Aspiring Guides — Attraction in Otago

We highly recommend Aspiring Guides! They are an elite, top class company.

Aspiring Guides enabled my fiancé and I to see things previously impossible for people of our skill set. Fiery sunrises seen from the top of the mighty Tasman Glacier, deep blue ice cathedrals within crevasses of the upper névé seen while hanging twenty feet from our guides self-made anchor, or endless views of the West Coast viewed from perilously steep mountains include just a few of our experiences with Aspiring Guides. But in the end we were most impacted by the people we met, and friends made. Ryan Colley was our guide - a consummate professional. Initially, Ryan impressed me with his directness and ability to manage the itinerary within a tight weather window. He was flexible enough for us to bump our dates ahead 3 days, which gave us a precious few sunny days in Mt. Cook NP. Furthermore, Ryan monitored the weather closely and we were able to pull off a helicopter extraction as planned, with incoming weather looming. Furthermore, Ryan led us through terrain that pushed me to grow. He did not miss a moment to teach, either by example, or by suggesting that we lead where appropriate. When I found myself questioning whether the objective was too intimidating, Ryan was there to provide encouragement and settle the nerves. He was an excellent lead guide and we came away sorry of only one thing - that we did not have more days on the mountain with him. As an added bonus - Ryan was a great cook! We ate very well during our time with him. Hospitality was clearly top of mind - he even made sure to find us lodging in the Mt. Cook NP after our itinerary with Aspiring Guides had come to an end.

Aspiring Guides is a well run, top class professional company. Dan, who manages the office as well as guides in Antarctica, was willing to speak to me at length in the build up to our trip. He was very generous with his time and provided good insights. Victoria, the office administrator, was equally generous with her time. She coordinated our last minute schedule change, which made all the difference.

I heartily encourage anyone, of any level of experience, to enlist Aspiring Guides to accomplish your objective. They are an elite, top class organization. They will do everything possible to make your dream objective come true.

Thank you AG! We loved meeting you guys! Wishing...

My first time tramping in New Zealand ( and first multi-day trip after an absence of many years ). And so it was with a little trepidation, I turned  up  to the Aspiring Guides offices in Wanaka to start the 6 day Upper Wilkin valley and Gillespie pass trek in early March. To top it off, the weather forecast for the Makarora region was 63 mm rain on the first day; I began to wonder what I had signed up to. My doubts began to evaporate when I met our guide  (and other members of Aspiring Guides staff ). They were very professional and thorough in pre-departure checking and situation assessment. We got underway pretty much on schedule and without too many changes to our itinerary despite the inclement weather conditions.

Our fantastic guide, Grace (and Aspiring Guides planning ) looked after us very well, and took care of every detail on the trip. And despite, challenging nature of this trek, I felt completely at ease and confident in all the situations I encountered. The skill and attentiveness of our guide played a large part in this. The only part left then was to immerse in and enjoy this incredible part of the world and share it with my 2 fellow  trampers.

There were many fantastic memories on this trek, the ascent and descent of Gillespie pass in light snow conditions was one of them. The trek in the Upper Wilkin valley when the mountains opened up into a panorama as we rounded the corner, was another. Of course there was the unforgettable up and down climbing of the infamous "tree ladders",  a treat that awaits. And as a finale ( and bonus), we had the "airy" helicopter ride back to Makarora.

6 wonderful days of tramping in the Makarora region of the Aspiring National park came and went.  An outdoor experience that was so enjoyable, an experience I will not forget.  I highly recommend Aspiring Guides. Thank you Grace and...

Really poor service, would highly recommend looking elsewhere.

I was booked in for a ski touring trip with Aspiring guides. We were due meet the night before departure in the office. I phoned to ask whether I should rent my gear that day as the weather was really poor and looked bad on our planned departure day. I was told to rent the gear that night. and not to worry. I queried why we weren’t waiting a day given we had a bad weather day built into our itinerary. Aspiring guides tried to deny we had a weather day until I went back through our emails to show we clearly had one. I arrived to the office to an uncomfortable situation with the guide clearly unhappy that both of us on the trip wanted to delay our departure due to bad weather. It then transpired the reason for the trip to start in bad weather was the guide had another booking on the Friday. We were pressured to do a day touring in the resort in poor weather on our original departure day date. Eventually after some considerable wrangling the company conceded to the agreed poor weather day.

The guide in the subsequent meeting, though clearly experienced, made it clear he did not know the terrain in the area we were going to or the equipment list aspiring guides provided.

We then had the massive misfortune to go into Level 4 lockdown on our rescheduled departure date. We were offered no help getting to our rescheduled flights. Whilst the ski shop were I had rented my gear offered a full refund with no issue at all. Aspiring guides only offered a 20% refund on a trip that didn’t run after I chased them up. They seem to be the only company in any sector not to come to some kind of reasonable accomoadation, particularly as I didn’t request a cash refund only some kind of reasonable credit for a future trip. I would recommend...