South Pacific Wonders

Travel guide was excellent. You could improve in having a person at Sydney airport to guide your travelers for flight connection to Cairns. The flight to Cairns was at the other airport and you needed a shuttle. It was very confusing, especially after a 15.5 hr flight and going thru customs. If you are going to Sydney for New Years Eve, spend to money to have a hotel close, so elderly people can see fireworks. Other than that, it was a wonderful trip!

Snorkling over the Great Barrier Reef, New Years Eve fireworks, visiting a farm in New Zealand, dinner with a local, Steamboat ride and all meals were excellent, except lunch on excursion to barrier reef & 4 wheeling in river. Queenstown is breath taking!

Too many people on tour(lot's of time wasted getting on and off buses and airplanes) and will choose a tour company next with fewer participants.

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We are not experienced travelers, so I don't have a lot of experiences to compare to. Our trip was well organized and all the prearranging, (airlines, visas, bus connections), were done without a hitch. Collette provides a limo service, witch is nice, ours was a 1/2 hour late, witch started off our trip a little nervous, but we made the plane on time, just in time, (don't think it was our drivers fault, not sure they gave him enough time to get to our house). Our tour guide was great, very personable, and competent.

Cairns I liked Cairns,Hartleys Croc Farm was good, Green Island was bad, very over crowded, diving was terrible, you can only dive where they tell you and that's crowded, and nothing to see. They should include the "Outer Barrier reef" (a $155.00 PP option) as standard, in my opinion. Sydney Beautiful city- Our Hotel was close to Darling Harbor. Enjoyed all of Sydney. New Zealand All of it is great - But really got blow away by Queenstown, it snowed twice while we were there, which made the mountains and the lake around there unbelievable. My favorite place!!

The tour was well organized, included what we wanted to see as well as experiences we couldn't have planned on our own. The tour manager, ***, was very personable and made every effort to accommodate personal preferences. The tour guides were knowledgeable and entertaining.

See previous note regarding why we chose

There were too many people on the tour (41). The tour started later in the morning each day at 10:00. Most tours start earlier in the day. On free days we arranged for activities on our own with little help from the tour manager. Our most memorable days were those that we did on our own. For example, we booked a trip to a village up the coast from Queenstown and enjoyed a boat trip to see penguins, sea lions, dolphins, and amazing geology. That trip should have been included in the itinerary. This trip had too much free time, not enough learning presented by the guides, and too many people on the tour.

Optional tours were the best times so if someone did not buy optional tours, they would not have had many memorable events.

This was our 5th trip with Collette and as in the past, it was excellent. The tour Manager was excellent. His name is Jim and he really helped everyone enjoy the adventure of the trip to Australia and New Zealand.

The trip was well planned, many wonderful tours and the the tour manager was excellent. Jim in Australia and New Zealand

I enjoyed all of the activities that we did on the tour. Our tour director was great! My. Ingest complaint would have to do with the airfare. I found it very annoying to not have seat assignments ahead of the trip and what made it worse was the emails fro Collette telling me to check in online, but not being able to do so.

I really enjoyed our trip to Milford Sound. The weather was perfect, the scenery was fabulous and we were able to fly back to Queenstown to take in the beautiful scenery from above! The Jetboat ride was great fun! Visiting with a local family in Christchurch add for a very pleasant evening.

Our guide, Jim, was helpful, well organized and knowledgeable, making the trip a great experience.

The Maori cultural center was excellent.

Collette came through again for me. On this my 8th tour, I had the best time ever. The tour manager, Jim was the best. He helped us with everything we were going to encounter. From the extra excursions to what was included it was an awesome time. If anyone wants to go "down under" Collette is the tour company to use.

The fiord cruise, jet boat ride and gondola ride in Queenstown were highlights. Actually the whole tour was a 5 star.

the office people were great our tour guide was great she did the best she could with some of the problems that occured

Dinner with the family in New Zealand was wonderful some of the boat or ship rides to see the beautiful falls antarctic experience New Zealand jeep ride

The hotel location and services were key for me and they were excellent. Also, we were on 3 airline flights as a group and it couldn't have been easier or more organized. Loved the trip and already have recommended it to others.

The great barrier reef was my favorite.