Harley Tours NZ

Clad in leather, cruising through magnificent New Zealand scenery on a gleaming Harley Davidson motorbike. It’s all about living the dream and it has international visitors raving about Harley Tours New Zealand.

International bookings for Harley Tour’s self-ride guided tours are up 30% on last summer, says Ali Howie, who took over the operation with husband Baz about 18 months ago.

“We could see exciting opportunities to develop the business and have added several new routes - the latest a Maori tour route called Ahi Kaa – Maori Heritage Tour.”

Against the trend, they’ve had a strong increase in arrivals out of the UK recently.  “We think with the extremely low interest rates in that market and the fact that people still have their job in a recession means they’re thinking ‘sod it, let’s go’. We’ve also seen a huge increase in enquiries from the Canadian market over the past year after the introduction of direct flights. The US market is also starting to bounce back.”

Harley Tours lets visitors experience New Zealand by Harley Davidson for anything from a couple of hours to weeks, either self-drive or as a pillion passenger, on a guided or independent tour.  The company has bases in Auckland, Christchurch, Coromandel and Queenstown.

“Our longest tour last year was 22 days of the North and South Island. We recently had a Kiwi book a 17-day pillion passenger tour from Cape Reinga to Bluff, it was on his bucket list!”

Ali describes typical visitors as Harley Davidson-lovers of all ages, with older generation baby boomers a particularly strong niche.

“The appeal is the freedom. We have the strap line ‘it’s all about the journey not the destination’ - just cruising on the New Zealand roads seeing all the sights, sounds and importantly the smells up close and personal. For the majority of our clients, it is definitely the trip of a lifetime.”