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Southern Discoveries has re-entered the Queenstown market with an experience that combines a slower pace of travel, local storytelling, and family connection — and this time, it’s all about wine.
The Fiordland operator has launched a new Queenstown Wine Tour as part of a evolution of visitor offerings and a ongoing commitment to authenticity, regional roots, and innovative technology.
The wine tour marks the company’s first step back in Queenstown after the COVID era, and for chief executive officer, Kerry Walker, the move was as practical as it was personal.
“We had an asset which was a small sprinter van, sitting there pretty much redundant in a post-COVID world,” she says. “Our Milford numbers were of a size and scale that we were putting through our normal coach operation and we had this piece of equipment sitting there and kind of evaluated, do we offer something a little bit different to what we had before, but sort of encompassing our goal to sort of share Southland and Otago a bit more with the world.”
The wine tour also reflects a familial bond — a nod to the Skeggs family, owners of Southern Discoveries and the Mora Wines brand.
“If we want to stay true to us as a family business, we should be supporting the family’s other interests. So we really love that connection about having the family involved in both Mora and us,” Kerry says. “It kind of gives us that authenticity around wine tours, and it made it really interesting for us to enter that space in terms of the storytelling and making that connection between why would we do it.”
Staying true to its roots is something Southern Discoveries doesn’t take lightly, especially as it expands into new experiences.
Kerry says “Across all of our experiences, we have real connection into the places where we operate, so yes, we’ve opened a wine tour, but why we go with wine is because we have a connection to the vineyard.”
And in Milford Sound where the company’s core operations lie, authenticity runs deep.
She says “Milford Sound is really our home. So we’ve based our crew down there, we have operations people based in there permanently, and we remain more or less dedicated to that region or that part of our region. And I think that authenticity grows with that.”
But, it’s not just authenticity that is growing, so is guest expectations and Kerry says guests are expecting a higher level of service and with that, a higher level of story telling and local knowledge.
“They are also expecting good quality food, good quality vessels, and those expectations rise as the price of Milford increases overall — not just on our experiences — and we feel that our product offer matches those expectations very well and the feedback is, that it does.”
She says travellers are also looking for more immersive and extended experiences, which has driven demand for upgrades like the VIP Cascade Room and add-ons like farm tours and hike-cruise combos.
“They’re looking for a way to spend more time or get something more out of their experience in Milford… and that VIP room really caters to that, being able to give them a sort of dedicated area — and that’s a bit unique in a pretty unique part of the world,” she says.
