Ask anyone to tell you about the ideal setting for their dream vacation and they will probably describe a picture perfect vision of rolling hills clad in dense green bush, topped with towering ferns and crisscrossed by crystal clear creeks, all exuberantly tumbling down towards the shores of the deep blue sea where a curvy sweep of pale white sand neatly divides solid ground and whispering waves.

In short they will just have described the Abel Tasman Coast Track, one of New Zealand’s 9 Great Walks.

Totaranui Beach

Now, you would be hard pressed to find a country more hiker friendly than New Zealand: thousands of kilometers of tracks and routes wind around the countryside, and a nationwide network of backcountry huts provides safe shelter and welcome comfort at the end of a long day’s tramp (for in New Zealand you do not hike, trek or bushwalk: you tramp).

The Great Walks showcase the best of this system and make some of the country’s most iconic and beautiful landscapes accessible to trampers of all levels of experience and fitness thanks to benched tracks, modern huts and obliging hut wardens.

Whariwharangi Hut

Out of the 9 Great Walks, the Abel Tasman Coast Track is widely recognized as the easiest, and as such is an excellent choice for the novice tramper. Reasons for this are:

• By New Zealand standards, the walk is flat as – you will never gain more than 200m elevation.
• The days are short –an average of 12 km / 4 hours walking a day.

• The Tasman area benefits from the best weather in the South Island – from late spring through to the end of summer you can count on warm sunny days with only the occasional shower.

• Access is easy and the itinerary is flexible – thanks to bus shuttles and water taxis, you can get dropped off / picked up all along the track, which means you are free to decide whether to tramp its full length or only part of it.

However, no matter how smooth and easy the experience has been made by the good folks at the Department of Conservation (DoC), there are still a number of things to watch out for:

• First off, you must be aware that the Coast Track is peculiar in that it features 3 tidal crossings. This means you will have to time your trip with the tides in order to cross streams and estuaries at their lowest water level. Although an alternative high-tide track is provided at the 1st crossing (Torrent Bay), there are no alternatives at Onetahuti and Awaroa. It is essential to obtain a current tide timetable and carefully plan your trip according to it.

Awaroa Tidal Crossing

• Because the track is mostly wide, smooth and flat, tramping boots are not an absolute necessity and you can get away with walking in sneakers. Remember to bring a pair of sandals for the tidal crossings – you won’t want to wet your tramping shoes, but you will want to protect your feet from prickly shells, particularly in Awaroa Inlet.

• Even if you are sleeping in the huts, you will still need a good backpack with a hip belt to carry some heavier essentials such as a sleeping bag, a stove and enough fuel and food for the duration of the trip. There are neither supplies nor cooking facilities to be found along the track.

• Potable water can be found on tap at every single hut. Although all campsites also feature a tap, the water there is not potable and must be filtered or boiled for 3 minutes. This is especially important as giardia (diarrhea inducing parasite) is known to occur in the park.

• New Zealand being New Zealand, do pack a waterproof jacket and a warm jumper anyway, and never leave without insect repellent to fight off the sandflies!

• Because the Coast Track is extremely popular in summer, make sure to book your huts and/or campsites early.

You’ll need 4 or 5 days to complete the Coast Track. A classic itinerary is to start in Marahau, at the southern end of the park, spend each night at a hut (there are 4: Anchorage, Bark Bay, Awaroa and Whariwharangi) and finish either in Totaranui or Wainui. The latter is the true end of the track, and is thus located at the northernmost extremity of the park. Should you finish there, you will have no choice but to take a bus shuttle back as water taxis do not go that far north. This is the main reason why many trampers choose to finish a day early in Totaranui: going back to Marahau by water taxi is faster and a lot more fun!

Should you fancy doing things differently, getting away from the crowds and saving a bit of money in the process, there are about 20 campsites to pick from along the track. Whether you choose to camp outside or stay in huts, go north or south, walk the whole track or only parts of it, always allow yourself plenty of time. Although walking from hut to hut may take as little as 3 to 4 hours, there are many tempting detours along the way: descending to every single signposted bay or exploring the creeks on the inside of the park will take extra time and energy.

Side track - Cascade Falls

These detours are also very helpful if walking in a group of varying abilities: while novice trampers may walk straight on to the next hut, more experienced members of the party can check out all the side tracks, leaving everyone to meet up again happy and satisfied at the end of the day.

And here comes the best part: all huts and campsites are right by the beach. The sea beckons.

Te Pukatea Bay

Resources

• Abel Tasman Coast Track on the DoC website
• Lonely Planet: Tramping in New Zealand

Stephanie Cotteret is a freelance travel writer and photographer who is currently enjoying many “tramps” in New Zealand. She is a regular contributor to Australia-Australie.com , France’s leading website for Working Holidaymakers and backpackers. Check out her photography portfolio online , or contact her on toothbrushnomads[at]gmail[dot]com.

We have never set foot on New Zealand soil. We’ve  just never been able to make the time to tramp any of the wonderful trails that are available. It is something we need to fix in the future.

Rick from Best Hikes  just brought a new trail, planned to be officially opened later this year, to our attention.  It is well worth a look if you have some free time and a desire to walk a very long, tough track.

Stretching from Cape Reinga in the North of New Zealand to Bluff in the South,  the Te Araroa is one of the world’s longest walking trails. Hundreds of volunteers have helped create the continuous 3000 kilometre-long route.

There is a fantastic website devoted solely to this new trail.  Some of the highlights to look out for are:

- excellent, detailed track notes and descriptions following a really clear format – an example is the first section, Cape Reinga Coastal Walkway

- beautifully produced, 1:50,000 strip maps of the whole trail. We downloaded just the North section and there are 70 high resolution, pdf pages! (watch the size)

- fascinating “trail stories” with links to sites created by “thru walkers”  who tackled the trail before it was officially opened.  Some of these are real adventure stories we could only shake our head at after reading them…For example from Matthias ‘Matze’ Mard’s entry from 2004:

After a cold and very wet night I carried on. The path got steadily more extreme: the mountains became ever higher and they exist of a type of stone that gets slippery when it’s wet and from which large pieces of stone had broken off. As if that was not enough, I had to cross a few rivers again and I began seriously asking myself why I was there.

Congratulations to the members of the Te Araroa Trust board.  What a vision, what a project!

The trail’s official opening on the 3rd December 2011 in Wellington and is  a celebration of the success of 17 years of voluntary effort from many hundreds of New Zealanders up and down the country.

Full information is over at the Te Araroa official website. It’s well worth a browse.

Have you walked in New Zealand?

Would you consider undertaking a 3000km long trail?

Shoot us your thoughts below, we would love to hear what you think.

We came across the Over 40′s Tramping Club  who are based in Christchurch, New Zealand a few days ago.  They seem to be a very active club and a recent trip,  (in the  Hokitika  area, on the west coast of the South Island) to Mungo Hut looks a ripper!

There is a  trip report on a this  expedition along the  Toaroha, Mungo, Hokitika and down the Whitcombe rivers, inland from Hokitika.  The  average age of this group was 67 and they do look like tough walkers! This walk is only  for experienced and fit trampers. You need to take gear and food for 6 days. The author managed to keep his pack to 12.5kg and the others weren’t much more.

This trip appealed because it looks tough, it reads tough and traverses through some spectacular New Zealand scenery.  We were amazed by the number of huts that were in this area and how well they seemed to be maintained. 

River crossing

In this post we have just shared some of the terrific images from the Over 40′s Tramping Club site.  You can check out the full trip report by clicking here  .  There is also a great range of photographs of th trip to wet your appetite! (just be careful viewing the full images, they are big!) 

Bluff Hut - New Zealand

Old Cedar Flats Hut - New Zealand

Who are the Over Forties Tramping Club?

We are a tramping club, based in Christchurch, New Zealand, for trampers over forty years old.

With over 400 members, our club caters for all levels of tramping abilities running day trips on Wednesdays and Sundays, as well as base camps and back packing trips. As long as you can attain a reasonable standard of fitness, you’ll be fine. We are not competitive, with the emphasis being on safe, friendly and enjoyable tramping.

Tramp Route - New Zealand

Have you “tramped” in New Zealand?

Have you bushwalked in this area?

Can you go for 6 days and only carry 12kg?

We would love to read your comments, drop up a reply below!

We  discovered the opening of a new “tramp” in New Zealand that looks a ripper. Named after Sir Edmond Hillary, the trail is located in an area frequented by the Hillary family from the 1920′s.  Sir Edmund Hillary used the rugged hills and beaches of the Waitakere Ranges to plan and prepare for his expeditions.

The “Hillary Trail” was opened in January 2010 and joins up a network of existing regional park tracks and basic backpacker campgrounds.

From the website, there is a great tag line!

It ain’t Everest but it ain’t easy!

The Hillary Trail is multi-day tramping trip through native forest and along the wild coast of the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park. It begins and ends near Auckland on New Zealand’s  north island.  There is a great  detailed map of the trail here.

We love these quotes:

The trail will be a challenge for many due to hilly terrain, intense rain forest and exposed coastline. Some of the days are long compared to other multi-day tramps.

The tracks forming the trail are predominantly of a tramping track standard and cannot be compared to a Great Walk. The terrain is varied so there is a lot of climbing up and down, many tracks will be steep, rutted, `rooty’ and slippery. Tracks will be particularly muddy in winter.

(it reminds us of the South Coast Track in Tasmania)

There is a fantastic website that explains everything about the Trail. You can access it here: The Hillary Trail.

Some quick facts:

• The trail takes trampers through the Waitakere Ranges
• Is approximately 70km
• Based on four days, three nights
• Back country campground stays
• For experienced trampers and those with a high level of fitness

If you are looking for a less “touristy” and unsupported hiking trip in New Zealand this “tramp” might be for you. Imagine bushwalking along the same tracks as Hillary before his Everest trip, a distinct buzz.

Quick facts:

• Separated from the South Island by Foveaux Strait, Stewart Island/Rakiura is New Zealand’s third largest island and most southerly national park.  It is a rugged, bush-clad island, roughly triangular in shape, and covering 168,000 hectares
• Approximately 9 – 11 days should be allowed to tramp the full circuit, which is 125 kilometres in total.
• Mud is widespread and often deep and thick on the track, regardless of the season
• Archaeological excavations have shown evidence of Maori habitation around Stewart Island from the 13th Century.
• The island’s weather is unpredictable, with rain falling on about 275 days of the year. Strong westerly winds are frequent
• Huts are supplied with mattresses, a wood burning stove for heating, running water and toilets. Cookers and cooking utensils are not supplied – it is essential to carry your own portable stove, fuel and utensils.

The above information is from North West and Southern Circuit Tracks, Rakiura National Park by the New Zealand Department of Conservation. A must read before planning this trek.

In this guest post, Dorothy Tomlinson reports on her “tramp” around the North West Circuit Track on Stewart Island, New Zealand. Dorothy, generally tramps with her local “Third Age” group and we take great pleasure in sharing her trip report. (Note: Tramping is the term used in New Zealand for hiking, bushwalking, backpacking  or treking)

Mud Track - Stewart Island - New Zealand

The group (seven of us to do what is called the North-west circuit tramp and nine to do the three day Rakiura Great Walks tramp) left Timaru early on Monday 23rd March.  We reached Invercargill at 3 pm and caught the plane for Stewart Island an hour later. Good to get all that way in one day.

After staying the night at a Backpackers we were taken by small bus to our starting point at Lee Bay. Our circuit was a long one of about 130 kms, basically following the coastline around the top half of Stewart Island. Although roughly following the coastline, most of the travel was actually in the podacarp forest through rimu, kamahi, miro etc – no beech – up and down, up and down as we climbed up over headlands between bays and down into gullies and up out of them again. It was undulating indeed. There was very little flat walking whilst in the forest. But the forest was beautiful with many huge specimen trees and tree and crown ferns.

The track is renowned for mud – thick, squealchy mud, suck-you-in mud, sticky, clingy mud and sure enough, it could not be escaped – even in the relatively dry conditions that we experienced. It was all part of the fun and if one couldn’t ‘hack it’, as a couple of young overseas trekkers that we met soon after it started to become bad could not then, as they were doing, the best thing to do was to turn around and go back! But we were mentally and, with our leather boots and long gaiters, physically prepared and considered it all part of this unique Stewart Island experience.

After walking for long periods in the forest, often with only intermittent, far away views of the sea, it was always a highlight to come to a beach. They were all beautiful, some stony, some bouldery, some had golden sands and some were sandy with a backdrop of huge dunes, some had really impressive granite headlands at one or both ends, some were strewn with seaweed and/or driftwood. The size of some of the huge tree trunks lying as driftwood was amazing. Especially on the beaches facing the west, the seas pounded and roared, creating a wild, away-from-it all feeling. At one beach, I spotted a couple of yellow-eyed penguins swimming in the surf, ready to come in to their nests. After I had removed myself from their line of sight they, sensing danger was over, later waddled up the beach and skittled away to their nest in the scrub.

During the first few days westerly conditions prevailed and though it rained a little on the second day, it was not at all cold. Indeed, for nearly the whole of the tramp we enjoyed warm temperatures, especially noticeable at night when one was sleeping in a hut where the wood fire had been on and its heat warmed the room to a more than desirable temperature for sleeping. One day was particularly windy and it was on this day that we had to cross a river running into the sea. The crossing point was not far from the beach and the river had a sandy bottom as it was tidal. I was the last of the group to begin crossing and half way across I stopped as the wind was so strong I thought I was going to be blown over. But alas, when I went to get moving again, I realised I had sunk and that I was stuck in quicksand! I was thankful that two other members of the group were able to come to my rescue and pull me out.

Quicksand Rescue - Stewart Island

We were so lucky with the weather. We did not have one really miserable day where there were no views to reward us for our days tramp. Even the day we climbed the Island’s highest peak, Mt Anglem, the weather was clear enough for us to get good enough views of the coastline along which we had come, the coastline which we would be following in the next days and views away to the south and toward Mason Bay where we would be, all going according to plan, in the next eight days.

It so happened that there was another group of five from Geraldine and Timaru, well known to most of us, who were doing the same tramp at the same time, having begun a few days before us and going in the opposite direction to us. We all met up at the same hut on the day our group climbed Mt Anglem (980m) and it was great to see them and exchange talk about our respective trips so far. This was our third night. We, like the other group too, were carrying a mountain radio but on our second night we found that the batteries iun our unit were flat. Very kindly, the other group, whose long tramp was three-quarters over, offered to give us their mountain radio while they took our battery-shot one out with them.

Mason Bay - Steward Island

Before leaving Timaru we had arranged with this group to get a food drop delivered by helicopter from Invercargill to the Long Harry hut which was the half way point for both groups. Dividing the $500 cost of such an exercise between the two groups it proved economical and, for many of us in the two parties, made the difference between being able to accomplish the lengthy tramp and not being able to even begin it. As the other group comprised two men aged 77, another well into his seventies, a woman sixty-five plus and our group ranged in age (apart from our leader) from mid-fifties to seventy-four we were pleased to be setting out at the beginning of the tramp with five days worth of food rather than ten. To start out carrying a 14 kg pack rather than one of about 18 or 19 kg made the tramp achievable. I’m not sure that I would have coped otherwise.

It was a great delight to arrive at Long Harry hut on our fifth night and find our boxed up food parcels awaiting us. Instead of the usual dehydrated meals, we feasted on dutch sausage, fresh potatoes, pumpkin, carrots and steamed pudding. It was like Christmas dinner, all enjoyed at a hut high above the sea whilst the wind tore at high speed around us. On our second night at Bungaree hut (where we looked across Fouveaux Strait and saw Bluff Hill and three lighthouses along the coast, and also where there had been a pretty sunset and brilliantly coloured sunrise) a 32 year old Englishman who had done two days tramping in one, arrived to join us. From there on he accompanied us as we moved from one hut to the next and he became firmly welded to our group. I’m sure for him it was  a marvellous experience, joining us in our celebration dinner at Long Harry as we feasted. (How different his experience of the North-West circuit would have been had he been doing it solo.)

Bungaree Sunrise - Stewart Island

Most of the huts were situated near the sea and most had a wonderful views from them. They all had wood fires which very quickly warmed the place with a delightfully cosy heat which, could make it too hot on some nights as previously mentioned, but which most of the time was marvellous, especially for drying clothes. Each had an outside bench and sink for ablutions and washing clothes. With being on the track for ten days the washing of body and clothes was very necessary though I learned quickly that there was no use trying to remove all the sticky mud from my legs as to rub too hard was making them chaffed and sore and anyway it was a certainty that there’d be more mud on the morrow!

Unlike most kiwis, the Stewart Island breed forages for food during the day and some of us were lucky enough to see two. I was third in line as we were walking on the morning of the fourth day and the first three of us got a great view of one until it scurried away quickly leaving the last four members of our group disappointed at missing the sight. However, on another day the whole group spotted and was able to watch a kiwi feeding for quite some time. So all members of the group were able to go home satisfied that they had seen at least one kiwi!

Yankee River Hut

We spent two days at the Mason Bay hut, our 8th and 9th days. Just as well that this rest day had already been planned as coming along Mason Beach the previous afternoon when it was almost high tide three of us had been dunked by the roaring sea and in the process I had been thrown onto the boulders hurting my knee (and ruining the camera in my bum-bag. Fortunately the photos on the memory card were alright. A camera can be replaced but not the photographs!)

Ruggedy Beach - Stewart Island

Our final day was the shortest day of the whole tramp, being just three and a half hours compared to two days of eight hours and several of five or six. Besides it was flat country and with a good part of it being through very boggy country a lengthy section of the track was board-walked. A nice change! Soon after mid-day we arrived at Freshwater hut and were picked up by water taxi at 7 pm just as the sun was going down. We had to be picked up at high tide as it is the only time the water taxi can come up the navigable Freshwater river, the entrance to it being marginal even then because of the minimal depth of the sea water at that point. At low tide this whole area of Paterson Inlet is nothing but mud flats. It was an unforgettable sight coming back in the water taxi, looking back at the cloudless, glowing red sky with all the upland areas of the island – Mt Anglem which we had climbed and the Ruggedy Mountains which we had crossed, standing out so majestically.

Ruggedy Mountains - Stewart Island

To add to the thrilling boat ride we were lucky enough to pass a pod of dolphins playing in Paterson Inlet and our driver turned the boat around and followed them for a while giving us wonderful views of their antics.

At 7.40 pm we finally arrived back at Golden Bay in the Inlet, off loaded our packs and then donned them once more  for the ten minute walk up over the hill to a rented holiday house to sleep the night. The flight from Stewart Island back to Invercargill the next day was made in the same glorious weather conditions as we had had going over and, after a six hour drive back to Timaru, were home by 6 pm.

It was a wonderful tramp and while no-one in our group would have finished the tramp without at least some scratches and bruises, we will have great memories of beautiful forest, beaches and headlands, wild seas,fabulous sunsets and sunrises, great huts, plentiful birdlife including penguins and kiwis, all capped off with memories of mud, mud, glorious mud!

Many thanks to Dorothy for sharing this great walk!  Her son, Dave is a regular guest poster on Our Hiking Blog so “tramping” is certainly a family affair.

You can read Dave’s trip reports by clicking the links below:

• Bibbulman Track – Western Australia
• Great South West walk – Southern Victoria – Australia