By joining one of our trips, you’re signing up for a truly genuine experience of somewhere away from the beaten paths. You’ll be challenged, inspired, and return home with a deep sense of newfound appreciation of these wild places.
These aren’t track-based hiking trips, nor are they mountaineering trips to alpine summits. A Mountain Journeys transalpine trip is that sweet spot in between. We venture off-track on an immersive journey, finding our own way through the wilderness, crossing from catchment to catchment or along a scenic range. Some trips require the use of alpine equipment – we’ll show you how to use this safely if so.
On a Mountain Journeys trip, travel is often challenging, and the weather is sometimes stormy. But we’ll only go through those conditions because we’ve anticipated the right weather in the right place later in the trip. It’s a small price to pay for choosing to visit these wonderful mountains in their true state, on nature’s terms. Our customers’ stories tell us we’ve got the right recipe.
Most of our journeys are three to six days long, but anything from one to nine days is feasible. The longer the trip, the better the opportunity to visit somewhere really remote.
We offer two types of guided journeys:
‘Private’ journeys are for individuals, couples, families, or any groups who wish to have a fully customised journey for their specific dates and objectives.
‘Group’ journeys fall on set dates, and are great if you’re an individual or couple who’d like to share your experience with other ‘friendly strangers’.
What’s included in a guided journey?
- We organise and prepare all of the meals (including lunches, snacks, and hot drinks) and cater to any dietary requirements. We pride ourselves in providing high quality, nutritious, tasty food.
- We supply high quality tents and cooking equipment on all journeys, and if your trip requires it we also supply alpine equipment like ice axes, crampons, helmets, and harnesses. It’s ok if you’ve never used these before – we’ll provide all necessary instruction.
- You’ll be guided by a highly experienced and qualified guide (or two). Your guide will not only provide you with a safe and enjoyable trip, but will actively seek your input where possible regarding trip options.
- You’ll be provided with detailed information before the trip about what to bring. When we first meet, your guide will go through your personal clothing and equipment to help fine-tune what actually comes on the trip, to find the right balance of having everything you need and nothing more. We have plenty of spare clothing and equipment available if you need to borrow something.
- Meeting locations and methods of transport vary depending on each trip, but in many cases we can provide complementary transport to the trip start. We can confirm this when you register for your trip.
I went along on a couple of ”hard” Mountain Journeys trips and they were amazing. Some organised backpacking trips can sometimes feel like you’re being herded from one spot to another—Mountain Journeys is nothing like that.
The tramps go completely off the beaten track. The guides involved us in the decision making process, and would talk through different options with everyone. I learnt a ton from hearing the decision-making musings of Rob and the other guides. They’re enthusiastic, encouraging, really know their stuff, and they were all really supportive of people asking questions.
On the food: I’m vegetarian and the food was really good! Truly, I can’t recommend Mountain Journeys more!
Mountain Journeys is the absolute best. I have had two wonderful experiences with them – life-changing trips that I will never forget. I’ve always been a big tramper, but I wasn’t very confident with going off-track.
The guides on both trips were all extremely knowledgeable and a blast to spend time with. They made us feel comfortable and confident, while also teaching us new techniques and tips throughout the trips. I felt really safe and in good hands the entirety of both trips.
The Mountain Journeys team was extremely accommodating and even figured out a way to make all meals on a 5 day tramp fully vegan for me. In preparation of the trip, Rob sends a comprehensive packing list and sets expectations early. He was extremely organized. Overall, we learned a lot, got to explore new parts of NZ, and met some amazing people. Highly recommend, 10/10!
Where do the journeys go?
We undertake trips in a huge variety of places throughout the Southern Alps (we have a concession/permit for more than 50 locations). For those of you willing to do some real exploring, many of those locations have hardly been visited by anyone, even our guides.
To give you an idea of the types of places we like to go, here are a few trips we’ve done over the last few years:
Mt Alexander
Traverse of Lyell Peak
Makarora Valley, across the Main Divide to Brewster Glacier
Opera and Libretto Ranges
Princess Bath and Mt Princess
Whitcombe River, Noisy Basin, and Misty Ridge
Butler Saddle
Traverse of the Toaroha Range
Hopkins to the Landsborough and back, twice across the Main Divide
If you’d like to gift someone a guided trip or credit towards an instruction course, we also have vouchers available for sale!
