Te Araroa

I guess the most obvious answer to me and probably the one you didn't want to hear is "It depends on what you are looking for". As you probably know from visiting the website Te Araroa is going to be a continuous trail from one end of the country to the other of about 3000km in length. From my understanding of the vision, Te Araroa is as much about exploring the huge variety in the culture of New Zealand as it is about exploring the wilderness and having a continuous trail over the whole length of the country. So with that in mind the Trust that is responsible for the trail have sometimes avoided the remote backcountry for routes that pass through the less remote and perhaps less spectacular "front country" and pass through towns and cities. Another attraction to Te Araroa is very few people have travelled the complete length of the proposed trail so you would part of a very select group. The advantage of doing a number of shorter trips is you can "cherry-pick" the best bits such as the Great Walks of other trips/attractions not connected to the trail I guess if I went to the US to complete the AT or PCT I would miss out on things such as the Grand Canyon, Zion, the Arches, Yellowstone, Yosemite etc. so I would personally choose to travel around and do shorter trips and see as much of the best bits that interest me.

We gave some serious thought to doing Te Araroa for our upcoming 4+ month trip to NZ (11/09-3/10), but decided against it for several reasons: 1) as currently configured, TA still has loads of road-walking sections. Nothing more miserable than extended road-walking on a long-distance trail. Eventually this will be solved, but I'm betting it will occur well after the announced 2010 date. 2) due to the nascent status of TA, way too much research & effort required to set up the caches, mail-drops, lodgings, etc. With time this too will become much easier. 3) 3 spots we felt were beyond our experience & skills for comfort. The N-S Tararua crossing, the Richmond Alpine traverse, and Waiau Pass. It could be that TA has re-routed to bypass the sticky spots, but the difficult scrambly bits caused too much angst for us -- can't fully enjoy the trip if we're worried about our abilities to safely navigate the more technically difficult parts. 4) 4+ months didn't seem like quite enough time to safely complete the whole trek, and we can't stay longer. As nzbazza stated, the concept of TA embraces passing through front-country, towns & cities. Nothing wrong with that; a similar concept underlies the American Discovery Trail, an east-west route across the US. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Discovery_Trail Also, many European GR trails operate similarly, although in Europe, other than the Alps, there's really no wilderness in which to route the trail. Not that I'm complaining, it's a fabulous experience to pass through small (or large) medieval towns & cities every day, and have a beer at a cafe in the main square while admiring some remarkable 15th-century church or cathedral. No offense intended, but NZ & the USA really can't provide that kind of experience while wending one's way in & out of urban areas. But the main reason we passed on TA was (as mentioned above) all the sights we would miss on our likely only trip to NZ. Just to pick one, how can you do NZ without seeing Taranaki? Or at least one of the Kepler/Milford/Routeburn? Here's what we have come up with as an alternative-to-TA itinerary: Nov '09: Auckland Rangitoto Omahuta Waitangi Cape Reinga/90-Mile Beach Waipoua Kaitaia Buck Taylor/Pararaha Rotorua Pinnacles Whirinaki Lake Waikaremoana Napier Cape Kidnappers Dec '09 Abel Tasman Coastal Heaphy Banks Peninsula Christchurch Dunedin Tuatapere Hump Ridge Kepler Milford Sound Milford Track January '10 Franz Josef Inland Pack Mt Owen Summit Mt Arthur - Tableland - Cobb Valley Taranaki - Pouakai Urchin - Umakarikari Jumbo - Holdsworth Feb '10 Tongariro Circuit Ruapehu Round the Mtn Mueller Hut Wilkin - Young Queenstown Routeburn March '10 Rees-Dart & Cascade Saddle Lake Angelus Travers - Sabine Mt. Somers All of this is stitched together with car rentals & small-plane hops where needed. Probably about 90 days trekking & 30 days travel/resting. Might be a decent template for an extended NZ trek without doing TA...

On the topic of the thread, and American chap (Eric Martinot) completed the length of New Zealand between October 2003 and April 2004, a bit over half of which was spent on walking days. It's written up on his website. http://www.martinot-nz.info/nztrek/main.htm (Scroll down the page to see his reports of all the sections.)

OT but Trtlrock, I like your proposed trip! A couple of things I noticed: You've missed out the Waitomo Caves (couple of hours drive form Tongariro). No tramping as such but still very cool. The Glowworm Cave and the Lost World Epic are my personal highlights. You also go back and forwards between the North and South Island a couple of times. One suggestion to reduce the island hopping is after Cape Kidnappers is head across to Taupo from Napier. From there the following order is possible: Urchin - Umakarikari Tongariro Circuit Ruapehu Round the Mtn Waitomo Taranaki - Pouakai Jumbo - Holdsworth then on to the South Island

here's another excellent TA trip report, from Dennis & Alice. I believe I found their TA site when they posted here about it. http://www.nzunderfoot.com/index.htm Eric's site is also excellent, lots of good TA info there.

thanks nzbazza. We are hopping around by design, actually. Hoping to beat some of the major crowds & wasps on Abel Tasman, Heaphy, etc by going earlier. Maximize our penguin chances on Banks Peninsula. Come back later for best shot at good weather on Taranaki, Tararuas, Tongariro & Ruapehu. Minimize avalanche possibilities on some of the South Island tracks by going in February onwards. Waitomo, Avalanche Peak, Lewis Tops etc we have at the top of the "grab bag" if time & weather allow. Anyway, back to the OT... I think there couldn't be too much argument that our itinerary hits on most of NZ's prime trekking destinations. However, if I'm remembering correctly, TA only incorporates the following from our list: Cape Reinga/90-Mile Beach Auckland Tararuas Tongariro/Ruapehu Travers Just my opinion, but that seems like pretty slim pickings for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to NZ. Matthew -- I think these posts are pertinent to a potential TA hiker, but if you think any or all should be edited or deleted feel free...

Enjoy your holiday Trtlrock!

I agree with the comments here, that there are heaps of great parts of NZ you would miss by sticking to Te Araroa. Though if what you want is the satisfaction / achievement of having walked the length of NZ, you can also be sure you'll see plenty along the way (in the south island at least - I'm not very familiar with the north island). So it depends what you are after. I'm lucky enough to live here so hopefully eventually I can do both!