Koru Scenic Tours

01/12/2024

Christie Falls, on Falls Creek, drop down right beside the Milford Rd, in the Upper Hollyford Valley.
On this occasion, the water level was moderate, resulting in translucent green waters in the pools at the base of the falls.
Our Japanese clients were amazed at how clear and green the water was!

27/11/2024

Last night we posted about our Japanese tour group enjoying a day walk on the Milford Track, courtesy of our friends at Fiordland Outdoors.

What we didn't mention was the Cruise Milford experience the day before, on Milford Sound. Their experience was almost over before it began though, thanks to a massive tree blocking the road at Cascade Creek. We almost didn't make it to the boat in time!

We sailed with Cruise Milford on their 2:45pm sailing on Monday afternoon ( we made it with less than 5 minutes to spare). Our skipper managed to find dolphins, seals, and penguins, for the trifecta 😊 . Four super happy Japanese ladies!

We have to admit that it more than made up for a super stressful drive from Cascade Creek into Milford Sound.

We capped off our day, on the return, with stops at Monkey Creek (we just had to sample that pure Fiordland water), and Falls Creek / Christie Falls on the side of the Milford Road, in the Upper Hollyford Valley. Magic.

27/11/2024

Will they enjoy their day?
-----‐--------------
Update: yes, yes they did! 😊

24/11/2024

Currently on tour with a group of Japanese ladies.
Overcast when we arrived at Mt Cook last night, but this morning is looking fab!

30/10/2024

Courtesy of our friends at See New Zealand, this beautiful wee video perfectly outlines why we chose the Koru as our business name and logo 😊

29/09/2024

Goodness me. It's turning into a bit of a Conservation crusade today!

Once again some irresponsible clown has driven their quadbike through a protected bird nesting site in Kaikoura, despite signs, and more, discouraging the practice.

I'm extremely disappointed by this arrogant person's actions, and hope they feel ashamed of themselves! 😡

Better still; I hope a family member or friend in the know feels guilty and pots them!

There's "absolute outrage" in the community and calls for quad bikes to be banned from beaches following the deaths.

28/09/2024

Don't know who the degenerates are that did this, but I sincerely hope you get your comeuppance. 😡

28/09/2024

28/09/2024

Despite the opinions of certain politicians who firmly believe that the Department of Conservation's so called "Stewardship Land" is effectively wasteland and ripe for plundering by commercial interests, primarily industrial mining, I personally agree whole wholeheartedly with the author of this well written piece regarding Stewardship land as being Conservation land. Just because it's not yet been "classified" by Department of Conservation does not automatically render it "free for the taking" [plundering], as our resource minister, Shane Jones seems hell-bent on doing.

https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/350429450/conservation-myth-some-cant-seem-shake?cx_testId=3&cx_testVariant=cx_1&cx_artPos=7&utm_source=localised_module

IMHO this land needs the same, full, legal protections as Conservation Reserves at a minimum, and preferably National Park protection levels. Even the Department of Conservation's own officials would seem to recognise that more than half of this so called "Stewardship Land" is worthy of full protection, for multiple reasons. So, place full protections on this land. Once this land's value has been sorted through, then it can be downgraded if it's deemed unsuitable, not the other way round. Once it's gone, it's gone, but minister Jones and his ilk couldn't careless. Or so it would appear.

ANALYSIS: A mistaken belief has arisen that large parts of the conservation state are “wasteland” or “detritus”. Under this Government, it could have consequences.

18/07/2024

Welcome to the West Coast's Lake Brunner-Moana, just a short drive from Greymouth!

This is an older clip, filmed on location a wee while ago now, but I thought I'd dig it out and share it anyway 😀

It's also on the radar as a destination/stop-over for our scenic tours.

26/04/2024

It seems to me, that some tourists have absolutely no sense of decorum when visting overseas locations (and sometimes even in their own country!).

Regardless of where you are, please be aware of local laws, and customs.

There's too many travelling to various locations and doing "dumb s**t" that they likely wouldn't do at home.

Please, please, please, have a little more decorum and common sense, than these folks did! 😡

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/350258439/very-sickening-naked-tourists-anger-african-nation

Images of naked tourists on top of a famous landmark have caused anger and condemnation.

14/04/2024

Doing "the rounds" with our good friends at NZ Look Shuttles this morning, we stopped to watch Singapore Airlines A350-900 flight SQ297 on finals and landing at Christchurch Airport. Very cool!

13/04/2024

NZTA text scam doing the rounds again! 🤬 FFS don't click any links if you do get this. Luckily for me I didn't. I've also reported it directly to NZTA.

22/03/2024

Sat 23rd March, and we're down at the Aidanfield Christian School Fair promoting our tours.

We'll be down here until about 2:00pm today, so if you're in Southwest Christchurch, pop on in and say hello.

You could also buy a voucher for our Half Day Tours from the voucher wall / auction!

16/03/2024

Shout out to my newest followers! Excited to have you onboard!

Val Ferreira, Zaw Htun

29/02/2024

The Lyttelton Tunnel is such an icon and important transport route for our city. Hard to believe its been around for 60 years!

The tunnel features in a number of our tours, including our half-day Sumner-Godley Head, and half day Lyttelton Harbour tours, and Full-Day Akaroa Tour.

Today marks 60 years since the Lyttelton Tunnel first opened on State Highway 74 in Christchurch.

It was built for £2.7 million in 1964 and held the record for the longest road tunnel in the country until the opening of Waterview Tunnel in Auckland in 2017.

Having Lyttelton Tunnel meant the Port Hills were no longer a barrier to road transport. Christchurch and Lyttelton were originally connected by a zigzag path, then a tortuous hilly road, a railway tunnel, and finally a road tunnel—114 years after the first organised settlement.

In 1965, around 2800 vehicles travelled through the tunnel each day. These days, over 11,000 vehicles travel through the tunnel daily, including around 1200 heavy commercial vehicles—underlining the tunnel’s importance as a key freight route.

29/02/2024

Shout out to my newest followers! Excited to have you onboard!

Ruben De Praetere, Vijender Sharma, Frank Bass, Ricardo Vasquez, Kollar Richard, Boneta Scholz, Armando Valbuena, Bonnie Reed, Rebecca Wood, Alice Sprinkle, Cats Rule

24/02/2024

Safely completed our tour back in Christchurch late yesterday afternoon after 8 days and just over 2300km on road: Queenstown > Mt Cook (x2 nights) > Christchurch > Punakaiki (via Greymouth and the TranzAlpine train) > Nelson > Blenheim > Kaikoura > Christchurch