Agents on the Spot: New Zealand

Travel 2, Mount Cook Line and Air New Zealand joined forces last year to take a group of nine agents on an educational to New Zealand. The group flew to Auckland but spent time on both the North and South islands, including Christchurch, Queenstown and Rotorua. Excursions included forays into the wine-growing regions, hot-air ballooning over the Canterbury Plains, four-wheel drive off-road touring, bungee jumping and white-water rafting on the Shotover River. We asked three agents to give their impressions before and after the trip.

Before: New Zealand was a place I had always wanted to visit. We sell a fair number of holidays to New Zealand – often to people with relatives there – but I could never give much of an opinion on it as I had never been there myself. I expected it to be a very outdoors type of place and thought some of the activities offered, like bungee jumping and the Shotover River white-water rafting, were pretty mad.

After: The most surprising thing was the scenic diversity – looking up, you’d see the snow-capped mountains, when at your feet were tropical plants. The scenery was stunning and the Milford Sound trip was really spectacular. I would recommend the white-water rafting to anyone of any age – it was very exciting and not at all dangerous. I signed up for the bungee jump but just couldn’t go through with it – some others did but I think they were glad when it was over. The people were very friendly and we had some great evenings in the local bars – the Maori culture, music and dance was fascinating. The weather was a bit of a disappointment, rather English and grey, but I would certainly go back for more. There is masses to see and do.

Before: I had never been to New Zealand before but I imagined it to be very lush and green, peaceful but with lots of outdoor things to do. I expected the people to be very friendly and the lifestyle to be pretty easygoing and relaxed. We don’t sell a vast number of trips to New Zealand, but those we do sell are usually tailor-made so you do need to know a fair bit about the destination to put them together. Until my educational, I just had to rely on the brochures.

After: The place was just unbelievable. The people were really friendly and welcoming and the scenery was absolutely beautiful. Everywhere was incredibly clean and fresh. The trips on the Shotover River and in a hot-air balloon were really memorable, but the overall impression was that this was just a really nice place to be. Even the cities had a friendly village atmosphere and everyone seemed so healthy and relaxed. I’m definitely going back. I have tried to get a job swap to go there and it’s on my list of things to do before I settle down. I am now much more able to help clients who consider New Zealand. It’s quite a hard place to sell if the client isn’t already thinking of it, but I now recommend it to those booking Australia. The flight was excellent but I would certainly suggest a stopover en route.

Before: I hadn’t been to New Zealand before and I imagined it to be rather like England but with wide-open spaces and not a lot in between. We sell quite a few holidays to New Zealand and get excellent feedback from those clients. It generates good repeat bookings, too, so I was very keen to go. Most of our clients want to tour around both islands and rarely stay in one place for long – this is what we were going to do on the educational, so I thought it would be very useful.

After: There were some similarities to England but there were plenty of differences too. I feel I have a much better appreciation of the activities available now and am much better placed to recommend wine-tasting tours, excursions and activities – the fine details of a client’s itinerary. I will definitely go again but if I was paying for it myself I would combine it with Australia, because I’ve never been there and it is relatively close. As a skier, I would love to go in the winter for the heli-skiing and glacier skiing, which looked really exciting.