Black Sheep Touring Company - Black Sheep Touring Company 66 Aranui Road

My husband and I recently returned from the New Zealand Wonderland self-drive trip and I can't say enough good things about it. The team, Stacy and Leslie, who helped us book the trip and choose our "excursions" were incredibly knowledgeable and helpful. They were very quick to return phone calls and emails and were patient when we wanted to change things and had further questions. When we got to New Zealand, everything was exactly as planned. Our in-country representative met with us on the first morning and brought everything we would need - all our vouchers, directions, maps, extra helpful information and even really nice stainless steel water bottles. The extremely thorough trip notes provided gave us great suggestions for restaurants and scenic side trips. And every day there were tips on what to do for the next day. I consider myself a Type A personality and a control freak, so it was a bit out of character for me to surrender all the planning to someone else - and I don't regret it one bit! These folks are experts on what to do and where to go in New Zealand and how to have the most amazing journey through the country. Midway through our vacation there was a "slip" (rock slide) that closed one of the major roads we needed to travel, and the NZ Black Sheep team (Linda) promptly notified me and gave me daily updates on the progress to re-open the road. I never would have known that happened without them and we could have been in quite a mess without their help. The people at Black Sheep Touring are top notch in every way and I can't thank them enough for making my dream vacation come true.

What an amazing trip! From the minute we departed our flight in Auckland, every detail was attended to. We traveled the gorgeous south island by sprinter van and Heather our guide was a gem - she was a wealth of knowledge about the country as well as kept us on schedule for all our adventures - picturesque hikes to the glaciers, kayaking rivers and biking to wineries just to name a few. Our accommodations were luxurious but at the same time charming with local flair and we had some wonderful gourmet meals. We highly recommend Black Sheep Touring if you're going Down Under!

We recently traveled with Black Sheep for a second time and very much enjoyed the Wild South Experience. Had an amazing adventure with them in 2006 exploring both the north and south islands. My American daughter and son-in -law relocated from the US to NZ last year and my husband and I thought it would be great to experience more NZ travel as well as check in on our kids after the tour concluded. We were not disappointed! We travel the world and this was “the best trip ever”. The itinerary, activities, accommodations, food, attention to detail -all excellent! And then there was Dean, our guide. What a fabulous person! He MADE the trip and put things totally over the top. The only challenge being – the bar is now set so high, suspect it will be challenging to top our Black Sheep experience.

Our vacation in New Zealand was one of the best vacations that we’ve ever had thanks to the Black Sheep touring company. Our contact, Leslie, was highly responsive and worked with us and with the staff at Black Sheep to design a diverse itinerary that included a very broad and satisfying spectrum of New Zealand sights. The arrangements made by the Black Sheep staff for hotels, restaurants, activities and outfitters were stellar. The restaurants were top notch (photo-worthy & yummy food), and the outfitter choices were great. For example, I opted to do ocean kayaking without my husband at Abel Tasman Park (my husband wanted to hike that day), and, although no one else had signed up for my activity with the outfitter, they ran the activity anyway (with a personal kayaking guide specifically assigned to me) so that I would get to do my ocean kayaking – and the equipment and kayaking guide were terrific. Our Black Sheep guide, Dean, was fantastic – so experienced and knowledgeable about everything kiwi! In addition to being completely on top of the interesting histories of all the towns and sites we visited, he was wonderful at identifying and suggesting very cool (and memorable) side excursions we might include when we had time. Even if we had spent hundreds of hours on research and planning, we would not have had a vacation as interesting and smoothly executed as the one we just had with Black Sheep.

We toured the South Island. Our guide, Diane Baumgart, was wonderful....so knowledgeable having grown up on the South Island. The variety of activities was excellent, and choices could be made dependent on your adventurousness or physical ability. We saw a great museum exhibit at WOW!, watched a sheep shearing, tubed through a cave with glow worms covering the roof (magical!), horseback rode where the Lord of the Rings was filmed, boated in a fjord, helicoptered to a glacier, and did some lovely easy hikes through gorgeous country. Besides that the hotels and food were very good. Also, the organization of this touring company was excellent, with good information and pre and post tour follow-up by phone.

So glad we went with Black Sheep. They did a great job working with us to set up our customized self-drive tour of New Zealand. They helped us when our flight to Auckland was cancelled, they provided a book with full instructions, information, stuff to do, tips, map instructions, and vouchers. When we lost our voucher bag half way through, they took care of everything. We contacted them numerous times for information and help, and they couldn't have been nicer. They did a fabulous job and we would use them again, absolutely. ps - don't miss Hobbiton or Mount Sunday (Edoras) if you're a Lord of the Rings fan.

Our trip to NZ started as my daughter's semester-abroad ended at the Univ of Otago on the So Island. We wanted to join her, along with her younger sister, and explore the island without a guide but with some direction, as we had only 10 days. Black Sheep touring set up a wonderful itinerary for us that allowed us to see much of the So Island without feeling too rushed. I worked with the US representative and came up with an itinerary of places and activities that were interesting & fun for us. The rep arranged the hotels, the activities & some of the transportation (rental cars, inter-island flights.) When we arrived in Christ Church, the local Black Sheep representative met us and presented us with a binder of information, which included our maps, vouchers for activities & hotels, confirmations for car and flights, and talked us through the whole itinerary. The information was in hard copy form, which I appreciated, as I didn't want to be attached to our mobile devices and was unsure of how connected we would be to service. Along with the confirmed activities at each stop and turn-by-turn directions, there were suggestions for walks, restaurants and possible stop "along the way" as we traveled from place to place. The accommodations were clean and comfortable, and the proprietors were lovely, engaging Kiwi's who shared their own thoughts on the areas with us. Both my husband and I work full time, and we could never have found the hours it would have taken to put this trip together on our own. For the most part, we just had to show up and the sights and places were waiting for us, but also with enough flexibility to do some independent exploring. The insights from the Black Sheep representative were very important; otherwise we may have spent half our time there trying to figure out what to do and how to get there. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and feel we received the full value of our self-drive trip through Black Sheep Touring.

My husband and I got back from our amazing New Zealand vacation a couple of days ago. All went well and we thoroughly enjoyed all the activities that Black Sheep recommended, helped plan and book. The people were very friendly and the landscape was spectacular! We can definitely recommend Black Sheep Touring to anyone looking for an awesome adventure.