MoaTours is a family business offering small group tours throughout New Zealand, founded in 1971, and still owned by the same family today.
All Kiwis know there are so many absolutely magical spots all over the country, so back in 1971 we decided to share our favourite places with visitors by starting guided tours. In those days MoaTrek focused on backpacker trips and our first ever tour welcomed a group of Aussie travellers keen to explore New Zealand.
As we continued running backpacker tours, pretty soon we knew everyone all around the country, and our tours became super popular.
Fast forward to today, we still visit the same amazing places but these days our guests can happily rest in comfort at the end of each day in hotels instead of pitching a tent and pumping up an air mattress! While our tours have matured, our love for sharing our favourite New Zealand holiday spots with travellers remains. We still visit lots of places today that we did in the 1970s!
We’re actively exploring new itineraries and refining our current offerings to ensure that MoaTours travellers’ experience is unsurpassed in New Zealand small group touring. It’s the unforgettable magic that happens on every trip – when a group of travellers comes together to share a once in a lifetime experience – that keeps us inspired and coming back for more, year after year.
See MoaTours in action in the 1970s:
We’ve been showing off the best parts of New Zealand since the 1970s, take a look at one of our earliest videos.
What’s a Moa?
Unique to New Zealand, Moa lived for 60 million years in a lush, peaceful and primeval landscape until the end of the 13th century. Like the Kiwi, Moa couldn’t fly – instead, they walked everywhere. Unfortunately, they were no match for the Maori, the new migrants to New Zealand, who saw them as a tasty, easy-to-catch resource and didn’t hesitate to put them on the menu and make cloaks from their feathers. Now extinct, these birds once came in several sizes – from small (1.3m tall) to very big (2m tall and weighing 250kgs).
