My Honest Opinion of Kiwi Experience!
On 30th June 2017 by HelenI’m sat here in Auckland in my hotel room, completely broke and the happiest I’ve ever been (though ask me that again once I see the credit card bill). Reflecting on the last three and half weeks makes me so happy. I couldn’t have had a better time or met better people if I’d tried. Originally I was going to do my New Zealand trip solo, hire a car and drive my way down the islands to Queenstown, however within three days of me planning to book my trip hostels were filled and prices were rising, fast. I needed to come to New Zealand no matter what, it’s been a dream of mine for years so I decided to look into Kiwi Experience, I won’t lie it wasn’t top of my list when choosing to book a trip. I’d heard so many mixed things about the company and if I’m honest there were more bad than good comments but they had a huge sale on there trips and I knew accommodation was guaranteed at each stop so I took a chance.
Sometime you shouldn’t listen to anything you hear and Kiwi was exactly that. Now I am not disputing that it has wild, party and drunken fuelled trips especially in summer and maybe I got super lucky but I had the time of my life!
Firstly let’s start from way back in the beginning before I even booked the trip. Whilst looking on the website I was messaged by the staff through their chat room. I explained my budget and how long I had to travel and they were awesome recommending me my trip. I spoke with the staff on the phone before I booked, I asked every question I could think of and everything was answered without hesitation. Already my worries were being put to rest. My booking was held for 24 hours whilst I made flight arrangements and by mid day the following day it was all booked and paid for, I was on my way.
To book onto my coach was ‘sweet as’ with a quick call to the office to let them know my hostel, the bus stop was literally 100m from the entrance. This was the only bad experience with the company, the girl who I spoke to this time clearly hated her job and couldn’t have been less arsed on the phone if she’d tried, but I wasn’t going to let that put me off.
The bus was prompt and on time every single day of the trip and the drivers were awesome. Let’s go into more detail…to be a Kiwi driver I feel you need to be a certain type of person, basically a big kid that’s has no intention of growing up but is competent enough to drive a massive bus. I had 3 different drivers for the trip Jarrad who took us to the Bay of Islands, Fly who drove us back from the Bay of Islands and Jared so took us from Auckland down to Queenstown. These guys 100% made the trip. I don’t think I’ve had so much banter in my life or laughed so much. If people were late there were punishments – handcuffs anyone? Or the bus would drive around the corner and hide for 10 mins so late passengers thought they were stuck in the arse end of nowhere. There were bus games including speed dating and on other buses murder mystery and wheel of fortune. The drivers also knew their stuff on all activities, everything was made to sound so appealing and being the drivers they had tried most of the experiences themselves so were completely honest with you when explaining the good and bad of all activities. They also got fully involved with pub crawls, quiz nights and fancy dress. Legends is the only word which can be used to describe them. To be honest if you don’t like banter or having the piss taken out of you don’t bother booking with Kiwi Experience (KE).
Every single hostel we stayed at along the way was clean and functional. Some such as Taupo and Wanaka were like hotels rather than hostels.
The activities that were listed for us to do seemed endless, kayaking, bungy jumping, canyon swings, zip wires, glow worm caves, horse riding, jet boating, sky diving, hiking the list went on and on! The prices were roughly $20-40 cheaper for KE passengers and over time that definitely adds up.
Most importantly the people I met on the bus were truly great. You don’t think that travelling for three weeks would make you so close but I’ve made friends for life on this bus and from all over the world. Our bus probably wasn’t the craziest Kiwi Experience has seen but everyone got on there was no cliques or bitchiness it was great! Saying goodbye to everyone in Queenstown absolutely sucked!
So my advice and opinion…book Kiwi Experience, be open minded to meeting new people and trying all sorts of cool activities and don’t take it too seriously at all, it the one place in the world where there’s no pretence and you’re just meant to have fun…Sweet As!
Disclaimer: this is my own opinion on the trip and company, I’ve not been asked/approached to write this
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