Blog August 2014

In the early days, MoaTrek was New Zealand’s flagship youth tour company. We started in the early 70’s, offering camping tours that ran the length of the country. Today, we still visit all our favourite spots from those days, but have moved up in the world in terms of where we sleep each night, no more tents!  If you're anything like us, you've got plenty of fun stories from the 'good old days' that we would love to share and give you a true feel for where MoaTrek began and a very special thing we call the ‘MoaTrek’ difference.

Time and time again, our visitors rave about those special tour experiences that reveal the quintessential New Zealand, and down in Ashburton in the South Island, there is a little corner of paradise we'd love to introduce. 

New Zealand’s movie-star landscapes are famous the world over, but less well known is our uniquely kiwi wildlife. A small island the size of Japan at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, New Zealand’s environment has evolved in isolation for millions of years. We don’t have the spiders, snakes or crocodiles that thrive on closely neighbouring  Australia, but we do have some fascinating species you won’t find anywhere else in the world.

A holiday in New Zealand promises to involve plenty of magnificent sights, fine food and wine and colourful kiwi culture. See which ones take your fancy. Many are part of our small group tour itineraries. From swimming with dolphins to sand boarding and kayaking, here are our suggestions for light adventure experiences that you’ll remember for years to come.

The natural grandeur of our landscapes is what New Zealand is most famous for – our cities tend to fly under the radar. And although it’s true they don’t have the old architecture and heritage of more mature cities, what they lack in history, they make up for in their quirky, distinctly New Zealand approach. It’s this aspect combined with locations that work with, rather than against, the natural landscape that makes New Zealand’s cities such enjoyable places to work, live and play.