A second priority in our post-TA exploring was Mt. Cook National Park and we ended up spending 2 days/3 nights there over the Easter weekend. More than one third of the park has permanent snow & glacial ice and is surrounded by 22 mountains over 9,000 feet, including Mt. Cook, the tallest peak in NZ…
Stewart Island (Rakiura) is New Zealand’s “third” largest island. Most of the island is protected as Rakiura National Park. It boasts unspoiled wilderness, as well as cranked up birdsong … But the biggest reason people come to the island is for kiwi spotting. Stewart Island is NZ’s last major, stable population of wild kiwi. Kiwis,…
Before we leave for Stewart Island, I wanted to give you a few statistics. I will do a grand summary of the entire trail shortly, but here’s the South Island summary! 1308 kilometers / 812 miles ***this is what the map says, but our GPS shows that we did 1407 kilometers!! 56 days 3 zero days…
It is done. We have walked the entire length of New Zealand from Cape Reigna to Bluff. (If you would like to start from the beginning, click here.) Thank you to EVERYONE who supported us, whether in the form of encouraging words or housing/feeding us … and of course our awesome gear sponsors! We could…
Hello from Invercargill! We are at kilometer 2962, which means we are one single day and about 30 kilometers from Bluff, the southern terminus of the Te Araroa. Holy cannoli. I can’t even begin to process that we are just about done with walking the entire length of New Zealand. We will reach Bluff on…
Hello from Te Anau, where we hitched 30K and are just resupplying quickly, then heading back to the trail the same day (although it is threatening rain out and very tempting to stay!). No shower, no bed, just a town meal and groceries. You can tell the end is near. We are at kilometer 2765,…
We thoroughly enjoyed our zero day in Queenstown and will be hitting the trail Wednesday for the last 325 kilometers (roughly 200 miles) left of the trail! Holy cow!! The home stretch is real! We mostly took care of town tasks and relaxed around the awesome hostel (Adventure Queenstown). It was pretty chilly out and…
Hello from Adventure Queenstown Hostel! Queenstown is a BIG town, and we are actually taking our second South Island zero day here because there is a Te Araroa party taking place here on St. Patrick’s Day. our timing to get here worked out perfectly! I will update about our Queenstown time before we hike on, so…
Well, we finally did it. We took a zero day, which we haven’t done since we started hiking on the South Island 35 days ago! To be clear, we take a lot of “neros” (near-zero days with just a few kilometers of hiking). We usually feel quite refreshed by the neros and get all our…
Hello from Wanaka! We are at kilometer 2579 and have traveled 141 kilometers (or 90 miles) from Twizel during the past 5 days. We are actually taking a zero day in Wanaka, something we haven’t done since we first arrived to the South Island!! More on our zero day later, but first, the hiking report.…
It poured (and hailed) on us Friday morning as we were coming into Twizel to resupply, so we made the impromptu decision to call it a day and stay at a hostel after only 12 kilometers of walking. This is what happens when you have the phenomenal weather we’ve been having. You get soft. We’ve had maybe…
Hello from Lake Tekapo! We are enjoying a half day of rest with this beautiful view … It’s very tempting to take a zero day here! We have hiked 140 kilometers (84 miles) from Lake Coleridge/Methven/Rakaia River and are now at kilometer 2370. Woohoo! We left Methven early Thursday morning via the school bus to…
Hello from Mt. Hutt Hostel in Methven! We’ve only come 72 kilometers (46 miles) from Arthur’s Pass, and Methven is not even on the trail, but there’s a whole story for why we are here. We are at kilometer 2228, which finishes at Lake Coleridge Lodge and the Rakaia River. Here’s the thing about the Rakaia…
Hello from Mountain House Hostel in Arthur’s Pass National Park! It’s been a long time (10 days) since an update because Internet service (or any service for that matter) in these parts was hard to come by! Usually we have at least a cell signal here and there, but we had nada for the last…
Hello from St. Arnaud! We have trekked 159 kilometers, or 102 miles, from Havelock to St. Arnaud, putting us at kilometer 1928! St. Arnaud is not a “town,” per say. The store is TINY and we were happy we sent ourselves a package of resupplies. Plus, we got a bonus package from my mom and…
We had hoped to get this up in Wellington as we finished the North Island, but better late than never! As we said in previous posts, we consider ourselves lucky when it comes to gear. We’ve met a lot of hikers on the TA who are unhappy with their gear (mostly because they want to…
Hello from the Blue Moon Backpackers in Havelock! We hiked the first 83 kilometers (53 miles) of the South Island these past 3 days, so this is only a short, but sweet update! On Tuesday, we left Picton via a smaller ferry boat that dropped us off at Ship Cove, where the Te Araroa picks…
We have THOROUGHLY enjoyed our days off in Wellington, then Picton. It had been the perfect mix of chores (resupply, laundry, blogging, phone calls, etc), rest, calorie-loading and playing tourists. Food, food and more food Our Wellington hosts, Carole and Tony, were incredible. We shared several meals with them, including homemade fish and chips and…
As I said in my last post, we have finished the North Island (NI) section of the Te Araroa (TA), all 1686 kilometers (or 1076 miles)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a difference 65 days has made…a little tanner, bug bitten and muscular… Please excuse the excess of exclamation points. I simply cannot overstate my enthusiasm for finishing…
Hello from Windy Welly! Wellington is NZ’s capitol and at the very bottom of the North Island, which means we have finished the North Island and have trekked 1686 kilometers, or roughly 1076 miles, during the past 65 days!!! I hope to do a grand summary of the North Island very soon. But for now,…