Ancient Puketi Rainforest: Bay of Islands Guided Excursion

The best rainforest experience I have ever done. Ian was incredibly knowledgable and gave us the tour of a lifetime. We spent twelve days on a Sydney, New Zealand cruise and this stands out as the best excursion we had on this trip, if not our lifetime. Given our small group and our physical abilities, he modified the excursion to suit us. He truly loves the land and can identify, and mimic bird calls and can look at absolutely anything in the forest and give you some information on what you are looking at. Ian was not only a top tour guide to us, he has quickly become a good friend. I would give him ten stars if I could.

Ian is uniquely qualified to lead this tour as he does volunteer work in the forest. He is a very knowledgeable and entertaining guide.

What a wonderful excursion into the Puketi rainforest to see the majestic Kauri trees. Our guide, Ian, was early to pick us up and made sure we knew right where to meet him from our ship. We were in a group of 4 people and had the perfect guide! Engaging, fun, comfortable, so smart, he grew up here and knew so much about many different New Zealand topics. He is very passionate about his country and shared it with us. He talked to us in detail about the flora and fauna as we hiked a beautiful walk in the woods. We also stopped at a second location for a shorter walk too. I highly recommend doing this tour and ask for Ian, he is the best!

Our hiking guide, Helen, was passionate and knowledgeable. We enjoyed her pride in her forest. Our small group got our exercise for the day

This was one of of the best tours we've had in all of our cruising experiences over the years. Our tour guide, Ian, was very friendly, patient and knowledgeable. The rainforest walk was spectacular, and we learned so much about the ecosystem and their conservation efforts. Ian brought some delicious muffins his wife made for us to enjoy when we took a short break and also took us to this wonderful local Blueberry farm where we had some delicious fresh blueberries and amazing blueberry frozen yogurt. We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this tour and highly recommend it.

If you love trees this trip is for you! This Rainforest tour was really nice. We were picked up promptly and taken to the forest. The tour guide was very informative and knew slot about the trees and conservation of the trees inside and the wildlife. The birds were hard to see but did see a beautiful pigeon as well as fan tails. Very peaceful. Great team and trip.

Ian picked us up in his Toyota Land Cruiser and took us to the Puketi Kauri forest. What a great tour. Just me and my wife! A brilliant trip. Many thanks.

I am not 100% certain this is the right tour but we booked it from our ship the Ruby Princess, so I think this is the one. At any rate, we enjoyed our trip to the Puketi Kauri Forest. We were taken from the port on a large bus out to the forest, where we were given a tour and explanation of the kauri trees and other plants by Anna (and it was her first day). We learned a lot about the importance of these trees to the Maori people, as well as some of the culture/beliefs about their gods like Tane Mahuta.

We did a shore excursion trip with Puketi Rainforest Tours last week. Ian picked us up as we came off our ship, and drove us to the start point, providing a positive and gracious commentary as he drove. His wife Barbara drove us back to town after the tour, and dropped us as planned and on time. Everything came off like clockwork. Helen led our small (three customers) tour. She was extremely knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the flora and the birds and the moths. Her bird calls were a pleasant surprise. She went into a bit more detail than we wanted, actually, but that's just us. She answered all our questions to our complete satisfaction. It was a great encounter.

Ian was very knowledgeable and made the night walk a fun and informative experience. A great way to experience New Zealand native bush and even as a local gave us a fresh perspective. Awesome to see the kauri trees, not so much the wetas!