Company chiefs Chris and Andy set about creating the business with the idea of spending the New Zealand summer doing things they actually enjoy, rather than mending broken animals or driving a desk.
Plans for the company's operation were gradually worked out (a compromise between Andy's cautious, 'lets run one trip in Golden Bay' approach and Chris's 'how about running trips to Outer Mongolia while we're at it' style). In the coming season we are offering four 2-week trips in different parts of New Zealand. We plan to take small groups of up to 6 people, and are offering various exciting activities such as tramping (hiking), kayaking, paragliding, white-water rafting etc etc. We will take people tramping, but the more specialised activities we will sub-contract to existing operators.
Running the gauntlet of bureaucracy has been the first challenge to overcome. Applications to the Dept. of Conservation had to be made for a concession to run our tramping activities. Driving tests had to be taken again for Passenger Service Licenses (both written and practical). Money seems to be an integral part of all these things- flowing in the wrong direction.
Our second challenge was to come up with exciting holidays and advertise them. Chris's son Tama was kind enough to donate his extensive web-building knowledge, and build a website (www.adventureout.co.nz). Details of our 2001 trips can be found on the site , along with lots of pretty pictures. Advertising the website in various publications has been our other major expense, but the website has had large numbers of 'hits' from all round the world as a result.
