Queenstown guided walks company goes 'Wild'

A Queenstown-based tourism company that has taken visitors on guided walks in New Zealand for more than 140 years has gone ‘wild’ – with a new guided interactive survival experience.

Guided Nature Walks has torn a leaf out of the book of famous survival TV celebrities and launched their own version - ‘You vs Wild’, a trip that’s nothing like a walk in the park.

Led by former UK bodyguard and survival expert Peter Hitchman, the trip gives clients a taste of what it's like to survive off the land, with nothing but a knife, a few things they might have on their person, or items previously discarded by others.

“It’s been an absolutely huge success,” said Mr Hitchman, who worked alongside two former SAS soldiers in his job looking after a UK pop group in the ‘80s.

“When we worked with the group, playing survival ‘games’ in the forests and mountains at any given opportunity was our way of letting off steam,” he said.

“When I came to New Zealand 15 years ago I used some of those skills and formalised them at the Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre and as the senior Outdoor Instructor for the Christchurch YMCA, where I led survival camps for teenagers and corporate groups.

“Now I take people out into some stunning back-country and on a half day walk introduce clients to the wilderness of Aotearoa, teach them how to make a fire, how to build a bivouac shelter, what plants are safe to eat, how to make pain relief, how to find north the ‘celestial’ way and how to harvest and filter water so that it's safe to drink.

“These are just a few of the skills you’d need to stay alive if for whatever reason you were caught out in the wilderness, and it’s amazing just how much fun people are having.”

Mr Hitchman, who owns Guided Nature Walks with wife Karyn, said he believed the trip was the only interactive survival experience on offer in New Zealand.

“Whether we’re taking out a corporate group or a gang of ten-year-old’s celebrating a birthday party, young or old, they have the best fun they’ve had in years if you ask them to light a fire with two bits of wood, or make a trap to catch an animal.

“We can even take them up beyond the snowline and help them build a snow cave for the ultimate in winter survival lessons.”

The walks run twice a day, year-round, and there is even the option to do a ‘Drop Zone’ trip with Queenstown helicopter company Heli Tours.

After flying across Lake Wakatipu, clients are literally ‘dropped’ into their location in a remote valley, deep in the wilderness, and left to find their way back to civilisation with their guide.

“The Heli Tours pilot is highly trained and knows this environment like the back of his hand, which is just as well as he has to descend and hover above the ground as you perform a ‘hover exit’ just like in the TV show,” said Mr Hitchman.

Full details of both trips can be found on www.nzwalks.com or www.youvswild.co.nz



About Guided Walks New Zealand Ltd

Peter and Karyn Hitchman have been guiding and instructing in the mountains and forests of New Zealand for over a decade, taking groups deep into the lush forests and high above the snow line into the pristine, untouched world of the alpine region. They have a vast knowledge of the flora, fauna, history and geology of this beautiful region.  With the on-going assistance of Richard Bryant, a fourth generation Queenstown local and the pioneer of Guided Walks New Zealand, they have a huge source of information and history that is unavailable anywhere else.

Guided Walks New Zealand is the only company permitted to guide ‘off track’, and it specialises in knowledge of edible and medicinal plants used by Maori and the pioneers of New Zealand. The company’s local, friendly and knowledgeable guides ensure guests have the time to enjoy the whole experience nature has provided.  Guided Nature Walks is the original guiding company in Queenstown and possibly New Zealand – guiding since 1868.