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.

Hi Dianne,

We had a fabulous trip! We had so much fun and saw so many interesting and neat things – it was awesome! The itinerary you put together for us was perfect for us. We had the right combination of planned activities and time to leisurely make our way between destinations, taking in the sights and walks along the way! We’re happy to say that driving in NZ proved to be much easier than we anticipated :). All of the accommodations were great. The ones that had breakfast included served a bountiful breakfast! We would recommend any/all of them to future travelers.

Your New Zealand support team were very responsive, helpful and kind. They took away any last minute worries that we had as we went along. It was both helpful and reassuring to have someone in NZ who could answer those last minute questions!

NZ is a beautiful destination, and one that we would be happy to return to at some point in the future.

We appreciated all of your expertise, common sense tips, support and help as we planned and went on this adventure. It was great fun working with you – you made both the planning and the trip exciting. We are considering Australia in the next couple of years, and will certainly be calling you up for your expert help once again!

take good care

Thanks to Dianne, our recent tour of New Zealand and Australia was truly a trip of a lifetime. Her upfront process of gathering our input on travel preferences, trip goals and likes/dislikes resulted in an itinerary that was truly customized and personalized for us. She built on our input by adding adventures and experiences that were unexpected and exciting…yet fit nicely within the parameters we outlined. The trip logistics were impeccable with no missteps along the way. And, the little details made our experience very special…right down to the “Happy Anniversary” wishes we received from hotels/restaurant/tour operators all along the way.

Thank you so so much to Dianne and her team at GoWalkabout Travel!

It had been our dream to have our delayed honeymoon in Australia and New Zealand for so long that we can not believe that it really happened!

From start to finish working with Dianne and her team was made not only easy but fun. We had full input on every aspect of planning our vacation and we felt like everything that we did we actually chose to do instead of wasting our time on things that were of no interest to us.

Thanks so much for taking us on as clients!

We hope to be back for an anniversary trip!

My husband and I have traveled before thru travel agencies but we have never had a catered trip before. Boy, did Dianne deliver! She had everything laid out for us. It was wonderful from the pickups to the tour guides, the hotel rooms and her suggestions. She chose an overnight boat trip for us and that is something we will never forget.
It rained and snowed all day but it was beautiful with the clouds and sun coming through. This was just an amazing trip and we have her and her crew to thank for all the wonderful memories.

If anyone should even mention a trip I would recommend her in a heartbeat.

Thank you so much!!