yeah the TA is similar story for different reasons, well meaning but ill thought out...
I personally don't mind the TA trampers too much. It takes a certain type of person to do the thing. But then I haven't encountered too many of them yet - they have always been in the minority when I've been in a hut.
i wouldnt generalise about TA walkers, all sorts do it, from the few who know what they are doing, to the rest who to varying degrees arent prepared for it and may or may not learn the lessons they need to learn along the way or take decent gear for the conditions.
I like the concept of how Te Araroa promotes connected places through walking. As in, you can get between any two points on the route by walking between them, and the Trust's intent is to find routes which make it as naturally walkable as possible.
There have been many times when I've found myself annoyed with something that seems as simple as trying to walk between two places is difficult because a legal access-way has been usurped as an avenue for high-speed vehicles. Maybe it's necessary to put your life at risk for stretches, or to follow ridiculous routes 10 times the necessary distance just because they've been optimised for someone with a pedal under their foot, or maybe it's just not practically possible to walk between those two places at all.
Being able to efficiently walk between places is something I think is important, and for that I like what Te Araroa promotes. I'm less impressed with how Te Araroa has become associated with the international brand of long-distance hiking, and attracts people whose abstract category it suddenly fits into and therefore they want to bubble through and tick it off their list. Not that I mind these people individually, but the whole association creates all sorts of completely different problems that don't seem to have much directly to do with simply being able to walk between places. Or maybe they do. I don't know.
