Luxury Hiking in New Zealand: A Kiwi Guide to Doing It in Style

Guided versus independent: which is best for luxury hiking?

This is the question we are asked most, so let's be honest about it. You can absolutely walk many of New Zealand's tracks independently, and thousands of people do every year. The Department of Conservation (DOC) manages a superb network of huts and Great Walks you can book yourself.

The trade-off is what you carry and what you organise. Going it alone, or self-guided, usually means a heavy pack, your own meals (often the dehydrated kind), hut bunks shared with strangers, and a great deal of logistics: transport between trailheads, permits, booking windows that open a year ahead and sell out in minutes, and the ever-changeable alpine weather to read for yourself.

A guided luxury trip removes all of that. On the Grand Explorer there are no heavy packs, no tents and no dehydrated dinners; no overcrowded huts and no sleeping bags. Your luggage travels by vehicle, your accommodation is private and ensuite, your meals are cooked for you at our favourite local restaurants and lodges, and a knowledgeable Kiwi guide is beside you every step of the way. You walk the very best parts of the tracks, then sleep somewhere genuinely comfortable.

There is one more thing a guide gives you that no map can: the story of the place. The legend behind a maunga (mountain), the name of the bird calling from the bush, the geology of a fiord, the history of a gold-mining settlement. That is the difference between seeing New Zealand and understanding it.

Not sure which style of trip suits you? You can take our short quiz, and we will match you with the adventure that fits how you like to travel. Our guests often tell us what a genuinely useful first step it is.

Our guests walk through dramatic alpine landscapes, surrounded by towering peaks and vast open valleys.

Special places, special people

Magnificent scenery is only half the story. The other half is who you share it with.

Our groups are deliberately small, never more than fourteen guests, and our guides are local experts who live and breathe these landscapes. There is real warmth to a New Zealand Trails trip. The yarns (that is a Kiwi word for a good long chat) told over dinner, the gentle ribbing, the shared gasp at a first sight of Aoraki/Mount Cook. By the end of a fortnight together, it is common for guests to swap addresses and leave as friends. It can be genuinely hard to say goodbye.

It shows in what our guests tell us afterwards. Gilly Edwards, who joined the Grand Explorer in early 2026, put it like this:

"It was such a privilege to see so much of such a beautiful country whilst being looked after so well by the wonderful Toni and Tony. The itinerary was really well thought out with a wonderful variety of activities including regular beautiful hikes, kayaking, swimming with dolphins and wine tasting, with the guides being as flexible as possible to accommodate everyone's wishes. We also learnt a lot about the country, its people, the geography, flora and fauna as we went round. It was my first visit to New Zealand and, based on my experience, I will certainly be back!"

That flexibility Gilly mentions is the heart of how we run things. Our trips scale from an activity level of 2 to 4 each day, so you choose a gentler walk or a more challenging climb depending on how you are feeling. Capable travellers and those who would rather take it easy share the same trip happily, because nobody is herded.

Where you lay your head: the lodges and stays

On a luxury hiking trip, the accommodation is part of the adventure, not just somewhere to sleep. The Grand Explorer is built around some of the most beautifully located stays in the country.

The standout is Awaroa Lodge, tucked inside Abel Tasman National Park and reachable only by boat or on foot. After a day on the coastal track you will relax on the beachfront, eat well, and stargaze before bed, with no roads and no crowds, just the sound of the sea. Awaroa Beach itself is a special place: in 2016 some 40,000 New Zealanders chipped in together to buy it and gift it to the nation, which is why it is affectionately known as "the People's Beach."

Elsewhere, you will rest at the lakeside Wānaka Homestead, soak in the award-winning Maruia Hot Springs set among the Southern Alps of the Lewis Pass, and stay in the heart of Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park itself. Every night is private and ensuite, and every one is chosen because the setting is worth waking up to.

The food matters just as much. New Zealand is known for fresh produce and culinary flair, and a day on the trails has a way of making it taste even better. Local venison, lamb or just-caught seafood, paired with the wines this country does so well, eaten with people you have come to like enormously. The trip ends, fittingly, with a long lunch and a wine tasting at one of Central Otago's finest wineries.

The ultimate bucket-list experience on the Grand Explorer 

It is not only the hiking that lingers in the memory. It is the once-in-a-lifetime experiences woven between the walks. Here is what fills the days on the Grand Explorer.

A helicopter, a hike, and a boat in Mt Aspiring National Park

The signature day. You board a helicopter and fly through 355,000 hectares of Mt Aspiring National Park, over alpine lakes and glaciated valleys, before landing on a private high country sheep station that is closed to the public. From there you walk an old mustering trail beneath the slopes of Mount Burke, along the glacier-carved edge of Lake Wānaka, then a boat collects you from the shore and whisks you back to town for dinner. No other tour company offers this exact day, and the track is not open to the public.

Our guests take in sweeping aerial views of Mount Aspiring National Park, where rugged peaks, braided rivers, and remote valleys stretch to the horizon.

Milford Sound and the Milford Track

You will board a small boat across the fiord to walk a section of the world-famous Milford Track, beneath towering ferns to the tumbling waters of Giant's Gate. Then comes a nature cruise on Milford Sound itself, past Mitre Peak and Bowen Falls towards the Tasman Sea, with waterfalls thundering down around you. Keep an eye out on the drive in for the cheeky kea, our alpine parrot.

Kayaking the golden coast of Abel Tasman

A morning paddling the crystal-clear water of Abel Tasman National Park, gliding past golden coves and native bush with seabirds overhead. It is one of the most peaceful ways imaginable to take in one of our most beautiful coastlines. If kayaking is your thing, you might enjoy our guide to the best places to kayak in New Zealand.

Swimming with Dusky dolphins in Kaikoura

Off the coast of Kaikōura, where the seafloor plunges into a deep continental shelf, the water teems with marine life. Here you can swim with, or simply watch, wild dusky dolphins, famous for their acrobatics and their habit of putting on a show. They are entirely wild and it is their choice whether to come and play, and they usually do. Many guests tell us it is the highlight of their whole trip.

Playful and acrobatic dusky dolphins leap through the waves, putting on a spectacular display for our guests.

Stargazing tour at the International Dark-Sky Reserve

Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park sits within an International Dark Sky Reserve, one of the finest places on Earth to look up. On a clear night, all you need do is step outside your accommodation and tilt your head back to take in a sky thick with stars, and very often the silver smudge of the Milky Way.

Mirror Lakes and Pancake Rocks

There is more. The glassy, mirror-still waters of Lake Matheson reflecting Aoraki/Mount Cook on a calm morning. The Hooker Valley Track winding towards New Zealand's highest peak. The curious limestone stacks and blowholes of the Pancake Rocks at Punakaiki, forged over millions of years. At remote Monro Beach you might even spot a tawaki, the Fiordland crested penguin, one of the rarest penguins in the world.