There’s a unique quality stamped into the DNA of New Zealand (Aotearoa) travel. On a coach, you will glide past mirror lakes and glacier-fed streams. Someone behind you murmurs in awe. The driver, unhurried, tells a story about the region’s gold rush days, and suddenly the landscape feels alive with memory. This is Grand Pacific Tours: all-inclusive travel at a human pace. Founded in 1996 by Peter Harding, the company grew from the simple idea that seeing New Zealand should be easy, with a focus on comfort, care and connection.

“In the mid-’90s, coach travel in New Zealand was fairly ordinary,” Peter recalls. “I wanted to show people the country’s true beauty, not rush them through it.”

Mentored by his father, Clyde Harding (founder of Travelmarvel in the late eighties), Peter saw an opportunity to reimagine coach touring altogether. “I wanted to expand what was possible, to create journeys that were fully inclusive where everything was taken care of, so people could just enjoy the ride.”

Today, that philosophy lives on through two touring styles – Ultimate Small Group Touring and Signature Mid-Size Group Touring, both fully inclusive, both designed to let guests surrender to the journey. There’s no stress about where to eat or what comes next. Accommodation, meals, luggage handling, and sightseeing are all part of the experience.

“From a traveller’s point of view, a fully inclusive tour should feel effortless,” Peter says. “It removes the stress of planning and budgeting on the go. Every day feels like a holiday in the truest sense.”And you’re going to want all your attention and senses free to take in New Zealand’s wonders. One day might bring you the wind on Otago’s plains, the next a ferry gliding across the Marlborough Sounds. On the road, comfortable reclining seats, panoramic windows, and quiet conversation make People share stories, swap photos and laugh about the weather. “By the end of the tour, the coach feels like a travelling community,” Peter says. “It’s one of the most rewarding parts of what we do.”

Now part of the Journey Beyond family, Grand Pacific Tours extends that same philosophy across the Tasman. “Both brands share a belief in immersive, meaningful travel,” Peter says. “There is a mutual deep respect for the guest journey.” Which, in a destination as welcoming and diverse as New Zealand, is what makes the experience so special.

For Peter, that connection crystallised one morning in Auckland. “I saw our coaches lined up, engines ready, travellers chatting excitedly before setting off. Each one represented a story about to unfold. It sort of just clicked, from that perspective of seeing everyone come together.”

For many, the 19-Day Rail, Cruise & Coach Tour sums up what the company stands for: luxury on the move, revealing the country by road, rail and sea. From city highlights to remote wildernesses, it captures the fullness of New Zealand as a world in miniature, explored one sweeping curve at a time.

And somewhere on that road, between chats, mountain light, and the steady cadence of the wheels, connection happens; as natural and beautiful as the land itself.