New Zealand is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses, the North Island and the South Island, and more than 700 smaller islands.
Aotearoa is the Māori name for New Zealand.
It was originally used by the Māori people referring to the North Island but, since the late 19th Century, has come to refer to the whole archipelago.
Veronika Vermeulen explains the philosophy behind Aroha Luxury New Zealand Tours
"We believe travel is not just be about 'busloads of people being dragged from one cheesy attraction to the next or bringing people to Aotearoa and letting them loose in camper vans.
We've known all along that tourism is a two-edged sword. It is a wonderful export earner for the country but size isn't everything.
We don't talk about tourists or a tourist loop of the best known attractions.
We talk about guests for whom we provide profound experiences that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.
This is one reason that the bulk of our business is either former guests returning for more experiences they didn't fit in last time or their friends and colleagues who they want to share the magic with.
Ours is not a numbers game. We don't herd them in one end and out the other like a sausage machine.
We bring them to Aotearoa to showcase the extraordinary nature of what we have to offer at a pace that they get to marinate over time in the splendour.
Unashamedly we target high net worth clients who value a travelling experience differently.
The truth is that these are people who can pretty much have whatever they want when they want it.
We are never going to blow them away with the luxury of our accommodation or restaurants.
Offering the best of Aotearoa
What we offer is the best of Aotearoa.
Yes, that means premium accommodation, superior transportation and delightful restaurants, but even here, the thing that make the experience stand out is exposure to the uniqueness of the New Zealand approach to service.
Polite, informal and informative
Many of our experiences are guided and our network of guides are hand picked for their wit, wisdom, unflappability and ability to make diverse groups of people comfortable and engaged.
To the best of our ability we work to make our business carbon neutral and from 2022 there will be a number of initiatives launched to ensure we are seen to be doing our part for a sustainable future which our guests will be an integral part.
We also understand the uniqueness of Maori culture and as the only place in the world to have been blessed with this culture, we intend to showcase it in different ways.
This will include building a Maori perspective into our itineraries and as much as possible have Maori telling our guests stories about the whakapapa of their special corner of Aotearoa and educating them in the ways that either honour or disrespect Maori custom.
It is our dream that by showing the value and unique character of our own indigenous culture, we will send our guests home to ponder their own indigenous peoples and think again about how they honour them.
In summary, we bring discerning guests to New Zealand.
We treat them extraordinarily well in a very New Zealand way, they spend significantly while here, they leave a very small footprint behind them and they send others like them to experience the same. Mostly they all come back.
Why do they come back?
Yes, they've seen some incredible beauty.
Yes they've eaten some of the finest food and drunk some of the finest wine in the world and yes they've stayed in some exquisite and out of the way places.
But, most of that you can get anywhere in the world. What makes the Aroha experience different is that they go home feeling they have been included in an overall experience that is far greater than the sum of its parts.
If there is one thing high net worth people appreciate more than anything, it's being seen as something other than a wallet to be stripped. Aroha Luxury New Zealand Tours creates friends for life and that network of friends just keeps growing.
You're welcome Aotearoa.
We'll keep doing what we do best – delivering a growing body of raving fans for who and what this country is and can become.