Your calls always answered within 5 rings.
Excellent service and help.
We missed our connection between Auckland and Nelson. It was no problem, we were just put on the next flight at no extra cost, but it did cause a bit of worry at the time. For your reference, 2 hours is not enough for transfer in Auckland to a domestic flight. Collecting bags, going through customs and a good 20 minutes walk between terminals requires 3+ hours.
Well satisfied, thank you
Good service again from Niall and everything went very well
Edward was excellent in sorting out my travel plans. Very good communication from start to finish. Would recommend this travel company.
Elliot was most helpful with questions re flights. Your app is very good and emails advising impending flights very prompt. Will certainly use again and recommend
Very good experience
Ben and the team look after us
Great service from start to finish!
Zoe Lane was very helpful, thank you
Nicole has been great. The flights, accommodation and rental cars were superb and any blips were resolved as priority - thanks for a great trip
It was all perfect.
Just to let you know about the car rental rules for NZ, you are not able to take them on a ferry between the North and South Islands. You have to arrange separate rentals.
Nicholas was excellent, and inspired complete confidence when we had to upgrade for medical reasons, sorting it all out within minutes.
Everything went smoothly. Cathay is a great airline.
Was able to use New Zealand Airlines Business Lounge in Auckland on my Singapore Airlines booking. Very convenient as flight delayed 4 hours due to technical problems.
Changes had to be made to flights mid tour. Despite 13 hr time difference all done with speed and efficiency. Thank you Raj.
Excellent at tailoring the holiday to suit your requirements. So easy to contact and get prompt reply. Would definitely recommend
Fantastic service. We had problems with the weather and a cancelled flight on departure but DialAFlight was brilliant and we were on our way the following day with the connecting flight in Singapore reorganised as well. Thanks Michelle and the team.
Excellent service
Really good - at the front end as we worked out what to do and how most efficiently to do it and as then as we travelled. The comms both via Roger and via the app were excellent.
Always so friendly, efficient and extremely helpful. I recommend them to many others
The trip was fantastic but we did have an issue with the first pick up as we had to pay for a taxi but overall the trip was brilliant
Once again we were delighted with the service we have received by DialAFlight
Another excellent putting together of all we had asked for. We’ll be in touch soon for the next trip.
We had a great trip with no problems. The only query we had was when flying from Christchurch to Hong Kong via Sydney we spotted a direct flight with Cathey Pacific which would obviously have been much better.
Shelley has been brilliant with our last 2 trips so will definitely be recommending
DialAFlight takes all the hassle out of holiday booking! Well done Alfie Davies, yet again. We have absolute confidence in Alfie
You explained the options very well to enable an informed decision and you were responsive to any queries. An excellent service.
All went well as far as flight went. I wasn’t keen on Hong Kong airport - difficult for me to get around to find lounges and gates
Sir Howard Arriving at our Thames B&B, we're told by the landlady that in the event of an earthquake, we should assemble at the cattle grid.
We're not in England's Thames Valley - this is the historic town of Thames, 90 minutes' drive south-east of Auckland on New Zealand's North Island.
SO MUCH TO SEE & DO
This country's spectacular, exotic beauty was forged by earthquakes and volcanoes over millions of years. The South Island looks and even sounds like the Scottish Highlands. Parts of the North Island resemble Jurassic Park.
It's no surprise that Kiwi filmmaker Peter Jackson used his native country as the backdrop for The Lord Of The Rings. About a third of New Zealand's four-and-a-half million people live in Auckland, with the rest spread over a country slightly bigger than the UK.
Our trip was part normal holiday and partly to follow the British Lions rugby tour.
Arriving in Christchurch, we found it still scarred by the tragic 2011 earthquake - a constant reminder of how this lovely land came into being.
Driving south to Dunedin - so Scottish we had haggis and whisky for breakfast - we spent a glorious day exploring the craggy Otago Peninsula. We saw rare royal albatrosses with wings like wind turbines crash-land on a cliff to feed fluffy chicks too fat to move; we watched baby-blue penguins waddle up the beach at dusk for a cuddle, honking amorously; and we nearly tripped over a snoozing sea lion on windswept Allans Beach.
SWEET REMINDERS
New Zealand's endless miles of neat wooden bungalows, with pretty Victorian ornamentation, white picket fences and soporific verandas, filled me with nostalgia for my childhood in a wooden bungalow by the River Thames near Windsor.
There are two sets of initials a visitor to New Zealand should know: the All Blacks rugby team are the ABs - and SBs are sauvignon blanc wines.
VINEYARD TOURS
The New Zealand SB boom is exemplified by the Woolshed Vineyard, which produces Mud House wines in the Marlborough region at the top of the South Island. The Woolshed ranch was once a sheep farm, but the sound of shearing has been replaced by that of SBs being swirled round the palate by brilliant young winemaker Cleighton Cornelius.
Mud House was sporting enough to sponsor the British Lions - another reason to buy its excellent wines, including sauvignon blanc and pinot noir. After sipping several, we took a ferry to the North Island, passing many hidden sandy coves glinting in the moonlight.
Next we headed north to Rotorua, New Zealand's unofficial Maori capital. The Maoris came to New Zealand some 500 years before Captain Cook landed here in 1769, but no one is sure where from. Guesses range from Hawaii to Indonesia.
Maori chiefs handed sover-eignty of New Zealand to Britain in the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.
A WARM WELCOME
Some say that NZ has made a greater success of integrating two ethnic groups with starkly contrasting cultures than any other country.
A fun way to experience New Zealand's natural underfloor heating is at Hot Water Beach, on the Coromandel Peninsula. Dig a hole in the beach, let the cold waves dilute the boiling sand and you have your own bubble bath. But beware: get the mix wrong and you'll be scalded where it hurts.
A FUN FINALE
We ended our tour in Auckland, where we joined thousands of British rugby fans who swapped beer, banter and ballads with the locals in harbourside bars and restaurants.
We stayed in Auckland's Ponsonby district, a kind of mini-Notting Hill with yet more quaint bungalows. They make for a novel skyline, with skyscrapers and the ocean right behind them.
We twice bumped into ex-Irish and Lions rugby pin-up Brian O'Driscoll in Ponsonby as well as AB star Beauden Barrett - though a friend laughed off our celebrity sightings, saying: 'There are so few people in New Zealand, you soon get to meet them all!'
First published in the Mail on Sunday - October 2017
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