Our Customer Reviews

Our Kiwi Experience trip was amazing! We had Stretch as our bus driver and he was hilarious but so informative and helpful. Each bus journey was so much fun. It’s such a fantastic way to travel the two islands and the activities are organised for you so easily you just write your name down on a sheet and it’s all done for you. Thanks so much Kiwi Experience and Stretch. I’ve made such wonderful friends and life long memories.

I Brighton this to ser New Zealand, and om so happy i did. The drives was so god at telling stories about the places we were. And just helpining ypu egen you had qustions

I traveled with kiwi experience for 6 weeks and I’m really glad that I booked this bus. The drivers where helpful, took care of us and told us a lot of things about New Zealand. It’s perfect for aolo travels because you meet a lot of new friends. Most of them are solo travelers and really open to everyone and everything. It’s true- you make friends for a lifetime. And if you think that you can see just the touristic things, you’re wrong. It’s possible to hop off the bus wherever you want to stay. Kiwi experience is really good organised and they are trying to help you as much as they can.

My expectations were so high but the the kiwi experience turned out to be really disappointing. The best part of the trip was ofc meeting people and never being alone, but apart from that I can not say many good things, sorry! I do not think this experience is a good choice for people like me who really want to explore the country. The purpose of this all thing is selling, selling, selling! On a daily basis the driver would present the daily activities (sky diving, rafting, tour boats, etc). The prices are crazy, but that's pretty much everywhere in NZ, so I was not that surprised. The purpose is just selling activities which would catch young people´s attention. In fact they were the only ones booking everything as mummy and daddy were paying. Once their trip ended they could definitely say they went rafting, they went on a tour boat, they went to a bar with X people, they got drunk. But have they actually seen anything? I guess depending on what you are looking for, this could be also the best solution for you. Those who were booking the activities would have the priority over the others who would be pretty much left at the accommodation with some advice on some walks to do. But once we would get to the hostel half of the day would be already gone and not much left to do. The worse thing for me was realizing that the bus does not take you to Wai - o Tapu, the most important geothermal place in NZ, one of the reasons why people visit the north island. Ofc this is something that they have never promised to me, the itinerary does not include a stop there, but it´s unbelievable that such a unique place is not part of the kiwi experience. Those like me who didn´t want to miss it had to re-arrange the whole schedule to be able to go. Talking about the accommodation package, I would highly discourage buying it. The accommodations are really bad, at least in the north island which is the island I visited with the KE. They are more expensive than what you can actually find on the market and some kitchens are absolutely disgusting and are missing the kitchen tools which are fundamental for you to be able to cook. The only hostels I liked were the one in Hot Water Beach and the one in Waitomo. In this last one I got to share the bedroom with one girl only, that was pretty awesome, for on night I did not have to sleep in a dorm :) During the trip, after seeing the prices and the hostels, those who did not have the accommodation packed pre-booked, started sleeping at different hostels. Also, I was really disappointed with the service received from the hostels. I think they cannot stand the Kiwi people, maybe because they are big groups of young people? All the receptionists were rude to all of us. I can only recall an Irish girl being kind. I received a good service only when I had book an extra night in Rotorua to be able to go to Wai - o Tapu and decided to stay at a different hostel. The last thing I would like to say is that, if you are a young person and all you care is going abroad (it does matter where you are), meeting new people, having fun and getting drunk, this is the right experience for you. If you are a little older and, apart from wanting to have fun and meeting new people you also want to explore NZ, I would discourage you from booking the KE, cuz you will be disappointed like me. Just get on the intercity and decide where you want to stop yourself. do not be scared you will not meet people, you will :)

As a solo traveller visiting New Zealand for the first time I couldn´t choose better. The bus took me to the most interesting places as well as to those well hidden from the eye of a common visitor. It gave me the oportunity to meet new friends and a lot of time to discover the country.

i enjoyed it and would like, if i ever have another chance to see new zealand, to consider the extended hop on hop off tour all the way to the south tip, and taking advantage again of the flexibility to spend time as needed at the various stops. when i came to new zealand i had few ideas of what attractions interested me. kiwi experience gave me multiple options of which several attracted me. my only complaint is the few bus hoppers who tried to sneak on. i also want to thank Tane, the driver i had for 3 days, who shared so much of the Maori language heritage. kia ora, bob

Backpacking can be quite tough sometimes considering all the planning you have to do etc, but it was so easy to travel with Kiwi! You just get on the first bus and from that moment your driver becomes your guide. He/she takes you to the best places in NZ and tells you what activities to do or not. You can just relax and enjoy this beautiful country!

from start to finish a once in a lifetime experience! Offering a nice mix of organisation and freedom for first time travellers, and a great hop on/off system enabled us to build a great group of friends from all over the world to make the experience just exceptional. It helped we had bus driver Dave ‘Cuddles’ for the majority of the journey, quite possibly the best person we could have asked for to take us around NZ. Full 5* for Cuddles, thank you Kiwi Ex!

I bough this in January and was really excited to start my adventure here! The North Island was good and Taane as THE BEST driver I ever had. He taught me alot and I fele. Incredibly priveleged to have known him. What an incredible, warm, loving, humble guy. The south island however was a real struggle for me. The pass is supposed to be hop on hop off. I understand during peak season you need to book busses in advance. I had. However I hopped off Once at Wellington, as 1 night there is not nearly enough time to see anything, considering we got there in the afternoon. After this ALL OF MY BUSSES were waitlisted. Every morning I woke up not knowing if I was going to get on the bus. And even if there was space on the bus, the waitlists weren't even considered. Between me and 3 other girls we had to rock, paper scissors to get on the bus! It should be the first person on that waitlist gets on, not who won a game of rock paper scissors... I then got stranded in westport and had no idea when I would get bakc in the bus..I even got stranded in westport on my birthday.... It was pretty awful. My friend was stuck in keiteriteri for 4 days because even if you are in the waitlist the day before and don't get in the bus, you don't get put to the front of the next waitlist, you go to the back! She had reschedule all her flights because of this and cost her near to £200! This waitlist system afdacted my whole trip. I was quite stressed with the whole situation. Only at the end of my trip when I was in wanaka did you guys put on an extra bus, even though this problem had been going on for a week and a half by then. I was also very disspaointed by the lack of knowledge the drivers had around the bus/ waitlist situation, and also kiwi not telling us how many people were on the waitlists! Surely you guys could implement a mini bus or something for the spare people left? Sometimes there were 8 of us waiting for a bus. I had a good time on kiwi experience, but that was on account of the people, not the company nor the service I received. I would not reccomend kiwi to others in the future until you figure out a system that prevents these mishaps. If you know high volumes of people are having issues with busses and you have ones available. Put them out right away.

I bought the Whole Kit and Caboodle back in 2019 when it was on sale and I’m glad I did. It has been a good way to travel around and meet people! That said, it has also been fairly stressful (for me and a lot of other peeps I’ve met on the bus) as I’m only doing 6 weeks here. You really have to plan out a huge amount of the trip in advance to avoid a) getting only 12 hours in a place; b) not getting on the bus which was often full a few days ahead; c) ending up in a horrible hostel (base/nomads) by booking yours well in advance. The activities and experiences I’ve had have been amazing and I’ve made some friends for life but there are aspects that could certainly be improved.