How Explore Your Backyard began…
Hi, I’m Karen Platzer, founder and director of Explore Your Backyard. I’m a Kiwi who lived in Switzerland for 20 years and travelled extensively throughout Europe in that time. From Switzerland I moved to Africa (could you get a bigger contrast – from a country where everything runs like clockwork to a continent where you’re lucky to find a clock that works at all?). I worked for a tour operator in Kenya for several years and fell in love with Africa – the wildlife, the landscapes and the people.
Eventually, after 23 years away, it was time to return home to New Zealand where I started my own tour business. I escorted small group tours throughout New Zealand, Europe and South America for 28 years, but it was Africa that captured my heart from my first visit 35 years ago and kept calling me back, and so African Encounters Ltd was created to share my passion for this incredible continent with my guests.
There have been many twists and turns in my journey as an independent tour operator and 2020 was a major one! With international travel not an option for the foreseeable future it was time to go back to my roots and revisit some of my favourite places in our beautiful country, and I’m loving it.
The decision to specialise in small groups, allowing my guests to venture off the main tourist routes and avoid the crowds while supporting local communities and conservation projects, both in New Zealand and in Africa, is one I’m very happy to have made.
