Guided walking firm takes big strides
AFTER a slow start a Whakatane guiding company is starting to make huge strides in capturing a growing market among outdoor enthusiasts.
Walking Legends owners Rob Franklin and Hilary Sheaff set off 10 years ago to provide a personal guiding service for trampers around Lake Waikaremoana.
The couple met while working as guides on the Routeburn Track in the South Island and they quickly saw an opportunity to offer a similar operation in the North Island.
‘‘We had finished a season at Routeburn and travelled back to Hilary’s hometown of Whakatane,’’ Franklin said.
‘‘We were looking for work and decided we would go and have a few days R&R at Waikaremoana.
‘‘While we were here it just struck us that there were no guiding operations in the area.
‘‘We could see the potential and we could see there was a market if we could do it properly.’’
After four months of planning, the pair welcomed their first clients, Franklin said.
‘‘We did a lot of work with the Conservation Department and with iwi to see if a guiding company was viable.’’
A website was designed to showcase the company and to see how many people would be interested in paying for guided walking trips around Lake Waikaremoana.
‘‘We placed ads in outdoors magazines, and attached the company to Lake Waikaremoana on Google because the lake has a high profile,’’ Franklin said.
Consultation with iwi and securing a concession licence with the Conservation Department was a lengthy process.
In the first year of operation the company guided 35 clients with the couple personally walking on every tramp.
The company now employs five guides and last year more than 500 clients were taken around Lake Waikaremoana, Tongariro National Park and Coromandel Peninsula on one to four day trips.
The walks cater for all levels of fitness and range from three to six hours a day.
‘‘The hardest task was to attract clients but we had a good mentor – Hilary’s father Dave – who drummed into us ‘customers, customers’,’’ Franklin said.
Guiding was extremely popular with tourists at the lake 100 years ago but fell away as more people became familiar with tramping and decided to venture off on their own, he said.
Attitudes were gradually changing and guiding was becoming more of an accepted profession helped by more tertiary qualifications being available.
‘‘We are getting more of the retired generation on our books who want to see our national parks but don’t want to carry a heavy pack,’’ Franklin said.
Clients stay in DOC huts, or private lodges, and guides are responsible for carrying the food and providing meals.
On some excursions a hot shower is available at the end of the day.
On Lake Waikaremoana, a boat accompanies the walking party and can be called on if one of the clients wants to discontinue the tramp and head back to base early.
Walking Legends draws most of its customer base from overseas tourists.
In the past, 65 per cent of clients were New Zealanders. Now Australians make up more 60 per cent of the client base, followed by Britons, the French and Germans.
There are not as many Americans, as they appear to prefer to explore their own backyard, Franklin said.
Those who did the walks into Te Urewera National Park were often amazed, he said.
‘‘When we point out that the ancient podocarp forest dates back to the dinosaur age, Australians’ jaws just drop open.’’
The company had experienced rapid growth in the past five years, so much so that Sheaff is now occupied mostly with office work.
‘‘The first three to four years were difficult,’’ Franklin said.
‘‘It was either we go back to a nine to five job, or push harder with the business.
‘‘We are still very much hands on, but with the business growing and a young family to look after, we don’t have to guide as many trips ourselves.’’