Hiking adventures in New Zealand
Hiking adventures in New Zealand
This weekend's hike took us South West into Victoria Forest Park. If like me, you haven't heard of it before, it is roughly sandwiched between the Nelson Lakes National Park to the East, and the Paparoa range to the West. The nearest town is Reefton. There are lots of walking tracks in the park, and we walked the 'Big River Track' from Waiuta to Big River.
We chose this track because it is pretty low elevation (we didn't fancy...
Winter served up a rather damp weekend, so we made the most of it by taking a local walk in the Mount Richmond Forest Park along the Hacket Track to Whispering Falls and Hacket hut. We returned via the disused Chromite Mine Track. All up, with an hour-long lunch we took 5.5 hours but no doubt in summer you would want to spend longer as there are plenty of opportunities for river swims and exploring.
If you're heading to the upper West Coast of New Zealand's South Island it's definitely worth stopping in at the little seaside village of Ngakawau to walk the beautiful Charming Creek Walkway. The full 9.5Km (one way) riverside trail follows an historic railway line to the Charming Creek coal mine near Seddonville. The trail passes through an impressive river gorge, railway tunnels, old railway and mill workings, over bridges and past the spectacular...
Today's distance walked - approx 28 kms (17.3miles).
Ascent - approx 350m (1148ft).
I woke early, but didn't get started until around 8.30am this morning. The first stretch of trail was around the remainder of the Fleet nature reserve en route to Ferrybridge. I briefly passed through a firing range - no red flags flying today, so no detour necessary. I stopped in at one of the huge holiday parks on the way, used their facilities and bought a sandwich.
The next 600m out and back down to...
Today's distance walked - approx 31 kms (19 miles).
Ascent - approx 1308m (4291 ft).
I had a terrible nights sleep on my wild camp spot. I was on a huge slope, and no matter what I did to rectify it i.e. put all my belongings under my sleeping pad to try to level it out, I still ended up slipping off. I got up at 5.45am and left at 7.15. It was a sunny, breezy day and cooler than yesterday.
The ups and downs began immediately. The views were much the same as yesterday with the trail...
I had a sleep-in this morning and woke at 7.30am seriously overheating in my tent! I enjoyed breakfast and a coffee, then went for a second (big) breakfast with Steve at the Chapel Rock cafe in Marazion, before he continued on the trail.
I had a thoroughly lazy day which mostly involved visiting St Michael's Mount. It's a castle on an island 500m offshore, and is linked by a causeway at low tide.
There is evidence of the mount having been populated for 3000 years. For 300 years it was...