Our Te Araroa speaking tour took us through the Midwest, somehow magically without any winter weather. All 4 stops–Columbus, Indianapolis, St. Louis & Kansas City–were awesome. We both love, love, love standing up in front of people and educating them about our passions and adventures. But I think the thing I enjoy even more is…
In this past week, we went from the serene quiet of the island to the organized chaos of life on the road. We are officially on our Te Araroa Speaking Tour, making 8 stops at REI stores across the country between now and Jan. 13. We started in East Hanover, NJ, with an audience of…
Te Araroa is trending. While the Te Araroa Trust estimates there were 200 hikers on the trail last season when we were out there, those numbers are surely doubling this season. And because I’ve written about Te Araroa every which way—for Backpacker Magazine, the Appalachian Trials blog, Gregory’s blog, the Therm-a-rest blog, Superfeet’s blog and…
We celebrate 9 years of marriage today. And when I say celebrate, I mean it is like any other day because, well, we are on an island with no restaurants or other services. Not that we would do anything different if we weren’t on the island … but I digress. Recently, Backpacker Magazine wrote an article…
Today we are coming to you with a review of the gear we used on Te Araroa in New Zealand. We realize it’s been 4 months since our trek ended, but there are lots of people prepping for the TA right now and asking questions in the forums, so we thought no better time to…
We stayed in 25+ different hostels/holiday parks along Te Araroa and most of them were great, but they do vary. We thought a review post might be helpful for anyone planning to hike the trail, or just visiting New Zealand. A general observation is that hostels are more crowded on the South Island than on…
I plan to write more about our overall impressions and feelings about the Te Araroa, as well as some tips for people considering it, but for now, it’s just the facts. Anyone who knows me knows I keep track of as many trail statistics as I can! So here you go, the Te Araroa in…
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…