Brace yourselves for breathtaking scenery and some of the world's most fascinating endemic birds and flowers, on one of the most exciting wildlife adventures we offer. New Zealand is justly famed for its stunningly beautiful and varied landscape of coastline, forests, mountains and fjords, and its hard-to-match array of endemic wildlife.
This year for added flexibility we have divided the tour into two, the main tour concentrating on the spectacular scenery, seabirds and Kiwis of South Island, and the extension including the endemic birds and volcanic scenery of North Island.
A hundred million years of isolation have made New Zealand very much a world apart in evolutionary terms. The absence of land mammals has given its native birds room to adapt and move into the mammal niches, relatively free of predators. Thus they have evolved into a truly fascinating avifauna, including the famous nocturnal flightless Kiwi, but with many other uniquely-formed and often tame species.
The plants are also highly distinctive and we shall be seeing a splendid range of these as we travel through the New Zealand spring. And, perhaps best of all, there is the spectacular scenery. Landscapes range from the volcanoes and ancient forests of North Island to the fjords, alpine glaciers and rushing rivers of South Island, dominated by towering Mount Cook, and culminating in the awesome granite peaks of Fiordland.
Our tour is a wildlife extravaganza, covering the islands from south to north, and visiting a superb range of the New Zealand habitats on land and sea.
We will explore some of the wildest and most spectacular parts of South Island in search of more endemics and a host of seabirds along the coast and inlets. Experiences include one of the most memorable night-birding trips in search of Kiwis that you'll ever undertake, close encounters with penguins and parrots - sometimes on the same beach - and above all, arguably the most impressive and varied scenery in the world.
The extension begins with probably the most stunningly close encounter with seabirds you'll ever have, then crosses the Cook Strait to North Island. We spend a day in the ancient podocarp forests here, where the primitive, endangered Kokako calls eerily from the treetops, continuing with the myriads of Siberian waders joining the distinctive Wrybill on the Firth of Thames, and finally we sample an excellent array of the endemic landbirds on Tiri Tiri Matangi Island, near Auckland.
In addition to a superb variety of birds and scenery, New Zealand also boasts good accommodation and excellent home-grown food and wine.
The tour has been devised and organised for us by New Zealand's foremost wildlife tour operator, Mark Hanger.
Please note that the main tour and/or extension can be incorporated into your own private visit to New Zealand. We can organise your flights out on any days you choose, or leave you to make your own arrangements.
Accommodation: All hotels and lodges have rooms with private facilities except for the occasional room on Stewart Island.
Principal Leader: Mark Ayre
Numbers: Max. 14 clients
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Prices:
Main tour: £ 4,795
Extension: £ 2,195
Single supps.:
Main tour: £ 570
Extension: £ 340
Deposit: £ 800 per person
The price is per person, and is fully inclusive of return scheduled flights* London-Auckland, internal flights as specified, airport taxes, full board accommodation, road and boat transport as described, incidental tips, and the services of the leader(s).
The price excludes travel insurance, optional tips to the local guide(s) and driver, Kaikoura whale-watching trip (which is weather-dependent), drinks and other personal expenses.
*For a price excluding the flights London-Auckland, Dunedin-Auckland and Auckland-London, please deduct £ 995 from the tour cost. If you are booking your own flights please contact us first to check that the times fit with the current itinerary.
This trip will be operated in conjunction with Limosa Holidays.
Tour Extensions and Independent Travel
Clients frequently ask us to extend their tour by a few days or a week, and we have organised several tailor-made options including whole tours, at any time of year to suit you. We recommend a self-drive option as being particularly cost-effective: all the hard work of bookings is done for you, and you'll get a detailed information pack giving precise directions to the best wildlife spots. Please contact our sister company, Wild Ambitions, for more information.
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| Outline Itinerary |
| Days 1-2 |
Scheduled flight from London - Christchurch via Auckland. |
| Day 3 | Arrive in the morning at Christchurch Airport to meet the local tour leader Mark Ayre. We drive down the east coast to Dunedin. In the afternoon we cruise down Otago Harbour to Taiaroa Head.
Overnight Dunedin
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| Day 4 | We depart across South Island for Fiordland National Park where we stay for two nights.
Overnight Te Anau Downs
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| Day 5 |
The Upper Hollyford Valley contains superb subalpine herbfields and boulderfields. In the afternoon we take a cruise on the fabulously scenic Milford Sound.
Overnight Te Anau Downs
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| Day 6 |
We leave Te Anau for Invercargill. In the afternoon we fly across to Stewart Island for a two-night stay.
In the evening we'll meet up with local guide Philip Smith for a quest for Brown Kiwi.
Overnight Stewart Island
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| Day 7 |
Today our charter vessel will take us around the coast of Stewart Island and then out into the Pacific Ocean. Back in the bay we land on Ulva Island, home to many South Island forest birds.
Overnight Stewart Island
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| Day 8 |
We take an early morning ferry back to Invercargill, and head for the vast inland plain of Mackenzie Country.
Overnight Lake Ohau
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| Day 9 |
A visit to the national park surrounding New Zealand's highest peak, Mount Cook. We'll take a four-hour walk in the fabled Hooker Valley, surrounded by awesome peaks and glaciers..
Overnight Lake Ohau
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| Day 10 |
We head to the wild and tumultuous west coast, across the Haast Pass.
Overnight Haast
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| Day 11 |
In the morning we'll walk down to a beach where we hope to see Fiordland Crested Penguins right at the end of their breeding season.
We continue further along Westland's battered coastline and make a unique night-time excursion to seek out the endangered Okarito Brown Kiwi.
Overnight Franz Joseph
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| Day 12 |
We travel up the west coast, then head inland to the superb mountain scenery of Arthur's Pass National Park. We stay at a superb lodge in a wonderful setting amidst the Southern Alps.
Overnight Arthur's Pass
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| Day 13 |
We return across the southern South Island to Christchurch to connect with our flight north to Auckland and our homeward flight, arriving in London on Day 14.
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| Kaikoura and North Island Extension
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| Day 13 |
Participants on the extension will depart Christchurch in the afternoon, and travel to the Kaikoura Peninsula where we stay for two nights.
Overnight Kaikoura
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| Day 14 |
Today's pelagic seabird trip is one of the best we know of anywhere in the world for getting close views of birds in their marine environment.
Kaikoura is even more famous for its whale-watching trips and is probably the best place in the world to get close to a Sperm Whale. We allow time for you to go on one of these, weather -permitting, as an optional extra (cost approx £45 pp).
Overnight Kaikoura
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| Day 15 |
In the morning we travel up the east coastline to the Marlborough Sounds. Our boat takes us out beyond the sound into the Tasman Sea.
Overnight Picton
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| Day 16 |
We embark on a three-hour ferry trip across Cook Strait to New Zealand's capital city, Wellington.
From Wellington we drive north to the volcanic plateau.
Overnight Ohakune
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| Day 17 |
We have a morning trip to Tongariro where we stay on the slopes of the spectacular snowcapped volcanoes of the National Park. The rare Blue Duck still clings precariously to the headwaters of rivers in this region.
Overnight Taupo
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| Day 18 |
An early morning start takes us to the so-called 'dinosaur forests' of Pureora. This is one of the few places we hope to find the primitive Kokako gliding through the canopy, with its evocative calls echoing through the treetops.
Overnight Taupo
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| Day 19 |
In the morning we head for sulphurous Lake Rotorua.
We then travel north to Miranda. We hope to locate a range of key New Zealand internal migrants such as the scarce Wrybill, with its unique right-bending bill.
Overnight Auckland
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| Day 20 |
Today we head for one of New Zealand's best spots for endemics, Tiri Tiri Matangi Island. Here we should encounter re-introduced Kokako. At lunch we may well be joined by a few tame Takahe - the highly endangered giant flightless gallinule.
We reluctantly leave Tiri in the afternoon and head for Auckland and our homeward flight, arriving in London on Day 21.
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