Yay, we are back in New Zealand! Thank goodness. After 4 weeks of USA, it's so good to hear the kiwi accents, and be amongst the relaxed atmosphere of the Long White Cloud. And no more having to work out how much to tip people! Damn that's an annoying custom. If you don't tip the hotel maid, she might not clean your room properly (so I heard). If you don't tip the tour guide, she might scream at you on the bus! Travel tip: if you plan to take a bus tour from Boston, think twice about booking with a Chinese company, especially Sunshine Travel Tours (Boston). This was the worst tour I had ever been on in my life, and the tour guide was such a witch during the 3 days that we refused to tip her at the end (we have a huge list of all the things she did/did not do, including misleading (and sometimes missing) instructions, not offering to help when one of our rooms was double-booked, and forgetting about my parents in the park where she told them she would be back to get them). That resulted in public verbal abuse which was only diffused by my aunty giving her the cold cash (which still really didn't shut her up). I can't believe this company *expected* you to give the US$15 tip at the beginning of the tour. She had already shouted at us (after giving us the wrong instructions on where to sit on the bus) before we even took off, so we told her she would get her tip at the end as this was based on service. It went downhill from there. We sent an email complaint to the company using the email addresses on their website. Out of the 5 addresses they had, 2 actually made it somewhere - I assume so anyway as there has been no reply yet. I don't expect a reply anyway. But never in my life have I had such a bad experience with any kind of business. We were not the only ones that agreed she lacked professionalism and had a bad attitude (but everyone else had already paid the "gratuity" at the beginning). This gratuity, according to the pamphlet she flung at us, is for the "courteous service" of the tour guide. Courteous service my arse!
We were planning on taking their bus to NY, but easily decided against it after this tour. Seems like we weren't the only ones frustrated with Sunshine Travel, as this
story proves. Take note of the comment about the on-board toilet - for emergencies only - duh. Our tour guide emphasised that we shouldn't use their toilet if we could avoid it, and that she would "not be cleaning it" if we created a mess. How patronising! Anyway, that is my review and I hope it serves as a warning to others.
