The first week of our hike was a painful blur. We are heading north from Bluff and the southern part of the trail is pretty non-existant. Not to mention that Southland NZ is having a very wet summer (even the locals have had enough). The first week was a lot of road walking, 40mph wind, rain and hail. We tried reminding ourselves to suck it up and that we are in New Zealand but wet is wet! It was also tough because there simply isn't a lot of information out there about what we are trying to do.
After days and days on the road, Parker and I finally decide that road walking was not the way we wanted to see NZ. As much as we wanted to connect every footstep, it was not fun and sometimes dangerous. I was starting to wonder what we were doing out here. Finally we got a ride to the town where the trails started and finally got into the mountains!
New Zealand has an amazing system of trails. The D.O.C. (Dept. of Conservation) owns so much land and it is all available to the public for walking, hiking, biking, hunting and fishing. So much room and beautiful land to play on! NZ also has a great Hut system. The huts range from 2 bunks to 40 bunks. They can be as simple as hunter's shelter with a pot belly stove to a beautigul lodge on the side of a mountain. We have also been able to make it to a hut for the night but of course we always opt to tent if the view is too good to pass up.
New Zealand has an amazing system of trails. People from all over the world come here to hike.
This is how the trails are rated.
- The Great Walks: 20 loops or stretches of 1-4 days, on both islands. Very well maintained and wide trails. Huts are more expensive and these are often crowded.
- Tracks: these are what we would call trails in the States and are well marked.
- Tramps: marked with poles just within site (could be on the next mountain) but no trail.
- Routes: no markers or poles, for experienced hikers only, must have navigation skills.
Our hike consist of all of these combined. There are tracks all over NZ. We find that if a hut is track is a half days walk then it is usually full or poplular. But we usually get the whole trail to our selves on the second and third day. That's when we run into the routes and have to bush-bash, hop around the bogs and our record river crossings in one day is 20xs. Sometimes we just have a whole day of beautiful valley and ridge walking all day. Routes have been interesting since we only have a start point and an end point with only our topo maps. It can be tricky when the top of the mountains are socked in and our point of reference is hidden. But we are starting to get confortable with NZ hiking and now we know why it's called tramping. You just head out and go!
The past two weeks we have been blessed with great weather. Finally some sunshine. We have hiked through the rugged and beautiful Takitimu Mountains. I took tons of pictures around Lake Mavora and the valley on the Mavora Walkway. Found out later that it was a site for the Lord of the Rings. We had mentioned earlier that day that it looked like a part of LOTR. We had days to of this stretch to ourselves. And when we finally had our first view of Lake Wakatipu, Parker and I were absolutely stunned. It had been been such an amazing week and then to run it to the lake, we were blown away. We were not quite ready to go into buzzing Queenstown yet so we stayed a day at Glenorchy to let it all sink in.
After days and days on the road, Parker and I finally decide that road walking was not the way we wanted to see NZ. As much as we wanted to connect every footstep, it was not fun and sometimes dangerous. I was starting to wonder what we were doing out here. Finally we got a ride to the town where the trails started and finally got into the mountains!
New Zealand has an amazing system of trails. The D.O.C. (Dept. of Conservation) owns so much land and it is all available to the public for walking, hiking, biking, hunting and fishing. So much room and beautiful land to play on! NZ also has a great Hut system. The huts range from 2 bunks to 40 bunks. They can be as simple as hunter's shelter with a pot belly stove to a beautigul lodge on the side of a mountain. We have also been able to make it to a hut for the night but of course we always opt to tent if the view is too good to pass up.
New Zealand has an amazing system of trails. People from all over the world come here to hike.
This is how the trails are rated.
- The Great Walks: 20 loops or stretches of 1-4 days, on both islands. Very well maintained and wide trails. Huts are more expensive and these are often crowded.
- Tracks: these are what we would call trails in the States and are well marked.
- Tramps: marked with poles just within site (could be on the next mountain) but no trail.
- Routes: no markers or poles, for experienced hikers only, must have navigation skills.
Our hike consist of all of these combined. There are tracks all over NZ. We find that if a hut is track is a half days walk then it is usually full or poplular. But we usually get the whole trail to our selves on the second and third day. That's when we run into the routes and have to bush-bash, hop around the bogs and our record river crossings in one day is 20xs. Sometimes we just have a whole day of beautiful valley and ridge walking all day. Routes have been interesting since we only have a start point and an end point with only our topo maps. It can be tricky when the top of the mountains are socked in and our point of reference is hidden. But we are starting to get confortable with NZ hiking and now we know why it's called tramping. You just head out and go!
The past two weeks we have been blessed with great weather. Finally some sunshine. We have hiked through the rugged and beautiful Takitimu Mountains. I took tons of pictures around Lake Mavora and the valley on the Mavora Walkway. Found out later that it was a site for the Lord of the Rings. We had mentioned earlier that day that it looked like a part of LOTR. We had days to of this stretch to ourselves. And when we finally had our first view of Lake Wakatipu, Parker and I were absolutely stunned. It had been been such an amazing week and then to run it to the lake, we were blown away. We were not quite ready to go into buzzing Queenstown yet so we stayed a day at Glenorchy to let it all sink in.
I am amazed that you guys are absolutely roughing it out there but I bet it is worth it. The pics are gorgeous. I'd be ready for a nice hotel and room service! Sandy
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