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Discover New Zealand with Expert Local Guides
Embark on authentic journeys through New Zealand, guided by custodians whose local knowledge and expert understanding unveil hidden secrets amid sacred landscapes. These adventures foster genuine connection, immersing travellers in cultural heritage and breathtaking settings where stories, rituals, and nature intertwine. Embark on authentic journeys through New Zealand, guided by custodians whose local knowledge and expert understanding unveil hidden secrets amid sacred landscapes. These adventures foster genuine connection, immersing travellers in cultural heritage and breathtaking settings where stories, rituals, and nature intertwine.
Embark on authentic journeys through New Zealand, guided by custodians whose local knowledge and expert understanding unveil hidden secrets amid sacred landscapes. These adventures foster genuine connection, immersing travellers in cultural heritage and breathtaking settings where stories, rituals, and nature intertwine. Embark on authentic journeys through New Zealand, guided by custodians whose local knowledge and expert understanding unveil hidden secrets amid sacred landscapes. These adventures foster genuine connection, immersing travellers in cultural heritage and breathtaking settings where stories, rituals, and nature intertwine.
New Zealand Through Local Eyes
It's said that when you are going on a journey, first choose your companion. At Journeysmiths, we know that you'll discover the real New Zealand properly if we team you up with someone who lives and breathes Aotearoa. Our network of insightful locals carries generations of knowledge, sharing traditions and stories that bring depth to every step.
With their understanding of the environment, they unveil hidden landscapes, sacred places, traditions, flavours, and intoxicating wildlife encounters. These guides offer not just experience but genuine connection, ensuring your journey is enriched by cultural immersion and respect for nature.
Travelling with them means more than sightseeing because you’ll enter into a relationship with land and people, discovering New Zealand’s secrets through authentic companionship.
With their understanding of the environment, they unveil hidden landscapes, sacred places, traditions, flavours, and intoxicating wildlife encounters. These guides offer not just experience but genuine connection, ensuring your journey is enriched by cultural immersion and respect for nature.
Travelling with them means more than sightseeing because you’ll enter into a relationship with land and people, discovering New Zealand’s secrets through authentic companionship.
Read on to discover ten examples of how knowledge bearers from the Land of the Long White Cloud make all the difference to your journey of discovery.
- 1. A Māori Welcome in North Island
- 2. A Helicopter over South Island’s West Coast
- 3. Marine Mammals of the Bay of Islands
- 4. A Masterclass Carved in Stone
- 5. Whales & Meals of Kaikōura by Helicopter
- 6. Māori Traditions of Food in the Forest
- 7. Private Wildlife on the Otago Peninsula
- 8. Jet Boat Thrills on the South Island
- 9. Afloat on the Marlborough Sounds
- 10. The Vineyards of Central Otago
A Stunning South Seas Adventure
Tony Allen
Another excellent trip with Journeysmiths, with whom we have travelled over 20 times. This was a combination trip… Fiji to Tahiti, then self-driving around South Island New Zealand for three weeks after a few days in Auckland…
1. A Māori Welcome in North Island
Tread with hushed care through the lush forests of the holy mountain of Titiraupenga, for you are in the realm of the Tangata Whenua – the People of the Land. Calls of bellbirds and tui are your soundtrack; a fantail flits around, as your guide leads you to a Māori marae village deep in the territory he knows like the back of his hand.
You’ll have been briefed about what to expect, but adrenaline will still flood your system as you’re confronted by three warriors sent out to intercept you.
This is the start of the pōwhiri ceremony – a necessary assessment of visitors that can turn into a welcome or a battle depending on how you react. You need to show utter respect to people who have honed hand-to-hand combat over generations. Maintain eye contact to show that you have nothing to hide, and don’t smile.
You’ll have been briefed about what to expect, but adrenaline will still flood your system as you’re confronted by three warriors sent out to intercept you.
This is the start of the pōwhiri ceremony – a necessary assessment of visitors that can turn into a welcome or a battle depending on how you react. You need to show utter respect to people who have honed hand-to-hand combat over generations. Maintain eye contact to show that you have nothing to hide, and don’t smile.
What follows becomes gradually more relaxed. Tokens are exchanged, there are formal speeches, then singing and dancing, and smiles will finally emerge. It’s time for the ultimate greeting and the sharing of the same air – the touched noses and forehead of the hongi. Then there’s relaxation, the sharing of stories, perhaps clustered into the hollow trunk of a totara tree.
There’s no more authentic way to arrive in New Zealand than to experience it in Māori fashion. It’s a chance to discover traditions, words, atmosphere and objects directly from a nation justifiably proud of its ancient culture. There’s more too, because these aren’t actors: they’ll tell you how all this transfers to the modern world. Take the opportunity to find out.
Contact us > to start discovering New Zealand
Contact us > to start discovering New Zealand
2. A Helicopter over South Island’s West Coast
Today, you have the luxury of choice. Where will you go? Will you feast on views of stunning valleys, alpine lakes and dramatically dropping snowfields of Mount Aspiring National Park? Or spread a picnic by the crashing surf on the wild west coast? Perhaps you’ll take in the mirrored waters of Milford Sound or a remote river in search of greenstone. You may have your sights set on a search for seals, dolphins, penguins, chamois or deer.
All this, and more, becomes possible with Pete Spencer Bower as your guide. He holds the keys to adventure in the form of a machine both sleek and powerful, a beast of burden transformed into beauty: a helicopter. In his calm hands, the helicopter becomes your passage to remote places that astonish with elemental awe – for today, the Southern Alps are yours to explore.
All this, and more, becomes possible with Pete Spencer Bower as your guide. He holds the keys to adventure in the form of a machine both sleek and powerful, a beast of burden transformed into beauty: a helicopter. In his calm hands, the helicopter becomes your passage to remote places that astonish with elemental awe – for today, the Southern Alps are yours to explore.
In the ruggedly demanding landscape that radiates from pristine Lake Wanaka, helicopter pilots are justifiably legendary. Beyond tourism, they restock remote alpine huts and swoop in to rescue climbers in peril. It’s often a family affair; knowledge passed through generations. Pete and his brother Chris co‑own the business, training the next wave of pilots to carry on this extraordinary tradition.
Pete himself has flown far and wide, even fighting fires in Canada. Yet back home, versatility defines the craft. These pilots turn their hands to anything, whether ferrying supplies, guiding adventurers, or cooking a great barbeque of venison in a remote valley. With skill, resilience, and camaraderie, they embody the spirit of guardianship in landscapes that demand both daring and devotion.
3. Marine Mammals in the Bay of Islands
There’s been time for a quick flat white coffee in Tutukaka this morning, but now it’s time to cast off into the glittering waters of the Bay of Islands, a marine wonderland about three hours north of Auckland. You’re in good hands with Joanne Halliday, known to her friends as ‘Foppy’, someone whose Maori heritage puts her in the Ngāpuhi iwi, whose history entwines them through the Treaty of Waitangi to New Zealand’s essence.
Ask her about this, and she’ll tell you, but she would rather introduce you to her unconventional family scattered around the archipelago. Like you, they’re mammals, but, unlike you, they have blowholes and fins. They are dolphins.
In a manner that’s common to any community in this country, Jo knows many of the 500 dolphins by sight and habit and knows their parents too. If there’s one person who can take you to find a friendly one, it’s her.
Ask her about this, and she’ll tell you, but she would rather introduce you to her unconventional family scattered around the archipelago. Like you, they’re mammals, but, unlike you, they have blowholes and fins. They are dolphins.
In a manner that’s common to any community in this country, Jo knows many of the 500 dolphins by sight and habit and knows their parents too. If there’s one person who can take you to find a friendly one, it’s her.
These waters have more than dolphins, though, and her excursions often yield sightings of long-finned pilot whales, Bryde’s whales and – particularly from October to March – orcas. In autumn and spring, she spots humpback and blue whales too. Often, Jo’s accompanied by her friend and colleague Dr Ingrid Visser, with whom she founded WhaleRescue.org – a charity that provides logistical and practical expertise and equipment for any cetacean in trouble.
Ingrid, New Zealand’s only orca specialist, works all around New Zealand, but her work has taken her to Argentina, Papua New Guinea and Antarctica too. She and Jo, either separately or often together as a team, are not only at the forefront of marine mammal understanding but are also experts who love showing visitors the animals that drive their passion.
Make contact > and we'll pair you with experts in New Zealand
Make contact > and we'll pair you with experts in New Zealand
4. A Masterclass Carved in Stone
You need to raise your voice to be heard over the sound of the churning milky-blue water as you pick your way across the boulders of the privately owned channel of the sacred Arahura River on South Island’s remote west coast. Sure-footed Bevan Climo is your guide, and he’s teaching you to spot his raw material – jade, known prosaically to many New Zealanders as ‘greenstone’ and to the Māori as pounamu.
To the untrained eye, a boulder containing pounamu is nondescript, but to Bevan it’s an object that seems to be waiting to be found. Often, he’ll sense the carving contained in the rock, and it’s his job to bring it forth. He muses that the rock has been around for millions of years and its new shape will remain long after he and perhaps all humans have disappeared. Rocks operate on a totally different timescale, which is no bad thing to reflect upon.
To the untrained eye, a boulder containing pounamu is nondescript, but to Bevan it’s an object that seems to be waiting to be found. Often, he’ll sense the carving contained in the rock, and it’s his job to bring it forth. He muses that the rock has been around for millions of years and its new shape will remain long after he and perhaps all humans have disappeared. Rocks operate on a totally different timescale, which is no bad thing to reflect upon.
Back at his home and workshop, you’ll discover the deep spiritual significance of pounamu for Māori people, its historic role as a prized trade item between tribes, and its use as a raw material for weaponry. Possessing pounamu objects enhances one’s mana – spiritual power and prestige – something Bevan understands intimately as a descendant of the last Paramount Chief.
Though steeped in tradition, Māori people have always embraced progress. Bevan demonstrates how he carves with diamond‑tipped drill bits; essential since pounamu is harder than steel. And while he could impress with a haka, he’s more likely to invite you to the pub, share a beer with friends, and reveal his alter ego. By day he works with greenstone; by night he’s the frontman of a Bluegrass band.
5. Whales & Meals of Kaikōura by Helicopter
In New Zealand, life and tectonics are inseparable. From a private helicopter over the east coast of the South Island, you’ll witness landslides and rivers reshaped by the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake, alongside the snow capped Kaikōura Ranges, thrust skyward just miles from the sea by the compressive forces of the plate margin.
Your destination is Kaikōura itself and Dr Krista van de Linde, a renowned marine mammal biologist. She explains how the same forces that wrench the earth upwards and sideways also drive it downwards. Just offshore lies the Hikurangi Trench, where cold, nutrient rich waters surge from the depths, fuelling a marine ecosystem in overdrive.
Kaikōura, one of the world’s premier whale watching locations, becomes even more extraordinary with a guide who knows these colossal creatures and their entire ecosystem intimately.
Your destination is Kaikōura itself and Dr Krista van de Linde, a renowned marine mammal biologist. She explains how the same forces that wrench the earth upwards and sideways also drive it downwards. Just offshore lies the Hikurangi Trench, where cold, nutrient rich waters surge from the depths, fuelling a marine ecosystem in overdrive.
Kaikōura, one of the world’s premier whale watching locations, becomes even more extraordinary with a guide who knows these colossal creatures and their entire ecosystem intimately.
Kaikōura’s resident sperm whales are joined seasonally by humpback, blue, and southern right whales, with orcas and the occasional pilot or minke whale adding to the spectacle. Yet these giants are only the headline act in a place where you can swim alongside dolphins, paddle a kayak past penguins, and venture far enough offshore to commune with enormous albatrosses.
Dr van de Linde explains that Kaikōura means “meal of crayfish” in Māori – a fitting name, as she waves you off by helicopter to enjoy just that. Up the coast, a third‑generation fishing family serves a feast of crayfish, its flavour a gift of the nutrient‑rich waters rising from the Hikurangi Trench.
Schedule a call > to discuss your discovery of New Zealand
Schedule a call > to discuss your discovery of New Zealand
6. Māori Traditions of Food & Forest
There’s a glint in his eye as he tells you that today, you’re his grandmother. What he’s explaining is the principle of manaakitanga: that guests should be treated as well as the family matriarch. Becoming more serious, he adds that we must also remember kaitiakitanga, which means looking after Mother Earth in the same way.
This is Tom Loughlin, a man brimming with Māori heritage, with a splash of Irish blarney for good measure. He’ll joke around, but he’s as resilient and tough as a windswept flax because you have to be when you manage a 5,000-acre block of land 90 minutes by four-wheel-drive from Taupo.
Many of his guests prefer to arrive by helicopter, landing where his whare (cabin) awaits in the sub-alpine forest. From the beautiful Ripia River to the highest peaks, he knows this area so well that he’s an integral part of the mountain rescue team.
This is Tom Loughlin, a man brimming with Māori heritage, with a splash of Irish blarney for good measure. He’ll joke around, but he’s as resilient and tough as a windswept flax because you have to be when you manage a 5,000-acre block of land 90 minutes by four-wheel-drive from Taupo.
Many of his guests prefer to arrive by helicopter, landing where his whare (cabin) awaits in the sub-alpine forest. From the beautiful Ripia River to the highest peaks, he knows this area so well that he’s an integral part of the mountain rescue team.
You don’t have to meet him here. His other favourite spot is the sublime geothermal area of Orakei Korako, complete with steaming silica terraces plunging into the lake. Wherever you find him, though, he’ll entrance you with his knowledge, charm you with his stories, and leave you with a full belly. His speciality? He is a hunter, a gatherer, and the custodian of the traditions of Māori cooking.
Time with Tom will centre on the preparation, cooking and eating of a meal, often in form of a hangi – a feast cooked underground using layers of hot rocks and woven flax. Slow-cooked to tender perfection, it will be made from the freshest produce from his land, though he’s not averse to throwing in anything to enhance the experience. One ingredient is always inventiveness!
7. Among the World's Rarest Penguins
If you’re a wildlife lover drawn to the rugged Otago Peninsula east of Dunedin, chances are you’ve come in search of one of the world’s rarest flightless seabirds: the yellow‑eyed penguin. On Kaimata – Cape Saunders – Rachel Clearwater welcomes you onto the land her family has farmed for six generations, where a rugged headland leads down to their stunning private beach. Here, the birds can be observed in quiet seclusion.
By a quirk of history and surveying, the Clearwater family became custodians of this extraordinary stretch of coastline, and nowadays they manage it to balance the needs of its species while welcoming a respectful few. The results of their careful watch are remarkable: not only have the penguins flourished, but New Zealand sea lions have returned – absent on the mainland for 150 years. This is a place where heritage, chance, and nature converge, offering a glimpse of abundance reborn.
By a quirk of history and surveying, the Clearwater family became custodians of this extraordinary stretch of coastline, and nowadays they manage it to balance the needs of its species while welcoming a respectful few. The results of their careful watch are remarkable: not only have the penguins flourished, but New Zealand sea lions have returned – absent on the mainland for 150 years. This is a place where heritage, chance, and nature converge, offering a glimpse of abundance reborn.
To meet Rachel, your journey along the Otago Peninsula will have unfolded sweeping views of backcountry hills and idyllic inlets. Then, in her company, you’ll traverse the Clearwater family’s working farmland, sensing the rhythm of a hardy lifestyle of this and previous generations. Wildlife awaits: yellow‑eyed penguins stepping ashore, sea lions basking, fur seals tending pups, and dozens of sea and wading bird species wheeling overhead. Nature is abundant; vistas are spectacular.
After time with your binoculars, Rachel’s invitation extends beyond observation. You may return inland to learn about the resilience required for Otago farming or pause for something more indulgent: a private lunch or dinner on the family’s secluded beach. Here, waves provide the soundtrack, and the horizon glows with southern light. It is a rare chance to combine intimacy with landscape, tradition, and hospitality.
Talk to us > to start your New Zealand journey
Talk to us > to start your New Zealand journey
8. Jet Boat Thrills on the South Island
It’s time for a slowing of your pulse as you step onto a mid-channel island on the Makarora River. You’re welcomed by Danyel Hutton, whose family’s farming territory encompasses the wild banks of this dramatic riverine gash in the Southern Alps. Delicious smoky scents fill the air, for she’s laid on that most Kiwi of pleasures: a barbeque in a staggering setting. This is pure New Zealand.
You’ve arrived by jetboat, invented in and for this environment by the farmers who needed to make the inaccessible accessible. With years of experience and qualifications, Danyel could have driven you herself, but today it was her husband who took you on a thrilling ride, skimming and weaving through the braided channels, avoiding boulders and overhanging forests. He can steer a barbeque too, but they’ll joke that the division of labour is best this way round.
You’ve arrived by jetboat, invented in and for this environment by the farmers who needed to make the inaccessible accessible. With years of experience and qualifications, Danyel could have driven you herself, but today it was her husband who took you on a thrilling ride, skimming and weaving through the braided channels, avoiding boulders and overhanging forests. He can steer a barbeque too, but they’ll joke that the division of labour is best this way round.
The waters run gin‑clear, the air alive with rapids and the chorus of forest birds. Lunch is relaxed and delicious, yet only a pause in a longer journey. Perhaps your adventure of luxury, speed and scenic splendour began with a helicopter drop, followed by a calming self‑guided walk through grand solitude. What came next was pure jet boat exhilaration, resuming on a full belly in an upstream sweep along the Wilkin River.
In a dance of steel and spray, each bend unveils South Island grandeur – mountains rising, forests tumbling. Then, downstream again, Lake Wanaka opens wide, calm and welcoming after the rush of rivers. Its safe waters invite play, and perhaps, under careful guidance, you’ll take the wheel yourself. The boat hums across the surface like a brushstroke of silver – a fleeting taste of mastery, though only the experts command where the rivers run wild.
9. Afloat on the Marlborough Sounds
The forest tumbles in every direction to the glassy waters shimmering beneath a vivid blue sky, and suddenly a dusky dolphin leaps. It’s paradise.
This is New Zealand’s sunniest region, a complex watery mosaic of more than 4,000 square kilometres of flooded valleys, islands and peninsulas. You could easily get lost here, but you’ve got two experienced guides, one of whom is almost 90 years old.
This seasoned expert is Tutanekai, who happens to be a boat. A kauri classic built originally as a whaler, Tutanekai is far from a gin palace, but with walkaround decks, plenty of roof space for sunbathing, and a huge boarding platform to swim and dive from, you’ll be convinced that perfection takes many forms. A vessel like this is authentically beautiful.
This is New Zealand’s sunniest region, a complex watery mosaic of more than 4,000 square kilometres of flooded valleys, islands and peninsulas. You could easily get lost here, but you’ve got two experienced guides, one of whom is almost 90 years old.
This seasoned expert is Tutanekai, who happens to be a boat. A kauri classic built originally as a whaler, Tutanekai is far from a gin palace, but with walkaround decks, plenty of roof space for sunbathing, and a huge boarding platform to swim and dive from, you’ll be convinced that perfection takes many forms. A vessel like this is authentically beautiful.
Up top, legs dangling through a hatch and ropes steady on the wheel, sits Pete Beech: skipper, restorer of Tutanekai, and seventh generation mariner of the Marlborough Sounds. Epitomising the phrase ‘world famous in New Zealand’, his family is immortalised in the local landmark of Beeches Bay. Yet with characteristic modesty, Pete points instead to his true legacy: founding Guardians of the Sounds, an environmental group devoted to protecting these waters.
No one rivals his knowledge of the region’s wildlife. Though retirement may one day beckon, for now Pete is intent on inspiring kaitiakitanga – guardianship – by sharing landscapes as nature intended. Part of his motivation is deeply personal: the memory of Takutei, his late wife of Ngaiterangi Iwi Māori heritage, whose name meant ‘One who loves the sea’. By spending time with Pete Beech, you will love the sea too, and everything on its shores.
Contact us > to start discovering New Zealand
Contact us > to start discovering New Zealand
10. Wine & Local Insights in Otago
Anyone who knows wine well appreciates that the finest tipples are subtle, complex, sophisticated, often understated, and certainly better as they mature. You could argue that the same goes for people – something confirmed by spending time with Beau Rapley. But he’s not just similar to a good wine; he’s an expert on it.
The latest generation of a historic Queenstown family, Beau’s charms make him a popular and well-known guy in the region, which means he’s the kind of guide who can take you to places that few can reach or even know about.
When it comes to wine, he’s close friends with numerous vineyard owners, which means that in his company you won’t just be herded through like a tourist, but you’ll be welcomed in and treated like one of the family. Flavours will be enhanced by the opportunity to dwell and ask questions, along with having a joke and a gossip.
The latest generation of a historic Queenstown family, Beau’s charms make him a popular and well-known guy in the region, which means he’s the kind of guide who can take you to places that few can reach or even know about.
When it comes to wine, he’s close friends with numerous vineyard owners, which means that in his company you won’t just be herded through like a tourist, but you’ll be welcomed in and treated like one of the family. Flavours will be enhanced by the opportunity to dwell and ask questions, along with having a joke and a gossip.
The backdrop to your time with Beau is the luminous South Island landscape of Otago, a world of towering mountains, pristine lakes, and vivid blue skies. Here, the terroir shaped by rivers flowing from the snow‑capped Southern Alps is ideal for Pinot Noir, yet equally generous with world‑class Chardonnay, Riesling, and Pinot Gris. A day of tasting offers nothing less than dazzling variety.
One wonders what the hardy prospectors of the 1860s Otago gold rush would make of their region transformed into a land of more than 100 wineries. There may still be gold in those hills, but wine has become the true treasure. Instead of greed and hoarding, it inspires friendship and sharing – as Beau and his companions prove, glass after glass.
A land where everything extraordinary coincides
Pure New Zealand
From The Team
Alex Harmat-Magee
Head of Marketing
“For me, any trip to New Zealand is inseparable from spending real time with the people who live here and know the place inside out. There’s a calm, warm competence woven into the Kiwi mentality. They’re clever, cultured, hardy, adaptable and wonderfully laid‑back – all qualities that make for exceptional company.”
Why Travel with Journeysmiths
We are a boutique travel specialist. For over 30 years we have been crafting the finest tailor-made holidays to the world’s wild places. Your time is precious and with a world to see, we understand the importance of getting it absolutely right for you every time.We are a boutique travel specialist. For over 30 years we have been crafting the finest tailor-made holidays to the world’s wild places. Your time is precious and with a world to see, we understand the importance of getting it absolutely right for you every time.
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