Media Reviews

NEW ZEALAND: All Access Kiwiland. The North Island has the Bay of Islands and the best surfing; the South Island trumpets Queenstown and world-class hiking. For decades, New Zealand's two halves have been vying for the country's title of premier travel destination. But Active New Zealand just gave the South Island a major one-up: the first guided hiking and bicycle crossing from coast to coast. For this 13-day trip, the high-octane outfitter has chosen the wildest route possible, using little-known tracks (Kiwi for trails) and New Zealand's excellent hut system, which offers everything from bare-bones shelters to cushy crash pads with private bunks and kitchens. Starting in the temperate rain forests of... Read more >>

The Adventure Ratings 2009: For the second time in as many years, we’ve conducted an unprecedented survey of adventure travel companies, based on the idea that a traveler’s most important decision is not always where to go but who to go with. For the 2009 edition, we spoke to more guide services—and their clients—than ever before.
Active New Zealand Overall Score: 89.80
New Zealand's most popular destinations get special treatment by this outfitter. While most tourists see Milford Sound from the deck of a cruise ship, Active New Zealand's clients navigate sea kayaks among the fjord's seals and dolphins. And whereas the majority of visitors to Mount Cook catch just a quick... Read more >>

DEAL OF THE YEAR - That New Zealand is the place you fantasize about most is no surprise. But here's what is: This is the year to stop drooling and go. With a historically favorable exchange rate (at press time, one U.S. dollar equaled just under two New Zealand bucks) and round-trip flights available for around $800, adventure in Middle Earth is suddenly on sale.

FOR MULTISPORT GLUTTONS: Do It All
8 DAYS, $2,300

"This is a really punchy trip," says Andrew Fairfax, owner of Active New Zealand. "Punchy" is a Kiwi-ism for packing your days with adrenaline. To wit: On this whirlwind, called Tui Multisport, guests hike the Franz Josef... Read more >>

WHAT'S NEW: Ask any group of experienced guides about their dream trips, and chances are they'll rattle off dozens of options. This year Queenstown-based Active New Zealand invented a creative way to take advantage of all this unrealized trip-planning potential: The outfitter inaugurated an annual competition among its guides to design the best trip around New Zealand. The winner, of course, would get to lead his or her entry. The contest's first champion is veteran guide Lynette Warmington, 37, who, beginning in March, will lead visitors on her custom 14-day multisport tear around the South Island, stopping to sample some of the region's finest and least known outdoor offerings... Read more >>

During Active New Zealand founder Andrew Fairfax's 2,700-mile cycling expedition from Istanbul to London in 2003, he thought, Why aren't we doing this at home? The result of that epiphany is the Weka, a 13-day supported bike trip circling the South Island. It hits all the top spots, like the majestic peaks and gushing waterfalls of Milford Sound and the blue ice of the Franz Josef Glacier, while staying off most of the main routes, worn thin by tourist traffic. You'll log roughly 400 miles on Specialized hybrids that can handle gravel farm paths and other classic Kiwi obstacles like cow dung and stubborn sheep. Typical day: Pull off the Central... Read more >>

NELSON LAKES, New Zealand - Just before lunch, my backpack starts to feel like I've stuffed a circus tent inside it, and my boots and socks are soaked from slogging through calf-deep streams.

That last swing bridge over a raging river, the one with a sign warning that it could support just one person at a time? It made my knees quake. And, our guides have warned, the steepest part is yet to come. So I am happy when we break for lunch.

Tramping, the New Zealand term for hiking, is challenging but rewarding. It's one of the main reasons tourists come to this country, known for outdoorsy pursuits and adventuretravel.... Read more >>

Best meal: Rotherhams, Christchurch, a small, welcoming restaurant run with gourmet continental choices as well as New Zealand specialties. Wonderful desserts. Be hungry; New Zealand menus include appetizers, mains (a small main course), entrees (a regular main course) and dessert. If you ask for salad or vegetables, you will get them; if you don't, they are not likely to be served.

Best deal: Tour with ACTIVE NEW ZEALAND. Well planned, no more than 15 in a group, excellent guides, efficiently showcases special places by hiking, biking and sea kayaking that on your own you couldn't organize. Reasonably priced. Spartan but scrupulously clean accommodations. Healthy, family-style meals. Beer and lattes under... Read more >>

Here's why people fly so far to hike in New Zealand: A third of the island nation is parkland, and it has just 3.8 million residents. Consequently, hundreds of miles of lightly used trails weave through rugged ranges and untrammeled rain forests. Active New Zealand's 14-day loop is billed as multisport, but most clients opt for tramping around the canyons of Punakaiki, Franz Josef Glacier, the Mount Cook Region, and other South Island beauty spots. Nights are spent in lodges, B&Bs, and a sheep shearer's cabin on a 63,000-acre farm.

WHY THIS TRIP: It dodges the predictable Milford Track in favor of trails loved by locals, and it offers two levels... Read more >>

Attitude is everything. It could not have been clearer after seven years of marriage. Her body language said it all. "Just what on Earth am I doing at 6,000 feet with a 30-pound pack on my back, boulder-hopping on this ridge?" Her trekking pole slapped some of the small rocks out of the way. She stopped to pick one up. Must be a souvenir, as if the blisters on her feet weren't enough. I watched all this from a distance and did what all good husbands should do.

Nothing.

I knew Jeannette well enough to know that she would eventually adjust her attitude. Sure enough, after falling on her backside in... Read more >>

It's that time of year when back-to-school rumblings inspire thoughts of self-improvement. CATHERINE GILDINER forsakes the annual all-inclusive holiday and signs up to hike glaciers, ford rivers and paddle across Queen Charlotte Sound on a 'multisport extravaganza' in New Zealand. But she encounters an unexpected challenge: a bee-fearing, TV-producing kayak partner named Sid.

CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND -- Every September, I have rumblings of back-to-school phenomenon, the longing for a clean slate. It usually takes the form of panic combined with some sort of unattainable self-improvement. Last year, it was that life was passing us by. (No one ever said neurotic behaviour was original.) Grabbing my husband's wrists, so he couldn't press keys on... Read more >>

Can't decide between rafting, biking or camel riding on your next adventure? Who says you need to?

Kathy Singleton took one look at her itinerary for a three-week trip in New Zealand, and her eyes popped out of her head. The 46-year-old Colorado resident had unwittingly signed up for a multisport adventure outing and discovered that her trip's menu of activities read more like the scorecard for an adventure race than a vacation: trekking, mountain biking, sea kayaking, whitewater rafting and horseback riding, with a little caving and glissading thrown in for good measure. "I love the outdoors," Singleton recalls thinking, "but I'm no triathlete."

A week after returning home, Singleton now laughs at her pre-trip jitters. "It was an amazing experience. So much variety. I still can't believe... Read more >>

We all know people who refuse to slow down: workaholics, workout fanatics, compulsive overachievers. It used to be that these stress addicts hated taking vacations, but now they've inspired their own travel trend: multi-sport adventures. This breed of package tour is designed for those who can't sit still. While many of these trips are best for those who have a steady relationship with their gym, itineraries adn activities are sometimes flexible enough to accommodate travelers of all abilities. Here is a list of trips designed for the leisure-impaired:

ACTIVE NEW ZEALAND describes its adventure packages as "not lazy vacations, but you'll finish our trips more rested than if you'd spent two weeks... Read more >>

Ann Worthington, a work-at-home lawyer and mother in Capistrano Beach, Calif., rarely breaks away from her telecommute and Teletubby routine. So what was she doing last spring, sans husband and child, bungee-jumping off New Zealand's Kawarau Bridge? No, she wasn't caving in to domestic pressures. She was just embarking on a multi sport vacation, the latest adventure-travel trend. Leaving her husband at home with their toddler, Worthington spent the rest of her week hiking, biking and sea-kayaking across New Zealand's South Island.
Why such a frenetic vacation?
"I want to be moving at all times," she says.

Join the club. Worthington is just one of a growing number of people using vacations to... Read more >>

In New Zealand, a country that embraces tourism like no other, the outdoor loving Kiwis have made nature's treasures accessible to all. A network of trails from mild to wild, are well marked and maintained by the Department of Conservation. Numerous outfitters are happy to take visitors hiking, biking, kayaking, snorkeling, whale watching, birding and more. Just bring a fit body, plenty of sun block, and a sense of humor to the other land down under. You will be amazed at the variety of terrain from the snow-crowned Southern Alps with glaciers descending into lush rainforests, to rugged valleys carved by wild rivers rushing to sun-washed shores.

New Zealand consists of two... Read more >>