ABOUT US

The Haka Story

Haka Educational Tours is a part of the award winning Haka Tourism Group.

Watch our video…

Established in 2006, Haka Tours is the brain child of kiwi Ryan Sanders, who once found himself wishing to escape the dull working life of corporate banking. A keen and experience traveller, Ryan’s love for his country and adrenaline led him to a vision: the creation of some incredibly awesome small group adventure tours immersing travellers in the real life travel experiences.

The first tour commenced in June 2007 since then we’ve introduced new products to appeal to different markets, and expanded into accommodation with 5 upmarket backpacker lodges across New Zealand in Auckland, Paihia, Taupo, Queenstown and Christchurch.

As a proud New Zealand owned and operated company, we choose our name “Haka Tours” carefully. We went through a lengthy intellectual property process as well as a submission to the Maori Advisory Committee to ensure we had the rights to use both the word “Haka” and our kiwi logo. We now have both our brand and logo protected under IP.

But why call ourselves Haka Tours? To most people, the haka is a war dance. But the word “haka” simply means a dance, or a song accompanied by dance. While they are the correct terms to associate with the haka, they do not do justice to the life force, the actions, words, rhythm, themes, meaning, style or history that are the haka.

In pre-European and early contact times, the haka was used as a part of the formal process when two parties came together. And as a New Zealand company that runs tours solely for international travellers, our name reflects this historical process of two parties coming together.

We always look to ways to honour and respect cultural traditions and process. Our last Haka Lodge in Taupo was opened with a Powhiri from the local iwi as well as a spiritual blessing. You can see pics of the opening and our Taupo Lodge here

For a number of years Haka Tours have been creating custom tours for student groups but with growing demand and outstanding feedback we decided to really focus on the educational division and launch Haka Educational Tours.

Haka Educational Tours focuses solely on tours and camps for schools, universities groups and individual students. Our aim is to provide inspirational tours that motivate students in every aspect of learning by offering unique, engaging and practical experiences.

We have a team of dedicated and passionate adventurers ready to set you off on a trip of a lifetime.

Get to know us a little more here… MEET THE TEAM

On every tour we provide students with an environment where they can build confidence, develop skills, knowledge and of course lifelong memories. We create an experiential learning environment where students learn about the environment, culture and history which in turn foster friendships and build on their teamwork skills.

Our mission

Our aim is to provide inspirational tours that motivate students in every aspect of learning by offering unique, engaging and practical experiences.

“Broadening young minds through real life travel experiences”

Be inspired: If you have a particular subject, learning objective, or destination in mind then we can create a one off tour that will truly captivate your students.

Stress free: Let us create and develop a bespoke itinerary based on your specific learning outcomes. Tours are fully inclusive and our precision planning and support makes your journey totally stress free!

Our partners

We have established key partnerships with organisations that support and share our mission across the globe.

AboardNZ

STA Travel

Go Overseas

Selset Education Centre

Accreditation

When you travel with us you can feel secure in the knowledge that we take our role very seriously and do everything we can to ensure that students stay safe, healthy and happy.

Qualmark Endorsed – New Zealand’s Official Mark of Quality

Qualmark is New Zealand tourism’s official quality assurance organization, providing a trusted guide to quality travel experiences. By going through a rigorous yearly assessment, you can be assured that we have met stringent quality standards and environmental criteria – earning tourism’s official quality mark.

Liability Insurance

To protect both our company and our customers, Haka Educational Tours Limited has combined liability insurance incorporating public and products liability and professional indemnity cover. Our underwriters are QBE Insurance (International) Ltd.

Tourism Industry Association

Not only do we ensure we pass stringent quality standards, we are also members of the Tourism Industry Association of New Zealand which is the largest representative body of tourism operators in the country. This means we take a pro-active role in both protecting and growing New Zealand tourism’s health and profile.

Bus and Coach Association

Haka Educational Tours are unique in that we operate our own fleet of tour buses which means we can offer more competitive pricing than those companies who need to include expensive bus hire costs into their quote. This also ensures we provide a quality transport service to your school or university. We are members of the Bus and Coach Association which is the authoritative voice of the bus and coach industry in New Zealand and ensures operators adhere to specific quality measures.

Awards

The Haka Tours brand continues to win highly sought after industry awards, often beating out much bigger competitors. These awards reflect our commitment to you, our guest, as well as the passion each of our team have for producing the best possible product. Here’s just a few of those recent awards:

• Tourism Industry Association Awards 2015 - Winner Business Excellence & Emerging Leader
• Rankers (NZ Tourism review) 2012 - 2015 - Supreme Winner Activity/Attraction
• Golden Backpack Awards 2014/15 - Winner Best Tour