Category: Te Araroa
-
Auckland
I’ll keep it short since overall Auckland wasn’t that exciting. My first day was spent at Waiheke Island, a 40 minute ferry ride from the CBD. I had hoped to go to Rangitoto Island, but there were no ferry tickets left. I found a map of Waiheke, including it’s hiking trails and headed off down…
-
Cascade saddle
After spending the night in Invercargill, I made my way back up to Wanaka. I got there around 2pm, but by the time I had eaten some lunch and done all my chores, it was already past 5pm so I decided to wait until the next morning to get to Mt Aspiring park. I camped…
-
Stewart Island
The ferry ride over to Stewart Island takes about an hour from Bluff. Although the seas weren’t particularly rough, I was glad to get off the ferry. I left my pack at the hostel and walked over to the water taxi to Ulva Island. Ulva is a bird lovers paradise since predators have been eradicated.…
-
Day 147-148
Day 147: Oreti beach to Invercargill It was another very chilly morning so it was hard to get out of the sleeping bag again. My fingers got very cold putting away the wet tent so I was glad to have a warm mug to wrap them around afterwards. As I was putting my tent away…
-
Day 144-146
Day 144: Otautau to Merrivale zero Given we were in town, I started the day with a flat white. The hotel we stayed at included a serve-yourself breakfast so I made myself some toast with PBJ, which is always a treat these days. We didn’t have to check out until noon so I spent some…
-
Day 139-143
Day 139: Day trip to Milford Sound After a relaxed morning, we left Te Anau at about 10:30 for Milford Sound. The bus driver talked a lot about, mostly about himself. He did also mention a few interesting things about the area. We stopped at a place called Te Anau Downs for a picture opportunity…
-
Day 135-138
Day 135: Glenorchy to Taipo hut We had booked a shuttle to take us to the Greenstone carpark, where the trail starts up again after Queenstown. It took a group up to Mt Earnslaw trailhead first so it took us about 1.5 hours to get to our trailhead. The views from the road were great…
-
Day 132-134
Day 132: Highland Creek hut to Roses hut The trail today wasn’t easy or maybe it was some fatigue from the long day yesterday. In any case there were two very long climbs and descents over 11km and by the time we got to Roses hut, I was beat. We had originally thought about going…
-
Day 131
Day 131: Wanaka to Highland stream hut It was a clear but chilly morning as Cécile and I set off along the lake. The first point of interest was a tree that’s growing out of the lake. There was an information sign saying the tree is 70 years old, fragile and doesn’t grow fast. But…
-
Day 128-130
Day 128: Waterfall campsite to Pakituhi hut Thpe track this morning started with more river crossings and sidling along the steep banks. After a while we turned away from the river and then climbed over 500m in about 2km, it was steep! The backs of my legs weren’t too happy, but they got me up.…
On the Trail with Stella 