Know where to look
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Rainforest, coast and wild kiwi — an hour from downtown Auckland.
Beyond the city, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland changes completely. Kauri rainforest, waterfalls, black-sand beaches, a wildlife sanctuary, vineyards and kiwi.
Your guide, Paul, knows where to look and will show you the places most visitors never reach.
Each tour is private and is shaped around your group - the walks, the pace, the activities, the food.
[ About ]■
Our Tours
Tahi
Rainforest. Waterfalls. Black-sand coast.
WAITĀKERE RANGES & WEST COAST · 36.9°S 174.5°E
Kauri forest, native birds, waterfalls and the black-sand beaches of Karekare and Piha.
NZ$750 per adult
7.5 hours · Private – just your group
Rua
Birdlife. Beaches. Food and wine. Wild kiwi.
TĀWHARANUI & MATAKANA · 36.4°S 174.8°E
A native bird sanctuary, white-sand beaches and rolling farmland alongside the food and wine country around Matakana – with the chance to look for wild kiwi after dark.
NZ$850 per adult for day tour · NZ$950 per adult for the afternoon / evening tour (including guided kiwi walk)
8.5 hours · Private – just your group
Before you go.
We talk. What sort of day you want, who’s coming, what you’d love to see. The route gets built around that.
Pick up.
Anywhere in Auckland - hotel, Airbnb, airport, cruise ship. Nobody else in the vehicle.
The day.
Paul guides it and it changes as you go. Walk further or stop for coffee. Swim, eat well and spend longer somewhere you love.
Drop off.
Dropped back wherever you started or wherever you’re going next.
A picnic is included and it’s worth stopping for
Local cheeses, fresh bread, cured meats, seasonal fruit — laid out beside a waterfall, on the beach, or under the forest canopy, wherever the day's route and the weather make sense.
Lunch on the day tours, dinner before the kiwi walk. Dietary requirements are catered for —just tell us when you book.
If you'd rather, we'll build a restaurant into the day instead: a winery lunch, a brewery with good local food or fine dining on the coast.
Hidden until someone knew where to look
In 1898 the takahē was declared extinct. Fifty years later, a doctor from Invercargill who refused to believe it, walked into a remote valley in Fiordland and found them. The birds had been there all along.
There are around 500 takahē alive today with four of them living at Tāwharanui.
Auckland has a few places like that - worth the trip, easy to miss and better with a guide that knows the way.
Your guide is Paul
Owner of Takahē Adventures, Auckland local and lover of the outdoors.
I’m Paul and I started Takahē Adventures because I wanted to show visitors the Auckland I know.
The rainforest tracks. The black-sand beaches. The quiet corners of Tāwharanui. The places to stop for a good coffee and the food worth going out of your way for.
I run one tour a day, so the guide you book is the guide you get. Tell me what sort of day you want and I’ll shape it around you.
Leave a place better than you found it.
The landscapes we explore are home to some of Aotearoa’s most important native species.
We follow kauri dieback hygiene protocols, stay on formed tracks and operate a strict leave-no-trace approach.
We make a donation to the Tāwharanui Open Sanctuary Society Inc. for every Rua tour and for every person that does kiwi spotting with us.
Your day out can help protect the place you’re visiting.
Come and explore the places most visitors miss.
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