Michelle Srzich

We worked with Michelle to plan our trip to New Zealand; the trip was beyond our expectations --it was simply fabulous! We have planned most of trips in the past, but opted to use kimkim for this trip as we had no knowledge of what to visit in New Zealand. We are so happy we made this decision as we would have never been able to plan a trip with the kinds of experiences that Michelle booked for us. We thoroughly enjoyed the variety of experiences Michelle booked for us, from visiting Doubtful Sound, to the 4 x 4 trip on a Station, to the kayak trip at the blue penguin sanctuary, to the Geo-thermal park and the experience at the Dark Sky Reserve. As fabulous as those experiences were, our absolute favorite experience was our stay at the Te Karaka Lodge. Whoa! Whoa x 10. We received such lovely pampered attention while enjoying exquisite accommodations and personalized attention from the two incredible chefs. I'm glad that you suggested that we added one more day to our trip to accommodate that extra night. The tour of the farm the next day by James, the farming manager, was informative and allowed us to better understand the life of farming professionals. That stay was THE perfect way to end our trip in your warm and beautiful country. Also, you allowed us enough free time for us to make a couple of our own side trips on our travel days; we made note of the suggested towns along the way and stopped at several during our car rides; they were charming. T
Finally, we don't have enough words to express how much the NZ culture and way of living made an impression on us. We were fortunate to be in your harmonious country during the Middle East crisis; the cultures of our two nations are remarkably different and New Zealand was our tonic to sooth our weary brains and hearts.... Thanks again, Michelle, for helping have such a memorable experience.

This trip was incredible. Michelle put together exactly what we hoped for after listening to what we wanted. Every aspect of the trip from pre planning ,lodging, trips, transfers, guides and adventures was perfect. Thanks for making this a trip of a lifetime!

Michelle planned a fantastic trip! We loved New Zealand! Everyone has heard about the spectacular natural beauty - it is that and much more! In every corner of the country there are more awe inspiring views, fascinating microclimates to explore, gorgeous and well designed paths and treks (tracks), reserves and parks and open space, rural beauty with sheep - so many cute sheep! - and cows and horses, and rare protected species, - it makes your heart sing. What you may not know as much about are the people - their quality of life, the collective commitment to and appreciation of all the native flora and fauna . The steps they keep taking to more fully respect and integrate and honor the Maori. The pace is slow. People are patient, kind, easy going, generous. Your nervous system slows down. You realize it's possible to find a place where people live by different values and are proud of where they come from. Four 60-somethings, with two us celebrating our 70th. 3 weeks so we could see north and south islands. Our only regret - we should have planned a month. A few highlight places and excursions, thanks to Michelle. Milford sound. Stargazing in the hot springs of Lake Tekapo/Wanaka.. Farm and off-road tours. Hiking in Abel Tasman Natl Park and Mt. Cook. The Queenstown House B&B. Newton Heights B&B., visit to Flea Bay. The Te Papa Museum in Wellington. Te Karaka Lodge in Waikato. Kaikoura. And great food and wine everywhere. Thank you KimKIm, Michelle and the people of New Zealand for an uplifting adventure.

My wife and I went to New Zealand to celebrate our fortieth wedding anniversary and we had a fantastic trip! Michele was able to listen to what places and activities we were looking to experience and she was integral in helping us to accomplish those goals. The hotels were clean with friendly staff and transfers between locations went smoothly. We especially enjoyed biking through the wineries outside of Queenstown and the wine tasting trip via ferry to Waiheke Island. The overnight cruise in the Doubtful Sound was spectacular with great food and hospitality. Kayaking on Tasman Lake in the Mt Cook area and chipping and chewing on one -thousand year ice was sweet! I had beautiful day fly-fishing catching brown trout outside of Nelson. These were just a few of the amazing experiences we had traversing the countryside of New Zealand
We would certainly utilize Michele and KimKim's services for future trips and would highly recommend them!

Michelle was a delight to work with. She listened to our wants for the trip and then arranged some wonderful excursions. All of our hotel accommodations were well located and of top quality. We had one glitch in our first hotel in Queenstown, but the KimKim team was able to get it satisfactorily resolved.

Hotel Reviews

Queenstown Park Boutique Hotel

Queenstown

We arrived and learned that our reservation had been erroneously canceled. The staff at the hotel could not have been nicer in working with us to try to get suitable accommodations. In their facility. Plus overall the staff went out of their way to make us feel at home including the cocktails in the evening and the absolutely spectacular breakfasts. This is definitely the place to stay in Queenstown.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Close to town.

Staff

Absolutely great staff. Very personable.

Cleanliness & Comfort

Room accommodations were top notch.

Rainforest Retreat

Franz Josef Glacier

Very unique rooms literally said in a rainforest. The big draw for our room was the hot tub.

Authenticity & Character

It is special because it is in a rainforest.

Location

Reasonably close to town.

Staff

We didn’t have much interaction with the staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

We had a large two bedroom suite with hot tub. Very comfortable.

The Mayfair

Christchurch

Beautiful Hotel.

Authenticity & Character

Location

Staff

Cleanliness & Comfort

Activity Reviews

Scenic flight and cruise – Queenstown to Milford Sound

New Zealand

Great experience! A highlight of our trip.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Scenic Flight Twin Glaciers in a Helicopter

New Zealand

Once in a lifetime experience. The glacier is spectacular. He will not get closer than you do on this trip.

Quality of Experience

Guides, Drivers and Staff

Transport

Scenic cruise on Lake Mapourika

Franz Josef Glacier

A very peaceful boat trip with a small boat of only 12 passengers. Lots of birds and interesting plants to see. You actually get very close to the shoreline. Great commentary by the guides.

Quality of Experience

The quality of the guides really added to the value of this trip.

Guides, Drivers and Staff

See above.

Transport

Glacier Region - Greymouth - Christchurch

New Zealand

A very nice train ride on a beautiful train.

My husband and I travel regularly and typically book our own travel, but wanted a local expert to assist with our trip to New Zealand and Michelle was fantastic. We gave her travel dates and a general idea of the itinerary we wanted. After a zoom call to get acquainted, she came back with a itinerary that was based on our requests. We took some time to review and discuss, made a few changes, and the trip was booked. We did not have to spend hours online evaluating possibilities, or wonder if the selections would meet our expectations.
We enjoyed a variety of accommodations and experiences, all with a unique flavor of New Zealand, which was our goal. The weather created a need to change some of our plans and Michelle was easy to contact and available to recommend changes in the time frame we needed.
We prefer not to be tightly booked, and so had much time to explore on our our own in addition to the activities scheduled by KimKim.
The travel book provided was a step by step itinerary that was extremely helpful as we navigated different modes of transportation including rental cars. tour buses and ferries. It provided directions to pickup/meeting points so that we were easily on our way moving from one spot to another.

Mel climbed a mountain with me. Wonderful. The helicopter couldn’t go due to weather, but the backup plan was great.

Overnight cruise was a highlight of the year. Dave, our captain, Mikey, our chef, and Anna were all great as were the other guests. Lobster catch turned into dinner as did our fish from our fishing efforts.

All was great.