winning Maori Cultural experiences and even self-drive experiences in the comfort of a camper van, like tourism New Zealand’s Kombi Diaries.
There are some pretty interesting things waiting you in New Zealand including Helicopter Tours to Franz Josef, luxury day cruises on Doubtful Sound, accommodations fit for royalty (literally) and lots of Hobbit inspired experiences. We even got a look at a real prop worn by a Dwalin in The Hobbit!
Photo courtesy of Weta Workshop in Wellington, New Zealand
By midday the About New Zealand staff was full to the brim with New Zealand knowledge and Tourism NZ was out the door to Houston for their final stop. Housing this many vendors in one day was a milestone for About New Zealand. It was exciting and exhausting but most importantly it was another way we can improve your travel experience!
What does this mean for you? Our partnership with Tourism New Zealand and the amazing turn out of New Zealand vendors ensures your next New Zealand vacation is one you’ll never forget! After extensive training, our Destination Specialists are even more excited to start planning your New Zealand vacation!
Call us Toll Free 888-359-2877 (Mon-Fri 8:30am – 5:00pm Central US) or Start planning my trip
About New Zealand Reviews
Rating of Average of 4.88 on a total of 33 Ratings
The greatest lifetime memories were made on this adventure.
The vacation was well organized. When we came face to face with a cyclone the team had our backs and made sure that our vacation continued. Each of our sleeping accommodations were amazing. (...)
(...) (Exception Prince's Gate). Our excursions were fun, informative and accommodating. The trip was organized in the best way possible to ensure that we enjoyed all of New Zealand and our little bite of Australia. Our hats go off to Koda and Tiffany. They a made it a best vacation ever.
Beautiful country
Six of us set off to New Zealand organised by About Australia and Ana and her team. Every step was smooth and organised. Every transfer worked, every hotel was clean and welcoming. The tour(...)
(...) round the South Island was very inclusive and informative and in the short time we had to do the whole country we saw so much diverse geology and scenery. We loved our city visits in Auckland and Christchurch. I would definitely recommend About Australia to anyone wanting to visit these lovely countries.
Amazing
Beautiful scenery everywhere you turn.
Wonderful friendly people always going out of their way to be helpful .
Overall Great Trip
We loved New Zealand and hope to return! 10 days was not long enough for the amount of public transportation we used. Queenstown was fun and we’re glad we added one day there to our itinerary. (...)
(...) Our flight from Queenstown to Christ Church was cancelled, so we had to fly from Queenstown to Auckland to Christ Church to pick up our rental car. Since we didn’t arrive in Christ Church until mid afternoon, we had to leave for Kaikoura without seeing Christ Church. We enjoyed Kaikoura that evening and the next morning. We had to be at the ferry by noon, so we had to move along to Picton. The ferry ran 1.5 hours late so when we arrived in Wellington, Thrifty was closed. So, we had to get to our hotel and back to the ferry the next morning to pick up the car. We felt like there was too many moving parts and wasted time on all of the public transportation delays. From Wellington, we drove on our own to Napier then Rotorua. All of the hotels arranged for us were nice. We also enjoyed the prearranged tours. We traveled in September and the weather was mostly sunny with highs in the 60s and lows in the 40s. About New Zealand was good to work with, and very responsive by phone and by email. The cost of the trip was very reasonable. The next time we travel to New Zealand we will rent a camper van, and move along at our own pace. There was plenty of camping on both islands. We will also spend more than 10 days. Thanks for a great trip!
