Auckland Highlights combined with Wilderness Experience Eco-Tour

Auckland, New Zealand

Experience the best sights of Auckland City in the morning combined with an afternoon wilderness experience.

Auckland is set on 48 dormant volcanic cones and between two harbors, the sparkling Waitemata and the brooding Manukau. Known as the City of Sails, it's New Zealand's largest and busiest city. Your morning tour is a journey of discovery designed to explore the history and sights as well as see how Aucklanders live and play.

Join the wilderness experience in the afternoon to continue your tour. Just 30 kilometres from downtown Auckland is the city's largest Regional Park - the Waitakere Ranges. Visit the Arataki Centre where you enjoy spectacular views back to the city and of both harbours.  Admire the magnificent Maori carvings that stand guard there. Continue on to the wild and rugged west coast where you have the opportunity to stroll on an unspoiled beach.  Here you learn about the fascinating local history and flora and fauna of the region from your guide.  A short journey brings you to the lush rainforest where you walk amongst giant tree ferns and hear native birds. This gives a true insight and feel for our unspoiled native forest, a classic Kiwi experience.  Visit a magnificent specimen of New Zealand's famous Kauri trees.

This unique small group tour operator is a Qualmark Endorsed Visitor Activity and provides expert guided eco-tours in the greater Auckland region  a company delivering a quality product focusing on the natural and cultural heritage of the area. Winner of the New Zealand 2007 Small Tourism Business Operator Award.

USD $160.20

Review by: Michael R	December 2011
Driver guides were attentive and knowledgeable.

Review by: Christopher H	December 2010
We only had 2 days in Auckland and this tour was perfect! Both of our guides were great - very informative and flexable. I really liked how the day was broken into 2 parts, giving a good overall view of the area. We have done other tours where we were on the bus most of the day, but this one got us off quite a bit which was nice. We LOVED the Karekere waterfall, the black sand beach, and seeing all the volcanoes. All in all, it was a great trip. I was a little confused from the description what we would be doing for lunch, but they dropped us off at a fish market where we had a choice of what to eat. Overall - we really enjoyed this day.

Review by: Eric R, Australia	April 2010
City tour part provided little information and didn't show much that was interesting. Best avoided. Wilderness experience was better, much more information, more interesting.

Review by: Michael B, United Kingdom	January 2010
The tour operator provided a very carefully balanced day of city highlight views and close up experiences of the bush surrounding the city. There are short treks in the bush and along the beach. The guide was both informative and convivial. This tour was well worth the effort.

Review by: Vinh P, United States of America	January 2010
Very informative, satisfying and awesome species abound!

Review by: MICHAEL B	January 2010
The tour operator provided a very carefully balanced day of city highlight views and close up experiences of the bush surrounding the city. There are short treks in the bush and along the beach. The guide was both informative and convivial. This tour was well worth the effort.

Review by: Anonymous, Australia	December 2009
A thoroughly enjoyable experience, must do when visiting the North Island. The morning tour of the city and the sights was great, Dawn our tour guide was fantastic and very knowledgable. The afternoon tour of the rainforest and the beach is amazing and Bob is just as lovely. Don't forget to take your camera, you definately don't want to miss any of the magnificent scenery. Only thing missing from the tour is a supplied lunch mind you I don't know when they could fit it in

Review by: Bruce M, Finland	November 2009
The four stars are all awarded for the Wilderness Experience Eco-Tour, which is definitely a must. The sights were well chosen, and the guide was fantastic. The Auckland Highlights section was good enough, but a bit too much time was spent looking at properties and talking about house prices.

Review by: Charlie G, United States of America	January 2009
The scope of this tour was amazing, and the tour guides are very knowledgeable about the area.

Review by: Anonymous, United States of America	December 2008
The city part was just ok, but the museum was amazing! I wish we could have stayed longer. The bush and beach section was great and gorgeous. Definitely worth doing!

Review by: Uday G, United States of America	August 2008
So this had two different tour guides, for AM and PM. AM tour, make sure you get the right itinerary when you check-in for the tour! We went around Auckland downtown, local residential areas, include the upscale ones gorgeous houses, folksy commentary of the Auckland lifestyle for those who may be interested in moving here. Saw the Domain and War Museum which was ok, nothing like Te Papa. Short visit, just 30 minutes. AM tour is a short summary of Auckland for those with little time to get the highlights. _br /_ PM tour, had a really nice guide, the best tour guide, deserves awards! Fab time in Waitakere, walked down to the base of a waterfall, which made the whole day worth it. Just spectacular! Lots of great photos. A tricky walk down, kinda steep, so be careful. But totally worth it. Then went down to the black sandy beaches. A melancholy beauty of the place, quiet cold desolate but lots of great photo opps. Wow! Then saw Kauri trees, and did not-strenuous rainforest walks pretty easy, just wet and muddy, with great trees/ferns/foliage, even some birds. So overall a fab time and tour. _br /_ Only sucky thing was lunch which was meager, just some sandwich/snacks on your own. I was starving by the tour's end in evening. But the day was well worth it overall! Highly recommend. Also, if you go in winter get a Marmot hardshell and North Face softshell, and wear layers. You won't regret it! I'm so glad I had mine handy. Plus outdoor shoes, not tennies. Good grip soles.

Review by: Mei Ling C, Singapore	March 2008
Superb!

Review by: Anonymous, United Kingdom	February 2008
Lovely to see such unspoiled country and seaside. And we had a very knowledgeable driver.

Review by: Ken C, United States of America	January 2008
We only had one full day in Auckland, and this trip gave us an insight into both the city and surrounding areas, allowing time at interesting sights including Auckland museum, the beach, and Kauri rain forest. Outstanding experience.

Review by: Linda A J	January 2008
We only had one full day in Auckland, and this trip gave us an insight into both the city and surrounding areas, allowing time at interesting sights including Auckland museum, the beach, and Kauri rain forest. Outstanding experience.

Review by: David H, United Kingdom	August 2007
The tour of town was good, but the forest and beach were superb. For a tree fern and kauri tree enthusiast like me, it was brilliant! The guide was well-informed and a great character.

Review by: Linda H, United States of America	March 2007
Mount Eden was a great photo stop. A trip to the museum was included, but it was very crowded and confusing to get through the crowd. The trip to the west coast was great. The driver shared a lot of history with us and the beach was gorgeous. Due to a road closure, we went to an alternate waterfall. It was definitely a much more strenuous hike, but worth it.