I took out an $8000 loan for this trip (I am a single parent w/2 in college & am a public school teacher). It was worth the investment and my son and I had an incredible time. I thought the accommodations were perfect - nice variety, low key/modest and all locally owned-operated. Our guides, Rowan & Natalie, were friendly, helpful, accommodating, sincere, enthusiastic, and obviously very invested in making certain all had a good time, were well cared for etc. Their passion for outdoors and NZ was palpable and infectious. My only disappointment was that I felt mislead when I'd contacted the 800# in US when initially looking into this trip. My then 20-year old son had recently been diagnosed with "very advanced" celiac disease and was having major health (heart & neurological) issues. Part of my reason for taking out this loan and planning this trip was because he'd been quite ill for many months and gotten depressed with how impacting his recent diagnosis was on his life. I have to say I was mislead when I was told "our chefs are well equipped to deal with celiac disease". We quickly found out, by absolutely no fault of Natalie, that she was indeed not educated about this medical condition and the ensuing complex preparations necessary to keep the afflicted person healthy. We worked it out and she was very very willing to do WHATEVER was necessary, which was amazing, but it certainly put my son, myself and Natalie all in a position that none of us were anticipating. My "mother bear" came out and I feel badly about this and again, it was not a comfortable "place" I wanted to go when on my one and only trip of a lifetime.... We all made it work and it worked out A-OK - mostly due to Natalie's willingness to be so helpful.

| January 1970