Meet Philip...

Philip Mildenhall, Founder, Driver and Guide

A true local, Philip Mildenhall, was born and bred in Wellington and grew up on western hills above Petone, a suburb on the northern edge of beautiful Wellington Harbour.

After studying at the University of Otago, Dunedin, he lived and travelled throughout Asia where he learned what creates a great adventure holiday experience.

Upon his return to Wellington, Phil founded Zozo Travel as an Itinerary and Booking Service to help tourists and adventurers discover the heart of New Zealand. Phil soon developed a number of day tours to make it even easier for tourists to experience the local sights and flavours of the fascinating Wellington region.

Having travelled far and wide and possessing so much local knowledge, Philip is the perfect guide for visitors to Wellington.

Our New Zealand Tourism Sustainability Commitment

In conjunction with the Tourism Industry Association Zozo Travel has put in place a sustainability plan to make our business, industry and world a better place with our goals for all 12 Commitments. Here is what you need to know:

What we have done:

All our driver guides are paid above the living wage
We have partnered with IdealCups to provide re-usable cups on all our tours to reduce the waste caused by single use coffee cups.
We made the choice to partner with locally owned and operated businesses wherever possible
We have partnered with EKOS to move towards being reducing carbon emissions and being a carbon neutral business

What we still need to do:

Reducing carbon emissions: Currently our petrol and diesel vehicles are the biggest producer of carbon emissions in our mission. These vehicles will be phased out over time with a move to hybrid and electric vehicles where possible. This will happen with our smaller vehicles with our next upgrade (2023) and with our larger vehicles when the market can supply them. Ideally this will be by 2025.

Testimonials

Phil is a great tour guide and we really like the small group experience. We got the chance to have input to the itinerary. Much more enjoyable than doing it on our own. Highly recommend this company. — Rhonda T, via TripAdvisor

“Phil was a brilliant tour guide.”

The winery tour lived up to all expectations and more. Phil was a brilliant tour guide, not only (with knowledge) about the wine region but the history of the area. He made the tour very personal for the four of us. We had a very memorable day. A must when coming to this area. Phil will accommodate your choices of winery but actually he does this often and I was happy to leave the choices to him. Can’t rate this highly enough.

— Gregory, Bath, UK

“He is very knowledgeable and terrific.”

Philip was a great driver and guide. He picked us up at Wellington and took us to Martinborough. We went to four wineries and had a fabulous lunch at one of the wineries. He is very knowledgeable and terrific. I would highly recommend him.

— Steve D, Miami Beach, Florida

“The tour was well designed giving you a little bit of everything.”

We had a great day travelling around the coast with Phil. He was very accommodating, slightly altering the tour to suit our interests! As he is a local, he is very knowledgeable and happy to answer any questions about the beautiful country. The tour was well designed giving you a little bit of everything, the winery staff are friendly and informative and the food was some of the best we experienced in New Zealand! Definitely good value and a great way to see the south coast of Wellington.

— Mikaela R, Australia

“Philip was a perfect tour guide full of local knowledge, very informative and good company!”

My husband and I were on the trip of a lifetime to watch the Lions play the All Blacks. We booked this trip, among others, through the information centre. We had a full day tour of cheese makers, olive oil producers, grape to glass tours with an excellent lunch and craft beer tasting. All were first class. Philip was a perfect tour guide full of local knowledge, very informative and good company. It turned out to be the best days outing we had while in NZ. We would definitely recommend this tour and would do it again if we could. Thanks Phil for the experience.

— Pamie, Brighton, UK