The "Sir Edmund Hillary Explorer" Tour Avis 

My wife and I did the trip in October 2022 and it was a wonderful tour, not cheap but the quality of the accommodation, food, trains, buses, tour guides, side trips etc were excellent

very well organized and a great experience. Everything promised was delivered. Great tour guides who interacted with the group. Our trip was October 2023 but the website was not able to record this date. Highly recommended

We loved our adventure with The Sir Edmund Hillary Explorer Tour! I would do it again if I have the opportunity. Everything was very well organized and ran smoothly. Even the weather was fantastic (we are from Central Queensland so not used to the cold). We travelled in October 2024 and our guides were great. Nothing was too much trouble, questions were answered and they told us each night what we needed to know for the next day. Our fellow travellers were of similar age and very friendly sharing their other travel experiences too. We loved every minute and there are too many highlights to list. Highly recommended. The only downside was having to wait for a place on the next tour…. I wasn’t very patient because I was so excited for months. We put our names down for any cancellations that came up and were lucky enough to get one that suited us. Kristie and all the staff at Pounamu Tourism are awesome.

Fabulous tour with some iconic train journeys round the South Island of New Zealand. Despite it being October there had been a big snow dump, so Aoraki/Mount Cook looked spectacular. The tour was very well organised and despite being with a much bigger crowd than I would normally travel with, everything went smoothly. Hotels were terrific, especially the one in Dunedin where every room had it's own laundry!!

We thoroughly enjoyed our South Island holiday, from the magnificent scenery to the beautiful accommodation (such comfy beds) and the friendly group we travelled with. Our guides were competent, our coach driver (Cameron) was a hoot. Mt Cook was particularly beautiful and meals provided here were really good. It's a lot of time on a coach, and we would have liked to visit the Church of the Good Shepherd, but didn't have enough time.
Overall our experience was wonderful and we saw more than we could have done on our own. Very well organised tour.

Wonderful crew, great job covering a lot of ground. Saw soo much of the South Island. Accomodations were great, food was very good, itinerary worked great. Thank you so much!

There were some great highlights on the trip, and we absolutely loved the South Island. Activities we loved included a jet boat ride on Lake Tasmin (Aoraki Mt. Cook), the helicopter ride to Franz Joseph glacier, the Albatross sanctuary, and of course, Milford Sound. Our driver, Brad, who previously was a guide at Milford Sound, was a wealth of knowledge - he knew so much about geology, history, flora and fauna. Plus (as he revealed in a private conversation), he trained as an actor, so his delivery was clear and entertaining. Our tour guide was more of a tour manager - she was great at logistics, but her narration was reading from her guide binder. She did her best, but her delivery was flat and monotonous.

Our accommodation was to a high tourist standard - not luxe (NZ isn’t a luxe place) but clean, comfortable, and washing machines were plentiful.

The “cons” truly shaped our opinion of the trip.
1) We spend an inordinate amount of time on the coach. We had a good deal of territory to cover, but there were frequent (too many) rest stops and it seemed to take forever getting people on and off the coach. As noted above, the narration did not enhance the experience (except for Brad).
2) There was no effort to introduce travelers or encourage interaction. Once we were moving, we sat in coach seats looking at the back of the seat in front of us, so there was limited opportunity to talk with others.
3) The food was mediocre at best. The “sumptuous” dinners were buffet-style, with overcooked food sitting hot plates. The exception was the buffet at The Hermitage Hotel at Mount Cook.
4) The train thing was overdone. The TransAlpine route was gorgeous, as were the train rides between Christchurch and Picton (not sure this is still included). The Taieri Gorge railroad showed an amazing feat of engineering, but the other two train rides (Kingston Flyer and Rodgers K92) were a total but except for great train enthusiasts. We would have preferred more time to visit the museum in Dunedin or explore Christchurch.

All in all, if anyone were to ask for my recommendation, I would NOT suggest this tour. I would instead recommend one of the smaller tours we saw throughout our journey.

Absolutely amazing!!! Stunning scenery, tour guides top notch, Kirsty in corporate office on top of our every need. From Christchurch, Milford Sound, Mt Cook and beyond, all excursions were professionally presented by all. History, stories and friendly banter by guides and travelers made the experience that much more pleasant. Strongest possible recommendation for anyone wanting the Kiwi experience. This American will be back!

We really enjoyed this tour. It was very well organized. Our guides and bus drivers were excellent, sharing much information about our locations as well as NZ generally. The schedule allowed for visits to many highlights while at the same time allowing for many 2-night stops. Hotels and meals were excellent.

I loved the trip; the guides, the drivers were all kind and could not do enough for us. NZ is beautiful, people are lovely, the trains were great, food was great, it snowed! We could not have experienced this by ourselves. My partner hurt himself and they ensured we were so well looked after. Highly recommended.

I booked to travel on this tour in April 2025. The South Island of New Zealand was a destination I had always wanted to travel to and the ability to travel by both coach and more importantly by train had me 'hooked' from the beginning. The itinerary was really interesting and I learned a lot about New Zealand. Hotels were amazing and meals etc were excellent.
The weather was beautiful on most days and at the end of the tour when I became unwell, the staff were absolutely wonderful. I was taken to the hospital in Blenheim to be checked out and nothing was too much trouble for our guide.

I give Sir Edmund Hillary Explorer tour 5/5
Out tour guides , Jane , Dale , Trevor , Mike and bus driver Ross were amazing

A very well organised tour with lots of fun, interesting and exciting activities. Hotels and meals were spot on. Loved every minute!

We booked a trip to be steam hauled from Blenheim to Invercargill. We were told just before we departed that we would only be steam hauled to Kaikoura. I would not have booked on this basis.

Following the overnight in Christchurch we were put on a bus and taken south to get on the train at Rolleston.

Following the overnight in Timaru, we were once again put on a bus, and taken to Moeraki where we had lunch. Then "our" train rolled up with a morning trip of people doing Timaru to Moeraki. The must have wanted to squeeze in some more revenue on the trip.....

The trip was booked on the basis that we were going to be steam hauled from Blenheim to Invercargill. We weree not. And to rub our noses in it we got bumped off the train for some day trippers to do what we thought we were going to do.

And don't even start me on the food in Blenheim, the delays for food in Kaikoura, and the rain coming in to the dining room in Christchurch.

I was thoroughly dissapointed.

Top guides, great itinerary, good hotels. Enjoyed the train rides and the beautiful nature and other side trips.

I had longed to go to New Zealand and when this tour showed up on my Facebook page I was intrigued! I loved the tour! The tour guides, all four of them, where wonderful and the itinerary was excellent. It provided a variety of activities and rail excursions that I found to be excellent. Being that I travelled by myself I was hopeful that I would meet some great people and I must tell you that everyone I met was wonderful. I had the privilege to meet three other women who were travelling solo and became good friends. I would recommend this tour to everyone!

Kirsty & the team at Pounamu Tourism Group are amazing! Their attention to detail is great. Sights, tour guides, drivers, coach, train, accommodation, food all wonderful. This tour is well paced and really showed the best of both the West & East coasts of the South Island, NZ. The ever changing landscape is stunning. Alexander Hillary gave the group an interesting presentation about his grandfather and later joined us at dinner in picturesque Mt Cook. A trip full of highlights and good memories!

From leaving Dunedin to finishing in Wellington it was great.
Loved our time at mount Cook Hermatige.
Was lovely seeing the waves from the people driving past us and photographers following our journey.
Definitely recommend it.

Apart the fact that NZ is great as a country, the tour was well organized including good accommodation and meals. May be less early starts would improve the holiday experience.

What an absolutely memorable experience this was.
Everything was so well organized and the guides were amazing.
The accommodation was fantastic.
What a way to see the south island of New Zealand.
I had never been on an organized tour and was a little apprehensive but I met wonderful people and we honestly laughed every day.
I can highly recommend this wonderful tour especially if you love trains.