verage experience with Kiwi Experience during my 2 weeks backpacing trip in New Zealand.

I bought the Queen Bee pass which was suppose to be a flexibile Hop-On Hop-Off service. However, it is far from a flexiible service, because once a person goes from one place to another, one is either able to stay there for 3 whole days or only 1 night. This is by any means not a flexible hop-on hop-off service.

The buses do not run on a daily basis between to and from each destination. For example, one cannot arrive at a place, stay for 1 night and then leave the enxt day to the next place in the afternoon/evening or stay for another night as 1 wishes, beacuse the buses are only every 3 days or immediately the next day in the morning.

Imagine, one arrives in Kaikoura (a place where one goes to see whales and dolphins) but does not have time to see them, because we arrive late in the afternoon (by which time, all the experiences are finished) and then leave exactly again early in the morning. Whats the point of going to Kaikoura if one does not have time for any sea life experiences?

If one decides, not to take a bus from the tour because he wishes to stay longer, one cannot get a refund. I highly recommend having a look at Intercity before booking kiwi Experience.

The bus drivers of Kiwi are very friendly, however the buses are old so they do not have a toilet on them, no WIFI connection and no charging ports or electricity sockets with the seats.

Till next time New Zealand! Kia ora.

Reviewed over 1 year ago

Absolutely Epic, trip of a lifetime.

I'm so glad I chose Kiwi Experience. From the staff in the office to the road crew, they were all absolutely brilliant - especially two legends Dylan and Cuddles.

Reviewed over 6 years ago

Kiwi experience has been, without doubt, the highlight of my 8 month trip around australia and New Zealand.

Besides undergoing trip in the New Zealand winter; the trip was highly organised, well planned and gave us access to the best hostels and tours in New Zealand!

The bus offers a great range of discounts and group deals. I managed to save $25 on my Nevis Bungee jump. (which made the jump itself more rewarding!...).

The drivers are all fun and enthusiastic- happy to help with any request. We loved Simon and Jacob.

Kiwi experience is a great option for single or small-group travellers- with the bus being the perfect way to meet people and spend more than a moment getting to know each other. I have made long-term friends on the bus and plan to see them soon!

Would recommend it to anybody and everybody.

Reviewed about 9 years ago

I, a female student of 20 years old, just finished travelling around New Zealand.

Dear fellow travellers,

I travelled with Kiwi Experience on the Super Funky pass, but I also took some public buses to different cities and even hitchhiked a bit. And out of all of these, Kiwi Experience was the best way of travelling the country for me. They have great deals so you can get your pass for cheap, they are easy and reliable, take you to the best places in the country and there are always lots of fun people on the buses to meet and share your experiences with!

I had a relatively long time to travel around the country, about 2 months, where the minimum time for my pass was 28 days. This gave me a lot of freedom and flexibility to stay longer in the places than the minimum time, which I also did in most of the places. Kiwi Experience is also very flexible with dropping you off or picking you up in cities along the way that they do not spend the night in!

Kiwi Experience is a very easy option to travel. They organize activities for you that you can sign up for on the bus and advise you on the best options for your preferences. They help you organize the hostels and guarantee that you have at least one night in the hostel that they book everyone in. That being said, it is always a good idea to research those hostels yourself as well, because they are not always the cheapest (but in general very nice and comfortable!).

Because I had so much time to complete my pass, I hopped off quite often and hopped onto new buses with new drivers. I had a lot of different drivers – Josh, Kea, Mangee, Toddy, Q, Kyle and Nancy. All of them have such great personalities and it is never boring with them around to guide you!

All in all I met some amazing people that made the experience so much better and did the most amazing things throughout the country! I could not have imagined travelling through New Zealand in any other way than I did and loved every single minute of it!

Reviewed about 9 years ago and experienced in June 2015

- Some drivers are professional and friendly, some drivers are sleazy and creepy towards girls.

Ive personally given Kiwi a 4/10 because:

- Suggested hostels are generally overpriced, and often you just feel like part of a big cash cow herd for Kiwi and its affiliated hostel.

- DO NOT BOOK 'Unique stays' vouchers - absolute waste of time. For my first 'Unique stay' in Kaiteriteri I was put in rented office space because there was no room in an actual building. 'Unique stays' are in fact just a way of prepaying for a bog standard dormitory room. Which is not clearly explained at all.

- Don't bother pre-booking through Kiwi for activities, as most of my pre-booked activities were cancelled whilst on the trip anyway.

But however, in general, whether you'll enjoy the kiwi experience bus is really dependent on what you're looking to achieve in New Zealand.

If you're looking for complete independence, and the ability to explore the areas of natural beauty of New Zealand on your own schedule, you should hire a campervan and do not do Kiwi Experience.

If you're looking for the opportunity to make friends, visit lots of bars, and with minimal effort travel your way around New Zealand (minimal effort because Kiwi Experience do all the planning/thinking) than the Kiwi bus is probably the best option for you.

In terms of cost, the Kiwi Bus - and corresponding hostel stops - may work out slightly more expensive than travelling by yourself, but you may be able to justify that due to the total lack of personal planning required for the bus option.

Reviewed almost 9 years ago

verage experience with Kiwi Experience during my 2 weeks backpacing trip in New Zealand.

I bought the Queen Bee pass which was suppose to be a flexibile Hop-On Hop-Off service. However, it is far from a flexiible service, because once a person goes from one place to another, one is either able to stay there for 3 whole days or only 1 night. This is by any means not a flexible hop-on hop-off service.

The buses do not run on a daily basis between to and from each destination. For example, one cannot arrive at a place, stay for 1 night and then leave the enxt day to the next place in the afternoon/evening or stay for another night as 1 wishes, beacuse the buses are only every 3 days or immediately the next day in the morning.

Imagine, one arrives in Kaikoura (a place where one goes to see whales and dolphins) but does not have time to see them, because we arrive late in the afternoon (by which time, all the experiences are finished) and then leave exactly again early in the morning. Whats the point of going to Kaikoura if one does not have time for any sea life experiences?

If one decides, not to take a bus from the tour because he wishes to stay longer, one cannot get a refund. I highly recommend having a look at Intercity before booking kiwi Experience.

The bus drivers of Kiwi are very friendly, however the buses are old so they do not have a toilet on them, no WIFI connection and no charging ports or electricity sockets with the seats.

Till next time New Zealand! Kia ora.

Reviewed over 1 year ago

Absolutely Epic, trip of a lifetime.

I'm so glad I chose Kiwi Experience. From the staff in the office to the road crew, they were all absolutely brilliant - especially two legends Dylan and Cuddles.

Reviewed over 6 years ago

- Some drivers are professional and friendly, some drivers are sleazy and creepy towards girls.

Ive personally given Kiwi a 4/10 because:

- Suggested hostels are generally overpriced, and often you just feel like part of a big cash cow herd for Kiwi and its affiliated hostel.

- DO NOT BOOK 'Unique stays' vouchers - absolute waste of time. For my first 'Unique stay' in Kaiteriteri I was put in rented office space because there was no room in an actual building. 'Unique stays' are in fact just a way of prepaying for a bog standard dormitory room. Which is not clearly explained at all.

- Don't bother pre-booking through Kiwi for activities, as most of my pre-booked activities were cancelled whilst on the trip anyway.

But however, in general, whether you'll enjoy the kiwi experience bus is really dependent on what you're looking to achieve in New Zealand.

If you're looking for complete independence, and the ability to explore the areas of natural beauty of New Zealand on your own schedule, you should hire a campervan and do not do Kiwi Experience.

If you're looking for the opportunity to make friends, visit lots of bars, and with minimal effort travel your way around New Zealand (minimal effort because Kiwi Experience do all the planning/thinking) than the Kiwi bus is probably the best option for you.

In terms of cost, the Kiwi Bus - and corresponding hostel stops - may work out slightly more expensive than travelling by yourself, but you may be able to justify that due to the total lack of personal planning required for the bus option.

Reviewed almost 9 years ago

Kiwi experience has been, without doubt, the highlight of my 8 month trip around australia and New Zealand.

Besides undergoing trip in the New Zealand winter; the trip was highly organised, well planned and gave us access to the best hostels and tours in New Zealand!

The bus offers a great range of discounts and group deals. I managed to save $25 on my Nevis Bungee jump. (which made the jump itself more rewarding!...).

The drivers are all fun and enthusiastic- happy to help with any request. We loved Simon and Jacob.

Kiwi experience is a great option for single or small-group travellers- with the bus being the perfect way to meet people and spend more than a moment getting to know each other. I have made long-term friends on the bus and plan to see them soon!

Would recommend it to anybody and everybody.

Reviewed about 9 years ago

Myself and my friend (both female, 22 & 23 years old) have just finished our Kiwi Experience tour on the Sheepdog pass travelling from Auckland to Christchurch and would highly recommend it to anyone exploring

ways of seeing the incredible country of New Zealand. We are really glad that we chose to do this as it meant we had no restrictions in terms of our time frame and the cost of the add-ons such as the Milford Explorer did not increase once on the bus. The recommended minimum time for the Sheepdog pass is 17 days and we had 28 days to complete it which meant that we could hop off the bus at several stops along the way.

In total, we had four drivers - Josh, Kea, Kyle and Mangee, all of whom were extremely informative and helpful in advising us on how to manage our time best and book onto different buses and ferries.

We had been considering hiring a campervan to travel the country when initially planning our trip as we thought this would allow us the most freedom. In hindsight, we are really glad we decided to book through Kiwi Experience as, not only would we have been ridiculously cold in the winter season, it actually meant we got to see a lot more of the country than we would have doing it ourselves as all of the drivers are natives of New Zealand and their knowledge of the country is unparalleled. This meant there were a lot of stops en-route for various photo opportunities, walks and visits to local communities that we would never have known about otherwise.

The Kiwi Experience was also a really great way of meeting other travellers and like-minded people who were all enjoying the experience with you and we continually bumped into people along the way who we had met previously.

Overall we are both really glad we chose to book through Kiwi Experience and could not imagine having travelled New Zealand any other way!

Reviewed over 9 years ago

I had a completely amazing experience on the Kiwi Bus, with lovely new friends, amazing scenery and so many fun activities/things to do!

I would completely recommend the trip for likeminded fun loving, adventure seeking individuals and the company really give you everything you need to make it into an amazing trip for yourself.

But why....?

Hassle-free, Stress Free:

I found that the kiwi experience was extremely hassle & stress free. Albeit it isn’t what I’d deem as real travelling (having travelled through Asia, South America etc) as it is very well organized. However, it alleviates a lot of the harder work/boring bits of travelling e.g. sorting accommodation/things to do and therefore lets you get on with the fun stuff and leaves you enough time to do what you want!! E.g. outdoor activities, drinking and spending time with your new friends!

Every stop brought a new perspective:

I felt that every overnight stop on the trip was worthwhile. To give some examples…Wanaka was just totally scenic and beautiful, like nothing I’d seem before, Christchurch allowed me to learn loads about earthquake destruction and really get a feel for a city hit by such a catastrophic tragedy and River Valley offered a homely/farm stay feel with amazing white water rafting straight outdoors from the accommodation.

Outdoor Activities:

There were a ridiculous amount of new things on offer to do/see. The advantage of being on a long kiwi journey is that the bus drivers can give you good advice about each activity on offer, e.g. they helped me to compare white water rafting for you across the various places it would be available to help me make my decision about where to do it.

Travelling Solo:

If you come on the Kiwi bus alone (like myself and the majority of the others on my bus) you won’t be friendless for very long. I’d estimate 2-3 minutes ☺

All in all, what an amazing month!! I just want to go back now xxx

Reviewed over 9 years ago

Driver guides great, friendly and helpful.

Some times felt activities were there just to make Kiwi experience money.

Reviewed over 15 years ago and experienced in February 2009

Good crowd, helpful drivers.

Great company - some office disorganisation but bus guides were excellent.

Reviewed almost 16 years ago

Good fun & instead of a long boring journey from one place to another, getting interesting stops like wine tasting & swimming.

Reviewed almost 16 years ago