Eco-tour & farm visit in Auckland, New Zealand

Highly rated on Tripadvisor, this Ecotour is owned & operated by NZ & Maori hosts. Explore West Auckland's countryside where our family has lived since 1922, with all tours coming to our sheep farm and historic Homestead for afternoon tea.

Personalised, and in small groups, this ‘true’ Eco-tour comprises nature, culture, environmental and conservation aspects outlined in T.I.E.S. (The International Ecotourism Society) of which we are members, and as local operators, we guide you around the region where we live. You'll visit our own sheep farm & tour our working woolshed, and be able to talk to real New Zealand farmers as we enjoy afternoon tea inside our typical family home.

Innovators of ‘Help the Planet’, you can support this topical approach to vacationing and have the opportunity to offset the tour’s emissions, through purchasing and planting a New Zealand native tree.

Tour outline:

FULL day tour starts at 9.30am

We pick you up from your inner Auckland city hotel.

With full commentary along the journey, we will head up into the Waitakere Ranges, Auckland’s rainforest region. Here is the Arataki Information Centre 450m above sea-level with panoramic views of Auckland and the surrounding countryside. Arataki means ‘place of learning’ and we are one of the few tour operators who give an in-depth guided tour through the centre.

After a scenic drive through the rainforest, we stop at a craft market called Craftworld, where you will get the chance to do some serious shopping for genuine New Zealand products. Many of the items are one-offs, which you won’t find in the souvenir shops. Toilets and free tea/coffee here, we will stay at the market for around 1/2 hour. If you are not into crafts there are many other shops to see!

We then make a move to do wine tasting at an award-winning winery. The region of Kumeu, (the original commercial wine producing area in New Zealand), is steeped in history which we will tell you about.

Next, it will be time for lunch (which is included, along with wine/beer if liked), and is your choice of a meal from the upmarket café menu.

The tour then continues to the organic honey centre of BeesOnline, where you can sample many varieties of pure New Zealand honey as well as purchase exciting honey products.

Leaving BeesOnline we steer further westward towards the Muriwai beach, a black iron-sand beach, known for being one of the very few places in the world where the takapu (gannet) nest on the mainland. Your guide, Stuart Hamilton, will take you on a guided walk and you will also be given the opportunity to stroll along the beach by yourself, enjoying the beautiful landscape.

Just 7 minutes away from Muriwai beach is our sheep farm, where Donna will welcome you – in Maori - into our historic Homestead (a typical “Kiwi” home and a Colonial-style house). At the farm you can take in the New Zealand lifestyle as you will be shown around the grounds, being able to feed and pet our sheep and see our other animals and birds. We will be walking through our New Zealand native garden, with a newly planted fruit orchard, on the way over to the woolshed for a display on wool and sheep farming.

You'll have the opportunity to offset your tour's emissions by planting a Native tree for our unique-to-Auckland tree planting project, (certificates issued & trees tagged and protected by NZ Government Law, for ever). It’s then back to the Homestead to freshen-up and experience a homemade afternoon tea of New Zealand’s most famous dessert; the Pavlova. You can round off the day relaxing by a nice warm fire, or sitting in the cool of our conservatory, reflecting on the impressions of the day before we make our return back to the city.

Coast to Coast Tours began operating in 2002.

Since May ’08 the company has been rated Auckland’s No1 attraction on Tripadvisor.

Owner/operator’s, Stuart and Donna Hamilton (who have two grown daughters), are based at their sheep farm in West Auckland, which has been in the family since 1922. Today, their land has been reduced to 100 acres and carries 500 sheep and is farmed by the Hamilton’s themselves. Stuart has been a sheep farmer on this farm all of his working life. Donna is of Ngai Tahu Maori descent, adores animals and loves sharing them with their visitors.

During the Hamilton’s family travels they noticed an absence of tours (especially in the Auckland region) where you interacted with locals and experienced their lifestyle. They decided to start an eco tour, and founded Coast to Coast Tours. Since their start 7 seven years ago Stuart and Donna have hosted people from many parts of the world such as United States, Japan, Australia, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, China, Thailand, Philippines, India, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Korea, Russia, Germany, Spain, Denmark and the United Kingdom, and more people keep on coming, adding to their already extensive list!