Join us for our new five-day 4WD tour to the vast landscapes of North Otago. This tour includes a guided trip up the Godley River beside Lake Tekapo, 3 days with our local Maniototo guide who will tell us all the history and local tales. 4WDing on historic trails with views over the vast plateaus of Otago including the Hawkdun Range. We visit two well-known Merino farms, the Pool Burn Dam, the Vulcan Hotel at St Bathans, the Hayes Engineering Works and try your hand at the ancient game of curling in Nasby at the international curling rink and enjoy lunch on a family farm. We will stay at Omarama, Danseys Pass Hotel and Wedderburn Cottages. A tour not to be missed. Two-way radios supplied.
Meet in Tekapo, tour finishes in Middlemarch Otago.
12:30 PM
To confirm your place, you will need to fill in our Booking Form and Memorandum of Understanding document and return it to us and pay a $300 per person deposit.
We can send you an invoice with bank details for online banking or we can process Visa or Master Card credit cards either give us a phone call with your details or fill in your card details on your booking form. We will send you a receipt and pre-trip documents detailing what to bring, departure times etc.
Cancellations
Deposits are non-refundable but can be transferred to another tour. Final payment is due one month prior to your tour commencement. For cancellations received after final payment has been made there will be no refund. We understand that cancellations can occur due to illness or unexpected events therefore we recommend that you take out comprehensive travel insurance. Itinerary, pricing and all terms and conditions are subject to change without notice.
12.30pm After you’ve had a bite of lunch, meet your lead guide and vehicle in Tekapo, before commencing our high-country 4WD trip with local guide to follow him up the Cass Valley northwest of Lake Tekapo via Glenmore Station.
Enjoy getting into some spectacular South Island scenery, views of the Hall Range immediately below Rankin Pass, and the nearby Huxley Glacier.
The route up the Cass Valley passes close to the Glenmore homestead and works its way up the braided Cass River named for Thomas Cass, Chief Surveyor of Canterbury Province from 1851 to 1867.
After the tour we drive to Omarama for the night.
Inclusions: D
After a farm style breakfast, we drive through Lindis Pass into Clyde, down through the Manuherikia Valley to St Bathan Vulcan Hotel for lunch.
Meet up with our local guide for the next couple of days. From here we will travel into the heart of Maniototo for a farm tour at a merino stud one of New Zealand’s top studs.
We then make our way to Danseys Pass Hotel and a lovely meal at the historic hotel.
Inclusions: B, D
After breakfast we start our 4X4 drive with our local guide for the day through the Hawkdun Range stopping in Nasby to try your hand at old Scottish game of curling.
From Nasby we make our way to the Wedderburn Lodge and Cottages for a two-night stay and dinner at the Wedderburn Hotel.
Inclusions: B L D
Travelling from Wedderburn we make our way down through the small farming settlement of Oturehua to the Hayes engineering plant for morning tea and a tour of the historic site.
Making our way down the Ida Valley to Moa Creek and onto the old Dunstan Trail, past the Poolburn Dam and back into the Maniototo Valley for a farm tour, dinner out in Naseby tonight.
Inclusions: B L D
After breakfast departing to head south to Paerau past Ranfurly then onto the Old Dunstan Trail between the Rock and Pillar Range and Lammermoore Range. We will have lunch with a family on their farm near Middlemarch
The tour finishes by 1. 30pm after lunch in Middlemarch, it is a five-hour drive to Christchurch via Mc Craes Road to Palmerston then SHW 1 north.
Inclusions: B L.
Group 4WD tour Tekapo to Middlemarch in March 2025, and we really enjoyed it (I loved loved the accommodation that was picked and the little tours of the merino station and the lunch at Middlemarch, I really enjoyed the local aspect to it all, for the men it was all about the drive lol but I really did enjoy the places we stayed and people we got to meet.
We did have a wonderful and interesting tour last week. Garry and I felt we were very well looked after all the way through
our journey in unknown beautiful areas to us.
The favourite places were Dansey Hotel and drive to Vulcan Hotel. The Blue Lake and surrounds amazing. Also our more testing drive
which our tour guides drove us though was really interesting and spectacular, scenery something we will never see again.
The guides were a wealth of knowledge.
We will certainly remember this fantastic tour and will pass the message around friends and family.
We thoroughly enjoyed our trip with Geoff and especially the knowledge and history from George.
For us the farm visits were a highlight the Merino rams in the state of the art woolshed and Simons involvement with Devold was very interesting.
We especially enjoyed the farm tours and the experience of staying and dining in the Danseys Pass hotel and all of the other historic places. Loved the curling challenge.
The Mt Buster road drive was exceptional and memorable.
We thoroughly enjoyed travelling with our group and had a lot of fun.
Will definitely recommend your trip to friends and family.
Very enjoyable trip again thanks. Having local guides was a bonus.
Wonderful part of the country.
Tom and I really enjoyed the trip again. Being farmers and an engineer really enjoyed the Marino stations and Hayes Engineering where everyone went out of their way to fill us in with the details. That was also true with George and the other guide up Cass river giving us all the local knowledge. good. The other members of the party were all good fun too.
Lodgings were excellent, very classy.
Thanks to you both for good experience,
