Unless you’ve somehow escaped the run club boom, you’ve probably seen it in action. The sea of colourful trainers weaving through city streets after work. The 7am coffee queues outside cafés packed with people in coordinated activewear. The group chats that used to organise nights out now organising long runs, bakery stops and where everyone’s heading for brunch afterwards.
Running, it turns out, has become as much about finding your people as finding your pace. Which makes it the perfect excuse to travel – and perhaps the biggest sign yet that run club travel has become of the defining ways Gen Z is choosing to experience the world.
That’s the thinking behind our NZ Run Club trip: an eight-day New Zealand running holiday through the North Island where the runs are just one part of the story. Sure, you’ll clock up a few kilometres, but you’ll also eat your way through local favourites, learn from the people who know these places best and finish the week at the community-led Muriwai Half Marathon, where every kilometre supports local conservation.
Exclusively for 18-35 year olds
The adventure kicks off on Auckland’s wild west coast...
Where black sand beaches replace your usual running track and Muriwai Deli serves up the kind of toasties people happily detour for. Contiki Trip Manager Cameron Steel and his brother Boyd, a former Contiki Trip Manager, are the duo behind the counter, but they’re far more than exceptional toastie-makers. They’re storytellers, community champions and key figures in the Muriwai Environmental Trust, making them the perfect people to introduce you to the stretch of coastline you’ll get to know over the coming days.
Then it’s inland, where some of the best things to do in Rotorua are found on the trails themselves. Morning runs wind through otherworldly geothermal landscapes, bubbling mud pools, native bush and mineral-rich terrain, making your usual loop around the local park feel a little, well, underwhelming.
The beauty of this North Island New Zealand itinerary is that it knows when to slow down, too. One minute you’re learning about Māori culture through storytelling, performance and a traditional hāngī feast at Mitai Māori Village; the next you’re soaking in the thermal waters of Wairakei Terraces, snapping photos of Tirau’s wonderfully quirky corrugated iron creations or watching the sun dip behind Lake Taupō over dinner.
Through the Muriwai Environmental Trust, travellers may even get the chance to name a little penguin chick (breeding season permitting) and receive photo updates as it grows before eventually fledging. No need for the obligatory fridge magnet then.
This is a marathon that’s bigger than the finish line
You’ve met the people behind it. You’ve explored the landscapes it’s helping to protect. You’ve heard the stories that make this corner of New Zealand worth fighting for.
Created in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle by the local community, including the Muriwai Environmental Trust and Boyd and Cameron Steel, the Muriwai Half Marathon raises funds for predator control and kiwi reintroduction across a 2,000-hectare conservation project. This year, Contiki is sponsoring the event alongside its not-for-profit partner, The TreadRight Foundation, helping to support the Trust’s native plant restoration efforts. Every kilometre helps support the ambitious goal of bringing native wildlife back to the region and contributing to New Zealand’s vision of becoming predator-free by 2050.
Locals line the course cheering on complete strangers, the finish line fills with food trucks and live music and the celebrations continue well after everyone’s caught their breath. It’s the sort of community event that reminds you sport has always been about more than sport.
There are plenty of ways to road trip New Zealand’s North Island. You could hire a car, map out the highlights and call it a day. Or you could spend eight days discovering it through the people who call it home and the communities working to protect it.
Come for the kilometres. Leave with memories of the black sand beaches, the hāngī, the penguin you helped name and the feeling that, for once, your holiday gave something back.
Ready to lace up andhit the trail? Book this trip right here.
