Australia 2000 - Testimonials

Thank you for putting together our most amazing trip to New Zealand. The trip was everything we'd hoped for and more. The itinerary was very manageable, no surprises or missed pick-ups or hotel glitches and the tours were worry free. The 4 of us appreciated how you met all of our needs and interests since we are such an eclectic group. The "days of leisure" made us truly appreciate your planning and bookings because they take up so much time to get organized and we were under such a tight schedule. It was perfect! Thank you all so much!

Traveled to New Zealand February 2008

It is with great pleasure that we tell you that deciding on a highlight of our whole tour is very difficult. Every day was a wonderful surprise and incomparable. Jim and I both loved the

�royal treatment� we received each time we went to a new place or needed to be at the airport. It took a lot of responsibility off our shoulders.

This is the first trip we have ever taken where we wanted to stay longer. (On other trips we have been ready to return home after a few weeks.) It was a very special trip.

Of course, NZ is very scenic and surprising. But the places we stayed (Wilderness and Queenstown) gave us treasured opportunities to meet people. Most of them were eager to share and were friendly. NZ folk impressed us with their joy at living. That was contagious.

Liz & I had a wonderful time Down Under. We both already miss both Australia and New Zealand.

All of the people who were supposed to pick us up at the hotels and airports were all there on time, and everyone was very friendly. Seems like there are a lot of happy people in general down there. All of the adventure trips were fun, and we ate a lot of great meals (some of which were on your recommended list). Kevin Hopgoods served us one of our best meals ever. Qantas and Air New Zealand were great -- one plane in Australia had to be changed due to a slight delay, but it ended up not really effecting anything. The travel packages were informative, and things went about as smoothly as one could ask for. We really liked all of our hotel accommodations. Colin from Sailing asked us to say "hello" to you from him. Jose Carrarras was phenomenal. I can go on and on......

Again �we had a great time -- and I will recommend you to friends & family who may wish to travel to Australia & New Zealand in the future. Thanks for helping make our Honeymoon unforgettable.

The entire trip was great and we enjoyed every minute of it. The Quark Expeditions is

educational and fun filled trip with great staff. The cabins were excellent. The vegetarian food was delicious every day. The lectures were quite good and kept us very busy learning about the animals and plants and the geology of Antarctica. They showed us four parts 'Shackleton' at night followed by lectures on him and others who tried to reach South Pole. The end of the third day of sailing we reached Antarctic islands starting with Halfmoon Bay followed by Deception Islands. There were landings everyday for the next next five days, sometimes two times a day. One late landing was held at 10PM in broad sun light. After that and other days after the movie, people gathered around in the coffee/bar lounge until 2:30AM. It was near 24 hour day light and no one wanted to sleep. The expedition leader called out 'good morning' greetings in the morning from the bridge and I skipped many breakfasts, unable to wake up at 7AM. But we were all ready for 9:30 landing or lectures. The penguins were plenty, actually about 70 million strong and they smelled really bad.

We got to see four different kinds of penguins but not the big Emperor ones. They live deep south, not near the shore and their cycle of birth is opposite to the others'. But we saw a lot of seals and orca and hump back whales and birds such as albatross and skuas. One day Latha took a snap of sun going down in south at 12:15 AM and coming right back up a while later. It felt like a dream land or another planet, nothing so beautiful and untouched that we have seen before. The general consensus was we should see it at least once in our life time. All in all the expedition was excellent and you can easily book other customers on this trip.

We had good hotel rooms in Buenos Aires and Ushuaia and good reps who received us at Buenos Aires airport, Art hotel and Ushuaia ship peer.

Thank you for booking us on a 'once in a life time' expedition, it was worth it.

Hello, Karen, Hillary, and Shelley:

Further to my phone call to Karen earlier this week, I am following up with a letter--merely to sing your praises!

As I told Karen, you did what I thought just might be the impossible--you took a man who thought that he only enjoyed traveling to countries rich in ancient history and made him the number one fan of Australia and New Zealand! You made a believer out of him!

Steve and I had the most glorious trip of our lives. Your planning and attention to each and every detail helped to create a flawless, easy, exciting, and enjoyable trip for us. There was nothing left undone--from the efficient airport pickups and transfers, to the informative, friendly, helpful tour guides, to the carefully selected accomodations, to the exciting diversified itinerary--it was all WONDERFUL! How you ever got each and every airline to

cooperate and take off and land ON TIME was the most amazing thing :-). Now, if only you had equal control over the weather, you would be verified miracle workers!

We fell in love with the cities of Australia--from Melbourne, to Perth, to Sydney--each has its own unique appeal, but all are so compact and walkable that it made exploring such a treat. The landscape and natural beauty of New Zealand is unsurpassed. The fern forests, the breathtaking views in Abel Tasman park, the green, green, hillsides--all simply take one's breath away.

Our evening at the Sydney Opera House on New Year's Eve is a memory that will forever be ingrained in our heads and our hearts. I had to literally keep pinching myself in order to believe that I really was there. The fireworks, the concert with excerpts from various operas, the dinner, and the after party were all well- orchestrated and loads of fun!

Qantas airlines and New Zealand Air are both remarkable airlines. Northwest airlines should sit up and pay attention--or hang their heads in shame--probably an easier out for them, as paying attention would be too much work.

If you ever need someone to tout your services, please feel free to call upon us. We, in turn, are telling everyone we know about your unbelievable trip planning and will steer all who are planning a trip down under in your direction!

Just a note to say thank you for the most marvelous trip we have ever had. Our trip to Australia & Fiji far exceeded our expectations..we were amazed at the perfect timing of every event and how perfect everything was�it truly was a dream come true. Many thanks to everyone at Australia 2000.

You made our dream vacation come true. Our two weeks in New Zealand and two weeks in

Australia

were absolutely wonderful. The itinerary allowed us to spend enough time in each location to really discover the local beauty and individual highlights. It was excellent �experienced advice� from you. Your understanding of our interests came to light as we ventured from one delightful venue to the next. We could never have been able to create a vacation like this ourselves. We want to thank you and your staff for making our adventure a great experience. You exceeded our expectations. Thanks again and �cheers mate�.

We had a fabulous time. The package of information you sent was so helpful and informative during our trip.

Sherry who met us at the airport was helpful and so nice. She gave us a few ideas and went through our itinerary. I could go into detail after detail of the fun we had, but to hit the high points. We were so impressed with how "intimate" the tours were. We felt much catered to because the tours were very small. Being on the boat with Colin on the Harbor with only 2 other people was so nice. As opposed to one of the boats that have 20-100 people. This was true for all of the tours we experienced. We would see these large tours and then us with a small group that you could actually get to know the other people on the tour.

The hotel was perfect. Great boutique hotels that offered exactly what we needed. All in all everything was perfect.

We ate at a number of great restaurants and if I can get my records together, I will send you a few names that you can add to your list.

Thank you so much for everything. I will definitely pass you name on to other friends and family that are planning to go to Australia.

Thank you for planning an incredible trip us to

Australia

. We had such a great time!! The organization, planning, and quality of the destinations made this the best trip any of us has ever had. We have already referred you to several of our friends. Not only did we take away with us the amazing memories and experiences of the land and the culture, we also brought back an increased awareness of the conservation ethic. We started recycling now, and we are trying to figure out how to collect and use rain water. (Other than catching it in the

wheelbarrow!)

We really loved Kangaroo Island, what a once in a lifetime treat to see the native flora and fauna in such a relaxed environment. Graham and Lyn took such good care of us and the meals were unbelievable. In Sydney, Suzanne was a real treat. She was very knowledgeable, interesting and a really fun tour guide. Ultra was incredible, while we were watching the sun come up there was a group of Asian folks who wanted to bring our son Timmy into their group for photos. After they took about 3 or 4 pictures with various members of their party and Timmy, a lady behind us explained that in their culture it is good luck to be photographed with someone with blonde hair!! We had no idea what was going on, but it was really cute.

Everything went off so smoothly, the coupons worked flawlessly, and there wasn't a single hiccup or missed appointment the entire trip. We are so grateful for your hard work and we really wanted to let you know.

We can't thank you enough for organizing our perfect vacation to New Zealand. During our first meeting with you,

we felt confident that you both really listened and related to what we hoped to experience on this trip. We were very impressed that all the wonderful places you spoke about were based on your own personal travels. To our delight, your itinerary ended up exceeding our expectations! The beautiful lodges (Paratiho, Claremont & Blanket Bay), along w/ their food and wines were exceptional. Visiting the wineries in the Marlborough region, and experiencing the art and culture of Christchurch and Queenstown were worth the white knuckle driving on the winding, scenic roads to get there! Every driver and tour guide arrived just as scheduled---it was a compete worry free vacation. New Zealand is an incredibly beautiful country, and we hope to revisit sometime soon. We certainly will seek your services again for our next trip.

Well, I made it back!! Thanks for all your help. The trip went off pretty seamlessly to schedule. I now believe that you can control the weather! The weather was totally clear when I was on the West Coast. The only bad weather was the first day in Christchurch, which was cold and rainy (but that was okay because the Chateau on the Park is such a great hotel!). Interestingly, once we passed through the long tunnel at Arthur's Pass on the Trans Alpine train, the weather was clear and sunny, and basically stayed that way for the rest of the trip.

The Franz-Josef all-day hike was awesome (not sure why anyone would do the half-day). The Milford Sound Flightseeing was fantastic (I understand it doesn't go 70% of the time due to weather!). Wannaka was very nice. We did the Dart River Excursion to Glenorchy and Mt. Aspring National Park, which included a 4WD excursion, forest hike, and return on jet boats. That was also great fun I would recommend the Dart River excursion for the scenery, Kiwi history (we had a great guide for the whole day), and LOTR filmsites.

Your itinerary has so many wonderful notes on side trips when we are driving. We are just amazed at your forethought in planning this trip. We've come across so many people who have been having problems that we have not had because of your attention to detail. We love the land and it's people.