Looking for new adventures this year?  Check out these four new excursions we’ve added to our New Zealand Nature Explorer itinerary to fully explore all of the natural wonders New Zealand has to offer.

Our updated itinerary includes an excursion on the Otago Peninsula to meet a colony of yellow-eyed penguins. Photo by Hiroshi Nameda.

Our new itinerary includes a visit with a colony of yellow-eyed penguins on the Otago Peninsula. (c) Hiroshi Nameda.

What’s New

The new itinerary includes a visit to the Southland Museum in Invercargill to visit a local expert on the tuatara. The ancient, lizard-like reptiles once flourished in New Zealand over 200 million years ago. Now, they are found on the North and South Islands and survive only on 35 offshore islands. The museum’s successful breeding program is a key factor to the survival of the species. After the museum visit, the afternoon is free to explore the city of Invercargill, the capital and a cultural center of the Southland Region.

The trip includes a new boat cruise to Mou Waho Island on Lake Wanaka. In the Maori language, Wanaka means “renewal of the soul,” which the blue expanse of the basin lake will certainly offer. Mou Waho Island is a predator-free nature reserve and home to the buff weka, a rare flightless bird that’s extinct on New Zealand’s mainland.

This itinerary includes behind-the-scenes access to the West Coast Wildlife Center at Westland National Park. Explore the rowi kiwi exhibit. Kiwis are flightless, nocturnal birds endemic to New Zealand. The critically endangered rowi is the rarest of the five subspecies of kiwis, with fewer than 400 remaining in the wild.

Discover more of New Zealand’s endemic bird life when we take a guided walk through a yellow-eyed penguin reserve on the Otago Peninsula. There are only 4,000-5,000 yellow-eyed penguins remaining in the world and they can only be found in New Zealand.

Discover New Zealand with NHA and WWF.

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