Hiking adventures in New Zealand
Hiking adventures in New Zealand
Over the past few weeks I was lucky enough to be a part of the latest intrepid intake attending the Beginners Whitewater Kayaking course with the Nelson Canoe Club. Learning to kayak had been on my list of things to try for a while, so I was thrilled when the course came up. There were about 15 people in our group, with a mix of all ages, experience levels and reasons for wanting to give it a go. I was in the older dynamic of...
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.
The great thing about living in Nelson, is the accessability to so many great hiking spots on your doorstep. The Dew lakes and Dun Mountain loop starts from the Maitai dam just a 20 minute drive from the city. This awesome day walk is around 23Kms and takes you through a variety of forestry, bush/scrub, beech forest and open tops. Be prepared for a great workout - it's a decent climb up to 1143m over Little Twin and 1129m over Dun Mountain. With...
The Moa Park Track is a beautiful, moderately easy walking track. It skirts Canaan Downs and crosses the Wainui Saddle before climbing to an area called Moa Park; a small sub-alpine basin sitting around 1000m elevation. From Moa Park you can head up a couple of Kms to Porter Rock or around 4Kms further to Castle Rock. On todays adventure we took the Moa Park Track to Porter Rock which is around 5Kms. We enjoyed a leisurely day withy a decent...
Did you know that there is more than one Ben Nevis in New Zealand? I discovered this whilst having a cake break half way up Ben Nevis just outside of Nelson. This wonderful day hike takes you nearly 5Kms with an elevation gain of around 800m up Gibbs Spur to the summit. If you're feeling adventurous and the weather is good, you can continue much further along the (unmarked) ridge route. Experienced trampers could traverse the entire length of the ridge to Mount...
A decent climb of around 5kms up to the 959m peak of Mount Malita is a great way to spend a day if you're around the Richmond area of Nelson. We managed the up and down (just over 10Kms with +750m elevation) with a leisurely lunch at the top in around 4.5 hours. It wasn't the prettiest walk I've done and much of it is on easy roads through forestry plantation, but it has great views from the top.
To get to Mount Malita take the Aniseed Valley road off...