Eat the country. Walk the country.

Hāngī: an earth oven,hot stones, four hours.Kaikōura. Marlborough.Central Otago.

A journey through Australia and New Zealand is a journey through what grows here, what swims here and who cooks it.

A twelve-dollar fish and chips,and a lodge dinner,on the same itinerary.

Low-key and local

Fish and chips on a wharf while the boats come in. A farmers’ market on a Saturday morning. A bakery worth a forty-minute detour. A cellar door with no sign, where the person pouring made the wine.

Freshly cooked kōura split open on butcher paper on the tailgate of a ute, the sea behind

Considered dining

Lodge kitchens where dinner is the reason to stay. Chef’s tables in Auckland and Wellington. Wine-region restaurants in Marlborough and Central Otago that book out weeks ahead. We know which to book the moment your dates are fixed.

A lodge dining room in Central Otago at dusk, candlelight, windows onto vineyard rows and mountains

The most memorable meals we have had here were hosted, not served: a hāngī lifted from the ground at dusk, kōura pulled from a pot on the beach, a walk through the bush with someone who knows what every plant is for and who its people are.

We book experiences run by Māori operators on their own terms, and we brief you on how to turn up: as a guest, curious, on time, and with your phone away during the karakia.

Kayaking with dusky dolphins off Kaikōura, early, before the wind. Abel Tasman by water taxi in and on foot out. The Great Walks and the multi-day tracks, and the heli-hikes for the days you would rather not earn every metre. In Australia, Tasmania’s Overland Track or the Bay of Fires.

How to prepare

Fitness, honestly assessed. Gear that is right for a climate that changes in an hour. The Department of Conservation huts and how they are booked. Weather windows, and what happens when one closes. And the guiding partners who make a first multi-day walk achievable for people who have never carried a pack.

Two hikers on a swing bridge over a milky turquoise river in beech forest, seen from a distance

Luxury here means a cabin on a hillside where the only sound is water, a bath outside at first light, a kitchen that cooks what came in that morning. Retreats and lodges surrounded by the landscape rather than sealed from it, placed in the itinerary where the legs need them.

A timber and glass cabin above a sound at first light, an outdoor bath steaming on the deck

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Eat the country. Walk the country.

Food, both ends of the budget.

Low-key and local

Considered dining

Kai Māori.

Into the landscape.

How to prepare

Rest.

Tell us about your plans.