GO GREEN: Sustainable Tourism

Māori Rock Carvings, Taupō © Todd Eyre

Want to up your sustainable game while travelling? Here are seven ecoconscious ways to future-proof Aotearoa on your next getaway.

Taupō Eco-Boat

Taupō’s Ngatoroirangi Mine Bay Māori Rock Carvings – accessible only by boat – are one of the area’s biggest drawcards. Scaling the cliff 14 metres above Lake Taupō’s water, they are an extraordinary example of modern Māori artwork. Board a sustainable yacht in the Sail Barbary fleet and help preserve this special place for the future. Being 100 per cent electric powered, Barbary boats don’t emit any fumes, make zero noise and as for pollution, well, there isn’t any.

Nationwide DOC volunteering

The Department of Conservation calls out for enthusiastic volunteers yearround, with a diverse range of positions from one-day coastal clean ups to a full sixmonth shebang monitoring kiwi. Put your name forward to play hut warden for a week, spend a day planting shrubs, maintain the gardens of a heritage building or test your dexterity by repairing a water race. Simply keep your eye on the DOC website and turn this year’s holiday into a volunteering vacay. Families are welcome too.

Hotel Britomart, Auckland

Hotel Britomart is New Zealand’s first Green Star eco-hotel located in central Auckland and while guests are instantly privy to LED lighting and pillows made from recycled plastic bottles, what’s not so obvious is that this sustainability journey started from the ground up. Using environmentally friendly building materials, Green Star certification factored into every construction decision, right down to the placement of windows being strategically positioned (and double-glazed) so that extra, artificial light isn’t required until sunset. There are no single-use amenities in the bathroom and low water-flow systems limit water wastage. And for all those who want to maintain the green theme throughout their stay, the hotel has bikes too.

Nationwide Dark Sky Reserves

Great Barrier Island night sky © Auckland Unlimited

There’s a reason New Zealand has such exceptional starry skies: we host the world’s largest Dark Sky Reserve. The Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve covers a whopping 4300 square kilometres of land, while Aotea/Great Barrier Island (90km off the coast of Auckland) became the planet’s first Dark Sky island sanctuary, later followed by Rakiura/ Stewart Island. In short, much of New Zealand has no light pollution, and long may it continue. Glittering Dark Sky experiences include private stargazing dinners courtesy of Good Heavens on Great Barrier Island and the Pūkaki Observatory and Wine Cellar in Aoraki Mt Cook. Combine stellar cosmos views from a retractable observatory roof with a dram of whisky or top local wine.

Glenorchy Delta Discovery

Glenorchy, Otago © Adobe Stock

4WD buggies at Delta Discovery, Glenorchy, Otago © Delta Discovery Nationwide Dark Sky Reserves

The Dart River flows through a very pristine patch of land near Glenorchy and the good folk at Delta Discovery are ensuring it stays that way. Their threeperson fully-electric 4WD buggies release 0 per cent emissions and roll over the wildly beautiful region in near silence: perfect for catching sight of New Zealand wildlife. With a sophisticated on-board GPS system and a go-atyour-own-pace itinerary, it’s one part idyllic, one part adventurous and 100 per cent environmentally friendly.

Great Green Logos

Stay at properties that have attained Green Globe benchmarking or a Qualmark Enviro rating (or both – bravo!). The silver Qualmark logo is New Zealand’s official mark of quality for tourism and if the business is also displaying a green enviro-logo, they will be excelling in sustainability too. There’s also Green Globe, an international ranking system. Companies must meet 44 core criteria to qualify. Members are ranked as Certified, Gold or Platinum – the latter being the highest merit. Look for corresponding logos to assess who’s going above and beyond to keep Mother Earth perfect.

Wānaka LandEscape

Spagazer at LandEscape, Wānaka BOTH: @ LandEscape

Explore the best of Wānaka with LandEscape, an ecofriendly cycling adventure built into Hāwea farmland combining a series of purposemade cycle trails with a larger off-site network of tracks. Jump on a of state-of-the-art Swissmade YouMo e-bike for a whizz around and afterward, sink into a ‘Spagazer’ – a wood-fired outdoor hot tub filled with alpine water from the spring. When nature calls, there are zero-flush composting toilets which will one day turn waste into energy, fertilise the soil and save millions of litres of water.

Cycling at LandEscape, Wānaka