Some newbie-questions concerning Te Araroa :)

mate if you dont have much experience i wouldnt try it, americans say its far harder than any of their long distance trails hands down... go and do some great walks, you'll actually see better scenery, te araroa can be hard and boring. its a historical trail as much as a tramping one, not designed to show off the best of the country, get some more experience under your belt before you take on something so hard and you'll enjoy yourself a lot more. just cherry pick some scenic walks around the country, have some breaks in between, enjoy yourself between the tramping challenges

you have to know how to navigate in thick overgrown bush, the track isnt always easy to find, people often get lost on parts of the track, lots of it is very remote with little chance to easily resupply with food. you will see very few people , be on your own most of the time, its a very hard track for a newcomer, its more for the very experienced. i'm very experienced and its not a track i'm too eager to do

Hi Alex, I agree with Waynowski, if you really plan on coming to New Zealand for 5 months you would be much better off travelling around and hiking various small tracks (2-5 days each). You'll see much more of the country, gain more experience, meet more people, and get to do fun non-hiking things. 1) Yes it is open year round, although in winter sections of it will be covered in snow and ice and so you would need alpine equipment and skills to get across these sections. 2) How cold does it get on top of a mountain in snow in winter with the wind blowing? -15degrees? -20? Yes, hiking in winter requires a jacket. 3)NZ has no snakes, and our 1 poisonous spider lives near the beach. You are much more likely to be kicked by a cow or run over by sheep. 4) Much of NZs low land water is polluted due to extensive farming and unsafe to drink without treating. Alpine water is generally fine to drink. There are plenty of towns along the length of Te Araroa where you can buy drink or refill water bottles from town water (which is always treated here in NZ). 5) This I am not sure on. Most countries people can come to NZ for 90 days fine. You might need some kind of visa for up to 6 months. Buy a guidebook such as Lonely Planet to check this, ask your consulate, or as on a travel forum such as LonelyPlanet.com 6) No, compared to Europe nowhere in NZ is crowded. The biggest hoards of people on NZ tracks are the Great Walks (Tonagriro Crossing and Routeburn for example). 7) You should always, always, always carry navigation equipment... and know how to use it! Te Araroa is not one single track, but a whole bunch of different tracks joined together. Track marks vary from great to non-existent. This is not Switzerland, although the weather can be! 8) Yes and no. If you are in the bush then usually you can camp anywhere, exceptions being the Great Walks. If you are travelling through farmland then you need to ask the farmer first and be prepared for them to say no. In towns, no, absolutely not.

some good bushcraft information here http://www.mountainsafety.org.nz/Resources/Resource_List.asp?t=1&cat=6 what gear you need to take http://www.mountainsafety.org.nz/ProductFiles/PMPLTS.pdf

I also agree with Waynowski. Please do not take the NZ mountains lightly! Often I meet overseas visitors (usually young men like yourself) who are just 'accidents waiting to happen'. Our mountains can turn into death traps, for the unwary and ill prepared, in a few minutes. Three years ago I was one of the last people to speak to a young Israeli woman on the Routeburn Track - arguably one our safest - and a few hours later she was dead! I have contemplated Te Araroa and, to be honest, some parts of it scare me, and I've been tramping (not climbing) for 50 years. In fine weather they are probably fine but if there is snow or it's raining then you may/will have big problems. Waiau Pass is one such place where snow can easily linger right up until Christmas, ice axe and crampons and experience essential. Actually you can get snow in the mountains any time of year. A very experienced hunter friend of mine had a scary time there a few months ago. Personally I would not go there alone. Come to think of it an American solo tramper disappeared there 3 or 4 years ago - no trace ever found. Then there are several dangerous river crossings further south apparently. I also suspect there are some not very interesting parts of just plodding along - for what? Instead of having the ego gratification of saying " I walked Te Araroa" why not do lots of small trips, as Yarmoss suggests, starting with easy ones and gradually gaining experience and confidence? This way you could still experience all sorts of different terrain but without the boring bits! I feel I've been a bit gloomy! Sorry for that. I do hope you have a wonderful time here!

Hi Alex, You will find more information at these addresses: http://www.teararoa.org.nz/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/26638669574/ Many of the people in the Facebook group have, I think, a cavalier and dangerous attitude to safety. There are two reasons people here are sounding a bit negative. One is that Te Araroa is definitely not the best walking in the country. Far from it. It is the longest, and that's it. If you only walked Te Araroa, you would be really missing out. Walking it would be an amazing accomplishment, but walking the entire set of NZ Great Walks would also be an amazing accomplishment. The other is that solo long-distance walkers not familiar with NZ conditions have a very high fatality rate in NZ, and that includes past users of this forum. Some recommendations for you: * Always leave intentions and check in regularly. You can leave them with your family as long as they understand how to contact the police if you go missing. Don't vary your route, but do wait for rivers to go down before crossing. * Make sure you have a good waterproof jacket and overtrousers, as well as warm clothing (many thin layers is better than one thick layer). Plan for snow. * Take an EPIRB. You can hire them. * Try some other tracks before this one. At the very least you'll see some other great places. * Consider joining something like this: http://www.hikingnewzealand.com/ . You will meet great people, go to secret places, and most importantly they will take responsibility for your safety.

Hi Alex. Sadly I'd have to agree with everyone else here. If you only have a month to plan before you begin yet still have all these questions, skip it. Personally I'm not convinced Te Araroa, as one giant walk, should be at the top of most people's lists, and it's sometimes mis-represented as being a similar thing to some of the massive treks elsewhere, despite really being not much more than a collection of individual routes and tracks and public roads, of widely varying quality and obviousness, which are connected for the entire distance. I think Te Araroa is awesome for many other reasons, like the way in which it enables connectivity-on-foot between places, but unless you're extremely focused (and a few people are and good for them) then I don't think walking the entire length of New Zealand just for the sake of it really compares with many of the other possibilities around. The safety concerns are real given how isolated some sections are, and probably even moreso given the time of year you're think of (when the weather is likely to be unstable), and especially if you've not done much outdoors before. Sorry to continue to be so negative. There are heaps of other awesome things you can check out, including really interesting multi-day walks. Enjoy your visit. :)

1) As far as I know the track does not get officially "closed." However at times parts of it would need alpine skills, equipment and experience. At times, even with alpine skills, equipment and experience, some places are impassable. 2) Coldest temp may be something like -15 degrees. But the effective temperature, with windchill, could be much colder than this. 6) Some parts of Te Araroa, in winter, I expect you could go 10 DAYS without seeing another person. There certainly won't be people every ten minutes or so. 7) Some of the tracks are well marked but some are not. In places you need map reading and navigation equipment and experience. I agree that for a first tramping experience in New Zealand you would see better NZ scenery, more varied NZ scenery, and have a better time, by picking and choosing your tracks rather than trying to do the whole of Te Araroa. It misses lots of fantastic places!

theres some great food for thought in this book, will give you plenty of options to choose from http://www.craigpotton.co.nz/store/books/outdoor-adventure-and-travel/tramping-in-new-zealand there are other tramping books on the site as well. the classic tramping book contains some hard trips in it and arent for pepole starting out in tramping the weekend tramping books also contain some hard trips...