The Company...

Abel Tasman was the seventeenth-century Dutch explorer who was the first to chart much of the Australian and New Zealand coasts. The wee island of Tasmania bears his name.

Seattle-based Abel Tasman Tours has been honored to have been helping create memorable vacations Down Under since 1989. A leader in our niche, we focus solely on the South Pacific and are able to offer a depth of knowledge that can't easily be found. Our team is comprised of highly experienced travel planners, and each member has a passion about our very special destinations.

We are fully ARC (Airline Reporting Commission) accredited, are a licensed Seller of Travel in Washington State (#601279492), and are very proud to be a Preferred Qantas Partner.  Abel Tasman Tours has the experience it takes to give you all the confidence you need when choosing a travel company.

The Team...

Its good to put a face to a voice over the phone, so please meet the people you're likely to talk to when you call:

Kemi Abell, Destination Specialist
Kemi might have been named after a small town in Finland, but she’s Texan through and through.  Kemi is so warm, hospitable and friendly that most of her clients turn into friends and, one could be forgiven for thinking that she spends her day on personal calls, so caring is her tone of voice.

Born in Port Arthur, Texas, Kemi moved to Dallas where she met her husband Kyle.  While Kemi expected to live her entire life in Texas, Kyle had other ideas and was forever suggesting that he, Kemi and their four children Chase, Britanie, Malorie and Savannah change their lives and move to Sacramento or Denver or Pittsburgh or Seattle.  Seattle! Somehow that one captured Kemi’s imagination and within 4 months the family had relocated and never looked back. Well almost never; when asked what Kemi misses most about Texas she has two instant answers, her family and Cajun food.

Kemi has sampled many of the finest travel experiences that the South Pacific has to offer. The Blue Lagoon cruise in Fiji, the Great Ocean Road, a Tasmanian self-drive, and an Outback camping safari complete with sunrise hot air balloon ride. Of all these, Kemi’s favorite is Aitutaki in the Cook Islands.

Kim Callahan, Product Manager
Kim and her twin brother were born at General Hospital in California.  Fortunately, for those of us who rely on how grounded and down to earth she is, Kim has no other soap opera-like qualities.

Kim’s family moved to Washington when she was a toddler, and Kim grew up in Bellevue when real estate prices weren’t among the most expensive in the US. When Kim bought her house this year she dearly wished she’d raided her piggy bank and bought when she was 8.  A UW graduate, a skier and snowboarder, a lover of the outdoors and camping, and a connoisseur of complicated coffees (she even stipulates the temperature, for heaven’s sake), Kim is a true Seattleite.

A long-time Abel Tasman team member and South Pacific fan, Kim is our Product Manager, and her excellent memory for detail, and innate sense of what people really want, aid her in selecting the best accommodation and touring options for our clients. The best ‘perk’ of Kim’s difficult role is that she gets to go to our various destinations many times to check that what we’re offering to our clients is of consistent high standard. Sometimes Kim travels with her daughter Lauren, sometimes on her own, and sometimes with other Abel Tasmanians. All Kim will say about the latter is: what happens in Fiji stays in Fiji.

Michele Cary, Quality Control
Michele was born in Gisborne, New Zealand, which had its one second of fame on December 31, 1999 – Gisborne was the first major city to welcome the new millennium.

When the opportunity arose to become an exchange student in Seattle for a year, she put up her hand and escaped.  Michele enjoyed her year abroad immensely, got a permanent travel bug, and decided to return as soon as she possibly could.

Michele’s sense of adventure led her to a stint working at McMurdo station in Antarctica. As anyone who has done that can attest, people who work on The Ice have to be made of special stuff.  After the harsh climate of the world’s driest continent, Michele craved a lush, green, precipitous environment. It was time to head back to Seattle, a job offer from Abel Tasman Tours facilitated just that. The rest is a romance story; Michele met and married a Microsoftie named Pete, and they were soon joined by baby Stephanie.

Michele loves the South Pacific, particularly Fiji which she says, has an instant relaxing effect on even the most harried traveler. Must be the way that every local greets you with a big sincere smile and the greeting: “Bula!”

Janelle Cook, General Manager
After setting off from her home town of Sydney, Australia with big plans to travel the world, Janelle spent 5 years at her first stop, Tokyo, working for Mitsui Bank where she met her American husband Peter, who ran a pharmaceutical company - they liked to tell people he was dealing drugs and she was laundering money.

Peter and Janelle flipped a coin and decided that they would spend their working years in the US and retire in Australia. Seattle seemed a good fit for their love of the outdoors; indeed Janelle has 'knocked off' Mt Rainier.  Janelle went to work for Abel Tasman Tours, left for some years during which time she had her daughter Alexandra then, happily, returned ‘home’ to Abel Tasman.

Playing host to her many houseguests, in Japan and the US, has left Janelle with the firm belief that the success of a trip is in the planning. It's all well and good to just arrive on foreign soil, says Janelle, but if you don't want to hear that the festival ended yesterday, or the tour sold out weeks ago, or the hotel is booked solid for the next month, use a travel specialist and do your advance preparation; it pays off in spades.

Victoria Delatovic, Sales & Marketing
Born and raised in Sydney, Vicky's college graduation present to herself, was a Greyhound bus pass. After happily backpacking around Australia for seven weeks, she found herself irrevocably bitten by the travel bug. No sooner had she settled back home, than she started planning for a longer sojourn, this time to Europe where she embarked on a five-month adventure.

Returning to Sydney, Vicky decided she wanted to make travel her career as well as her hobby, and to that end, gained a graduate degree in Tourism Management. Vicky started in the travel industry as a travel agent, and then moved into wholesale.

During this time, Vicky met her husband Anil who hails from India, in a German language class. They were married on Sydney Harbour with The Sydney Opera House as a backdrop. A year later they welcomed their daughter Jaya, into their family.  Anil's IT job led to a transfer to the US in the late 90’s. Vicky started her new life in the States in California, living in Los Angeles for 3 years, then Santa Barbara. They moved to Seattle in 2006. A huge windstorm just before Christmas 2006, caused an eight day power blackout, Vicky's first winter in the Northwest was certainly highly memorable.   

Melodie Hale, Reservations Manager
Melodie, a born caregiver, is known in our office as the Squirrel Lady. Fond of all animals, Melodie reserves a special place in her heart for the furry chaps who peek in our windows, feigning life-threatening hunger, and begging for peanuts.
 
Born in Portland, Oregon, Melodie is an avid sports fan but easily shifted her alliance to the Huskies and the Seahawks when she returned from Tahoe to the Northwest to be nearer her family. Melodie couldn’t be without mountains and the proximity to the outdoors, so chose Seattle, and her Abel Tasman colleagues are so glad she did. The fact that her cousin plays for the  University of Washington football team as an offensive lineman and that Melodie  is a long time Seahawks season ticket holder, means the whole office receives regular updates during the football months. 

Melodie’s vast knowledge about our destinations has been gleaned by repeated trips and wide research.  Her list of ‘must visits’ is being systematically shortened.   Next stop? Some of the lesser-traveled regions of New Zealand.

And, yes, we’ll remember to feed her squirrels while she’s away.

Michelle Isbell, Documents
Still waters run deep and, we think, none so deep as Michelle’s. Michelle grew up in Australia, had an early career in banking and, then travel, and gave her parents little to worry about.  She lived a happy middle class life and enjoyed all the fantastic things Sydney, one of the world’s great cities, had to offer. Swimming at Bondi beach, spending weekends hiking in the Blue Mountains, watching the amazing New Year’s Eve fireworks off the Harbour Bridge, going to performances at the Opera House and even, occasionally, gathering her mates together in the back yard on a Sunday and throwing the proverbial shrimp on the barbie.

Outwardly quiet and reserved, Michelle left friends and family surprised, well, actually absolutely gob-smacked, when she announced that she had met a ‘Yank’ in an on-line chat room, and would be including a visit to Seattle on her upcoming international foray.

Cyber dreams do come true; a year later Michelle and Steve were married. They have two young children, Kyle and Larissa. BC (before children), Michelle traveled extensively throughout the South Pacific, including one of her favorite places in the world, Vanuatu. The undeveloped islands of Vanuatu are steeped in history and cultural diversity, and Michelle hopes that more people make the effort to visit.

Emma Leon, Destination Specialist
Emma is our very own Tasmanian Devil.

Born in Launceston, Emma's family was forever on the move, taking weekend camping trips and ambitious road trips to locations which didn't always live up to their expectations.  One of Emma's first memories is of her father clinging to the underside of his horse as it trotted down the hill. The result of having to persevere through adversity is that Emma knows that its far better to work with an experienced travel professional who has personal knowledge of a destination than to invest money and time in what turns out to be anything but a vacation.

Emma's family eventually moved from Tasmania to Adelaide, and Emma broadened her horizons by backpacking through Britain and Indonesia. Returning to Australia, Emma formalized her love of travel by gaining a degree in Tourism which led to a job offer with Air New Zealand in Los Angeles. This proved to be a turning point both personally and professionally; as Emma was checking Americans in for their flights to the South Pacific, she found that she had a passion for advising visitors about Australia and New Zealand. And, while working alongside a cute Japanese man, "KC", she found her husband.  A job transfer for KC brought Emma to Seattle and Abel Tasman Tours, and another transfer moved her to Detroit, but we weren't going to let a little thing like distance take Emma from us; Emma, aided by modern technology, works out of her home.

When asked which destinations are her favorite, Emma keeps coming back to Tasmania and the Grampians and Murray River region of Victoria where wildlife is prolific and very approachable.  A recent educational trip to the Northern Territory including Kakadu National Park and Katherine where Emma swears she 'swam with the crocs' have also left a strong impression.

Steve Nicolet, Sales - WA and OR
At Abel Tasman Tours we have our share of soccer and tennis moms. And then there’s our roller derby dad, Steve. Yes, Steve’s oldest daughter, Misty, is the skillful captain of the Sockit Wenches roller derby team.   But we get ahead of ourselves…

Steve's first career was as a disc jockey; his dulcet tones were heard on KUTE, Los Angeles, KPOI Hawaii, and Seattle's KISW. After 26 years the music just didn’t sound good anymore, and Steve decided on a career switch so he started a retail agency and eventually took up sales representation. Along the way, Steve had two daughters, Misty the afore-mentioned roller derby queen, and Nikki who is currently sailing her 40 footer around the world, and a son Tyler.

Steve has been to the South Pacific many times on his own and as an escort. He has a special place in his heart for Sydney, and has recently come to appreciate Tasmania, another island state, where he discovered he really does have some long lost cousins. Nothing beats being shown around by a local and Steve can’t wait for his next trip to Tassie.

Karla Ostlund, Business Manager
Every office needs a Karla, someone who just gets the job – any job – done with no fuss.  It came as no surprise to us that, on a recent trip to New Zealand, when an airport closure threatened to disrupt her itinerary, Karla promptly hired a car and drove on the ‘wrong’ side of icy and unfamiliar roads for 7 hours. Mission accomplished, that’s our Karla.

Born in Miami, Florida Karla grew up dreaming about being a flight attendent. Eventually, after detouring to study accounting in college, Karla did gravitate toward the travel industry, and we’re so glad she did.

Karla has been married for 19 years to Patrick, and they have two beautiful and athletic daughters, Sara and Emma. Eight trips down under have merely whetted their appetites and their next goal is to do more trekking in New Zealand’s alpine South Island.  Karla has a soft spot for the stunning desert-meets-sea landscapes of Western Australia. Boundlessly energetic herself, Karla advises travelers to take their time and not to try to do it all in one trip.

Jennifer Paget, Operations Manager
Jennifer was born in La Jolla, California and was a small child when her parents moved their three daughters to Seattle during the time of the great northern migration; when Washington was the new California.

Jennifer is Abel Tasman Tours’ longest serving team member, and the highly esteemed Go To person for us all. Jennifer’s first job was to as a mortgage processor but that didn’t hold her interest so she idly answered an advertisement for a trainee position at a travel company with a name she presumed belonged to the owner.

Thirteen years later, Jennifer, our Operations Manager knows a lot about Abel Tasman the explorer and a lot about Abel Tasman Tours, the company. Along the way she found time to have a son, Daniel.

Jennifer has traveled widely in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, but particularly loves Queenstown in NZ’s South Island. Her next trip will concentrate on the wine regions of New Zealand - can that really be called a business trip?

Tina Swift, Destination Specialist
No one would suspect that, when strawberry blond, brown eyed Tina speaks, it might be in Danish.  Tina’s parents are Danish and Tina spent her sophomore year of high school in a small town in Denmark only an hour north from the German border. A born communicator, Tina was able to chat fluently with her schoolmates within a few months of arriving, and assimilated her new culture so well that she got a B in English – well she did speak teenage American, after all.

Tina came to the travel industry in February of 2005. Her background was in marketing with a mortgage company, but remembering how much she had enjoyed her European travels, she joined Abel Tasman Tours and embraced a new career as well as a new love - the South Pacific.

Tina and her husband Rusty  have three children, Anissa age 15 who is a busy seeded  tennis player with the USTA, Skyler a 9 year old skateboard enthusiast and, the Abel Tasman Tours office mascot, Gavin, who at almost two years old has half a dozen aunties who pounce on him and pass him around like a puppy when he accompanies his mom to the office.

Tina recently returned from a visit to Australia which included Cairns, the Outback and Melbourne.

 

1.800.388.1828