Hiking adventures in New Zealand
Hiking adventures in New Zealand
The Nydia Track in the Marlborough Sounds is a beautiful 27Km tramping and mountain biking track stretching from Duncan Bay at the end of Tennyson inlet to Kaiuma Bay Road, in the Pelorous Sound. We walked 19Km of the track from Duncan Bay to the Nydia Lodge DoC accommodation on a winter weekend, at a very leisurely pace. DoC times recommend 6 hours to the lodge, but we made it in around 5 hours including plenty of stops for...
Moke Lake is a 20 minutes drive out of Queenstown towards Glenorchy. Heading off the main road up to the right, the initially sealed road becomes unsealed - but at the time of writing it was well graded. Travel through Ben Lomond Station, and a beautiful lake, huge DoC campground and picnic area awaits you at the end. Camping is $13pp per night and there are a couple of sets of decent toilets and a kitchen shelter.
The lake is beautifully clean and clear and is...
If you're looking for a fantastic multi day tramp with beautiful dense forest, mountains galore, wide valleys, rivers and a beautiful lake, then the 58Km Gillespie Pass Circuit in Mount Aspiring National Park might be for you. It begins close to Makarora, a small settlement an hours' drive to the North of Wanaka.
The Gillespie Pass circuit is a loop track. You can start just South of Makarora up the Wilkin river, or from a few Kms North of Makarora up...
Today's distance walked - approx 20.4 kms (12.1 miles).
Ascent - approx 835m (2739 ft).
I had an amazing sleep on my feather pillow in my wonderful bed! I woke at 8.15am (!) and made a delicious plunger coffee with freshly ground coffee, and ate two home made cookies, which was all available in my room.
The House on the Props, Polperro
I got myself together and went down for breakfast. I had some little pastries and a poached egg on toast, with homemade walnut bread. I left Polperro at...
Today's distance walked - approx 11.4 kms (7.1miles).
Ascent - approx 591m (1939ft).
I woke up early to thick fog and a tent wet with dew. I left the campsite at 7am and by the time I'd walked back to town, found the path, taken a wrong turn, retraced my steps, and found the path (which the other one led to anyway) it was 7.30am before I was really on the trail.
The trail felt a little more remote than the past couple of days, my legs felt good, and I enjoyed the trail. The fog slowly...
A day of Te Araroa trail surprises today. Apparently the unidentified bird I heard in the night was a kiwi - wow! :-)
Today we started on a 4 wheel drive track out of the forest, which became a full road walk. Road walking is a bit tedious but at least the countryside around us was very pretty.
Anouck, Bruce and I walked to Helena Bay where we stopped to buy some fruit at a roadside stall. Several minutes later Barry, the stall owner...