ZigZag Tours' groups are kept deliberately small, and participants choose the itinerary as they go.
When people imagine a tour through New Zealand, they’d likely picture coach services, strict timetables and the odd stop at a souvenir shop.
Yet a small company is reinventing what the great New Zealand road trip looks like, offering unique, off-the-beaten-track experiences for visitors after a taste of the country’s less sullied corners.
While larger tour operators dominate the tourism market, English-born Jemma Farrell and New Zealander Grant Dobson have bet on travellers wanting something unhurried and a little more personal.
ZigZag Tours was conceived in 2021, when the two co-founders were grounded in Aotearoa through Covid-19 and travel was off the table.
“We finally hit the road in 2024, and have now completed two seasons,” Farrell and Dobson told the Herald.
The pair met while Farrell was working as an overland tour guide in Africa, and their adventures through the continent, and Asia following, sparked their love for conscious travel – slowing down enough to notice the quirks taking place in the environment around them.
“We wanted something different – the kind of trip where you stop for the world-famous giant carrot, detour to a secret hot spring, or end up playing Mölkky in a campground with new mates.
“Travel, to us, isn’t about ticking boxes – it’s about zigging when everyone else zags.”
Their philosophy of embracing the unexpected and wayward trekking has, funnily enough, become their signature drawcard.
“Our whole ethos is that the best journeys are rarely straight lines.
“While other tours might stick to the main highways and a rigid timeline, we embrace the wiggles.”
The deviations have taken their groups everywhere from Bark-Up competitions in St Bathans to champagne sunsets in Hokitika.
The adventures are mostly smaller yet just as fulfilling, like meeting Henrietta the “bossy chicken” at Cable Bay in Nelson, or fending off cheeky West Coast weka intent on stealing campers’ pizza and cutlery.
ZigZag aims to court a demographic often overlooked by the tour industry – travellers 40 and above who “were being left out of the fun”, the co-founders said.
“These are people that are still fit, curious, and that crave an authentic connection – they don’t want to be herded around in large groups.”
ZigZag’s tour groups are kept deliberately small, usually less than a dozen, and participants help choose the itinerary as they go.
“Want to do a wine tour while others climb an alpine peak? Go for it. Prefer to chill with a book by a quiet lake while someone else jumps out of a plane? Perfect.”
Farrell and Dobson said the tours are about bringing “fun, flexibility and real experiences” to travellers’ itineraries.
Even with a largely international clientele, travellers continue to come back, with one Kiwi guest joining four separate times across the past two seasons.
“She signed up for a 17-day stint, then came back for another 31 days, returned for a two-day visit, and joined again for a 24-day period – and she’s still talking about coming back to complete the full journey,” they said.
“By the time a tour finishes, it’s less a tour group and more a travelling family.”
For a boutique operator working in a fiercely competitive sector, the challenge now will be sustaining growth while holding on to the intimacy that sets them apart.
But Farrell and Dobson believe their slow-paced, roaming expeditions are a window into the future of New Zealand tourism and what visitors want.
“Post-Covid, people are seeking freedom, real experiences, and meaningful connections more than ever, and nothing embodies that better than camping in nature,” they said.
“We see ourselves as part of a shift in Kiwi tourism, moving beyond cookie-cutter trips toward journeys that feel alive, personal, and authentically local.”
Tom Rose is an Auckland-based journalist who covers breaking news, specialising in lifestyle, entertainment and travel. He joined the Herald in 2023.
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