"Learie Constantine. He were the first black face we ever saw oop at Nelson and everyone took to him." Jeff Turner has a glint in his eye as he sips a glass of Chardonnay at a wine-tasting session in Kaikoura, a gentle seaside town where tourists watch whales and swim with dolphins. Jeff, 67, hails from Leyland in Lancashire, but now finds himself on the east coast of New Zealand's South Island, more than 100 miles north of Christchurch. He is here with Wisden Cricket Supporters' Tours, part of the travel company Titan Hi-Tours, who organise trips all over the world. "It's my first sports tour," says Jeff, with a grin. "I'm enjoying my retirement while I can."

He is one of 18 English tourists who have flown to the furthest corner of the globe to watch the five-match one-day series and indulge in some sightseeing on the side. The demographics of the group are as you might expect. There are six couples – five of them middle-aged – and six single men; the oldest member of the party is 69, the youngest 28; there is a chartered accountant, a football referee, a retired service manager for a car firm, and a part-time cricket umpire. Oh, and they all love cricket.

Steve Redmond, the baby of the party, comes from Chorley near Preston, and wears his official National Bank Series baseball cap back-to-front. He bats at No. 4 for British Aerospace Warton and once played against a hulking blond 17-year-old who took four quick wickets and smashed a hundred "in about 55 balls". Yes, Andy Flintoff has come a long way since his days at St Anne's in the Palace Shield league in Lancashire. "I've never done a cricket tour before," says Steve. "I'll definitely do more."

Michael Wreford and his wife Hilary ("We've been married for 37 cricket seasons") saw an advertisement in a magazine and thought they'd treat themselves. Were they apprehensive about the thought of spending three weeks with a bunch of strangers? "Oh no," says Hilary. "We'll probably be sick of each other by the end of three weeks!"

The tour manager is the gregarious Kevin Dalziel (pronounced DL), who has been working as a freelancer for Titan since September 1998, and has led groups to Alaska and Australia, Thailand and Bermuda. This is only his second cricket trip, and on the first, to Sri Lanka a year ago, he quickly discovered that cricket tourists are a breed apart. "In Sri Lanka they were very easy to please when the cricket was on," he recalls. "The difficulty was that they didn't want to do anything else. Some of the people who come out just for the Tests are very serious about their cricket. They're walking encyclopedias."

Dalziel is responsible for making sure everything runs like clockwork. From coach pick-ups to hotel checkouts, from match tickets to apres-cricket – the buck stops with him. "A good tour manager has to have confidence, leadership, common sense, the ability to react to a crisis without panicking, and good people skills," he says. "There can be up to 50 adults depending on you – they're on holiday and expect a service. You couldn't do this job and be a shrinking violet."

But Titan aren't the only travel group currently flowering in New Zealand. Barry Dudleston, the former county batsman who's now an umpire, runs his own company, Sunsport, and organises accommodation and travel for a lot of the English media, including the Sky commentary team. John Snow, once the scourge of the world's best opening batsmen, is now sweetness and light as head of John Snow Travel. And Gullivers have brought a party of around 25. Even in the wake of September 11, cricket tours remain popular.

You can see why. Jeff is warming to his theme now, and grips me by the arm. "Do you know, I saw the 1948 Invincibles at Old Trafford." For most of these people this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip. But cricketing memories last for ever.

Lawrence Booth is assistant editor of Wisden.com.

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