Every local is a stranger somewhere else.

A local can help you get the best from your trip. One day you'll return the favour.

Koha · Friendship · Respect= a trusted gift

travel like a local · trusted knowledge, like a friend told you

A day is not a lifetime. We watch visitors walk past the best thing in town every day, all summer. Nobody ever asks us. Ask us.

I live somewhere — I'll share I'm going somewhere

Free to look, always. NZ$46 a year (incl. GST) to join the association and contribute.

Your Queenstown plan3 days

08:00Coffee — the place on the main street the one behind it.
same beans, no queue
11:30Bungy — book ahead online book at the desk —
they hold walk-in slots
16:00Famous lookout for sunset carry on 12 min past
the car park. nobody does.
19:30Dinner — highest rated in town

MMere — lives here, 22 yearsCONFIRMED BY 14 LOCALS

What we actually are

It's not another map. HIT-TRAVEL is the handwriting in the margin of one.

What's printed on the map

Open 7am–4pm
4.6 stars, 2,847 reviews
Sponsored · Book now

What a local writes beside it

7am is fine, 9am is a wall of people
those reviews are all from one summer
go on a Tuesday and they'll talk to you

And this is what giving feels like

You write one thing down. Your neighbours start agreeing with you.

✓ Tama — 31 years ✓ Ruby — Jackson Bay ✓ Dave — fishing charter ✓ and 11 more

then a stranger writes: "we didn't tell anyone where it was — you asked us not to. thank you for trusting us with it."

For the people who live there

You've been the expert on this place your whole life. Nobody's asked.

PRIDE

Your place, described properly

Written up by people who spent a weekend there. You've spent a life.

put your name on the real version

STANDING

Passion, strength and pride — mana in the giving

One person holds Most Trusted Local in your town, decided by travellers who used the advice. In most towns, still vacant.

licensed, not ingested — and it can't be bought

COMMUNITY

Back the businesses you rate

Name the café, the guide, the family restaurant. We never charge a business to be recommended.

one local's word beats any ad

Sharing something doesn't mean losing it.

✓Record it and never publish it. Some places we'll tell people about. Some we won't. That's the point.
✓Or set the level yourself — public, members, approved travellers, or area only.
✓Withdraw any time — one tap, no notice, no questions.
✓Even if it's number one — rank gives us no claim over your knowledge.

not every secret needs a GPS pin

This is an association, not an audience.

Every member is a verified local, vouched for by other locals in their own town, city and country. You're not joining a website — you're joining an international association of friends who happen to live everywhere.

Travelling instead? Follow the local's rules, spend where they said, never publish a protected place. Break that and you're removed — we'd rather lose a traveller than a local's trust.

Membership

NZ$46 a year. Less than a dollar a week.

pay it once, or two instalments of NZ$23 — whatever suits

Price shown for New Zealand, incl. 15% GST. Local taxes apply elsewhere.

Why there's a fee at all

Not to make money from you. It covers verifying new members, checking every tip before it's published, and the search and AI costs of running this — none of which are free.

And why it's worth paying

Anyone can write a blog for a weekend and vanish. Paying a joining fee is how you show you're here for the long haul — and it's why the name beside a tip means something.

It buys no ranking, no endorsement and no influence. Standing here is earned from other locals, and never sold.

Free to look, always. We only use your email to tell you when Human Intelligence Travel opens - we never sell it, and you can ask us to delete it any time. See our privacy note.