Dying to get down to the Southern Hemisphere and experience life upside down? Well, our new Real New Zealand trip just might be the one for you! We’re not gonna lie guys, we’re SO proud of this one because it is just packed with fantastic experience after fantastic experience. If you want nature, city, and culture, this is 100% the trip for you as you’ll get to galavant across New Zealand’s idyllic countryside, form connections with Māori people and learn about their culture, and get your heart pumping with city nights and adventurous highlights.
To really capture the full picture, we’ve chatted to Richie Pepene, our New Zealand Operations Manager, and he has given us some juicy details about the trip and some of the experiences. So read on, traveller and get inspired (though you may as well book your seat now because this is close to every traveller’s dream)!
Why would I love this trip?
“This trip is very different from anything we currently offer. It’s got a good mixture of experiences – you get to visit some of the big cities but you also get some really local and unique experiences. This trip also includes a lot of activities that might be really hard for you to do if you were travelling solo by yourself.”
“We really get off the typical tourist trail and get up close with locals and get to connect with them and their culture, as well as all that natural beauty that New Zealand has to offer.”
Image source:Contiki
Speaking of connecting with culture, what are some of the unique experiences that this trip offers?
“The opportunity to stay at a Marae is really unique and not many other travel companies offer an experience like this. Even people that live in New Zealand, if you’re not of Māori descent or haven’t grown up near the culture, this isn’t really an opportunity you get. It’s not something you can book on AirBnB, you know?”
“It’s not just the staying there that’s special, it’s everything that surrounds it as well – you’ll get to interact with Maori whose families have lived in the village for hundreds of years, you’ll learn about them, the way they live and more about the culture. It’s incredibly immersive and educational, I think all the travellers will love it.”
“Blue Duck Station and Doubtful Sound are also some really incredible experiences. Blue Duck Station is in a really remote part of the country – when you go there it feels so untouched, like you’ve arrived back into pre-colonial times. It’s just sitting along the river banks with this jungle surrounding it. And the conservation efforts they do there are pretty amazing as well.”
“And the Doubtful Sound experience is great – we stay on a boat overnight in the middle of nature and it’s quiet and beautiful. The coolest thing about this is that the boat was built in the easy ‘90s with specifically Contiki in mind! We were the first passengers on this boat, and now we’re coming back.”
Which is the best view on the trip?
“I mean the beauty of New Zealand is just never ending. You’ll get a great variety of views all along the trip, which is really the joy of the country. We’ve got the big cities as well as the gorgeous Alps, we’ve got glaciers and lakes, forests and jungles.”
“Visiting Rotorua is really special because it’s infused with all the Māori culture and you can see traditional carvings that tell stories, and also discover these bubbling mud pools – which doesn’t smell great but is really unique and interesting! And then there’s National Parks that we’ll be visiting and getting that nature fix. Travellers are going to need a lot of memory space left on their phones for all the pictures.”
Image source:Contiki
What about any food experiences?
“We have two really interesting foodie experiences on this trip that I don’t think travellers will forget. The first is the dinner at the Marae where the travellers will be able to get involved in the culture and tradition, and make dinner themselves! They’ll be enjoying a hāngī which is a way of cooking meat in an earth oven. Usually, you would dig a hole, and burn a large fire to heat up rocks that are then placed into the hole, food is placed on top of the rocks in baskets, which are then covered by wet blankets and the dirt is placed on top. This seals in the heat and the steam and cooks the food, it’s delicious. Māori in Rotorua have the advantage of natural thermal springs, so utilise this to cook the food.. It’s a traditional Māori way of cooking, it’s really special, and everyone will get to be involved.”
“The second is the Walter Peak BBQ dinner because it’s a real journey to the table! We’ll be hopping on a 110-year-old steamboat that has been refurbished to look like the original, so it’s like stepping back in time. The boat will take us to Walter Peak farm station where we’ll be getting a farm-to-table dinner which is made from local produce from the farm itself. After dinner we get to have a farm show as well, which is a nice way to top everything off.”
Is this trip mostly adventurous or cultural?
“Both! That’s kind of part of the New Zealand DNA, you can’t get away from the culture or the adventure.”
“On the culture side you’ll really get to learn a lot about the Māori on a deeper level, and we’ll also be getting lots of history with stops at Blue Duck Station.”
“For adventure, we have a few days in Queenstown which is really the epicentre for adventure in the whole world. It’s a place that never sleeps, and whether you want to jump off a bridge, jump out of a plane, or jump off literally anything else then you can do it here! There’s also some more lowkey adventures like swimming and horseback riding for those that don’t want to take a leap of faith. But it’s not just Queenstown either, there’s ziplining in Rotorua and jet boat rides at Blue Duck Station.”
“This trip will keep you very busy!”
Image source:Contiki
What about wildlife experiences? Will I get to meet any animals on this trip?
“We’ve been visiting the New Zealand Kiwi Hatchery in Rotorua for many years now; it’s something we do on all our trips here because travellers love it of course, but also because all the money that they make through us goes to aiding and protecting the kiwis, which are the country’s native bird.”
“So you’ll get to see some kiwis and learn more about them and the rehabilitation and preservation efforts in place to keep them around. And then in Marlborough Sounds there’s no specific wildlife experience, but the place is chock-full of wildlife so you’re bound to have many sightings there, and the specialist guides will really teach you a lot about them as well.”
Is this trip done by coach or other modes of transport?
“This is a fully coach trip – though we will of course hop on a ferry to get from the North to South islands. It’s a smaller group as well, with a maximum of 30 people which allows us to use smaller coaches which can get to some places and boutique locations that the big coaches can’t.”
“We do get to stay overnight on a boat though, and there are a few boat tours and cruises on the trip to get a change of scenery.”
Image source:Contiki
What should I pack for a trip to New Zealand?
“It depends on the time of year you’re travelling, but a good rule of thumb is to be prepared for all seasons. This trip runs between November and March, which is around the time of the New Zealand summer, so the weather should be quite warm, but you can still expect rain so it’s good to bring some longer sleeves and a raincoat.”
“We’ll be staying in a few cities as well, so if you want to take advantage of the nightlife there then make sure to make some outfits for that! And you do not want to forget a good pair of shoes – there’s a lot of walking and adventures on this trip, so good, reliable, and comfortable shoes are a MUST.”
Is there anything that will surprise me about this trip or about New Zealand?
“Just how deep the bonds you’re going to form will be. You’ll be meeting a lot of people and fellow travellers and with Contiki people always make really good friends – so those friendships and the strength of them might surprise you.”
“But it’s also the connection with the places they’ll be visiting. Sometimes when you travel you get stuck in this routine of going to a place, seeing it, and taking a photo. But here you’ll really get to fall in love with the country. So, yeah, I think that’s what will surprise the travellers most.”
