“We contacted GoWalkabout Travel a couple of years ago to find out more about their services. Then last year we finally made a commitment to make our dream trip to New Zealand with Dianne’s assistance. After several months of planning and anticipating this adventure, we set off in early November of 2018 for a month of exploring the islands.

Thanks to Dianne and her team we had a wonderful trip. All the arrangements for lodging and excursions, rental cars and flights for this 30-day self-driving tour went without a hitch. This in itself is quite an achievement. On top of that, the trip was within the budget we had set and we were amazed by the fine lodging and excursions which were included. All-in-all, this trip exceeded our expectations and we were very glad to have had the excellent guidance offered by Dianne and her team.

New Zealand lived up to its reputation as being full of splendid scenery, friendly people and many sheep. We were even fortunate with the weather, so this made sightseeing and hiking very pleasurable as well.

If you are considering this destination for your bucket list, we highly recommend it and equally recommend GoWalkabout Travel as a great source of information and guidance in planning a trip of a lifetime.

We travelled to Australia and New Zealand in Sept of 2018 and for the second time (2009 to Australia and World Masters Games in Sydney), we were delighted to use Go Walkabout as our trip planning specialist.

Dianne had every detail mapped out and given to us, both online and in hard copy formats, making transitions seamless. This particular trip took us from Gold Coast to Uluru in the heart of Australia. There we were accommodated beautifully, with the highlights being the small group tours which were intimate, informative and very memorable. A bus trip north to Alice Springs led us to a history of Outback settlement, including the darker aspects, a good balance and again appreciated. All of our guides were again top notch. School of the Air and Flying Doctor Service were excellent.

Flying into Adelaide, Dianne booked us into a very central hotel, which was eminently walkable to attractions like the Adelaide Zoo, Botanical Gardens and shopping district. Best of all was our 2 day foray to Kangaroo Island where we were booked into a Homestead, a definite must revisit! The Kangaroo Island tour was again an intimate and incredibly informative day trip. We’d love to spend more time at the Homestead with Lynn and Graham and their wonderful farmstay…best.food.ever!

Without a hitch, we were then off to New Zealand and met right on cue with our hard copy itinerary. Auckland was pleasant, the best being Waiheke Island. Absolutely stunning place, would love to stay there if we return. Even though we’re not much for winery tours, it was fun to meet with Ananda Tours and go to a Canadian owned winery, Peacock Hills. Great lunch stop and wonderful ferry ride.

Our car self tour took us to TeKuiti Farmstay where Helen and Dek shared great company and stunning vistas, beautiful enough to make your heart smile. They gave us great pointers for places to enjoy as we drove to Rotorua, where we were housed in a fascinating Art Deco hotel. The highlight, a great find by Go Walkabout, was the in-depth small group Maori Tour!

Our return towards Auckland led us to the Hobbiton movie set ( great fun!) and the absolutely stunning Chestnut Lane Cottage in Matamata.

There wasn’t a single hitch in the entire itinerary, which included multiple flights and tours. As in 2009, Dianne Hall and Go Walkabout planned a trip for us that made us feel well supported, cared for, even. Her recommendations for stops and points of interest were spot on. We would absolutely recommend GoWalkabout for your travel planning. No doubt, we will be visiting the region again and will go directly to Dianne for her expertise and efficiency.

Thanks for helping to make lifetime memories, Dianne!

All the best,

My husband and I recently returned from our trip of a lifetime to New Zealand and Australia. This 4 week trip was overwhelming for me to plan so I did some research and in doing so I found Dianne and her company. I am beyond happy that we made the decision to use her expertise in planning our itinerary for us!
I feel like we saw so much, did so much and learned so much on this trip that if it hadn’t been for Dianne we would never have even thought of.

Dianne is an expert at what she does, we felt like she took our thoughts and answers to her questions to heart and planned a trip that was absolutely perfect for our tastes; it was so well organized that we never felt nervous about being in foreign countries so far from home, not once did anything go wrong, every tour, hotel, rental car, flight was as planned and always expecting us with a smile.

If you want your trip to be perfect please contact Dianne and Go Walk About Travel, you will not be sorry you did!!

Hello!

We had an amazing trip, a trip of a lifetime!!! We are trying to think of a highlight but there isn’t just one, everything was so different so difficult to compare. All the accommodations were perfect, even MVH with all its quirks. We missed the train but we saw Mt Cook which apparently is somewhat elusive. The skies cleared upon arrival and then the clouds started to roll in upon departure, you must have planned that J.

This is the first time we’ve had a trip planned for us. But this year we had absolutely no time to research on our own. Finding you was such a stroke of luck for us!! Even if we had time, we would never have put together this trip, thank you sooooo much for all of your help in planning this amazing adventure. Do you put together trips for other parts of the world J??

Hopefully we weren’t too much of a pain and hopefully, another trip will bring us to you once again.

Thanks again Dianne!

Take care,

We recently used ‘Go Walk About Travel’ to plan our “trip of a lifetime” to Australia and New Zealand. We were a group of 5 retired Canadians who wanted to see the sights and experience the life down under. Having no knowledge of Australia or New Zealand I enlisted the help of Dianne at Go Walk About Travel to plan the entire five week trip.

During the planning process Dianne asked the right questions to determine what places and experiences we would most enjoy. She was very conscious of health concerns, preferences, and any “idiosyncrasies”. She was able to determine the best flights, hotels and tours within our given price point.
Right from the beginning of our adventure we were delighted with Dianne’s attention to detail, organization and thorough planning. We never had to worry or even think about getting from one place to another – Dianne had that all taken care of . She planned interesting tours for us that showed us the highlights of the cities we visited. She gave us a great variety in types of hotels and had many meals planned for us or gave us suggestions to try. We felt she planned just the right amount of time in each city to see the main interests and get the feel for the culture and food. We really enjoyed the pace of our trip. We felt we had long enough to enjoy each place and were always eager to see what Dianne had planned for us next.

However, we really got to experience the value of using an expert travel agent like Dianne near the end of our trip. Dianne monitored our entire trip and she saw that a cyclone was in our area. Because of the weather, she had to change our plans which was a very difficult task. She changed our flights and our accommodation and spent many hours doing this for us. We were not even aware of the weather situation and without Dianne’s help and experience we would have had a very unfortunate end to our stay in New Zealand. We are all so thankful we had Dianne looking out for us and for the time she spent finding us alternatives.

We all had a fabulous adventure down under and we have Dianne from ‘Go Walk About Travel’ to thank. We would highly recommend using Dianne for a trip to Australia and/or New Zealand which she will make enjoyable and truly memorable.

Thanks Dianne!!!!

Hi Dianne

I don’t think I can even properly express how much I appreciated your efforts on our behalf during the MacDonald/Clarke expedition to OZ & NZ. Perhaps that’s why it has taken me forever to write to you about it.

Your attention to detail was something I have never experienced before and my career from 1972 through 2017 was in the travel industry!

I have always admired travel agents for the knowledge you must have as well as your ability to understand clients’ preferences and tastes in order to offer experiences suitable to a myriad of personalities. But you took that to a whole new level.

I loved the beautiful places you selected for all of our stays – many with unique characteristics. I always loved just relaxing and knowing that all of our transfers, tours, travel days and lodging arrangements were arranged and everyone showed up to look after us or expected us – it was all so smooth.

But, the piece de resistance was your handling of our alternate arrangements due to Cyclone Gitta. Honestly Dianne, I have heard the travel agents’ mantra so many times – “Without a travel agent, you’re on your own” – but didn’t fully appreciate it until you stepped in.

We were oblivious to the fact that the cyclone was washing out roads, creating flooding and causing disruptions to the train service we were to have taken across the north end of the South Island. We were monitoring news and visiting with friends in Queenstown but everyone was so laid back about the whole encroaching storm because they weren’t directly in its path and the newspapers and TV weren’t focusing on it either.

When we heard that 2 coaches of tourists from China had been stranded overnight on their buses our jaws dropped and we did the “Dianne” cheer! That could have been us. Thank you so much for stepping in and rearranging our itinerary to ensure we avoided running headlong into that storm.

We so appreciated you finding us alternate accommodations in Queenstown during peak season. We witnessed others not as fortunate as ourselves scrambling to find a place to stay when everything was fully booked. Our house rental was a dream and despite missing part of our trip – we didn’t regret it for one minute!

You are amazing.

I had a lovely time in New Zealand.

The suggestion that we needed a car was exactly right and we made very good use of the car with extra little side trips around the countryside.

All the B and B s were excellent, especially the Mahitahi Lodge in Bruce Bay and Holly Homestead where the owners were incredibly friendly and welcoming and their homes were beautiful.

I really loved the Tiki Tour Paddle Wanaka half day kayaking , the glow worm caves too.

I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend your company again!

Hi Dianne,

We loved New Zealand. Our trip was amazing. The scenery was spectacular. Everything you chose for us was great. All the pick up times and hotels were perfect.
We loved the tours. The overnight in Doubtful Sound was the highlight with only 6 of us as passengers. Hobitton was definitely worthwhile. We enjoyed the wine tours and the performance by the Maori natives. We zip lined, went up in a helicopter, fished, and kayaked.

We are pretty much back to normal as far as jet lag goes.

Thank you for organizing for us. We will definitely recommend your services to others.

Do you want a grand and Majestic travel Experience to Australia? Contact Dianne Hall for your personalized travel schedule that includes every detail from transfers, exceptional meals, boutique accommodations, specialized tours and much more. My husband and I were able to immerse ourselves in a month long Australia experience due to Dianne’s keen interest in providing individualized planning. We now have life long memories of a wonderful country!!!

To whom it may concern…..It is my pleasure to recommend Dianne and her Australian and New Zealand Teams..Her expert advice and attention to detail and to our needs was exceptional. Any issues and concerns were handled promptly and professionally..even outside of usual business hours. At no time did we feel we could not contact any of them. The itinerary was professionally put together and reflected our interests…even an earthquake that changed our plans was handled very smoothly.