Your Typical Itinerary
Here is an example itinerary to give you an idea of what you will be doing during your Kiwi Cowboy Experience! The activities may change according to the time of year and what the weather is like on the day.
Saturday - Sunday
Arrive into Auckland and check into your city centre hostel, where you will spend two nights before starting your Kiwi Cowboy course.
Monday
We will pick you up from the Westgate Bus Terminus and then transport you to the farm. We can stop for coffee or supplies/wet weather gear/boots if anyone needs to. Upon arrival you'll have some morning tea and an orientation which will cover points including what to expect etc. Then we will show you round the property and introduce you to the horses and the rest of the animal family! After lunch we'll start with some ground handling, grooming and getting to know your horses. There will be some free time to settle in and get to meet the regular grazers and riders.
You will then learn how to get the horses ready to travel, and you can practice loading and unloading them from the trailers (aka floats). After dinner you will have free time to explore the farm and or play with your horse some more.
Tuesday
Grab a cup of coffee or tea to wake up. After feeding out and giving breakfast to the horses, chickens etc. we have breakfast. It's then time to get the horses ready for your first ride. This will be a structured lesson where we find out your riding level and ability and who suits each horse best. By this time you'll be hungry so we stop for some lunch! After lunch we will take you to one of the beaches on our fabulous West Coast where you will be able to sight see, hike a short trail and go for a swim. Free time follows for a bit of a rest. We will then have a short lesson on tack cleaning and care. After dinner when it's nice and cool we will do some more riding.
Wednesday
After breakfast and feeding out we will travel with the horses to a riding establishment and have some fun with flatwork and jumping, followed by a good lunch at our favourite local cafe, Blossoms. Here you can eat lunch looking out over an orchard with turkeys and chickens running free. Back at the farm we'll tackle some practical farm management, moving stock, checking fences and troughs. Enjoy some free time then it's back to the riding stables to teach some kids what you have just been learning and have an evening ride. Then it's home for dinner.
Thursday
Once everyone has eaten breakfast and the horses have been fed we will head to Woodhill Forest. We will spend several hours riding through this lush, cool, green haven. You'll most likely get to see some wild deer and maybe some wild pigs. Lunch today will be at the forest. Dinner later is at a local restaurant that brews it's own beer, for a bit of socialising with your new friends.
Friday
Breakfast and feedout and it's off to the forest and ride out to the beach. Muriwai is 30kms in length and is fabulous riding. We'll ride in the river and check out some different forest trails. We'll have lunch at Blossoms again (they really are very good!). At the end of the day you have two options:
- After packing up and saying your goodbyes we can drive you back to the bus stop where you will catch the bus back to the city for a well-earned night out at your leisure.
- We can organise to drop you back to town via a Harbour Cruise on our 60ft charter boat called the MV Okahu with an onboard BBQ dinner (weather permitting of course).
Please note: Itineraries and activities are subject to change
