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:

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.

Karla Ostlund, Ticketing & Documents
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.