Best Day of our 3 weeks in New Zealand -- Wine Tour of Martinborough with Silver Cloud Luxury Tours - We booked a full day, customized Martinborough Wine Tour with Silver Cloud Luxury Tours. Helen, our guide and owner of the company, delivered an incredible experience. She set the Platinum... read more standard for service, friendliness and knowledge. I'm afraid we're spoiled for life now. It was the best day we had in New Zealand and we had some very amazing days there.

She left nothing to chance. She asked about our wine preferences and customized the tour to suit them. Her spotless MB van was directly imported, had extremely comfortable "captains chairs", road well and was well stocked with various drinks and snacks. The multiple sunroofs were a delightful and unexpected addition to the experience. Her family is in the wine business and she was greeted as an old friend at all the wineries we visited. She arranged for several wine tours, not just tastings. She knows Peter Jackson personally so, when we stopped at lovely parks for pictures and drove over the Rimutaka Ranges to Martinborough, she pointed out many places that were used for filming scenes of Lord of the Rings and the digital effects studios that remain. She tells great stories. She dealt with a sudden, unannounced bridge closing with aplomb.

Our first stop was Schubert Wines where Kai explained each of the broad selection of wines we tasted. We bought a lovely, unusual Rose. We had an excellent wine tasting and an exquisite lunch with Toby at Tirohana Estate. Lucy at Murdock James estate devoted an enormous amount of time to us. Her passion showed in her explanation of growing grapes for good wines and dealing with Mother Nature's vicissitudes. We finished at Te Kairangi Estate where we sampled several delicious whites and reds and bought two of their red Reserve wines. Interspersed with the winery visits were multiple breaks for coffee and snacks and shopping. She made extra stops for us to replace items we had lost previously during our travels.

Even at the end of our long day of touring, she was still smiling and helpful. We were flying out of Wellington airport the next day and it is under construction. She tracked down the new location and instructions for checking in with our airline so we wouldn't have any surprises. And, it turned out that she was good friends of and neighbors with the owners of Acorns B&B, where we were staying (also great)..

Overall, not only was this an unbelievably good tour but we have never been so well taken care of. I cannot recommend Silver Cloud Luxury Tours highly enough.

  I went to NZ North Island for a tour and had a couple of days free to explore the region. I came across this amazing tour which I could do... read more as a solo person. Helen oozed enthusiasm with her knowledge of Wellington / Martinborough Region. I recommend this tour to anyone visiting the region. Helen made my tour of exactly what I requested and I felt completely relaxed in her company. Thank you so much Helen and will promote you to anyone I know going to Wellington.

  Wonderful Day in Wellington! - Three of us were on a Celebrity cruise and wanted a tour of Wellington. We didn't want to do a ship excursion, but we were willing to share a... read more minivan with others. Then we found Helen and we were able to do a private tour and what a wonderful tour it was! She suggested an itinerary and she was just fine with us modifying it slightly. She took us to all of the highlights in Wellington including the Cable Car in Kelburn, Mt Victoria Lookout, Weta Workshop, St Paul's Church, Te Papa Museum (we loved the Gallipoli Exhibit and the Marae). We had lunch at the Roxy Theater which is a lovely art deco building. Helen was an excellent guide, providing lots of information about Wellington and she was always willing to answer our questions. She also added personal touches to the tour: bottles of water, tissues, mints and a "sweet" surprise when she dropped us off at the ship. It was obvious that Helen loves and is very proud of her city! I would recommend her tour to anyone who will be visiting Wellington! Thanks again, Helen, for a great day!

  OUTSTANDING in every way! - What a fantastic and outstanding day we (3 of us) spent with Helen. She promptly picked us up and took us all over Wellington, catering to our every desire,... read more and then some, in her very comfortable car. She is a knowledgeable, humorous, patient, generous, connected and enjoyable tour guide. We took 6 different private tours throughout New Zealand and Helen's tour was by far the best! Even though we had our tour day planned, we expressed an interest in seeing wildlife and in a flash she had us at Zealandia with a private tour! High Tea at the Roxy was amazing. Helen's depth of local knowledge is great and we wished we had another day to spend with her. Do NOT hesitate to book a tour with her. It will be a highlight for you.

  A Marvelous Day of Discovery - My wife and I spent yesterday with Helen, touring Martinborough wineries, visiting Kaitoke Regional Park, making a couple of important LOTR pilgrimages and learning a lot about the history and... read more culture of Aotearoa. As a professional educator and (almost) lifelong Kiwi, Helen makes for a superb tour guide. Her family includes long-established NZ wine growers as well, so her assistance in selecting wine tastings and purchases is impeccable. Everything about her tour is high quality, from the Mercedes Viano pickup clear through to the special chocolates at the end. Helen succeeded in delivering a most memorable day for us in this beautiful country. Highly, highly recommended!

  Martinborough Wine Tour - Party of 5 adults looking around the great vineyards of New Zealand...what could be better? Our day trip was made better by having Helen from Silver Cloud be a... read more tour guide. She was fantastic. Very knowledgeable about the region & history. Her little stories kept us all enthralled. She was able to re-adjust our tour when time got tight due to our over stays in the wineries. (Sorry Helen). We can highly recommend Silver Cloud Luxury Tours....Best tour we've ever been on.

  Martinborough in one day - We had one day in Wellington on a cruise ship and wanted to maximize our day visiting wineries in Martinborough. We were lucky enough to find Helen with Silver Cloud... read more and it was a perfect day!!! She's incredibly informative about the wine industry in general having grown up around it and her passion and knowledge truly made the day a perfect 10. She helped us pick the best wineries to explore and peppered the day with great stories about the history of the area and personal anecdotes that really made it more special. We saw a larger group from our ship coming in to one of the stops and they didn't get a quarter of the special attention and experience that we did. Due to bad weather our port visit was delayed by a day and on very short notice Helen made changes to accommodate our group which really blew us away. If you're considering a tour here (wine related or otherwise) there is no better hostess!

  Great day in Wellington with Helen!! - Our group of 9 arriving on the Celebrity Solstice in November 2017 had a fantastic tour of Wellington with Helen in a very comfortable van. We saw the highlights... read more of the city and had a great lunch at the newly renovated art deco Roxy Theatre. We also had a tour of the WETA studios. Helen had a great knowledge of her city and a wonderful and engaging personality. We had a great day.

  Fantastic luxury city and wine tour with Helen! - We had an amazing day doing a private tour of Wellington and visiting several of the wineries in the Martinborough region with Helen Waddington of Silver Cloud tours. Helen... read more was gracious, warm, extremely courteous and very knowledgeable about Wellington and the nearby Martinborough wine region. She speaks very clearly, with lots of background information, and is the ultimate tour guide!

We enjoyed a drive through the city and then rode the cable car. We then drove through the neighbouring mountains to Martinborough, with a lovely stop for Devonshire tea and a brief garden tour at the beautiful Aston Norwood Country Gardens.

Through Helen’s personal connections with the wineries, we were able to visit some beautiful cellar doors and taste a wide variety of wines, including great visits to Palliser, Schubert, Tirohana and Luna. Lunch at Tirohana was absolutely superb with great service from Toby and his team. Martinborough is such a wonderful wine region, with great scenery as well, as we are so glad to have discovered it.

Helen’s vehicle was very comfortable and she drove very carefully and always looked out to help us in and out of the car. She was very responsive to our questions when we were booking the tour and she was very flexible in putting together exactly what we wanted for our day. Everything about the day was absolutely top notch and it was all included in the tour price.

Helen is a superb tour guide (and she made it feel more like spending a special day with a good friend!). While many tours deserve 5 stars on Trip Advisor, if it was possible to give 10 stars Helen would get 10! Our day with her was certainly a highlight of our lovely 6 week visit to New Zealand. We highly recommend her luxury tours and you will be lucky indeed if you get to spend a day with Helen. Thank you Helen for such a special day!