The tour was fantastic! Nearly always up-side-down from the mainstream way of doing it.
Baggant, Australia
If you took the whole of Norway, scrunched it up a bit, shook out all the moose and reindeer, hurled it ten thousand miles around the world and filled it with birds then you'd be wasting your time, because it looks very much as if someone has already done it. Welcome to New Zealand.
Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See
Our Story
Why do we do what we do?
We enjoy it. We get to meet fantastic people from a variety of backgrounds and we take them on a journey through our beautiful country.
Our guides don’t try to impress you with their superhuman qualities (not even our superhuman guides). Instead, they want to show you the real New Zealand – the serene, the thunderous, the quaint, and the surreal.
We don’t take shortcuts. Instead, we follow the winding road to the places others don’t go. Sure, sometimes we hang out at a popular spot but when we do, we make an effort to be there during ‘quiet’ times. We also feel there is no better way to explore than under your own steam, which is why we choose to hike, kayak, and hop around. That’s what makes our trips different – we are a small group of like-minded individuals exploring the vast wilderness that makes New Zealand unique. Everyone is involved in the trip. Mutual work, mutual respect, mutual help; it’s just the kiwi way of doing things.
It’s important to enjoy your job because it shapes who you are. We count ourselves among the lucky ones. We deal with people from all around the world and a day at work, whether guiding, talking on the phone, helping out with problems, or painting a trailer orange, makes us happy. And it shows.
In 1998, when the New Zealand Wildlife Research Fund was established, we put money back into conservation by donating NZ$10 from every ticket we sold. Since then, we have made a substantial contribution to conservation research. We have also contributed to the Whale and Dolphin Trust on their Hectors dolphin research.
We are a small company and we like it that way.
Our story
Malcolm O’Neill started Active Earth in the mid-1990s. Even before he could walk, Malcolm was being carried through New Zealand wilderness in a pack on his father’s back. Since those early days, he has hiked, climbed, and cycled throughout New Zealand and in many exotic locations worldwide. He squeezed in time to get a BSc in physical geography and co-authored a popular guidebook, Classic New Zealand Adventures. It wasn’t a surprise, considering his passion for the outdoors, when Malcolm joined Mark (the founder of Hiking New Zealand) and began running North Island adventure tours in the summer of 1994/95. Based on African-style safaris, the trips were designed to take small groups into the remote backcountry of New Zealand. These safaris have been modified over time and new trips added as Active Earth New Zealand has evolved.
Nowadays, we have a bigger office, a dedicated customer support team, very confusing guide schedules, and trips all over New Zealand. But we still have the same set of simple values as we did back in 1994. It’s the kiwi way of doing things.
The team
If you contact us there is a good chance you will talk to Glenys, Anne or Dan. They keep us all organised and running smoothly.
Like Glenys, Anne and Dan, many of our team are multi-talented and some still do a mix of guiding and customer service. If you ask them a question they can draw from their own invaluable experience as a guide, a climber or trekker.
Lastly a huge thank you
To the team who have done this major facelift on the website (completed September 2007). Cam for his massive work hours on both the original site and this one, Jon for the tricky CSS stuff, Greg for the php submission pages (and face-saving observant comments way beyond his brief), Ali for most of the content and tireless management, Tara for the main edit and tongue-biting at the low standard of English in things I wrote, Ron for her fab design as always, Nick Groves who kindly let us use for free a few of his photos, Mike for rescuing us when no one else could on those astounding ie7 bugs (talk about a timely new friend!), and finally to Jaron who was the source of many of those fantastic quotes (I still haven't collected some for you mate - sorry).
You guys are all stars, thanks for helping us way beyond what you thought you were in for - Malcolm.