Small group tour of New Zealand exploring Wine, Food and Landscapes
Escorted 18 day small group tour of New Zealand. Off the beaten track, for curious about history, culture and spirituality. For mature couples and solo travellers,
From $20,026NZD
Highlights
- 1. Explore temperate rain forest in Waitakere including the Kauri tree habitat and the west coach beach of Karekare
- 2. See and learn about the Uenuku, one of the oldest Maori carvings in New Zealand
- 3. Explore Queen Charlotte sound on a 75-year old Kauri classic launch called “Tutanekai"
- 4. Spend days on the South Island, West Coast, Ponamu country with senior members of local Maori
Departure Dates
Departure Date | Price |
---|---|
04 November 2024 Ends 20 November 2024 • 17 days $20,026 Twin $22,083 Single Available | Selected |
03 March 2025 Ends 19 March 2025 • 17 days $21,526 Twin $23,740 Single Available | |
03 November 2025 Ends 19 November 2025 • 17 days $21,526 Twin $23,740 Single Available |
Small Group tour of New Zealand; Wine, Food and landscapes
Welcome to the Land of the Long White Cloud, Aoteroa or New Zealand. A country's gastronomy is a window on it's soul. High up in the Atlas mountains with the berbers it's one thing. In one of Paris's superb Brassieries, it's another. In New Zealand, it is so new and subject to so many influences, that the food scene is intensely exciting, vibrant, different. High quality food in New Zealand has in the last 20 years exploded into existence as New Zealander's have brought home things discovered in extensive travel overseas and as talented immigrants have brought their own perspectives to our very fresh and unsullied local produce. For a small group tour, this is the finest gastronomic journey, collectively we can develop and offer right now, filled with wonderful warm people, landscapes and influences from every part of the globe. Limited only by the duration of this particular small group tour. We begin this escorted small group tour for mature and senior travellers in Auckland.
Jean-Michel is Odyssey's program leader for this 18 day journey through the New Zealand landscape. This program takes in some stunning landscapes and amazing places but is not a regular tour of tourist stop after tourist stop. Whilst Odyssey Traveller small group tours of New Zealand and all around the world have a significant historical, cultural and environmental learning base this program is about wine, food, and landscapes and some excerpts from the New Zealand art movement.
On this program we start in Auckland and finish the tour in Queenstown. Visiting and exploring Auckland and surrounds to the west and the east and the harbour with a tour of Waiheke island. South it is Taupo, the Hawkes bay, Martinborough and Wellington. Cross Cook strait and onto Kaikoura, Oamaru, Pigroot and Queenstown for the finale.
The days itineraries have been thought out to allow you to enjoy, and saviour New Zealand. This is a country you may have visited once or many times, you have a curiosity about the certain feeling New Zealand offers. And this tour is one to allow you and your travelling companions as this program works well for that special celebration with a small group of friends. The program, a collection of well balanced days avoiding excessive eating and drinking but you and a chance to travel the length of New Zealand with some special experiences and learning as part of your journey.
Spiritual Concepts of the Maori and Food
The Maori conception of the spiritual nature of man is a matter of considerable interest. The Maori has ever recognized an immortal element in man, which styles the wairua. Indeed, Maori may be said to have held the theory of the tripartite nature of man—body, soul, and spirit being his tinana, mauri, and wairua. Within the Marae structure each member has an assigned speciality which gets called upon for special occasions.
Tom Loughlin and his family have long specialised in food gathering and preparation. A leading chef, search and rescue tracker, sika deer manager and hunting guide. Tom is your host for one of these days. The focus will be on the preparation and eating of a Hangi- a traditional meal cooked underground on hot rocks, but can include other aspects.
Tom writes "My philosophy at Kai Waho is a simple one, deliver the experience in a natural manner that is not normally for sale. The response is reflected in the positive reaction of the Manuhiri ‘Visitors’ the appetite for real ‘IS REAL’ and ‘This is just what we have been looking for’ is a common reflection. All of my personal experiences have been exactly this, creating an emotion, a memory that is still in me years after experience". Odyssey regards this an integral part of the experiences on this touring program.
Local guides in Food, Wine and Landscapes share their knowledge.
This small group tour will be accompanied by an Odyssey tour guide and are joined by expert local guides who will impart their knowledge about the places we will visit. Odyssey conducts educational tours designed for small groups of mature and senior travellers, focusing on history, culture, wildlife and other areas of particular interest where the trip is taking place. A small group tour is typically between 6 to 15 people. The cost of an Odyssey Traveller guided tour is inclusive of all entrances (unless otherwise indicated), tipping, and majority of the meals throughout the trip.
This particular tour has periods of free time built into the itinerary, allowing you explore some destinations at your own pace, and choose from a variety of available activities. This way, we make sure that there is something to enjoy for every kind of traveller.
Accommodation
New Zealand is well known for its network of boutique lodges and small charming hotels as well as traditional hotel style accommodation types. For this program we have selected accommodation that represents good value, is close to where we need to be, has some but not many amenities that the group need and has a good reputation for looking after travellers who are visiting and finally has rooms with terrific beds to sleep in after a day in the open air. We trust you enjoy the choices we have made that are above our usual choice of hotel to stay in.
Articles about the New Zealand published by Odyssey Traveller:
- Questions about New Zealand
- Foundations for democracy in New Zealand: 900s - 1945
- Preparing for a walking holiday
For all the articles Odyssey Traveller has published for mature aged and senior travellers, click through on this link.
External articles to assist you on your visit to New Zealand:
Gallery
Itinerary
17 days
Day 1 : Auckland
Accommodation: Heritage Hotel or similar
Haere mai ki Aotearoa – welcome to the Land of the Long White Cloud. Upon at arrival at Auckland International Airport you will meet your guide and transfer to your inner city hotel. New Zealand’s largest and most multicultural city. Auckland is an urban environment where everyone lives within half an hour of beautiful beaches, hiking trails and a dozen of islands. Auckland’s vast harbour, quiet islands and vibrant cityscape offer an exciting and accessible mix of urban, water and wildlife activities.
Day 2: Auckland
Accommodation: Heritage Hotel or similar
Today we have a tour of the Waitakere ranges and a west coast Auckland beach. We stop at a food producer on the way back to the city.
This afternoon we have a talk on Contemporary New Zealand art at the Auckland Art gallery.
This evening we visit 3 restaurants for 3 starters…
Day 3: Auckland
Accommodation: Heritage Hotel or similar
Day 4 : Auckland
Accommodation: Heritage Hotel or similar
Day 5: Taupo
Accommodation: Hilton Taupo or equivalent.
Depart Auckland and travel South towards the beating heart of the North Island (Taupo).
The group travel onto Mount Titiraupenga for a powhiri followed by a traditional picnic lunch.
Day 6: Awakiri
Accommodation: Tented accommodation at Awakiri.
Jean-Michel has been working with Tom Loughlin for over ten years. In that time he has managed this 5,000 acre block of Maori land with conservation principles uppermost in his thinking. The local sika deer population has been managed together with leading conservationists resulting in one of the healthiest groupings of that deer in the world. Ditto with the barely touched trophy trout stream. The eel population (a long-time Maori staple) has always been healthy.
Prolonged time here will incorporate a Maori-centric view on best practice for managing land. It will include authentic Maori cuisine. It will include exploration of this special part of the world. And it can but does not necessarily need to include some of the best Sika deer hunting and trout fishing in the world.
Over the years, Tom has used this land to mentor youth as to the importance of Maori principles in conservation. And with our clients that has transferred naturally to teaching. We can use this backdrop to teach tracking; trapping; shooting; meat preparation; fishing; and cooking. On request we can of course extend this line-up.
And from Tom himself:
My philosophy at Kai Waho is a simple one, deliver the experience in a natural manner that is not normally for sale. The response is reflected in the positive reaction of the Manuhiri ‘Visitors’ the appetite for real ‘IS REAL’. This is just what we have been looking for’ is a common reflection. All of my personal experiences have been exactly this, creating an emotion, a memory that is still in me years after experience.
The Awakari Expedition as an opportunity to explore how important relationships and life’s values are. All key ingredients in ‘Te Ao Maori’ The Maori world. The Awakari Expedition is not only the tented camp where you will eventually arrive, but also the journey you take to get there, the range of activities as you make your way across Ngati Tuwharetoa tribal land, makes the whole journey itself the destination. A destination realised only when you join us and become one of us according to our tradition.
Day 7: Hawkes Bay
Accommodation: Stay one night at the Masonic Hotel, Hawkes Bay or equivalent.
Located at the foot of Te Mata Peak, the architecturally designed Giants Craggy range winery complex, offers a second-to-none visitor experience. Here the Cellar Door offers relaxed and intimate seated tastings, while our restaurant serves the best local and seasonal produce prepared.
We travel up onto Te Mata peak to enjoy a walk of up to an hour taking in the view, before travelling onto our accommodation for the night.
Day 8: Martinborough
Accommodation: Martinborough Hotel or equivalent.
Today we travel through the Wairapa to Martinborough. The journey is broken with the landscape that we travel through being broken up with some short walks and exploring of the region as we travel South.
In the afternoon there is local tasting of the wines and a talk on the history of the region. Group evening meal.
Day 9: travel to Wellington
Accommodation: QT or similar
Tonight the group visits Hiakai for dinner.
Hiakai began in 2016 as a pop up series devoted to the exploration and development of Māori cooking techniques and ingredients. Māori were great innovators of food and land, developing their own style of earth cookery (hāngi) and successfully adapting plants and vegetables brought with them from Hawaiki to the much colder environment of Aotearoa. Over several centuries, these methods have been passed down, refined and still feed the hiakai people of Aotearoa today.
Since launching in 2016, Hiakai has established itself as a leading innovator in the New Zealand food scene. The sophisticated boundary-pushing menus created by Chef Monique Fiso are challenging the status quo of Māori food in New Zealand, while playing a leading role in keeping Māori food culture alive.
Hiakai has now opened as a bricks-and-mortar restaurant in Te Whanganui a Tara, the capital of Aotearoa.
Day 10: Wellington
Accommodation: QT or similar
Day 11: Wellington
Accommodation: QT or similar
Day 12: Kaikoura
Accommodation: The White Morph
We stay one night at the White Morph. Set on the Esplanade in iconic Kaikoura, The White Morph enjoys commanding views of the ocean right to the distant horizon and mountains, and gives you access to all of the region’s many experiences.
Day 13: Kaikoura to Oamaru
Accommodation: Pen Y Bryn Lodge or similar
Today is a travel day with breaks as we go South from Kaikoura to Oamaru. Key places of interest are explored on our journey.
Tonight we eat at Pen Y Bryn Lodge, where the Chef, is a master of any food style, so a custom food experience is offered.
Day 14: Central Otago to Queenstown
Accommodation: Novotel Queenstown or similar
Through the Pigroot – traditional high country merino hogget roast at Lauderdale on the way through to Queenstown.
Affectionately called ‘Central’ by those that know it well, Central Otago is New Zealand’s most inland region, located in the southern half of the South Island. Discover Central Otago, a region where you will find a stunning countryside, lakes, rivers and rolling farmland, vivid seasons and rocky, mountainous landscapes; friendly townships; a well-preserved gold heritage; award-winning wineries, recreational opportunities from fishing, mountain biking and the Central Otago Rail Trail to winter sports like curling and ice skating; and so much more.
This evening the group explore Queenstown including the Blue Kanu and rum bars.
Day 15: Queenstown
Accommodation: Novotel Queenstown or similar
Today the group has a jetboat ride followed by a picnic lunch up on the Makarora.
Jetboats were invented in New Zealand as a clever way of navigating the very shallow water we get on our South Island braided rivers. It is smooth, fast and very manoueverable. The boat takes you and your companions down the Makarora and up the Wilkin, showcasing some of the best jetboating terrain in the country – gravel banks, fast flowing rivers against a backdrop of Southern Alps, gin-clear water.
Day 16: Queenstown
Accommodation: Novotel Queenstown or similar
Today we travel up to Amisfield for lunch.
Amisfield was established in 1988 and is a Central Otago based specialist producer of Pinot Noir and aromatic white wines, sourced from fruit grown on their Single Vineyard Estate, situated beneath the glacially sculptured Pisa mountain range. Vineyards are managed holistically through organic practices focused around nurturing Amisfield’s unique soils, vines and habitats – this combined with a rugged inland location and an extreme semi-continental climate, yields wines of remarkable purity, intensity and vibrancy. A state-of-the-art purpose built winery is the focal point of the vineyard and is designed to enable winemakers to craft wines with minimal intervention and as naturally as possible
Tonight we enjoy an evening at the Botswana Butchery for dinner.
Day 17: Queenstown
Tour concludes after breakfast.
Includes / Excludes
What’s included in our Tour
- 16 nights accommodation.
- 16 breakfasts, 8 lunches, 14 dinners.
- Transport by modern and comfortable coach.
- Entrances and sightseeing as specified.
- Services of a Tour Leader for the duration of tour
- Detailed Preparatory Information
What’s not included in our Tour
- Return international airfare and departure taxes.
- Comprehensive travel insurance.
- Items of a personal nature, such as telephone calls and laundry
Participants must be able to carry their own luggage, climb and descend stairs, be in good health, mobile and able to participate in 3-5 hours of physical activity per day, the equivalent of walking / hiking up to 8 kilometers per day on uneven ground.
Book now
Make it a private tour
Easing your journey
Crossing international borders with restrictions
The list of requirements to travel internationally has changed and will continue to change for several years. Odyssey is here to assist you in managing your way through these requirements:
For more information see our Crossing international borders with restrictions page.
Book With Confidence
If less than 30 days before your tour starts you are unable to travel as a result of Government travel restrictions, Odyssey Traveller will assist you with a date change, provide you with a credit or process a refund for your booking less any non-recoverable costs.
See Terms and conditions for details.
Peace of Mind Travel
The safety of our travellers, tour leader, local guide and support staff has always been our top priority and with the new guidelines for public health and safety for keeping safe for destinations around the world, we’ve developed our plan to give you peace of mind when travelling with us.
See Peace of Mind Travel for details.
Reading List Download PDF
History and Traditions of the Maoris of the West Coast, North Island of New Zealand Prior to 1840
Stephenson Percy Smith
Excerpt from History and Traditions of the Maoris of the West Coast, North Island of New Zealand Prior to 1840
This history is much longer than perhaps suits the ordinary reader indeed, it is over a hundred pages more than was originally contemplated. But the amount of information collected will prove of interest to those living in the localities mentioned in after times; and it could never be collected again, for the old men who gave it have now passed on to Te Hono-i-wairua.
To others than members of the Polynesian Society it is right to say that the book has been published in the Society's Journal by instalments - it would otherwise never have appeared on account of the expense - and that the number of maps in it is due to the liberality of the Government, who had them drawn and printed at their expense.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
New Zealand: People, Places and Events that Shaped the History of New Zealand
James Boyle
New Zealand is a country that has forever been admired for its beautiful landscapes – a wilderness that barely seems to be touched by humans. The populated areas are surrounded by forests, plains, rocky mountains – even beaches. All of this gives New Zealand that heavenly vibe.
However, the place we admire today has been heavily affected by its history. People who wanted to farm the land versus people who wanted to keep the land the way it is. A land that, despite the wars it had been through, has managed to hang on to its beauty.
Packed with colonization, war and expansion, the history of New Zealand is something everyone should know and study in this day and age.
The Penguin History of New Zealand
Michael King
New Zealand was the last country in the world to be discovered and settled by humankind. It was also the first to introduce full democracy. Between those events, and in the century that followed, the movements and conflicts of human history have been played out more intensively and more rapidly in New Zealand than anywhere else on Earth.
The Penguin History of New Zealand tells that story in all its colour and drama. The narrative that emerges is an inclusive one about men and women, Maori and Pakeha. It shows that British motives in colonising New Zealand were essentially humane; and that Maori, far from being passive victims of a 'fatal impact', coped heroically with colonisation and survived by selectively accepting and adapting what Western technology and culture had to offer.
Pounamu Pounamu
Witi Ihimaera
Pounamu Pounamu is classic Ihimaera. First published om 1972, it was immediately endorsed by Maori and Pakeha alike for its original stories that showed how important Maori identity is for all New Zealanders. As Katherine Mansfield did in her first collection In a German Pension (1911), and Janet Frame in The Lagoon (1951), Witi Ihimaera explores in Pounamu Pounamu what it is like to be a New Zealander - but from a Maori perspective. The seeds of Ihimaera's later works are first introduced in this ground-breaking collection: The Whale Rider in his story 'The Whale', The Rope of Man in 'Tangi', and the character of Simeon form Bulibasha, King of the Gypsies in 'One Summer Morning'; and the themes of aroha (love), whanaungatanga (kinship) and manaakitanga (supporting each other), which are so intergral to Ihimaera's work.
Do They Speak English Down There?
Susan C. Tunney
Read how one family transformed a fantasy into reality when they traded in their San Diego lifestyle to move to rural New Zealand along with the challenges it presented adapting to a new culture. From duct tape to #8 wire, its been one helluva journey.
Small group tour of New Zealand exploring Wine, Food and Landscapes