The first travel advisor famil in Queenstown since New Zealand’s borders reopened has wrapped after three electric days in the South Island’s adventure playground. Ten excited Australian travel advisors and product experts flew in from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to enjoy a remarkable itinerary of curated experiences and connections hosted by Destination Queenstown and Air New Zealand.
It’s no wonder Queenstown is regarded as a travel advisor’s dream destination.
Impossibly beautiful, teeming with ridiculously insane experiences, and an all-year-round proposition for anyone and everyone that is ever evolving with new adventures your clients will love you for introducing them to.
For this enthusiastic group of travel professionals (including lucky me), the South Island’s acclaimed ‘home of adventure’ naturally served up a sparkling few days, showcasing some of the region’s most extraordinary experiences while enabling the opportunity to reconnect with its operators in person finally.
This was a smile-filled trip from beginning to end, with the group getting amongst the fun straight off the plane with a pumping Kjet boat ride across Lake Wakatipu on arrival and closing out the trip before flying home with a laughter-filled luge racing session up at Skyline Gondola.
Sandwiched in between was a magic, moment-filled itinerary, including a luxury winery tour to sample top-class wines, gins and cuisine in the Gibbston Valley (including a wine cave!), and a Nomad Safari four-wheel drive through snow-covered mountain landscapes and gold-panned rivers in Lord of The Rings territory.
Then it was up and away on a stunning helicopter flight and champagne toast on-ice above Queenstown with Heliworks; time to scream and shout thanks to some high octane off-roading and more jet boating at Oxbow Adventures and finally, go high-fly at iFLY Queenstown indoor skydiving.
Remarkably, we did all of that in just three days.
If that wasn’t enough to load us up with stories and itinerary ideas aplenty to take home, there were also delicious meals to savour and keep us hydrated at The Ice Bar, The Carlin, The Bavarian, Margo’s and Blue Kanu and ahem, a few late-night bevvies and possibly even some dancing at The Bunker Bar and Rhino’s Bar.
Like all the best famils, I’m still catching my breath and piecing together the many adventures and moments we were privileged to enjoy in this iconic spot.
Check out the highlights video and takeaways!
Simone Nankervis from Fusion Holidays said, “It was such a joy to be back in Queenstown finally; there’s such a great atmosphere here.
“The town feels alive and is more than ready to welcome travellers again. Although this is my fifth time visiting, I love that there is always something new to experience. I can’t thank Destination Queenstown enough for the opportunity.”
Andy Reid, Contracting Manager for Flight Centre Travel Group, echoed Simone’s thoughts, saying, “What an incredible destination Queenstown is. There is something for everyone. Queenstown meets so many different passion points, from eating and drinking to soft adventure to jet boats, skiing, skydiving, Bungee, and canyon swings. I could go on.
“Having precious time to reconnect with our partners, build relationships, understand their product and what they want to deliver to the customer experience is key to our shared success. My deepest gratitude to Linda and all the team at DQ for making this happen,” she said.
Kevin Looney, Director of Sales for The Travel Junction, said, “It’s so great to be back in Queenstown. It’s been an amazing experience, particularly the wine tours. I had no idea they were so close.”
“There’s perhaps a perception that adventure means just Bungee and high adrenalin here, but that’s so not the case. There’s loads to do for everyone and so many new experiences. It’s all been superb.”
Queenstown has been excitedly welcoming back hoards of Australians over the Tasman since the borders reopened with the July school holidays, in particular, seeing, in many cases, record sales and occupancy numbers for operators throughout the region.
For that reason alone, our advice for forward bookings is to get in early, jump onto the excellent trade site and speak to Linda, Kiran, Alex, and the superb team at Destination Queenstown for the latest advice and intel to best suit your client’s itinerary.
Rest assured that the range of offerings in the area for whatever you’re up for is infinite, and the warm embrace that goes with it from the locals will only add to the epic memories for your clients.
New Zealand’s arrival restrictions have all been removed, with only a passenger declaration to fill in pre-departure and obligatory (and free!) RAT tests on days 1 and 5, meaning travel to the land of the long white cloud, are now a synch. Read on for my travel hack guide here.
The experiences and adventures we sampled
- Skyline Gondola: www.skylineenterprises.co.nz
- Nomad Safaris: www.nomadsafaris.co.nz
- Oxbow Adventure Co: www.oxbow.co.nz
- iFLY Indoor Skydiving Queenstown: www.iflynz.co.nz
- KJet – Time Tripper: www.kjet.co.nz
- Heliworks: www.queenstownhelicopters.nz
Food and drinks
- Ice Bar: www.queenstownicebar.com
- Carlin Hotel: www.thecarlinhotel.com
- The Bavarian: www.thebavarians.com/venue/the-bavarian-queenstown
- Margos: www.margos.co.nz
- Blue Kanu: www.bluekanu.co.nz
- Gibbston Valley winery: www.gibbstonvalley.com
- Altitude Tours: www.altitudetours.co.nz
- Cargo Brewery: www.cargobrewery.co.nz/gantleys
- Mount Rosa Winery: www.mtrosa.co.nz
- Kinross Cellar Door: www.kinross.nz
- Broken Heart Gin Garden: www.gingarden.nz
Stays
- Crown Plaza: www.queenstown.crownplaza.com
- Holiday Inn Express and Suites: www.ihg.com/holidayinnexpress
- Ramada Queenstown Central: www.ramadaqueenstowncentral.co.nz
Trip delegates: The team!
- Judy Gillings, TravelManager
- Georgina Grone, Senior Travel Agent, Adriatic Adventures and Tours
- Erica Davison, Marketing Co-ordinator, Skimax
- Chloe Jenkins, Account Manager, Viator
- Katrina Casey, Travel Agent, MTA
- Zora Abbott, TravelManager
- Louise Bilbie, Head of Product, Anzcro
- Simone Nankervis, Fusion Holidays
- Kevin Looney, Director of Sales, Travel Junction
- Andy Reid, NZ Contracting Manager, Flight Centre Travel Group
- Michelle McLennan, BDM, Air New Zealand
- Matt Leedham, founder, Karryon
- Alex Holmes, Business Development Exec, Destination Queenstown
- Linda McIntosh, Trade Marketing Manager, Destination Queenstown
- Kiran Nambiar, Business Development Director, Destination Queenstown
Find out more: www.queenstownnz.co.nz/travel-trade