What we are
ENABLETRAVEL is a small New Zealand-based business specialising in customised travel arrangements. As well as organising travel, we aim to offer networking with relevant agencies and services and an information service to assist travellers with particular wants or needs to make informed decisions about destinations and activities.
Although ENABLETRAVEL is New Zealand-based, we have European connections and are able to advise on and arrange travel between and within various countries.
We handle general travel to and around any country or region as well as special needs travel.
THE WAY WE OPERATE is as Travel Advisors to United Travel. This means that we have their years of experience behind us and are able to offer their special deals as well as our own. Travel booked through us earns Fly-Bys rewards for New Zealand customers.have many years of experience in the travel business. We are delighted to have this relationship with them and to be able to pass its benefits on to our customers.
Who we are
Travel Advisor Felicity
Hi, I am Felicity Patterson. My friends call me Flick. I am a 31year old New Zealander. I was born with a syndrome called Morquio’s Syndrome that affected my joints and spine. At age 7 I broke my neck in a fall. I have been in a power wheelchair since then.
Recently I graduated with a 4th level qualification in travel and tourism, plus a 3rd level one in business. My interest in travel goes back to when I was 16 and we travelled as a family to the United States for a year. Of course we had all my gear to take and I was in a power wheelchair with a ventilator – both with batteries! The planning and organising took months and months. To begin with no one knew how to help us and it was quite uncertain whether we could go or not until just weeks before we were due to leave. But we did it, and there were more problems with travel along the way – things like no on-board power for my ventilator so they had to take us off the plane again while they fixed it, having another airline first lose my wheelchair then break it! Some airlines were great at providing ground support. Others didn’t do it at all. Some ground transport was great. Some I couldn’t use because the message hadn’t got through that I was in a power wheelchair. People often pitched in and helped when they saw what we were trying to do. I owe a lot of people a lot of thanks here and there!
When we returned home to Hawke’s Bay we thought we must write all this up to try to help others. Well, out of that, in the end, I got the urge to do more than that – to help other people with special needs to do their travel without all the hassle I had – and have had since. So here I am now running my own business working as a travel advisor for an Auckland travel agency, serving the disabled community in NZ and elsewhere, and others too for whom travelling poses special challenges, or who have particular needs or preferences that require a customised solution.
The Others in the Background
Sue and John Patterson live in Ireland and are able to do on-the-ground research and trouble-shooting at most European and some other destinations. They operate our info website. Sue is webmaster for ENABLE TRAVEL.
You can contact her here