New Zealand
Hiking Under Southern Skies
Program No. 11592RJ
Hike the iconic trails of New Zealand, including sections of the world-renowned 'Great Walks', and discover National Parks and traditional Maori culture alongside local experts.
Enroll with Confidence
We want your Road Scholar learning adventure to be something to look forward to—not worry about. Learn more
Protecting the Environment
We offset a portion of the emissions created by your travel. Learn more
Prefer to enroll or inquire by phone?
800-454-5768
Select your type of room
Price will update based on selection
Prices displayed below are based on per person,doubleoccupancy.
DATES
& starting prices
PRICES
Jan 20 - Feb 10, 2025
Starting at
9,399DATES
& starting prices
PRICES
Oct 28 - Nov 18, 2024
Starting at
10,629Jan 20 - Feb 10, 2025
Starting at
10,759Feb 17 - Mar 10, 2025
Starting at
10,759Mar 17 - Apr 7, 2025
Starting at
10,759Oct 28 - Nov 18, 2025
Starting at
10,759Not seeing the date you're looking for?
To be notified if dates of this program become available, click the button below.
22 days
21 nights
54 meals
19B 17L 18D
1
In Transit to Program
In Flight
6
Tongariro Alpine Crossing Hike
Turangi
17
To Stewart Island via Invercargill and Bluff
Stewart Island
18
Local Movie, Lighthouse, Golden Bay Walk
Stewart Island
19
Port William Hike, Return by Boat
Stewart Island
20
Pelagic Boat Trip, Ulva Island Bird Sanctuary Visit
Stewart Island
At a Glance
Challenge your mind and body on some of New Zealand's most spectacular hiking trails. Hike over the world-renowned Tongariro Crossing and sections of the celebrated Routeburn and Kepler Tracks, two of New Zealand's designated 'Great Walks'. As a special highlight, enjoy four nights on Stewart Island, a native wildlife sanctuary seldom accessible to visiting groups.
Activity Level
Outdoor: Challenging
Categorized as Challenging, you will be hiking 6-10 miles daily on mixed terrain that is frequently hilly (undulating), rocky or uneven. Ascents of up to 2,000 feet. Elevations up to 6,000 feet.
Small Group
Love to learn and explore in a small-group setting? These adventures offer small, personal experiences with groups of 13 to 24 participants.
What You'll Learn
- Take expert-led hikes over the Tongariro Crossing in Tongariro National Park and in Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park.
- Experience Maori culture including the powhiri (formal welcome), traditional songs, dances and hakas.
- Hike sections of the world-renowned Routeburn and Kepler Tracks, two of New Zealand's designated 'Great Walks'.
Featured Expert
All trip experts
Peter Brady
Pete Brady was born and bred in Wellington, New Zealand. His working careers have been in land surveying, backcountry leading, outdoor instructing at the NZ Outward Bound School and ranger in New Zealand National Parks and Reserves. Pete has extensive experience in risk assessment and managing groups in the outdoors. He has traveled extensively throughout New Zealand on foot, pushbike, horse-drawn wagon, kayak and motor vehicle. Pete's interests include his family, natural history, photography, surfing, running and transalpine tramping (hiking).
Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.
Peter Brady
View biography
Pete Brady was born and bred in Wellington, New Zealand. His working careers have been in land surveying, backcountry leading, outdoor instructing at the NZ Outward Bound School and ranger in New Zealand National Parks and Reserves. Pete has extensive experience in risk assessment and managing groups in the outdoors. He has traveled extensively throughout New Zealand on foot, pushbike, horse-drawn wagon, kayak and motor vehicle. Pete's interests include his family, natural history, photography, surfing, running and transalpine tramping (hiking).
Russell Davie
View biography
Russell Davie is an ex-dairy farmer with a background in geology, geography, soil mineralogy and volcanology, with a particular interest in the Fiordland area, in and around Te Anau, where he now lives and the lake, which bears the same name.
Bruce Cardwell
View biography
Bruce has gained extensive experience in the New Zealand outdoors as an instructor, manager and governance of the New Zealand Outward Bound School. He enjoys adventures, traveling, cycling, reading and cooking. He initiated an aquaculture consultancy business, based in Blenheim, offering professional advice and assistance in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom to the seafood and natural products industries.
Elspeth Jaine
View biography
Elspeth Jaine, originally from Scotland, has lived in mid-Canterbury, New Zealand, since 1986. She and her husband Charles have farmed sheep and cattle near Mt. Somers for most of that time. Elspeth has also worked as a physiotherapist, been a mother to four (now grown) children, and latterly has run a small visitor exploration venture. Elspeth loves to be in the outdoors and indulge her love of tramping, skiing, biking, and exploring nature. She also enjoys creative pursuits, especially painting and photography.
Charles Lambert
View biography
Charles Lambert was born in Basra, Iraq. His childhood was spent in India, and at age 10, his family moved to New Zealand. Charles has degrees in accounting and business administration. He has traveled, trekked, and climbed in South America, the European Alps, the Himalaya, and the U.S. He and his wife, Robyn, have served in Vanuatu on Volunteer Service Abroad. Charles is a Rotarian and served as president of clubs in Napier and Nelson over the last 25 years.
Robyn Lambert
View biography
Robyn Lambert was born and educated in New Zealand. She has a B.Sc. with honors in geography, and has taught both at home and overseas in a variety of secondary schools. Currently, Robyn and her husband, Charles, live in Nelson, the oldest city in the South Island, where she is involved with a variety of volunteer work involving the Red Cross, refugee resettlement, and Volunteer Service Abroad. To keep fit, she enjoys Zumba, NIA, and hiking.
Suggested Reading List
(32 books)
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
Hiking Under Southern Skies
Program Number: 11592
The Future Eaters, An Ecological History of the Australasian Lands and People
An engaging ecological history of Australasia, focusing on human impact on local environments and animal populations in the recent geologic past.
Erewhon
Butler's classic Victorian novel inspired by his experiences in 1860s New Zealand. A satirical account of a journey to an upside-down country at the end of the world, where sick people are thrown in jail and murderers are taken to the hospital.
A Traveller's History of New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands
A brisk portrait of New Zealand, and its culture, economy and society, this concise history also covers the settlement of the Pacific Islands.
A Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand
Comprehensive and compact, this Princeton Pocket Guide features 600 color photographs.
Maori Tattooing
A new unabridged edition of the classic, illustrated sourcebook on Maori tattooing (moko), first published in 1896. The author pays scrupulous attention to the intricate patterns, design and cultural meaning of traditional Maori tattoos.
The Hand Guide to the Birds of New Zealand
The revised compact edition of the classic field guide, featuring 74 color plates by Derek Onley.
Once Were Warriors Video/CD
Once Were Warriors (film)
Country New Zealand
Language English (99 mins)
Maori
Once Were Warriors is a 1994 film based on New Zealand author Alan Duff's bestselling 1990 first novel. The film tells the story of an urban Māori family, the Hekes, and their problems with poverty, alcoholism and domestic violence, mostly brought on by family patriarch Jake. It was directed by Lee Tamahori, and stars Rena Owen and Temuera Morrison.
An Angel at My Table (video)
An Angel at My Table is a 1990 New Zealand-Australian-British[2] film directed by Jane Campion. The film is based on Janet Frame's three autobiographies, To the Is-Land (1982), An Angel at My Table (1984), and The Envoy from Mirror City (1984).
An Angel at My Table is a dramatisation of the autobiographies of New Zealand author Janet Frame. Originally produced as a television miniseries, the film, as with Frame's autobiographies, is divided into three sections, with the lead role played by three different actresses who portray Frame at different stages of her life: Karen Fergusson (child), Alexia Keogh (adolescent) and Kerry Fox (adult).
Come on Shore and We Will Kill and Eat You All
In this endearing, offbeat memoir, anthropologist Thompson effortlessly alternates tales of mostly disastrous early encounters with the Maori and the story of the love of her life, Seven, the Maori she married.
The Earth Machine, The Science of a Dynamic Planet
An informative, illustrated overview of the earth and its fiery origins by curators of the American Museum of Natural History's Hall of Planet Earth.
The Happy Isles of Oceania
The peripatetic author flies off to Australia and New Zealand with a kayak and ends up exploring much of Melanesia and Polynesia, including Tonga, Fiji and the Marquesas in this wickedly funny, wide-ranging tale.
Boy (2010 film)
Boy (2010 film) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_(2010_film)
It is out on DVD
Waititi wanted to shoot the film where he grew up in Waihau Bay. It was a summer film but impossible to shoot in the height of summer due to the popularity of the area as a fishing and holiday destination. The film features the maize fields and the maize is harvested from late April. Boy was shot entirely in the area of Waihau Bay, New Zealand. James Rolleston was never actually intended to play the lead role of "Boy". Rolleston originally turned up on set for a costume fitting as an extra and after short deliberation the teen was offered the role.
The Piano (1993) Video
121 min - Drama | Romance - 12 November 1993 (USA)
7.5 Your rating: -/10 Ratings: 7.5/10 from 36,516 users Metascore: 89/100
Reviews: 215 user | 66 critic | 20 from Metacritic.com
A mute woman along with her young daughter, and her prized piano, are sent to 1850s New Zealand for an arranged marriage to a wealthy landowner, and she's soon lusted after by a local worker on the plantation.
Director: Jane Campion
Writer: Jane Campion
Stars: Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel and Sam Neill
Presenting New Zealand, An Illustrated History
Organized from North to South, this oversized paperback, featuring large, full-color archival illustrations on every page, is a profile of the island nation, its history, people and nature.
New Zealand Map
This handy, double-sided map includes an index and insets of the Sub-Antarctic islands.
Southern Exposure
Subtitled "A Solo Sea Kayaking Journey Around New Zealand's South Island."
Once Were Warriors
This controversial best-selling novel follows the fate of a Maori woman in what appears to be modern-day Auckland, an insightful look at social problems of the Maori in contemporary New Zealand.
Stories
The three marvelous, long stories in this collection constitute the beginnings of a novel based on Mansfield's childhood in Wellington.
Making Peoples, A History of the New Zealanders from Polynesian Settlement to the End of the Nineteenth Century
A social history of the Maori from pre-contact to the late 19th century. With its wide, yet detailed focus, this book gives the reader a glimpse into the social forces that have formed the Maori, including the tremendous impact of colonization.
Slipping Into Paradise, Why I Live in New Zealand
In this far-ranging travelogue, Masson (who wrote a series of books on the emotional lives of animals) combines his travels and tales with history, riffs on the kiwis, nature and society.
The Penguin History of New Zealand
The Narrative that emerges is an exclusive one about men and women, Maori and Pakeha. It shows that The British motives in colonizing New Zealand were essentially humane.....
The Hand Guide to the Birds of New Zealand
The revised compact edition of the classic field guide, featuring 74 color plates by Derek Onley. (Item no. NZL05)
Here at the End of the World We Learn to Dance
Dancing between New Zealand and Buenos Aires and ranging over decades, tango is the leitmotif of this earlier novel by Lloyd Jones, published here for the first time, author of Mister Pip. Like Mr. Pip, this compact, seductive novel concerns the power of storytelling.
The Bone People
Set on the South Island, this powerful novel brings together three troubled individuals who represent Maori and European traditions in contemporary New Zealand.
New Zealand Through Time, An Illustrated Journey Through 83 Million Years of Natural History
Step back in time in this illustrated miscellany, featuring dozens of full-color paintings of giant moa, mixosaurus, and other splendid extinct creatures.
Eyewitness Guide New Zealand
This superb illustrated guide features color photography, dozens of excellent local maps and a region-by-region overview of attractions.
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)Film
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
179 min - Action | Adventure | Fantasy - 19 December 2002 (New Zealand)
While Frodo and Sam edge closer to Mordor with the help of the shifty Gollum, the divided fellowship makes a stand against Sauron's new ally, Saruman, and his hordes of Isengard.
Director: Peter Jackson
Writers: J.R.R. Tolkien (novel), Fran Walsh (screenplay), and 3 more credits »
Stars: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen and Viggo Mortensen
New Zealand, A Natural History
Having relocated many years ago to the beaches of Golden Bay on the North Island, Tui and Mark present the wildlife, habitats and splendor of their homeland in this photographic celebration.
The Whale Rider
The Whale Rider (1987) was written in New York and Cape Cod in the space of three weeks. A magical, mythical work about a young girl whose relationship with a whale ensures the salvation of her village, it is, says Ihimaera, the work of his ‘that the Maori community accepts best’
The Luminaries
The Luminaries is the second novel by Eleanor Catton, published by Victoria University Press in August 2013 and Granta on 5 September 2013. On 15 October it was announced as the winner of the 2013 Man Booker Prize. It is the longest book (at 832 pages), and she the youngest author (at age 28), ever to win the award. The book was described as "a dazzling feat of a novel" by The Observer.
A Personal Kiwi-Yankee Dictionary
Take this book with you on your trip to help you untangle the sometimes perplexing and colorful local idioms.
New Zealand Wildlife
Julian Fitter's splendid introduction to the nature and wildlife of New Zealand features succinct chapters on geography and geology, history, habitats and wildlife, along with hundreds of color photographs.