Travel Lightly, Love Aotearoa: Sustainable Travel in New Zealand

Chosen theme: Sustainable Travel in New Zealand. Step into Aotearoa with curiosity and care, where every choice—how you move, eat, sleep, and connect—can protect wild coasts, ancient forests, and welcoming communities. Subscribe for mindful routes, real stories, and practical, low-impact inspiration.

Understand the Tiaki Promise

The Tiaki Promise asks visitors to care for Aotearoa by driving safely, protecting nature, respecting culture, and treading lightly. Read it before you arrive, then tell us one small action you’ll take that makes an outsized difference.

Kaitiakitanga in Daily Choices

Kaitiakitanga means guardianship. Choose boardwalks over shortcuts, refill your bottle, sort recycling, and support conservation projects. Share a moment when you paused on a track, listened to birdsong, and decided to leave a place even better.

Eat Local, Waste Less

Markets, Seasonality, and Stories

Browse weekend markets for feijoas, kūmara, artisan bread, and manuka honey. Chat with growers about seasons, soil, and rainfall. Tell us your favorite stall, recipe inspiration, and how buying local deepened your sense of place.

Refill and Reuse Everywhere

Carry a bottle and find RefillNZ stations, pack a collapsible coffee cup, and bring lightweight containers for takeaway. Share how many single-use items you avoided in a week and inspire others to beat your record.

Zero-Waste Trail Snacks

Choose unpackaged fruit, bulk nuts, and homemade sandwiches wrapped in beeswax. Compost where facilities exist and pack out everything else. Post your go-to snack list and how you store it so hikes stay light, tidy, and energized.

Climate-Smart Travel Choices

New Zealand’s electricity is largely renewable, led by hydro, wind, and geothermal generation. Choose accommodations that disclose actual energy sources. Share how you reduced energy use in rooms without sacrificing warmth, comfort, or that early-morning cuppa.

Climate-Smart Travel Choices

Offset responsibly by funding audited native tree planting or wetland restoration in the regions you visit. Tell us which local initiative you chose, why it resonated, and how you’ll track progress beyond a single donation.

Māori-Led Experiences and Respectful Culture

Choose Māori-led tours where guides share whakapapa, star navigation, and connections between mountains, rivers, and identity. Tell us one story that changed how you walk through landscapes and how you’ll honor that knowledge tomorrow.

Māori-Led Experiences and Respectful Culture

Start with a warm kia ora, ask before photographing people or sacred places, and listen more than you speak. Share a respectful practice you adopted and how it made your encounters deeper, kinder, and beautifully reciprocal.

Māori-Led Experiences and Respectful Culture

Support enterprises that retain revenue locally, pay fairly, and protect cultural heritage. Comment with a Māori-led experience you recommend and why others should book, learn, and amplify those voices rather than speak over them.