Tour Time

Unique Experiences

Read what some of Tour Time tour groups’ experiences have been
  • Several years ago our daughter Sandra went on a Music Tour overseas. When we went to meet her off the plane one of the first things she said was...“It was amazing how I was sitting in the Band between a girl from Japan and a boy from some European country. None of us could speak the same language or even understand what each was saying, but when the Conductor handed out our music, we could all play in harmony.” Music is an international language!
  • Sandra made some wonderful lifelong friends on this tour and her understanding and awareness of different cultures and people increased tenfold. Sandra says - "An unsurpassed experience for which I am always grateful... Thanks so much, Mum & Dad”
  • Several of our choirs have experienced the awesome acoustics of singing deep down inside the world famous Waitomo Glow worm caves. What a sound and what an atmosphere!
  • On Day 3 of a recent school boys’ rugby tour from Canberra, we travelled to Waitomo and trained at night under lights with the local country rugby club – a grass roots experience and certainly not the manicured field of a typical Canberra rugby ground.
  • On Day 5 of another rugby tour recently, our touring team lined up to play their Kiwi opposition and to everyone’s surprise they then performed the haka to the Kiwi team. They had only learnt it a couple of days earlier from a former All Black Maori player and a lot of practice went into it. Fun and laughter for all!
  • On one of our orchestra tours with the Strolling Strings from the USA, Tour Time was able to arrange a performance in the Sound Shell at Darling Harbour, Sydney. The passing audience responded with great  enthusiasm listening to their music, ranging from classical to modern rock. The concert was such a special experience for the Strolling Strings they dedicated a music arrangement to Tour Time’s Brent who had toured Australia with them.
  • On Day 7 of a South Island Music tour, several of the cornet players played music whilst circling over Christchurch in a hot air balloon
  • On Day 4 of a Hockey Tour earlier in the year we toured the famous Obo Hockey gear factory in Palmerston North before having a training session with the Black Sticks at the turfs. Many shirts were signed by Black Sticks and photographs galore were taken which I am sure are pinned up on many girls’ bedroom walls in Australia.
  • What a privilege for Tour Time to transport HRH Prince William in both Auckland, Wellington and up to the Capital Coast during his recent New Zealand visit. What a fun down to earth guy, even tossing a frisbee with a Kiwi supporter on Paraparaumu beach and having fun with a school rugby team in Auckland.
  • David Beckham and the LA Galaxy football (soccer) team also travelled with Tour Time in both Wellington and Auckland on their two visits. David is another personable guy who spent his time trying to dodge media and supporters.
  • On a recent sightseeing excursion around the North Island with 40 keen travellers from Auckland, driver John P took them for a spontaneous visit to the Hood Air Field at Masterton in the Wairarapa. It was rumoured that Sir Peter Jackson was on site filming segments of the Dam Buster movie with a replica Lancaster Bomber. Unfortunately on arrival nothing could be seen over the fence, except for a man looking through a small opening in the hangar door. John P approached him with a hearty greeting and before the tour party knew it, they were being shown some amazing World War 1 replica aircraft and immaculately restored World War 2 aircraft from Sir Peter’s collection. The group enjoyed learning of the technical skills and experiences involved in flying these basic aircraft, highlighting the true fragility of life as an aviator during those early times of flight and aircraft combat.
  • On a recent tour returning to Queenstown from a day spent in the Milford Sounds, our Tour Time driver noticed that a local farmer was draughting sheep in the nearby paddock. Our driver stopped, jumped the fence and with a bit of friendly persuasion, the farmer invited the complete group of 48 tourists onto his farm. He conducted an impromptu shearing display and some working sheepdog displays. The group loved it!
  • On another tour we were travelling through the Desert Road when Beryl remembered that the NZ Army Band was performing a concert in Waiouru Military Base. She phoned ahead and our group was able to enjoy the second half of an Army Band concert.
  • On an Australian tour last year, we organized with a local Service Club to arrange a Bushman’s breakfast in the Wonga Wonga Wetlands, complete with aborigines playing their didgeridoos. You could have mistakenly stepped right out of the Crocodile Dundee Movie!
  • On another occasion an Australian Brass Band arrived in New Zealand for a pre tour before competing in the NZ Brass Band Championships. What they had not realized was that it is compulsory at NZ Championships to perform in the Street March section of the events. This Band had never marched before so driver, Ron, who had previously been a Drum Major in a NZ Brass Band took every opportunity to teach the Band to march. If they stopped for morning tea he’d take them to a park to practise. A few days later they competed very competently in the Street March with the only noticeable mistake being that their Drum Major forgot to salute the judges as the Band marched past them.
  • Brent, met an American orchestra at Sydney airport to start their Australian concert tour. One of the players was terribly upset after collecting her instrument from the air cargo – one of the strings on her Cello had been broken. Panic was averted as Brent rang our musical contacts in New Zealand and found out where in Sydney to have the Cello restrung urgently. Within two hours he and the Cello player where reunited in the Hotel with the orchestra, complete with her restrung cello.
  • On our tours to Argentina we have invitations to enjoy a tour of the famous Boca Football Club and can even arrange training sessions with the Boca Junior Football players. Ron recently spent a week in New Zealand with the Boca Juniors when they were here to play the Phoenix Football team.
  • On a more recent hockey tour one of the umpires didn’t turn up, so again, driver, Ron doned a whistle and running shoes and umpired the game. (Ron was a former representative hockey player; his biggest challenge was that some of the rules had changed since he played and coached, but I’m sure the playing teams didn’t know!)

(It’s these spontaneous opportunities that Tour Time is so renowned for. They are made possible because, not only are we Tour Operators but because we also own and operate our touring coaches as well, we give all our drivers the flexibility to take up any opportunities that they think the group may like. This makes us so different from other Tour Operators.)