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The Mesopotamia High Country Walk
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DO NOT Miss This Tour!
The Mesopotamia High Country Walk
is an awe-inspiring four day fully guided walking tour to some of the most remote parts of the Canterbury High Country. “High Country” is a New Zealand term for the elevated pastoral land found in the shadow of our mountain ranges, an area of low rainfall, cold winters and warm summers, huge isolated tracts of land settled and now farmed by a few hardy souls. It is a region of high mountains, wide braided rivers and golden tussock lands, a true lost world and one that will captivate you with its grandeur and unspoilt beauty.
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Your walking tour focuses on Mesopotamia Station, the high country farm originally established by the English writer Samuel Butler in 1860. Butler was the son of a clergyman and destined to follow in his father’s footsteps, however he resisted and emigrated to New Zealand, choosing the life of a high country sheep farmer instead. This experience was to form the basis of his most famous literary work “Erewhon”.
Mesopotamia Station was purchased in 1945 by the Prouting Family, the current owners who have been farming here for several generations.
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Join your local walking guide to explore this historic station, and its surrounding trails. This is not a public trail; we walk over farm tracks, paddocks and tussock lands as we explore the station. Walks can include some hill climbs, small stream or creek crossings and walking on varied and uneven terrain, so is classified moderate.
The Mesopotamia High Country Walk incorporates walks to sites of historical and natural significance such as the final resting place of New Zealand’s Colonial Secretary, Dr Andrew Sinclair. Dr Sinclair was surveying the region with Julius von Haast in 1861 and drowned in the Rangitata River trying to get back to Butlers homestead at Mesopotamia. We also visit Peel Forest Reserve, where you can see first-hand,remnants of a lush forest of podocarps and ferns that once covered much of Canterbury and we walk to Mystery Lake and Mount Sunday (time permitting) a location well known to fans of the “Lord of the Rings” movies.
Be inspired by stories of hardship and survival, explore the land New Zealand’s pioneers fought to tame, and enjoy the peace and isolation of one of this country’s most iconic high country farms on the Mesopotamia High Country Walk - the true Middle Earth walking experience.
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Thrill - Seekers Could Soon Ride the Clouds
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‘Wingboarding’ is a new type of adventure sport that will soon be made available to thrill seekers around the world.
Developed by Wyp Aviation, a startup company trying to “take aviation to the next level”, the WingBoard provides riders with a stable platform that flies through the air rather than falling towards the ground.
It’s sort of a cross between skysurfing and wake boarding and involves surfing through the sky on a board while being towed by a plane. The daredevil stunt is meant to emulate the comic book superhero Silver Surfer, who can travel through space on his surfboard shaped craft.
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BOOK NOW
for next season!
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West Coast Wilderness Trail
Alps 2 Ocean Cycle Trail
The Tasman Great Taste Trail and Golden Bay Explorer
Otago Rail Trail
Queenstown Cycle Trail
Hanmer Cycle Trail
Tekapo Canal Trail
Kaikoura Trail
Keneperu Trail
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Akaroa Walk
Mesopotamia High Country Walk
West Coast Trail
Queen Charlotte Walk
Queen Charlotte Walk / Cruise
Kaikoura Trail
The Keneperu Trail
Franz Josef Trail
Abel Tasman Walk - 3 Days
Abel Tasman Walk - 5 Days
Abel Tasman Walk/Kayak - 3 Days
Abel Tasman Walk/Kayak - 5 Days
Coromandel Explorer
Tongariro Crossing
Lake Waikaremoana Great Walk
Hump Ridge Track
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Be assured of your place on one of our exciting tours for the 2017/2018 season.
Call us now
New Zealand: 0800 377 378
Australia: 1 800 044 633
World: +64 3 962 3280
Email
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Smart Pen Scans and Replicates Any Colour on Earth
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The Scribble Pen is one of those awesome things that exist in our imagination, but that we never expect to actually become a reality. This high tech pen lets you draw in any colour imaginable just by scanning things around you.
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‘The world’s first colour picking pen’ incorporates a colour sensor and microprocessor to detect and process whatever colour you want to replicate. All you have to do is place the top of the Scribble Pen - where the sensor is located – on the object, flower or anything else that you want to scan, and the device will copy its exact colour.
As am example: if
you want to draw in the exact red shade of a beautiful rose, or the vibrant green of a certain tree leaf, all you have to do is scan it with the Scribble Pen and you’re good to go.
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The Alps 2 Ocean
Cycle Trail
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From The Mountains To The Sea
Explore the new Alps 2 Ocean Cycle trail which is regarded as one of the best New Zealand cycling tours available, giving cyclists access to some of the South Island's most dramatic scenery and legendary country hospitality, food and accommodation.
See the stunning tussock alpine region of the Southern Alps with its snow capped peaks, breathtaking views of Aoraki/Mt Cook - New Zealand’s highest mountain, golden highlands, sparkling turquoise lakes, glacier-carved valleys and the Waitaki Valley with its hydro-lakes – Benmore Aviemore and Waitaki.
The
Alps 2 Ocean
cycling tour
meets increasingly lush farmland as it reaches the lower Waitaki Valley, dotted with vineyards, a lavender farm, Māori rock art and oddly shaped Elephant Rocks, as well as a tunnel which the cycle tour passes through as it follows the path of an old railway line through to Oamaru and the harbour park alongside the town’s magnificent Victorian Precinct right on the Pacific Ocean.
The spectacular 270km Alps 2 Ocean cycling tour descends 780 metres on a ride with a moderate grade. The terrain varies, with easy riding on canal paths, quiet country roads, old railway lines and expertly cut cross-country tracks.
Alps 2 Ocean has been picked as one of the world's top 16 attractions by Frommer's Travel Guides. The reputed travel publisher describes the trail as "stunning and cheerfully hospitable", and setting the "perfect standard for awesome".
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World’s Largest Bullhorns
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Frankly I can’t imagine how hard it must be for this fella to keep his head up with these things.
This is Lurch, the proud bearer of the world’s largest horns.
Lurch is a Watusi bull, whose horns measure 92.25 cm and weigh more than 50kgs each.
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He’s quite the attraction at the animal shelter where he lives and his favourite pastime is acting as bodyguard for a crippled horse that’s always being harassed by the other horses.
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Beauty That Can Never Be Tamed
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The Heaphy Track at the top of the South is one of 10 official New Zealand Great Walks, and is considered by many to be the most beautiful.
Sometimes wild and lonely, sometimes lush and scenic, the track covers 78 km from Collingwood in Golden Bay, to Karamea on the West Coast. There’s pounding surf, rivers, rimu forest, tussock land, stunning nikau palms, and classic back country huts.
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Walk with an expert local guide in this beautiful part of the country.The bird life features a roll call of New Zealand’s iconic birds, including kiwi, alpine parrots (kea), rare whistling blue ducks (whio), moreporks (owls/ruru) and bellbirds.You'll cross the Kahurangi National Park ('Kahurangi' in Maori means 'treasured possession').
You'll stay in comfortable trampers' huts and be lulled to sleep with birdsong. The walk is fully guided, so walk, relax, and enjoy!
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102 Year Old Student Proves You’re Never to Old to Learn
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Ma Xiuxian never had the opportunity to attend school, as a child, but she is making up for that in her later years.
The 102-year old Chinese woman, from Jinan, Shandong province, began working at a cotton mill, at the age of 13, and married when she was only 18. She gave birth to nine children, seven of which attended universities. Her children remember Ma Xiuxian and her husband making great sacrifices in order to support their studies, but never got the chance to fulfil her own dream, of going to school, for the first time.
After being interviewed by a local newspaper, and revealing her dream, Ma Xiuxian was invited to the Weishan Road Elementary School, to attend her first class. Equipped with a schoolbag and a large magnifying glass (for reading), Ma entered the class to the applause of her primary school classmates. The 102-year-old student commented she was very proud to be able to go to school, and that she will study hard to bring her contribution to the motherland.
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Paparoa Track and Pike29 Memorial Track
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A new Great Walk through the spectacular limestone landscapes and luxuriant forests of Paparoa National Park will be a memorial to the 29 men who died as a result of the Pike River Mine disaster on 19 November 2010.
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The new 65 km Great Walk will be an amazing journey by foot or mountain bike through diverse awe-inspiring environments.
The Paparoa Track will cross the Paparoa Ranges between Blackball and Punakaiki. The Pike29 Memorial Track will connect the Paparoa Track with the Pike River Mine site.
It will be a 2–3 day walk or an advanced-level 1–2 day mountain bike ride. The track will be open all year for mountain biking. Two new high standard 20-bunk huts will be built, the Moonlight Tops Hut and the Pororari Hut above the junction with Tindale Creek.
The new Great Walk begins at the Blackball end on the existing Croesus Track, an old miners’ track with remnants of the area’s gold mining history. A short way off the main track at Garden Gully, an old quartz crushing battery can be seen and a miners’ hut reveals what life was like for the miners.
The track route goes through rich beech and podocarp forest and over open tops of alpine scrub and tussock.
It will provide breathtaking views to the Southern Alps/Kā Tiritiri o te Moana and over the Tasman Sea and passes towering escarpments alongside the Pike basin before descending to the west off the Paparoa Range.
Nearing Punakaiki, the track passes through beech forest interspersed with northern rātā, dramatic limestone terrain including the striking Pororari River Gorge, and coastal forest with glades of nīkau palms.
The track will traverse areas inhabited by remnant populations of threatened species including roroa/great spotted kiwi, kea, kākā, whio/blue duck, mātā/fernbird and koekoeā/long-tailed cuckoo. The park is also home to the Paparoa Range alpine snail (Powelliphanta gagei).
Construction of the new Great Walk will start in 2017 and it is aimed for it to open at the end of 2018.
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Tuatara Tours is a major concessionaire to the Department of Conservation and contributes to the funding of ongoing research in conservation.
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Tuatara Tours NZ Ltd - Ground Floor - 148 Victoria Street
Christchurch 8013
New Zealand
POSTAL ADDRESS
Tuatara Tours NZ Ltd - PO Box 13544
Christchurch 8141
New Zealand
PHONE
New Zealand: 0800 377 378 - Australia: 1 800 044 633
World: +64 3 962 3280
EMAIL
info@tuataratours.co.nz
WEB
www.tuataratours.co.nz
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