About Overland NZ:
a unique adventure tour company in New Zealand
We believe that our overland adventure tours have the best itineraries available in New Zealand and that we offer a truly unique travel experience.
Our Overland NZ tours are a new concept in New Zealand travel and tourism; they are small in number, are fully guided, virtually all inclusive with many stops and points of interest only offered by Overland NZ. We want to introduce our travellers to some very special places we know in both the North and South Islands.
Overland NZ is the brainchild of people who share a passion for New Zealand, overlanding and adventure. With many years of experience gained from working for some leading names in the Adventure Travel business we are strengthened further with the addition of crew and staff with bundles of energy, ideas, drive and enthusiasm for New Zealand. Between us all we’re a relatively well-travelled group and have led tours all over the world. Combined we have a long history in Travel and Tourism; we have travelled and guided extensively in South and Central America, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. A love of Overlanding - and New Zealand - prompted a move back to Aotearoa to develop Overland NZ – the only Overland company in NZ.
Crew:
Your driver / guide is with you the entire duration of your tour. He / she will be sitting around the camp fire with you at night, and will also be there (if you want) for a night out in town. Our crew work incredibly hard on tour and they are there because they love New Zealand and love the adventure. Your crew organise all your accommodation, optional activities if you wish to do any, organise the shopping and generally give you all the local information you may need when on tour. The crew have years of experience, are an integral and important part of our Company; and they also take meticulous care of our beloved Overland truck - Danmar!
Accommodation while on tour in New Zealand:
We do not stay in luxury hotels - but we do stay in some amazing camp grounds. We utilise DOC (Department of Conservation) campsites established camp sites and the occasional free camp. Most of the established campgrounds have 'chalet' accommodation you can opt to upgrade to if you wish (upon availability of course...), otherwise we camp in our easy to erect 3 person dome tents with very comfortable sleeping mattresses. We use hostels / hotels in most cities - but we do not use dorm rooms unless we really, really have to. You will be paired with a same sex single traveller for hardtop night stops if you are also travelling alone. If you wish to have a single room, we can arrange that - although you will need to pay for that en-route. If you are a single traveller and wish to have your own tent, that is fine as long as there are enough on board. You could also bring your own tent along if you want. We do not charge single supplements - but you will need to pay for any upgrade to 'single rooms' during the tour. We also stay in some pretty special lodges and farmstays in both the South and North Islands. In all, we try to mix the variety - city hotels, relatively basic DOC Camps, well established camp grounds, remote lodges and farmstays. These different types of accommodation will give you a taste of the true New Zealand.
Meals:
All meals as per itinerary are included - and you get fed very well indeed. We buy fresh food on an almost daily basis and we try to source all product locally; and yes, we can cater for any type of dietary requirement. Basically, 3 meals a day are included whilst camping, and most other breakfasts and some other lunches are included. When staying in hard top accommodation ie hostels/ hotels/ lodges etc you are free to try the local restaurants or cafes. Dinners when staying in hard top accommodation are not included. Breakfasts are usually tea, coffee, cereals, fruits, juices, toast and the occasional fry up or pancakes. Lunches on the run are salads, sandwiches or rolls, juice, tea and coffee. Dinners can be anything from BBQ's to roasts. No-one has ever gone hungry on our tours. Dinners are usually decided after input from the passengers and you will also be part of the cooking and preparation.
Equipment:
We have 2 mountain bikes on board that you can use (for free) whenever you want . We also have a well stocked library on board and we encourage book swapping, or simply leaving finished books on board for the next lot of passengers. The truck also has a couple of tables inside for those days when you would like to write a postcard or play cards while travelling. The tents are three person tents for two people, the high backed camp chairs are extremely comfortable, we have a full kitchen tarp, outside lighting, inside heating, full on board kitchen and plenty of room inside the truck for your daypacks.
Group Size:
We much prefer small groups and this is why we only have seating for 22 passengers. The groups generally range from 8 to 15 and up in the busier months. We feel that smaller groups are much more intimate, like you are travelling with friends; smaller groups also leave a far lesser footprint at the places we visit and passby. You get to know not only your fellow travellers but also your Crew are more like part of the 'travel family' as opposed to just your 'Tour Leader' or 'Driver'.
Local Payment:
Our tours have a Local Payment which is paid to your Crew at the beginning of the tour. This is part of your overall Tour cost and must be paid in NZD$ only. It funds meals whilst camping and camping. The Local Payment is non-refundable.
Feedback:
At the end of every tour, we ask our passengers to fill in a Feedback Form which is given to the Head Office. This feedback is very important to us. It gives us updates as to what does and does not work, what our passengers like a lot and what they maybe don't like so much on tour. If we get constant negative feedback about accommodaiton or activitiies - then we change it. Simple as that. This Feedback can be returned to us via your Crew, sent to us, or emailed to us via the website. Your comments will remain private and will only ever be published if your permission has already been given to do so.