Owner, Operator and Tour Guide

Angelika Pastoors

After over 20 years in the tourism industry, Angelika made her final move to New Zealand in 2001 and launched Sidetracks – Her personal travel company concentrating on nature and activity tours.

Her mission is to give as many people as possible the chance to experience the beauty of New Zealand. “I believe active nature tours are the best and most effective way to leave everyday stress and worries behind and switch off. Often it is not the body that is tired but the mind. On our tours one can experience how a close connection to nature can give peace, inner balance and newfound energy. “

Angelika grew up in Germany near the Dutch border and left her hometown to study to become a social worker. However not long into her course she switched to Tourism and subsequently worked as tour guide all over Europe and managed a travel agency in Muenster for nine years.

It was in 1995 that she visited New Zealand for the first time and was always drawn back since. The next few years she spent traveling and working between Germany, Canada and New Zealand and in this time lived 10 month of the year in a tent and never more than 3 days in one place! But even for someone as energetic as Angelika this lifestyle eventually became tiring. She finally ‘settled’ in the South Island of New Zealand and her chosen hometown Christchurch and started Sidetracks Tours in 2001. Of course she still can’t sit still and now spends 8-9 month a year guiding, traveling and exploring the country.

‘To be touring and guiding is my life!’ and there really is no real line between her job and the rest of her life. ‘It is just what I do and love doing most’. It is only when she hears comments like ‘Tour guides are always on holiday’ that she gets annoyed and explains more of the large amount of work going into her chosen career.

To settle in New Zealand was definitely made easier by the ‘Can do’ attitude in this country as well as the help and support from friends and family back home.

Of course she also misses her friends and family in Germany at times, but to live her dream she is happy to pay that price (and the phone bills..).

Besides being a tour guide, she enjoys most to create new and exciting tour programs and ideas, like the 50 plus tours and specialized tours like the South Island Explorer, North Island Adventure and the new Short Tours for flexible travelers.

That she will ever slow down is hard to imagine.