About Wicked Wanders

  What a fantastic tour guide Carol was can't fault her, very informative and also has a sense of humor which can be hard to come by these days

  The sites are lovely. Russell knew his history. Disappointed about the tea stop being closed but the elms were fascinating

  excelent attention to detail, small group of 10 Water bottles placed on each seat. Mobility an issue & a step for entering & exit the minibus, just there... read more not to be asked for & on our orchard visit he had a seat for me in the shade. Russell it is the little things that count the most, best trip ever,,
Thanks
Recomend any time.

  Small group tour with Russell being very responsive in replies in enquires. Great, smooth and not rushed in timing which were good. A secret local lunch hideout (you will need... read more to join this tour to know this secret which serves fantastic food).
He went to the extend of getting red kiwi fruits for visual experimental which was a bonus.
Thanks Russell!

  My wife and I have been lucky enough to do a tour with carol today around Tauranga this lady is fantastic her knowledge of the area and itinerary is great... read more we visited the honey farm and kiwi fruit farm and then had a great fish and chips lunch up on a hill overlooking the harbour that our ship was docked a fantastic day and I would highly recommend her if you come this way by cruise ship

  We really enjoyed our 4-hour tour. Interesting and fun. The town is very near the port so you can walk in or take the ship shuttle. We were met at... read more the port gates by Russell and on our return we walked along the beach road which is very close to the ship. It was lovely.

  Had a fantastic tour in Tauranga, Russell was superb on the tour and I would recommend this tour over the excursions offered by the cruise lines. He takes you to... read more genuinely interesting places where you have time to absorb the stunning scenery.

  This was a terrific way to see Tauranga and the surrounding area. Russell was extremely knowledgeable and lots of fun too. All the stops were great and so was the... read more ice cream. You should take this tour.

  We were on the Queen Victoria and we absolutely loved this tour! So happy our daughter booked it and happy we didn’t book with the cruise company such a better... read more experience very personal!
I would recommend this to anyone who wants to learn about the culture and have a great personalized tour! Our guide was wonderful! Love from the USA !

  Russell from Wicked Wanderers met our cruise ship on time for the 4hr scenic tour of Tauranga. Small group, very comfortable air conditioned van. Tour commentary was excellent & well... read more informed, Russell was very personable & helpful too. The trip needed to be adapted slightly due to poor weather to ensure we had a great time. Well done, Russell!!

  Wow! Awesome day spent with Russell! Highly recommend this tour. We covered the area of Mount Maunganti in the Bay of Plenty and all around Tauranga.... read more His knowledge of the Māori and their culture is amazing. Heard a Māori fairy tale, learned about how New Zealand came to be settled and the industry and agriculture of Tauranga. Lots of fun going to kiwi farm, got to taste kiwi, avocado, and avocado oil - Russell has the tasting down to a science! I am a tea lover, so a treat to pick up some tea from Webster’s. Enjoyed a lunch at Organico in their back garden area. Got to put my toes int he sand and water.

  Very worthwhile tour for cruise passengers. Carol is very informative and friendly. Had a lovely time and still had time for a walk round.

  Our guide, Nicolle was excellent: professional, friendly, and knowledgeable. She kept us on track to ensure we didn't miss our ship. The tour was terrific: entertaining, educational, and beautiful.

  We were looking for an affordable excursion getting off the cruise ship. We found Wicked Wanders which offered a four hour tour provided by Carol and was very affordable.... read more We went to the Manuka Honey attraction, a kiwi orchard, stopped at a local place and got take out fish and chips. Carol took us to a scenic place overlooking the water for us to eat our lunch. These are just the highlights, there were other places we went as well. Carol is a wonderful tour guide, extremely knowledgeable about her country. When the time for our tour was up and there were still other things we wanted to see, she asked if we wanted to continue on or go back to the ship. We ended up with a 5+ hour tour which was absolutely wonderful. I highly recommend this tour.

  Had a tour with Russell and it was fantastic!

Saw lots of interesting stuff, learned plenty of cool facts about what we were seeing, and had a great... read more time all round! Very knowledgeable and helpful, great sense of humour and very approachable!

Highly recommend these guys, cannot speak highly enough of their services!

  All the trip was fantastic couldn’t fault it. Love Russell he was tops with everything would recommend this tour to anyone who wants a relaxing and interesting tour on Tauranga.... read more Thank you kindly
Natalie and Mark.

  This was a really enjoyable and informative experience! Russell's encyclopedic knowledge and engaging personality made it a relaxed and interesting trip.

  Russell was our knowledgable guide who took us in our mini van round all the points in the tour. He was informative and entertaining. We enjoyed learning about the kiwi... read more fruit, the manuka honey and the avocado. We tasted some of the oils at the avocado farm and of course it would have been good to taste some avocado too but that was not on offer for some reason- maybe not ripened?
Overall, it was an easy going, informative relaxed tour. We thoroughly enjoyed it !

  Our tour guide, Russell, picked us up at the dock as soon as we arrived. We drove to Hobbiton and had a delightful time visiting the movie set followed... read more by a delicious lunch. On our return, we stopped and walked trails through a beautiful park with waterfalls. Russell was very knowledgeable and able to answer all our questions and give us details. It was a grand day on our trip and all our expectations about seeing the beautiful New Zealand countryside were met.

  We were on a cruise that unexpectedly visited Tauranga for 2 days. The fist day we did a hop on & hop off bus tour around Tauranga. The second... read more day we booked a tour with Russell who took us on sight seeing tour around the town and told us bit of history of the region - very interesting. We then headed out of town to Comvita Manuka Honey factory, then to a kiwi fruit farm & finally an avocado farm. Russell was an informative, welcoming & good humoured host - very enjoyable.

  I enjoyed this tour quite a bit. Russel was very well informed and professional. The stop at the Elms was great. The history of Tauranga was very informative and the... read more grounds were stunning. The stop at the kiwifruit farm was also good and informative. Other stops to here history and to look at the view were great. My only negative about this tour was the ship docked mid morning which meant the tour had a late start and there was no lunch break and we were very hungry by he time we got back at 3pm. The stop at the farm we got to try some kiwifruit and avocado but it's not enough. We were provided with a bottle not water which was appreciated but I think some amendments could be helpful when the tour has a late start. Overall this was a great tour and would definitely recommend it.

  Russell has a van that holds 6 people. It is a perfect size for a four hour tour. The atmosphere was relaxed, Russell was knowledgeable and friendly; he provided very... read more interesting information as we drove through beautiful countryside. The tour was well paced and thoroughly enjoyable.

  This small group tour was very informative and we had the opportunity to see a selection of locations that had important historical significance. The guide was knowledgeable & able to... read more answer all our questions. Really liked the visit to the the Manuka honey factory & the Kiwi farm. The free sample of ice cream & kiwi was very tasty. The final visit to the avocado farm was also interesting.
Worthwhile way to spend your time

  Russell Picks you up from where the cruise ship docks. He is very knowledgeable and makes the whole experience very interesting. We were lucky enough to be the only two... read more on the trip due to a glitch in the booking system (good for us!) two tour sellers joined us. We visited a kiwi farm and had tastings and ice cream, Manuka honey factory and avocado farm and some lovely beach spots it was all really interesting and enjoyable. I would definitely recommend.

  I took a private tour of the Karangahake Gorge, Minden outlook and the Owhanga Falls, with lunch and a little train ride. I really got the feeling that there is... read more not much to do or see in this area - and that the guide was hard-pressed to take up the day showing us around. Scenery was pleasant, it was a nice sunny day, lunch was unremarkable; food average, service terrible. (I can't even remember where we ate; that's how blah it was). Owner/guide was engaging and fun - so it wasn't a bad experience. Just not over-the-top exciting, or something that I can recommend as a "must do"!

  Our guide Russell was a local man who was at the pier to greet us. The tour showed us around the town of the "Mount", beaches, harbour, the adjoining... read more community of Tauranga, working port, shopping precinct. We then headed out from there to a honey producing company and samples the famous Manuka honey and other blends. Coffee break welcome. Then to a small farm seeing avocado trees laden with fruit (no sample sadly). We did though sample the oil from same. Following this we headed to another farm producing the famous Kiwi fruit and were told about the two main varieties (green and gold Kiwi fruits). Overall I enjoyed the tour and found Russell to be an engaging and helpful guide, but we (as older persons),found getting in and out of the mini bus a bit of a challenge. I enjoyed the visit to the greenhouse on the harbour, but would have liked to go inside the old missionary complex instead of looking from the street.

  This was a veryinformative tour. Our guide was wonderful! We found out a lot about Tauranga and it's surroundings!

  Cruising New Zealand on Celebrity and booked the trip with Wicked Wanders on line before we arrived - though you could book on the day.. Meet and greet well organised... read more in Tauranga and an excellent tour led by Carol In a small van. Really enjoyed the visit to the Manuka Honey factory and the kiwi farm - great guides in both. Rain held off and saw a good range of the area round Tauranga - felt we learnt a lot. Really good tour and very fairly priced.

  When cruising it is easy to book excursions directly from the ship. We have found these can be very expensive and very impersonal. You have 50 on the coach and... read more time taken to get on and off can be wasteful. On our recent trip to NZ and Oz we compared the ship's prices with independent operators. They were often almost half price and everyone worked out really well.
This was our first excursion from our cruise ship and we were not sure what to expect. It was an excellent tour and Carol was a great driver and guide. She was very informative throughout. We visited a small town and the countryside that really gave us a view of NZ life. We visited a Honey farm, Kiwi farm and Avocado farm. She was very knowledgeable about all the growing processes. We tasted honey but were advised not to buy any honey products as banned from Western Australia and we were disembarking in Perth. We were introduced to Golden and Green Kiwis and she bought us kiwi ice creams. Finally she provided bread to enable us to taste the oil at the avocado farm. It was a most enjoyable trip which gave us our first introduction to New Zealand.

  If you arrive by cruise ship with no plans for Tauranga, check out Russell Christian's Wicked Wanders tours. He's on the Pier (when his small group, mini van... read more tours have room) where you can talk to him regarding his offerings. We wanted to get out of the city without going all the way (1 hour +) to Rotorua and his 4Hr Tauranga tour was perfect. Great mixture of city/landscapes/farms/food tastings and an odd ball visit to unique toilets! Russell was a perfect guide - we didn't get the "canned" history speech to sleep by, but a lively discussion mixing a bit of everything about the area and country. Appreciated his willingness to answer all questions and recommendations. His price was considerably less than the cruise ship for a very similar tour and we were a small group, not a bus load of 40! Highly recommended and I would book ASAP - we were very lucky he had openings.