The best guided hikes

Walk This Way

Tricky terrain and uncertain weather: two good reasons to get experienced help with your outdoor adventures. Number three: you can't beat local knowledge. Here, some bookable experiences and guided adventures.

From the genteel surroundings of St Heliers boat ramp, Auckland Sea Kayak Tours hosts tours of the former Browns Island, once again known as Motukorea. The four-hour experience includes a trip to the summit of one of the region's best-preserved volcanoes (no risk of it erupting again). The company also offers Rangitoto tours.

Walk the present, discover the past at Māngere Mountain Education Centre at the foot of Te Pane o Mataoho/Te Ara Pueru/Māngere Mountain. Mana whenua guide you over the landscape of Auckland's largest and most intact volcanic cone, interpreting its rich history and features.

Small, family-run business Nature & Nosh connects hiking and food lovers to the people, trails and epicurean delights of Waikato and Coromandel. Its curated one-day tours and multi-day hiking adventures are designed for those who love the outdoors and active adventures as well as other expressions of the good life.

Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari, near Cambridge and Te Awamutu, is the largest ecological "island" on the Aotearoa mainland. Surrounded by 47km of predator-proof fence enclosing 3400ha, the governing trust ensures native bird, insects, reptiles, trees and ferns can flourish – and they have. It leads tours through the maunga and wetlands as well as providing great walking and hiking tracks. Ask about night adventures.

There's much more to "the Mount" than the surf beach, and mana whenua are more than happy to take you on the Pāpāmoa Hills Walk, across farmland to the hilltops, hearing stories of Māori settlement from Tauranga harbour to Whakatāne and the landscape's cultural importance.

Here's somewhere old but new: Mt Urchin, in Kaimanawa Forest Park. Tongariro Guided Walks has a half-day hike for small groups that offers a unique perspective of the Central Plateau volcanoes. It's a traditional Kiwi tramping track through ancient native hardwood and gnarled beech trees, home to many birds, with panoramas of the Desert Road, the three volcanoes and Rotoaira and Taupō lakes, visited by only a few.

Based at National Park Village, Adrift Tongariro leads guided mountain expeditions, explaining the area's geography, geology and history as well as plants, wildlife and scenery. Importantly, they monitor weather and track conditions while you're out and about.

On Taranaki Maunga, Top Guides' local knowledge is invaluable for visitors wanting to have a crack at the Pouākai Crossing, looking for a day walk or getting that money shot of Pouākai Tarns.

Hawke's Bay has a number of faces – Art Deco Napier, the wine country, the fruit, vegetable and artisan food bowl. It also has pristine native bush, pure trout streams, open mountain tops, river and lowland trails and hot thermal springs. Afoot operates under a DoC concession to provide experienced personal guides for individually-designed tramping trips. Design a trek with your guide accounting for the degree of difficulty and preferred challenge.

We're nearly at Wellington and we've reached a fork in the track. Take the path to our Islands feature to read about Kāpiti eco-sanctuary, accessible via two operators, and then come back to join us for guided tours on the other side of Raukawa Moana Cook Strait.
Te Waipounamu has earned its reputation for some of the world's best outdoor adventure expeditions. Since most of the world can't take up the offer at present, Kiwis really should take the chance to try them.

In Marlborough, the 27km Nydia Track is a 2-day tramping or five- to eight-hour mountain biking track in Pelorus Sound, passing through lush coastal and regenerating forest, climbing two saddles with superb views and crossing farmland before dropping to the sea. Fantastic for walkers "who like a challenge" (read: uphills, downhills, rugged tree roots), Walk Pelorus runs guided tours.

Puhi Peaks Station, inland from Kaikōura, is New Zealand's highest privately owned property, rising from 400m to 2600m. That makes its geology and ecology unique: it has rare and endangered wildlife and plants like the Hutton's Shearwater, the only seabird to nest 1800m above sea level, and Hector's tree daisy. The owners practise kaitiakitanga (guardianship for future generations) and will lead day or multi-day small group and private treks.

Formerly the Hurunui High Country Track, the Island Hills Station Walking Track is a self-guided two- or three-day private walkway on a working sheep, cattle and honey farm with its own conservation reserve. With fully serviced lodges and pack transport between each night's accommodation, you'll ease into a stress-free adventure.

Ōkārito-based Glacier Valley Eco Tours turn it on in Westland Tai Poutini National Park. Boots, rainjackets, umbrellas and snacks are provided on their immersive, family-friendly, guided mountain to sea excursions in glacier country – from two hours to full-day.

Paparoa Guided Walks lead visitors into our youngest national park and its rainforests, tussock mountaintops, rivers, limestone cliffs and crashing oceans – fully catered and geared up, three nights in back-country huts included. As well as the company of a local, knowledgeable and qualified guide, of course. Other choices in the area include Fox Glacier Guides' mountain experiences; Tuatara Tours' four-day walking adventure in Arthur's Pass and Paparoa national parks; and Southern Wilderness' "gourmet hike" along the Old Ghost Road historic goldmining trail, starting and finishing in Nelson.

Auckland is not the only city with volcanoes: 30 minutes from Christchurch, Crater Rim Walks' local guides will take groups on an eight-12km, four- to six-hour exploration of Banks Peninsula's fascinating hills, bays and bush.

Family-owned Glentanner Station is one of the country's historic high-country stations, near Aoraki Mt Cook. Designed with Kiwis in mind, the new Glentanner High Country Heli-Hike is a 3½-hour guided tour granting exclusive access to private land and showing how it has developed from its ancient, glacier past to the rough and rugged early days of high-country farming, and into the present.

Tekapo Adventures' guided walks take place on Glenmore, another privately owned station bordering the national park. Unlike often-crowded Mt Cook trails, their multi-day Lake Tekapo Hiking Tour explores empty Cass Valley alpine heights with stays in private huts.

You're spoiled for choice here: Mackenzie Alpine Horse Trekking caters to all levels of riders; Alpine Recreation takes expeditions to the Caroline Hut on the big snowy and icy hill; and Four Peaks High Country Track is a three-day/night walk or mountain bike ride over a historic sheep station near Fairlie, overnighting in shepherds' huts from the 1860s-1970s (upgraded with modern conveniences).

It's not a bylaw in Queenstown that you have to throw yourself off a mountain. Companies like Climbing Queenstown and Alpine Guided Walks will take you into The Remarkables on hikes tailored to your fitness and experience levels, away from the crowds 2000m below. Check out Active Adventures' two-day Siberia Valley trip and Alpine Luxury Tours' encounter with Lake Alta at the top of the Remarks, too.

Steve and Kate Norris run Trips & Tramps in Te Anau. Their guided Fiordland Great Walk is curated for visitors to experience a snippet of three superstar tramps in three days, including a Milford Sound cruise.

Tipped to be the next Great Walk, Southland's Tūātapere Hump Ridge Track was born from the rural community's can-do attitude and the Kiwi love of tramping. Built and owned by the locals, it's a three-day loop along the south coast and up to the sub-alpine zone. Two backcountry lodges offer unique sleepovers.

Ruggedy Range (gotta love that name) run "off the beaten track" adventures on Rakiura Stewart Island, focusing on opportunities to view kiwi and other threatened birds and plants in the wild. Their Rakiura Great Walk is a relatively easy three-day hike, mainly through regenerating native forest, with beautiful coastal sections.