11-Day Accommodated Tour – Departs Perth 5 December 2023 – Maximum of 12 participants

If you are looking for a nature-based end-of-year holiday to top off 2023, travel to Christmas & Cocos Island with Coates Wildlife Tours. Two totally different islands, both a naturalists’ wonderland. Christmas Island is an extinct limestone-capped volcano with unique Indi-Malaysian rainforests, underground cave systems, endemic flora and fauna, and a rugged coastline. On Cocos you will find palm-fringed sandy beaches and crystal-clear lagoons. The timing of the trip will (hopefully) coincide with the incredible natural phenomenon known as the Red Crab Migration**.

12-Day Accommodated Tour – Departs Maun 10 March 2024 – Maximum of 14 participants

We travel to Botswana in the green season, when the rains change the brown winter landscape into a lush green wonderland. Wildlife is looking fit and healthy, and offspring born in November and December are still young and small. It will be a treat to see this new life, especially in the Kalahari and Chobe areas. Migratory bird species from Europe, Asia and other parts of Africa will be in abundance, and water birds as well as dry land birds will be present in the Okavango Delta. We end the trip with the spectacular Victoria Falls, and a cruise on the Zambezi River.

15-Day Accommodated Tour – Departs Nelson 31 January 2024 – Maximum of 12 participants

Discover Te Wai Pounamu (NZ’s South Island), as we take you away from the population centres and tourist ‘honey pots’ to lesser known but equally spectacular destinations. One day you’re high in a majestic mountain valley, viewing giant buttercups and ‘vegetable sheep’, and the next, you’re hiking in sub-Antarctic rainforest, or viewing Dusky Dolphins and Sperm Whales at sea. Accommodation is in hotels and motor lodges with private facilities, and travel is by comfortable small coach, including an on-board botanical and nature reference library.

14-Day Accommodated Tour – Departs Auckland 17 February 2024 – Maximum of 12 participants

The forests of Aotearoa (New Zealand) are a reminder of a world long gone; ferns, ancient conifers, flightless ground birds, prehistoric reptiles & insects, and virtually no mammals. We explore these other world forests as we traverse the North Island from Auckland to Wellington. We will discover dramatic fascinating landscapes, from sub-Antarctic beech forests to the ever-changing podocarp forests of the volcanic plateau. Throughout our journey, we will learn the intricacies of the forests, their birdlife, and the landscapes on which they sit.