Tours / Flexible
A trip built around you, not a route you fit into.
A flexible tour starts from a blank week. You tell me what you love and how you like to move, and I come back with a written outline of real places and a real number. Nothing is locked until you have seen it.
The fixed tours are ten routes I have already driven. A flexible tour is the other way round: we start with you, not with a map. It suits people who know the feeling they want more than the itinerary, who are here for longer than a single day, or who have been to New Zealand before and would rather go deeper than wider.
It costs the same to plan as a fixed tour, which is nothing. There is no planning fee and no deposit until we have agreed the actual days.
Three I have built
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Ten days, a couple from Chicago, last March
Auckland, up to the Bay of Islands, back down through the Coromandel.
They said coast, wine, and nowhere we have to rush. We spent three days working north, a slow morning on Tawharanui, two nights on the Bay of Islands with a skippered afternoon on the water, then cut across to the Coromandel for the last stretch. Pace 2, long lunches, home before dark every night.
A written price per person, per day, sent to you before anything is booked.
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Five days, a family of four, January
Auckland and the Waitakere ranges, then the islands of the gulf.
Two teenagers who did not want a history tour. We built it around the best swimming, the best walk for the least grumbling, and one boat day out to Tiritiri Matangi. Pace 3, with an escape hatch every afternoon.
A written price per person, per day, sent to you before anything is booked.
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Three days, a solo traveller, November
A short, gentle loop north of Auckland.
Recently retired, travelling alone, wary of walking too far. Pace 1, no single supplement, and a standing offer to change any day on the morning. We spent one of them entirely on a beach because the weather was too good to waste.
A written price per person, per day, sent to you before anything is booked.
Placeholder examples. These three trips are illustrative, written to show the shape of a flexible tour. Replace them in Tina with real examples, and add indicative per-person pricing once the rate card is settled.
What every flexible tour includes
What's included
- A route built around you, with a written outline before you commit to anything
- A private guide and driver for the whole trip, the same person throughout
- The vehicle, fuel, and all road, ferry and parking charges
- Entry to the places we choose together on your itinerary
- Morning and afternoon tea on every touring day
- All planning, booking and timing, arranged before you arrive
What's not
- Accommodation, which I book to your taste and budget and pass through at cost
- Breakfast, lunch and dinner, charged as taken
- Domestic and international flights
- Travel insurance, which I ask every guest to hold
- Anything of a personal nature, and personal spending
To confirm. These included and excluded lists are type-level defaults, written as a starting point for Dale to confirm in Tina. Any single tour can add or drop a line, and the final wording should be settled alongside pricing.
Ready to start? Tell me what you love and how you like to move, and I will come back with a written outline and a real price. It takes about five minutes.
Start a flexible booking