Some newbie-questions concerning Te Araroa :)
Hi, my name is Alex and I'm 19 but turning 20 tomorrow actually, lol. I don't know where else to ask this and I'm sorry for troubling you with these noobish questions. I've never tramped seriously before but next month I plan to walk through the entirety of Te Araroa and thus the whole amazing land of New Zealand :)
The trip is going to be challenging for me I think and so I come to you for some general questions about Te Araroa and also tramping in general. I figured it would be best to give each question it's own number so that I can get all the answer I need :P
1) Is the whole of Te Araroa open all year-around?
2) What's the coldest place in Te Araroa? How low can the temperatures be in that place? (Mainly asking if I need to take a thick jacket, which is of course alot of extra weight.)
3) Any risk of getting your ass kicked by a dangerous animal? Mostly I'm concerned about snakes, spiders, etc.
4) Are there sources of water close by (like, within 1 day's journey) at every stage of the trip?
5) I'm from EU so do I need to apply for some kind of permittance from the authorities if I am to linger in New Zealand for ~5 months which is my plan?
6) Are the trails crowded? 1 person per 10mins of walking, more or less?
7) Are the trails well-marked? So well marked you don't need navigation equipment, such as a compass, or other particular skills?
8) Is camping outside camping locations illegal? (eg. in the wilderness)
Thank you so much for your time, I hope to read through some of your answers soon :)
60 comments
Tuatara are pretty close to Dinosaurs in evolutionary terms, and if you're lucky you might get to see over digesting a Giant Weta very very slowly.
Just to wade in on inexperienced overseas 'walkers' venturing forth into 'tramping' in NZ.
Last winter I went on my annual snow pilgrimage up the Travers Valley in Nelson Lakes NP. I stopped off at DOC, ST Arnaud who told me that there was severe avalanche danger on the tops, especially on the Travers Saddle and around Angelus hut area. So I modified my plans and stayed low.
I met three, separate young overseas trampers from 3 different countries. All had been into DOC and heard the avalanche warnings and ALL WERE IGNORING THEM! One had (fortunately) retreated from the Robert Ridge/Angelus when the clouds closed in. One was setting off over the Travers Saddle with just trekking poles and the other, who was a Dutchman who had never been on a mountain in his life, was heading around to Speargrass to go up to Angelus having freaked out just trying to reach the Upper Travers hut (which I did the next day - the snow was easy and only about 1m deep.)
The thing that really freaked ME out, however, was that NONE of them had left their intentions with anybody and none carried an emergency locator beacon! No one had a clue where they were or what they were doing. Of course, until recently DOC would have got them to fill out an intentions form when they called in, but they don't do that anymore - cost cutting.
As I have not heard of any bodies being found up there when the snow melted I guess they all survived. Oh, the naivety of youth!
let me guess. they were young and bulletproof?
But on tracks or routes where I do have to choose each foot placement, constantly balance on rocks and climb over boulders, scramble, etc it is totally comfortable all day. Though the rest of me may not be :-) Anyone else find this?)
Yes, definitely.
Regarding Te Araroa. Either the start or the end are pretty easy so neophytes may be able to ease into it gradually. Especially armed with all the great advice on this thread! We met an old guy with a breathing condition on the infamous Clent Saddle section. He'd had a bit of a mission being knocked off his feet 12 times coming up Roundhill Stream. Frank reckons he wouldn't have finished the Te Araroa trail but perhaps he did. We'll look out for his name in the hut books further south.
Parts of the Te Araroa are pretty boring especially the pastoral bits round Canterbury and Southland. However the experience of doing a long distance hike is amazing and I would recommend it to anyone who is capable of doing it. The pleasure of just focusing on tramping day after day is wonderful.
I was planning to do the SI half of Te Araroa for about 8 years (since well before it "existed"), it was the idea of a long journey and a change in lifestyle for a while that appealed. Unfortunately we had great difficulty trying to get enough time off work at the same time (neither of us were willing to quit our jobs to do it), and eventually my tramping partner pulled out of the idea. Family reasons mean it's not an option at the moment but maybe one day...
i didnt realise there could be anything more important than tramping 8o)
Hey, it's me again, I'm sorry for not checking back on this thread for a while :) You guys must be the best community in tramping, trekking, hiking (whatever), you guys are very friendly and very active indeed. Anyway, more precisely, I've looked through this thread without posting a few times and I've actually come to the decision to let Te Araroa be for the time being. I'll take a hike somewhere in Europe instead.
Mostly I came to the decision to leave Te Araroa because one-way flights cost up to 1400€, which is too much for my budget :)
And this goes off-topic now and I must apologize. I'd just like to ask about fire's and tents and also something about electricity. So do they sell tents in which you can light a fire? What do you do if they don't, and it happens to rain outside, how do you keep warm? My second question is, I'd very much like to bring my laptop (just to play games, no need for internet connection), so is there a way I can charge it up reliably? I've seen some power-boxes but those are horribly heavy.
not really any tents available for hiking that you can light fires in... you get a warm sleeping bag to stay warm...
thre are solar chargers available for electronics. but htey are more for cell phones. ipods. gps..... you'd need a pretty massive setup to charge a laptop. the idea of tenting is to get away from it all or find some simple form of entertainment, like reading or cards...
1 deleted post from
izogi
Hi @atibingler. You can't light fires in most tents (safely) but a common strategy around here is to take several laptops (usually Dell), zip the tent up tightly, and the overheating batteries causes the indoor space to warm up very quickly. You'll find that some outdoor shops sell extremely long extension cables for this purpose, because batteries will only last for so long. It's important to carry a fire extinguisher suitable for class E (electrical) fires as part of your kit, however, just in case something catches.
I thought you said you liked freezing temperatures.
Seriously though, is this guy for real?
@izogi, you should walk some of the more popular trails. and have a look at how ill equipped a lot of tourists are... tongariro crossing is a classic, jeans and cotton t shirts are standard atire all year round... jandals are not out of place there either or shopping bags...
a lot of people are here because they liked watching lord of the rings or the hobbit.... not because they have serious experience hiking in the wilderness
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| Started by | atibingler |
| On | 5 June 2013 |
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