Trekking Delights Down Under This is a wonderful opportunity to get to know a beautiful country and to enjoy probably the best one-day trek in the world, the Tongagriro Alpine Crossing. The scenery is incredibly varied, the walking is challenging at times but always enjoyable. The organisation of the entire trip was faultless and the guides were full of enthusiasm and knowledge. It's an intense and busy three weeks, with a lot of travel involved between walks but I wouldn't have missed it for the world. The group were such fun, too, which made it all the better.
This trip is one of the best we have experienced with Exodus. The varied walking, landscape and experiences on the trip make it an amazing adventure. Beware though there are many long distances to cover (we did over 3500 Km in the 19 days), but Ian and Sonya made it very interesting with their local knowledge and frequent rest stops at interesting places. The highlight of the walking was of course the Tongariro Alpine Crossing which on the day we did it was truly spectacular with the Emerald lake just like the Guide books. The Abel Tasman Coastal walk again like the guide book pictures. The Diamond Lake and Rocky Mountain walk was tough but well worth it for the views. Other experiences met all our expectations – Sailing on Tasman sea, Jet boat on River Motukituki where at times we were in 5 inches of water, Helicopter to Fox Glacier (paid locally) and overnight on Milford Sound in Fiordland. Christchurch was sad to see but it is good to that they are beginning to get the city rebuilt. It is important to note that a few walks and experiences can be affected by weather. Although it was summer we dodged Storm Fehi – Tongariro was closed the day after we walked it, Windy Wellington was stormy Wellington, roads near Fox Glacier were closed due to landslides and they had had no electricity for 3 days before we arrived. However we managed all the planned itinerary except walking to Fox Glacier due to landslide. All in all an AWESOME trip
This was my first top deck tour and to sum it up it was amazing! Lots of things were ticked off my bucket list during this trip. The trip leader was wonder very knowledgeable about the places we went to and they also knew how to have a good time and have a laugh with the group. The trip is very fast paced and there's always something to do, though you can choose to have some downtime which is also nice. The only downside for me personally is I wish we had more group dinners so we could all sit-down together and get to know everyone throughout the trip and not just at the end. However I have come away with so many great memories and friends from around the world. Such a wonderful experience for my first tour! Definitely doing another