Tour guide in Akaroa Dermot H.

Akaroa, New Zealand

Japanese, English

Tours Delivered,
Since Jan 4, 2011

3.0

Hours, Avg. response time

I'm Dermot H., your private tour guide in Akaroa

Guide #2230

4.9 (83)

I am a Private Guide that offers Private tours specialising in the Christchurch and Akaroa area. I have been guiding visitors around the South Island since 1996. This is a remarkably diverse and beautiful island and I consider myself to have the best job in the world! I have travelled a lot myself and genuinely find visitors and their individual stories interesting. My aim is to offer a very personal small group tour which is flexible. . . . . and I hope fun. My most popular tour these days is from cruise ship visitors arriving at Akaroa wanting a Day Excursion to Christchurch and the local area in my 11 seater minibus. . . . . but I also offer tours up to 10 days long all over NZ to Lake Tekapo, Mt Cook, Dunedin, Queenstown, Milford Sound, the West Coast, Abel Tasman or any number of other stunning destinations. My passions are food, cooking, sailing and of course travel. As an ex- teacher I hope I can share with you a bit about the interesting human and natural history as well as the various cultures of this unique land. I am happy to run GEOCACHING TOURS for interested groups. . . . . . . . and have access to 22 / 33 seater buses for larger groups. Passenger Service Licence #0227492 with Private Hire Registration (both SPSL and LPSL), Drivers Licence (1,2,4,6 with Passenger Endorsement), member of the NZ Bus and Coach Assn and ProGuides NZ. Vehicle operates with Certificate of Fitness (renewed every 6 months) and Certificate of Loading (note: this is a legal requirement for tour operations in NZ). Red Cross Comprehensive First Aid Certificate. Bus and Coach Assn Public & Carriers Liability Insurance (Lowe, Scholum and Jones). Japanese Profficiency Test Level 3. Bachelor of Science (Auckland University), Diploma of Secondary Teaching (Christchurch), Cert. TESL (Massey Uni.)

Delivers tours starting at

  • Akaroa

  • Christchurch

Tours by Dermot H.

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4.9

Traveller reviews for this guide

83 reviews

  • Mariah V.
    February 2026

    Dermot is a fantastic guide! He is super knowledgeable and entertaining. He showed us the beauty of NZ and gave valuable context over the 2 days of our tour.

  • Debra B.
    February 2026

    Dermot was great. He picked us up on time and took us all around Chirstchurch. Took us to some great look out sites for group pictures. Explained the history and current events. It was a very enjoyable day.

  • Kim S.
    February 2026

    Dermot gave us a great tour to Arthurs Pass. It is quite a drive from Christchurch and a cloudy, misty day so we didn't get quite the views we had hoped for.

  • Mandy S.
    January 2026

    Our original guide upon booking wasn't able to fulfill this tour so Dermot agreed to be our guide for the day instead-- and on Christmas Eve no less! I can't speak as to this particular Christchurch tour, but I can say we had a fabulous time with Dermot's alternate plan. As opposed to spending the majority of the day in Christchurch, he suggested we take a drive down to...