A Luxury New Zealand Manual - Activities
This is the area in which we have made our reputation and predictably an area where we have even stronger opinions than usual! Some people give no thought as to the quality of the experiences they would like to live while in New Zealand, or labour under a misapprehension that everything is the same and can be booked in situ with no problem.
I would expect that anyone reading this article would have had some experience of hiring a plumber, dentist, accountant, builder? They're all the same aren't they? As we say in New Zealand, yeah right. There are all sorts of variations of activities available in New Zealand. Because of the general decent quality level of the marketplace, you will find that most people out there do a good job. Combined with the scenery here and the general likeability of most locals, this will make for a good memory.
Years ago, when we sat down and mapped out what strategy would take us to the very top of luxury experiential travel, good memories was not something which figured. We wanted our clients blown away, speechless, transformed, and very very happy that they found us in the first place. While we wouldn't want to do this every day because quite frankly that would be exhausting for our poor clients, this is where our quality bar is set. We work with passionate, articulate individuals who have usually over-achieved in whatever they are sharing with you. And by over achieved, we are talking world class.
There are some experiences available on the internet which we recommend highly. One of those is the phenomenal and phenomenally priced Siberia Experience with our friends from Wilkin River Jet. Highly professional, superb real people, a lovely family feel and a backdrop which is without doubt one of the most beautiful in the world. This day fits some of our clients right out of the box. But years ago we weren't totally happy with how jetboat experiences were being delivered in New Zealand. So we went back to the drawing board - they were invented here, so how do locals use them? To access the back country, have a bit of a drive of a V8 performance vehicle, maybe fish and of course have a brilliant picnic on the banks of the river somewhere. So we sat down with our friends from Wilkin River Jet and worked out how we could bring that sort of connection and reality to our clients. And hey presto! The award winning Jetboat Picnic experience was born. Since then we've gone even further and run a number of other one-offs with select clients and the Wilkin crew. So this is our approach to activities - always seeing how we can improve on anything from a number of different angles. And we work in partnership with all our activity providers in setting the bar higher and higher every year.
So, if your approach is to book everything yourself, then you will enjoy what is out there and some of it is very good. Some of it may even not be booked out. If you want to nudge things up a level for a truly exceptional experience, you now know where to come.
Read more in these associated articles:
A Luxury New Zealand Manual - Accommodation