About Us
We're a network of exceptional private walks scattered across the country, each offering full-day or multi-day experiences on private land, with lodging on-site or closely tied to the property. Our members' landscapes are wonderfully varied, from coastal lowlands and forested hill country to open tussock tops high in the mountains. Every one of them has opened their gates to welcome you onto their land.
This site is managed by Gary Patterson, an experienced trail designer and builder, mobile app developer, and travel writer, now the author of his new book, Wander. At the Department of Conservation, he managed new hut and track builds and travelled the world hand-building trails, including work on the alignment of the Paparoa Great Walk. His free mobile apps for the Great Walks and Great Rides now reach 100,000 users a year.
Gary has since turned his knowledge from public tracks to private ones — designing and building Welcome Rock Trails early on, and more recently, RockRidge. While creating these trails and gathering content for his apps, he stayed with each host, listening to and sharing their stories. That experience seeded Wander, written over two years, pairing each host's own page with Gary's insights and rich detail on their track.