I was a bit hesitant to book the Twilight Encounter tour thinking it might be too long and boring, or that I'd get tired walking for 4 hours. Boy was I wrong! I'm happy we did it and am ashamed I even thought twice about it.
The whole experience is 4 hours but it includes a 30 minute drive to the forest, then 3 hours of easy light walking with stops along the way, and then another 30 minutes to drive back to Omapere. There is a decent toilet stop when you arrive in the forest and then another toilet break 1.5 hours after, just before meeting Tane. Everyone is given small torches at the beginning of the walk and a safety briefing on what to do when we encounter wild animals - such as the wild pig or the nocturnal kiwi (We were fortunate to hear the cries of both the male and female kiwis during the tour!). Seriously, there is no threat - NZ has no snakes, no bears, no lions or even naughty monkeys. The only threat to your being is actually falling off the raised boardwalk if you don't look where you're going. You also must dress very warmly!
As some have said, this isn't your run of the mill touristy tour - it is something special. Bill and Matiu, our 2 wonderful Maori guides shared with us their knowledge, respect, connection and love for the forest. They are 2 passionate warm souls and I congratulate Footprints for having them on their team. My husband and I consider it a privilege to be on their tour. Thank you Bill and Matiu, thank you Footprints for sharing with us your forest, home of your beloved ancient trees, plants, and shy wildlife.
If ever you are touring the north, do include this as part of your journey!! Don't even hesitate like I did...you'll miss out if you do.
Notes: We stayed in lovely Mckenzies B&B which is a short 200 meter beach walk to the beautiful Copthorne Hotel. In Copthorne Hotel, we paid for our tour and pre ordered our dinner (a delicious steak, chowder, calamari and pavlova for dessert). When we got back from the tour, we had a lovely dinner at the hotel, then walked back to our B&B.