New Zealand hiking & adventure vacation

Planet

Our New Zealand hiking adventure itinerary focuses heavily on environmentally sustainable practices. New Zealand itself is a world leader in sustainability, with 32% of its land area and 10% of the coastal marine environment in protected areas. Our NZ activity operators, accommodations, and transportation companies will expose clients to a breadth of ecotourism commitments in practice. Not only will we immerse ourselves in some of NZ's most pristine protected areas, we'll also meet with our community partner - NZ Forest & Bird, New Zealand's leading independent conservation organisation - and learn directly from them about the challenges and successes in protecting NZ's flora & fauna.

Throughout the itinerary, we will experience much of New Zealand's incredible natural offerings -- and while enjoying these stunning surroundings, we will be learning about the efforts of the government, communities, and private companies that have kept them in pristine condition and will continue to do so.

In addition to ensuring local and sustainably produced foods in our included meals and restaurant selections, any time we buy snacks for the road, we will prioritize fresh and local bites. As well, on all of our trips, we focus on reduction of plastic and make sure that water jugs are available for refilling personal reusable water bottles. In the event of waste, recycle and composting, we direct client to the appropriate bins and disposal method.

People

We focus on locally owned suppliers throughout the trip including our boutique hotels, local guides, activity providers, and restaurants. The businesses and restaurants we patron are leaders in their community, providing thoughtful job training and ethical treatment to their staff.

As well, we aim to bring our guests away from the areas teeming with large buses and chain hotels into the quieter countryside towns and villages. By staying in towns that are often overlooked, we bring tourism dollars to the businesses that need it.

Our native NZ-guides who are with us throughout the itinerary will supply unique insight into the history, culture, and character of New Zealand, as will each local vendor we carefully selected. We believe that a sound understanding of the local culture and community is essential to a transformative travel experience, and there is no better way to get that than from hearing through the stories of a local.