Walking Adventures Through Magical New Zealand

In this day of frequent travel, we tend to come back with memories of crowds: lines at entrances, tour buses and more tour buses, the hustle and bustle of everyone seeing and doing the same thing everyone else is seeing and doing. Do yourself a favor and come back with memories of an extraordinary land, a truly unspoiled and totally surprising destination even for ecotourists who think they’ve done it all. The Maori called it Aotearoa; Land of the Long White Cloud. We call it 100% Pure New Zealand. This 100% Pure is the state of being where you realize there’s no place on earth you’d rather be.

New Zealand has a population of only 3.8 million and is the size of Great Britain. This is an extraordinary land; a land so special that 30% of it is protected in National Parks. This is a spectacularly beautiful country with deep, lush rainforest; long deserted beaches; endless grassy plains; world-class fishing; farms and millions of sheep! New Zealand has more mountains of 10,000 feet than ALL of Europe and the fiords rate right up there with Norway.

Although Southern Treks is a Walking Tour company, this particular tour offers so much more than just the walking portion: fly fishing in rivers with white gravel bottoms and crystal clear water; a day spent in the beautiful Marlborough Wine country with visits to wineries for wine tasting and lunch; a day in Christchurch, “the most English City outside of England.” A variety of walks should give everyone, of every ability, a choice. Whatever walk you choose, you’ll have spectacular views of mountains, flowers and rivers, ancient rainforests of 1,200-plus year old trees; coastal walks and fern-filled conifer rainforests; beachcombing for Greenstone (jade); visits to Botanical Gardens. We climb above the cascades in Arthur’s Pass into an incredible garden of wildflowers.

On the High Country Sheep Station Discovery Tour, we will muster sheep, try our hand at shearing and learn about the different types of super-fine merino wool. There are canoe trips (NO experience required), and horsetreking, if you wish, along with exhilarating Night Star watching. Take an optional helicopter flight over a glacier hundreds of feet thick, landing in the snow on the glacier’s surface. We take the exhilarating Shotover Jet Boat ride on the Dart River. Add to this the Milford Sound Cruise among the fiords, looking with awe at the 10,000-foot mountains above us. We will also have free time in beautiful Queenstown.

The important thing to remember is that there is something for everyone!