Wild Kiwi Adventure Tours — Attraction in Waitematā

This is tricky to write because the TOUR and NZ was great - BUT there were some misleading communications between the website expectations when booking and the experience itself. The tour's itinerary suggests a wide range of activities but they are not always INCLUDED in the tour, nearly everything in the [incredible] itinerary has an additional booking fee [generally $200-300, generally up to 2x per day] and some choices overlap with others so you can't really make a informed or prepared choice. When you are making the choice - you're on a moving bus, with music and little sleep and mid-conversation (overstimulating) and marking on a piece of paper, without much oversight for the following days in the tour. I understand weather is changeable, but I felt badly for those on the tour concerned with their budgets! It would have been reasonable and helpful if there was a general week-guide brochure that indicated the town, activities, the cost of activities, their general or typical run time (morning/ afternoon/duration) and the extras [meals, activities that dont require a lift,etc] As similar activities could be done in different towns (eg; bad weather in one place? don't worry, book it again in x town!). If we wanted to do things like Hike, it often meant we couldnt knowingly estimate what else to also book. Free options would also be nice if they were documented as part of the options. That might have also taken the pressure off the guide - who was doing her best!

Our guide was a bit over it - I dont blame her - it was her 3rd week. 3 weeks of doing the same route would be tough. we raced through long drives and kept arriving early without much to do... (as a driver, I like to get the drive over and done with too, but the drive was a huge proportion of the tour [whole days] and we as patrons might never get the chance to visit here again!? taking longer stops to soak in the surrounds - or planned as picnic stops?- or leaving later - instead of before 8am if possible -would have been better value for the trip exploration).

If you're considering these trips, bring a deck of cards- it really helped when we had not much to do in the evenings.

The social dynamics of the ride also has a huge influence on the perception of 'joy' on the trip, it would be well worth it for the guide to spend a couple minutes playing a group icebreaker game or 'introduce yourself' to the bus at the start of the trip - to both lead/control the vibe, and get to know everyone. Everyones bad at early mornings so that part will always be awkies.

All in all, I feel I overspent on things that I didnt really know much about when I was booking them, the guide was almost tooo efficient, and there was a social dimension that could make the whole trip suck if we didnt find a way to make it fun (like playing cards).

Not to harp on the booking/itinerary thing too much - but I had emailed the admin about it being unclear and asking for more detail well before the trip commenced, and they couldn't give me much clarity [in fact a bit worse as what they shared was a tad different to the website]. I really really really hope the admin team see this review and make a weekly guide in a pdf or something to distribute. Directing us to the website is not effective [search function has bad UI/UX; too many clicks and still not clear across time, and isnt reasonable for a new country with unfamilliar names]. [I design assets like that for my job so its easy for me to see the gap it could fill] Im lucky, budget wasnt a big issue for me, but it was a concern for many and came up as a worry like every day in one way or another, which coloured the trip a bit.

New Zealand was cracking! [GREAT] and the locations/stops along the way were great! Its a well designed route, I loved the stories about the land and the passion the guide has. I hope Wild Kiwis have great success! Its a great...

My travelling partner and I did the 7-day Southern Voyager Wild Kiwi Tour with Claudia from 6 – 13 January 2023, and I am honestly so depressed to be back home now, because this was one of the best tours we’ve ever done.

Our first stop was in Franz Josef. I highly recommend the heli-hike up the Franz Josef Glacier, where you’ll be graced with breathtaking views. The walk itself is slow and not at all taxing, giving you plenty of time to take in your surroundings. Later that day, we did the 20,000 ft skydive (highest in the Southern Hemisphere). After freefalling 90 seconds through the sky, we were rewarded with phenomenal views of the glacier, ocean and forestry – where else could you find that?

Our next couple of days were in Queenstown, the adrenaline city. I’ve never been much of a thrill-seeker, but after our activities here, I have officially become an adrenaline junkie. We did the Nevis Bungy, Nevis Swing and paragliding. Some others in our group opted for alternative activities such as whitewater rafting, kayaking, ziplining and the Nevis Catapult. Regardless of which activities we chose, we all had an amazingly exhilarating day, followed up by a delicious burger at the lauded Fergburger and relentless partying.

We then headed to Milford Sound for a 1.5-hour cruise. We lucked into a temperate sunny day, which only heightened the experience. The beauty of Milford has to be seen to be understood; the pictures don’t do it justice. I’m only sorry that we didn’t get to spend more time there.

Our final destination before heading back to Christchurch was the gorgeous blue Lake Tekapo. If you’re after some R&R, laying back in the hot springs was a great rejuvenation.

The locations alone were enough to make the trip a worthwhile experience. However, what made the tour fantastic – indeed, what pushes any group tour from just good to excellent – is your tour guide. A big shout out to Clauds, who was professional, knowledgeable, passionate and fun! As we drove around the South Island, Clauds regaled us with interesting facts, history and legends. She organised extracurricular activities for each of us based on our preferences, and gave us her honest opinion on what was worthwhile and what wasn’t, which was valuable guidance. She was easily approachable, always available on the Whatsapp group chat to answer whatever questions we had, and was all-round a good-natured and lovely person. Clauds was even nice enough to drop us off individually at our hotels at the end of the tour, which was greatly appreciated.

Other small things that we liked: the tour bus was clean, spacious, and comfortable; breakfast staples included (if, unlike me, you wake up early enough for it!); and a group dinner. The size of our tour group was perfect at 12 people, making it easy to find like-minded people without it being too big and crowded.

This jam-packed tour was truly incredible. For the price, which is particularly reasonable, given it includes accommodation and travel, Wild Kiwi really delivered. We were fortunate enough to meet some amazing people along the way who we are glad to now call friends. I would do this tour again in a heartbeat. Thank you to Wild Kiwi and Claudia for this...

I did a 7day tour of Southern voyager on 20 May. My tour guide was Tom. The Tour was fantastic, we had 14 people join us, from different places in the world - some doing it as a single tour, some doing as part of the multi 7 day tours (e.g 7 day north island then on to this or vice versa).

My guide was very knowledgeable and very helpful in organising the activities. He also took into consideration our second preferences when an activity was cancelled, e.g. It was raining/windy in Franz Josef so heli hike was cancelled so booked me on the kayaking instead 😃.

I accidentally left my wallet back in Australia but the the tour operator (Michael @ Wild Kiwi) was very helpful and knowledgeable about where paywave could be accepted from my phone banking app (Google pay) - they said everywhere should be fine except some cafes.

In reality, only one cafe early on and the hostel laundromats didn't have paywave (laundromats needed coins), this was fine as you usually wear the same clothes for a few days anyway and one of the group members was kind enough to buy me a coffee for the one cafe.

They (Michael @ Wild Kiwi) also assisted, via tour radar messaging system (i booked via tour radar comparison site, no idea if it's the best though), when trying to organise receiving a replacement bank card which would have worked out except DHL were running late, but I didn't need it anyway (was staying on in NZ for a few days afterwards for personal holidays and wanted the option to use an ATM from the bank card if I needed it).

The mini bus/van had free wifi but only when in phone reception range (which is spotty between towns on South island, but towns had reception for sure).

We had a what's app group for group communication, telling where dinner is is if you want to go, and where everyone is heading to for their activities. And we used "photo circle" so the photos were stored in the cloud so not everyone had to download the photos immediately if they were shared via what's app - great ideas!

I did the sky diving, Bungy, swing, catapult in Queenstown, some hikes around the place, quad biking kayaking. Quad biking was super fun, lots of splashes and "drifting"in the mini rivers at Franz Josef.

All in all, a very worth while trip. I a highly recommend Wild Kiwi for Tours and their guide Tom was great.

The only thing I wish I knew before was that some of the paid snow/wet activities (heli hike, quad biking, kayaking had Spray Skirts) include a wet layer jacket, pants and boots, so no need to bring a water proof/snow layer if you have no room, However, of course, if you want to hike/walk around outside this in the rain which it often does rain alot in south island or you doing jet boating, then you should most definitely bring a wet layer (at least jacket and pants and maybe hiking shoes unless you like wet feet from puddles). Plenty of towns on the way provide options for purchasing snow gear as well but I don't think there is a need to snow gear.

I also recommend checking out pocketnz blogging site for NZ trip tips (not affiliated).

South island also didn't seem as cold as as I thought but it was still cold, especially at night. Maybe Canberra cold weather is more cold,...