Tucked away deep in Woodhill Forest, Tree Adventures is set amidst a peaceful oasis of greenery. Offering a range of high-wire options to satisfy climbers of all ages and skill levels amongst the stunning Woodhill Forest tree-tops, the park presents a challenging course offering an impressive range of suspended obstacles and ziplines.
The busy summer season has recently drawn to a close, and the park’s director Jimmy Moore is heading up the team for a maintenance day. Tall trees rise sharply against the sunny blue sky around the team as they spread out to triple-check equipment and construct a brand-new adventure course to add to the park. Working closely with their immediate neighbours Woodhill Mountain Bike Park, Tree Adventures offers a visitor experience combo to provide multiple activities in this section of Woodhill Forest.
Choose your own adventure
Spread over seven acres of mature forest, the park includes ten unique courses ranging in height and difficulty from beginner to expert level. Each course is a unique aerial pathway, suspending the participant between ground and sky as they walk amongst the mature forest. Composed of suspended challenges, bridges, swings, high wires, surfboards, tunnels, nets, a platform leap, a balance beam, and a Tarzan swing, each course finishes with a zipline to bring the participant to the ground. Heights rise from three to 15 meters off the ground.
On weekends, the park can get very busy, with an all-park capacity of 200 active tree-adventuring visitors each day. Jimmy explains, “We run half-hourly arrival sessions to ensure we give our visitors as much focus as they need to give them confidence on the course while accommodating as many people as possible.” After check-in and the equipment fitting, participants complete the safety training with an instructor, before they make their way around their selection of the high courses with ongoing supervision and support given by staff as required. A smart interconnected carabiner system gives visitors the peace of mind that they are always secure. Generally, most visitors complete between four to six separate courses, which can take up to three hours. Visitors can relax and eat at the picnic tables as they enjoy the tranquility of the forest setting.
The park is renowned for its signature activity: the giant zip line on course eight, providing participants with 150 meters of flying length! “One of the things that visitors love the most is how many zip lines we have,” explains Jimmy. “We have one after every single course, mainly quite long, to bring you back to your group. This differentiates us from other tree adventure parks in other parts of the world.”
A day in the trees
During the high season from October to the start of May, a typical day at Tree Adventures includes hosting school programmes, community organisations, defence force training, and many other team-building events. On weekends clientele tends towards family and friend groups including stag do’s, birthday parties, workplace colleagues, or the park’s regulars. Jimmy says, “We get a high number of repeat clients including our weekly frequenters, as well as constant first-timers, all keen to unleash their inner monkey.” The vast majority of visitors are from the wider Auckland region.
Jimmy comments, “We see a wide range of demographics, all keen to challenge their balance, and build confidence. Visitors come from all walks of life. Our adventurers include young children, even some people in their eighties, groups with special needs and disabilities, and at-risk youth. We accommodate them all.”
The psychological side of things is a key part of the adventure. Jimmy explains, “It’s great seeing the way that kids just thrive out here. They are flexible, and they don’t consider the setting in the same way many adults do. Tweens and teens are just off and loving every minute of it!”
The tree team
The experienced team are passionate about what they do and the beauty of their unique workplace. Involved since the early planning days of what became Tree Adventures, Jimmy initially assisted the founding team with the park’s construction. After a stint as a snowboard instructor in Japan, he came back to New Zealand and became a director at Tree Adventures in 2006. “I thought it might be a ten-year project,” he says. “Here I am still, two decades later!”
This past summer has been the first good summer for the park, after the challenging last few years. “After Covid, we had the Auckland anniversary weekend floods,” says Jimmy. “Then Cyclone Gabrielle sustained damage to the park. That meant an extended closure period to repair the damage, and actually going backwards over that summer. This summer has been a good one, with strong support! We are a fairly resilient small business.”
Weather watch
Working outdoors means that the weather is always a factor in the mix. “We monitor the weather conditions very closely,” explains Jimmy. “If conditions are severe, particularly high winds or the likelihood of a thunderstorm, we need to close the park for safety reasons. On these rare occasions we suspend activities, help clients off the high courses, and seek shelter under the reception awning. Depending on the severity of weather events, we may need to close operations for the day if that is required.”
“Weather is our biggest challenge, especially with the ongoing environmental crisis leading to an increased frequency of weather events. This means we have more closed days, with more repairs and maintenance needed, including sand and wood chips being washed away more often. After Cyclone Gabriel, we had a high volume of cleaning and clearing work to do.”
Behind the scenes
The team works on forest maintenance such as clearing pathways, new signage, and the routine pruning of the trees. Jimmy explains, “We have a continual programme of periodic maintenance at the park. Maintenance for us is quite different to what might initially spring to mind, as we must accommodate constant ongoing growth since our structures are fixed to living things: the trees.”
With 10 individual courses pitched at varying levels of competency, there are hundreds of elements to be maintained and serviced, including replacing the hardware and timber elements as needed. “We have very high safety standards and pride ourselves on the integrity of the structural components,” says Jimmy.
Enjoying the adventure
“Nothing beats being out in the park, seeing how much enjoyment our visitors get from the experience, and continually improving what we do,” says Jimmy. “I really enjoy the ongoing challenge of keeping the business relevant and sustainable. Lots of businesses come and go. We are constantly trying to keep ourselves relevant and fresh.”
The team’s ethos is safety first, while ensuring customers have a great adventure experience. “We ensure we provide high-quality safety equipment, that our service standards are high, and we try to reach as broad a demographic of people as possible.” The park makes its schools programme available at a heavily discounted rate. “We want to be accessible to as wide a cross-section of the community as we possibly can.”
Jimmy and the team enjoy the challenge of continually updating the park, so that every time a visitor comes back, there’s something new to surprise them. “We are always improving and refining things, and really enjoy that hard mahi behind the scenes. We put a lot of thought into the park and the progression of courses.”
Visit Tree Adventures.
