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Si Leonard: Hey guys! My name is Si Leonard. I work for Haka Tours. I've been working for
them for just over five years as a Tour Manager. I run the 16-day amplified tours around New
Zealand. I live in Nelson which is at the top of the South Island.
Before working for Haka Tours, I worked pretty extensively through the surf, skate, and the
snow industry in both Australia and New Zealand. Also, I had my own surfboard label beforehand,
so I was involved in making surfboards and repairing surfboards.
We're undoubtedly from maybe the southwest coast of the South Island; it's a pretty magical
place, you know. It embodies all of the incredible things about New Zealand, in my opinion, it's
totally untouched wilderness down there. It's rugged. You've got the big beautiful snowy
Southern Alps flowing into the beautiful clear mountain streams, and down through the native
rain forest, all the way down through a pretty amazing coast line, you know. There's secluded
beaches with no one on them for hundreds of kilometers and it really embodies pure New
Zealand as far as I'm concerned.
Scenic flights along our southwestern coast over Milford Sound or Franz Josef are pretty
amazing things, you know. You get to see all of the beauty of New Zealand from a bird's
eye view. It's pretty unforgettable. If it's adrenaline you're after, undoubtedly my favorite
thing would be the Canyon Swing in Queenstown. The guys at the Canyon Swing really know how
to give you a very freaky good time and probably scare the wits out of you at the same time,
but everyone walks out of there really, really enjoying it.
It's the personal experience, you know. It's not like a big bus company where you're all
rammed on a bus. You've got a much more personal time. You've met some really great friends.
It's more like a road trip around New Zealand. You get a great amount of freedom. So, rather
than being told what you're doing 24 hours a day, you sort of, you get the choice to
make what you want to do. If you want to sit around and have a beautiful time in New Zealand
doing not much, that's totally fine. If you want to go and jump off everything and leap
out of everything, then that's fine as well. We like to make it your holiday. It's not
about what we want you to do. We're certainly there to facilitate what you'd like to do,
but it's all about you guys. So my opinion, Haka Tours is the best company for that.
Just get ready to have the best time in one of the best countries on earth. Look forward
to sort of pushing yourself a little bit doing some stuff that you might not normally do.
And yeah, I'd sort of leave your inhibitions on the plane, you know. Come to New Zealand,
we're a pretty crazy bunch of people. We've got some fantastic scenery, we've got some
amazing things to do, and we're certainly there to make it a good time for you.
You'd expect someone who's terribly passionate about their country, who loves their job,
and can think of nothing better than showing you guys around our amazing country, you know.
We've got a pretty great canvas to work with, so a bad day in New Zealand is a lot better
than a good day in most other countries.
We've had some pretty interesting times on the road in New Zealand. You never know really
what to expect. We got a pretty volatile little country weather wise. So you know, we've had
tours where we've had earthquakes, we've had floods, we've had rock slides, and if you're
coming to a country to expect a plain and boring landscape, it's definitely not this
place. We have loads of interesting times, all the time, particularly with the weather.
So yeah, we've had some instances where we've been driving the bus through knee deep water
for a couple of kilometers and dodging rock slides and things like that, so that's-- It's
a pretty interesting time. It's not just all about jumping out of planes, etc. It's every
day in New Zealand.