Owner - Director: Brett Naisby first came to New Zealand in 1996 and he has been joyfully walking and tramping amongst the hills and mountains of the South Island ever since. He became a permanent NZ resident in 2006 and relocated his travel business from Canada to Christchurch in the same year.
Originally from Ottawa, Brett studied in both Canada and France, and in 1990 graduated from McGill University with a Master's Degree in International Relations. He then spent a year and a half working in France guiding luxury biking and walking tours with travel to India and Nepal in between. He returned to Canada in 1991 to pursue a career with the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs.
However, Brett's wanderlust got the best of him and he left his nascent career in Foreign Affairs to return to Europe to work full time for luxury active travel company Butterfield & Robinson. He landed in Tuscany and immediately fell in love with its charms.
Brett has made the Chianti wine-growing region of Tuscany his European base ever since. He established his own hiking and biking tour company in 1996 and slowly but surely grew the business. Now, almost 25 years later, his company, Speranza Travel Ltd., has run hundreds of tours for thousands of people in dozens of locations throughout Italy, France, Spain, Croatia, Turkey, Algeria, Greece, Slovenia, the Republic of Georgia and New Zealand. In total, there are four jewels in the company crown, Customwalks, Mondo Bike Tours, Scooterbella Vespa Tours, and now, Hike NZ. Brett also established Customwalks Italia Srl., a Ltd. company in Italy to help facilitate operations in Europe.
Brett oversees all aspects of the tours in a very hands-on way. He continues to research and develop new tours as well as guide several tours a year. The one silver lining to the pandemic is that, instead of going to Italy for the 2020 European summer season, he has been able to stay put in NZ for the winter. This has enabled him to get out and explore more of NZ’s incomparable backcountry and put together these itineraries for you. Indeed, all of the Hike NZ tour itineraries that you see on offer here Brett has personally put together. He has done all the walks, checked out all the accommodations and tasted all the wine he recommends! Indeed, he cares deeply about your experience with Hike NZ because it is his livelihood at stake and nine times out of ten, he will be the one standing in front of an upset guest if something goes pear shaped. Brett is completely enthused about this new project and he can’t wait to swing into action and run the first Hike NZ tours with the help of the wonderful people you see on OUR GUIDES page.
Brett Naisby Owner-Director, Speranza Travel Ltd.
Hike NZ Guided hiking tours in New Zealand
Customwalks Guided walking tours in Europe
Mondobiketours Guided cycling tours in Europe
Scooterbella Guided Vespa tours in Europe
