FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

The Taranaki Discovery Tour is a fully catered walk so that means we’ll take care of all your meals, snacks and hot drinks while you’re out on the trails with us and this is included in your tour package.

We have a pre-set menu with two or three different options to choose from. All evening meals are prepared, and served, by our lodge hosts in their on-site restaurant overlooking a beautiful meandering river valley.

Breakfasts are a mix of cooked and continental options with plenty of tea and espresso coffee. Our packed lunches are made fresh daily with hearty filled sandwiches or wraps, fresh seasonal fruit, energy snacks or a piece of baking. Evening meals are 2-course, Kiwi-style meals full of fresh veggies, crisp salads and decadent desserts.

Most importantly, we can cater for a wide variety of specialty diets, please let us know in advance so we can make sure we’re well-prepared.

We can cater for a wide variety of specialty diets on the Taranaki Discovery Tour, this is something we do regularly. We do appreciate as much advance notice as possible so we can be well-prepared. If we don’t receive adequate advanced notice, we may not be able to fully cater for dietary needs. You are more than welcome to bring any specialty food items you like to have and we won’t be far from New Plymouth township where we’ll be well-served by plenty of supermarkets.

The Egmont National Park is a unique and changeable environment with strong weather systems. There’ll be times when the Pouakai Crossing track will be subject to extreme weather conditions and we’ll need to assess whether it’s safe to access the track on our planned day.

Our guides pay very careful attention to the weather in the days before, and during, every trip and this is one of the many tools we use to determine if we need to make any changes. If the weather is going to be extremely unsafe, we’ll plan to complete the Pouakai Crossing on one of our other days. As we’ll be in the National Park for a number of days, we have the opportunity to be flexible and match our days activities to the most suitable conditions. Only the worst weather would keep us off the track, but completing the Crossing is something we can’t absolutely guarantee.

During our shared evening meal each night, our guides will discuss the plan for the following day with the group and make sure everyone is well-informed and prepared.

On the Taranaki Discovery Tour, we take care of the hard stuff so you can walk with the least amount of weight possible. We’ve designed this trip with your comfort in mind so that your Taranaki guided hiking tour experience is a truly memorable adventure. All you’ll carry is a day pack, with the essentials you need for that day.

You’ll be carrying the following:

• Raincoat – even in the height of summer our weather can change quickly
• Water
• Lunch
• Sunhat & sunscreen – our New Zealand sun is very strong, we recommend a really good sunscreen
• Personal items like medication and your mobile phone
• An extra piece of clothing, like a spare merino shirt, just in case

There’s no need to pay in full for the Taranaki Discovery Tour at the time of booking. We ask just a $300 NZD deposit, per person, to secure a spot on the walk. When you make your booking via our website you’ll have the option of either paying the $300 NZD minimum deposit, or the full amount. You’re most welcome to pay the full amount at the time of booking, if you wish, but it’s not mandatory. The remaining balance is due to be settled around 30 days before departure. We’ll send an email reminder about a week beforehand and make sure everything is okay before we proceed.

We’ve provided a handy guide to our booking process in our blog, you’ll find lots of helpful information there. We are particularly good at making group bookings smooth and clean for group organisers, so if you’ve got a big group and the administrative burden is weighing you down, let us give you a hand to simplify it all.

Ready to book yourself in for the New Zealand guided walking holiday of a lifetime? Visit our direct booking page to lock it in.

Yes, non-walkers are welcome to join us on the Taranaki Discovery Tour. If you know someone who’d like to come along with you but who might be recovering from injury or just not that keen on walking every day, they are still welcome to join us. There may be short walks on the itinerary that they might feel up to doing with us, but there’s no pressure to complete the whole itinerary.

Non-walkers are welcome to relax at the lodge, or take a short trip into New Plymouth township to check out the museums, art galleries, boutique shopping, restaurants, cafes or meander around the beautiful Pukekura Park. The tour package remains all-inclusive for non-walkers, we still provide our full service with accommodation, transport and meals so the tour price remains the same.

If we have non-walkers in the group, we may adjust how we run Day’s 1 and 4 – please just get in touch with our friendly team for more information on the finer details.

The walking trails on the Taranaki Discovery Tour are a range of easy to moderate difficulty, with some short sections classified as hard. We’ll be walking anywhere between 4 to 10 hours per day and you’ll need to carry a daypack with your lunch, water, raincoat and warm layers. Over the course of the 4-day trip we’ll do a wide variety of walks. One or two walking tracks are easy-going underfoot, with a level gradient and little elevation gain. On Day 2 we’ll do the longer, more challenging walk on the Pouakai Crossing where the track surface will be less even, rockier, steeper and with more infrastructure to negotiate like steps, platforms, boardwalks and balustrades. Some tracks reach high points or lookouts near steep drop-offs, so those with vertigo or issues with heights may find some of the walks challenging. On the Pouakai Crossing in particular, we’ll be making elevation gains of 900m.

The fitter you are the more you’ll enjoy it. It’s a good idea to work in some stair training into your regular walking schedule before we go, it’s never time wasted! If you are a regular walker, you’ll manage beautifully. Most of our walkers are in their 50’s, 60’s and 70’s so we’ve carefully adapted all of our itineraries to suit this demographic. Our guides give a detailed briefing every evening about what is planned for the next day so you can be fully prepared.

The Taranaki Discovery Tour departs Rotorua during the New Zealand summer hiking season which is from November to April (inclusive).

We can pick you up from your accommodation in central Rotorua. We have options for parking your vehicles in Rotorua while you’re out with us, please get in touch with our team for more information. We will happily drop you back to your car when we return.

Rotorua City is well connected to both Auckland and Wellington via domestic flight routes. If you prefer to travel overland, the Intercity bus service makes regular stops in Rotorua City centre. For more advice and information on where to stay in Rotorua, please contact our friendly team.

If you are self-driving to Taranaki, we’ll let you know where to meet us and at what time and where it’s best to park your vehicles. If you’re taking a different route please check with our reservations team, we can help you find the best solution.

For any bigger groups coming from further afield, we can arrange a private shuttle transfer, just have a word to our team and we’ll set something up.

We welcome solo walkers! Accommodation on the Taranaki Discovery Tour is based on twin share. If you’d prefer to have your own room, a single supplement fee of $300 NZD applies – that’s for the whole trip, not per night.

Please select the single supplement option in the online booking form and our team will do the rest. This will ensure you have a room to yourself. If you’re happy to share, you will be placed in a twin room with another adventure-buddy of the same gender, in separate beds.