“KIWIS TO BHUTAN” TOURS
Your tour organiser and leader is New Zealander Martin Curtis, an experienced
Himalayan trekker and mountaineer. He has already arranged and
led 8 expeditions to Bhutan and consequently he is becoming very familiar with
this amazing country.
Bhutan is a remote independent kingdom in
the eastern Himalaya and the last bastion of the Tibetan Buddhist culture and
religion in its purest form. Despite opening
up to tourism in the late '70's it has managed to minimise
the effect of outside influences and the country is virtually untouched, in
terms of the environment, religion, architecture and lifestyle. Bhutan has the
youngest reigning monarch in the world who guards Bhutan's culture and national
identity fiercely. Just a few years ago his father decided to
abdicate in favour of his son and at the same time change the system to a
parliamentary democracy with the king as a figurehead only – despite the
protests of most of his people. However very little has changed
in the country, a great tribute to the Bhutanese people.
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Punakha Dzong, Bhutan |
Dancers at a Bhutan festival |
Local children, Bhutan |
It is a remarkable country and trekking in Bhutan
offers the opportunity to see not only the exquisite Himalayan scenery but to
experience its rich and ancient traditions in both remote villages and in
Thimphu, the small capital of 100,000 people. Few people have been privileged
enough to experience Bhutan and in the light of the fragility of such a small
nation and traditional culture in this age of superpowers, this slice of an old
world may be denied
us in the future.
Bhutan is a remote and still largely
undeveloped country where over 70% of the land area is still untouched forest
and participants must be prepared to take times and itineraries in their
stride. Weather and / or trail conditions can vary enormously and change
quickly in these wild areas and we may have to re-route sections of the treks.
Also, walking hours can vary a great deal with each
individual. It depends entirely on their own pace and, of course, on how
often they decide to stop for photographs etc. - however there is never any
rush in this beautiful country. Generally things
run to plan, but when they don’t it is always fun in Bhutan. There
is no porter culture in Bhutan and all our luggage will be transported by
animals, either by ponies and mules, or at higher altitudes yaks.
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Mt Chomolhari, Bhutan |
Trekking camp, Bhutan |
By law we have
to use a Bhutanese trekking company. The company
Martin has always used is well established and very reputable, with many years experience in running treks and tours to Bhutan, Nepal and
Sikkim. They will provide us with a local tour guide who will
be very well qualified and experienced. Invariably the guides are very
informative and speak very good English, as do most of the population. The
crew will also include a small staff of helpers and a
cook. The food has always been very good and the hygiene practised is excellent.
Martin Curtis’s experience in running
trips to Bhutan began in 2004 when he organised a small group
of New Zealanders to trek the classic route to the isolated and unique village
of Laya in the north west. Following this
in 2006 he organised a trip for another small group of kiwis
to tackle the famous “Snowman” trek in northern Bhutan,
reputedly the longest and most isolated trek in the entire
Himalaya. They were one of the very few groups to complete the trip
that year and with everyone in the party 60 years of age or more, they became
rather famous in Bhutan as being the oldest party ever to successfully walk
this classic route.
Since then Martin has organised six more
trips to this magical country of “Gross National
Happiness.” In 2012 he ran a trip to a very
isolated part of the country to see Gangkar Puensum (7541m) the world’s highest unclimbed
peak. From what they saw of the mountain’s south east
face, it is a worthy holder of the title. The mountain
was attempted in the 1980’s but is now out of bounds, as are all the other high
peaks in the country, as they are considered sacred to the Buddhist
religion. For the entire trek from Bumthang, the Kiwis
to Bhutan group saw no other Europeans at all, just yak
herders and army personnel, and they were the only trekking party to visit that
valley in the whole year.
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Snowman trek, Bhutan |
Richenzoe La, 5200m, highest pass on Snowman trek, Bhutan |
Southeast face of Gangkar Punesum, Bhutan |
In 2014,
Martin took a large group of friends and relations back to Bhutan, where they
trekked part of his original route into Chomolhari base camp and on to Lingshi. They then
travelled across the country as far as Trongsa on what is known in Bhutan as a
“cultural tour,” looking at birds, flowers (it was the rhododendron season) and
visiting one of the famous religious festivals whilst there.
In 2015 he led a slightly
different trip to the country – a Nature and Wildlife tour to
have a closer look at birds, trees, flowers and other natural phenomena, of
which Bhutan is richly endowed. He hired a specialist naturalist guide and
travelled much further east than his groups had done before, visiting both
the Black Mountain and the Thrumshing La National
Parks. The tour also included two short treks which were
classified as easy – the Haa trek
and the Gangte trek, and included a visit to the Black Necked Crane tsechu, a really unusual festival
on the Bhutanese calendar. The trip included several days
looking at Bhutan’s unique culture, dzongs and interacting with the friendly
local people.
In May 2017 Martin
organised and lead another Naturalists and Culture tour to the east of the
country. It was based on the successful exploratory tour in 2015,
but with the difference that it was late Spring when the abundance of flowering
rhododendrons, and many more birds and flowers than in late Autumn made it an
ideal time for this type of tour. We booked the same naturalist
guide we had in 2015. Travel was in an 18 seater bus. On request of the small group of clients,
it also included two treks that Martin himself had not done before - the Rodang La trek in the east,
rarely achieved nowadays, and also the Cholmohari 2 trek, a very high altitude and
beautiful variation of the standard trek to Cholmohari base camp. The trip also
included visits to several of the magnificent dzongs and a day at one of the
famous tsechus (festivals). The
birdlife, plants and flowers on this trip were amazing.
Since then Martin has organised two more
Nature and Wildlife tours to the country, using the same naturalist guide (who
has become a very good friend.) The first was in May
2018, when they visited another new area in the south, and then again
in November 2018 when he set up a tour for a very well-known
Australian Wildlife tour company. Martin was the tour escort
and 2nd naturalist guide, along with Dendup.
All tours are small specialised tours,
concentrating either on trekking in the mountains or on Bhutan’s natural
environment and its amazing wildlife. Bhutan has the
unique honour of being the world’s only carbon negative country, as opposed to
carbon neutral.
We can organise private trips for small
groups of friends if you wish. There is usually a minimum of 6
persons and no more than 10. If you are interested in visiting this
unique and beautiful country, please contact us on the email address below.
As an offshoot of his travels to Bhutan
and other Himalayan countries, Martin has recently released a new CD of songs
he has written about this beautiful area and the people and cultures that live
there. Entitled “High in the Himalaya”
it has proved to be an interesting addition to his many albums recorded over
the last 35 years.
You can contact Martin at:
Phone (Within New Zealand): 03 4438152
Phone (International): (64) 34438152
Email: martincurtisnz(at)gmail.com
Note: as an attempt to prevent spam, the @ has been replaced
by (at). You will have to change this when sending an email.
Martins Mountaineering
& Guiding CV