Trip planning for Great Walks on South Island

The only tracks with booking systems are the Milford, Routeburn and the Waikaremoana trip (from memory). Of those the Milford requires you to book the whole trip in one go, on the others you just book the hut nights and there are options. The Milford tends to get booked out for the whole season quite early so I suggest you book for that and then work your timetable around that. Also keep in mind that there are a lot of places that are not Great Walks, where there are good huts and a lot less people around. If you are interested in those some of the routes listed by users of this site would be a good start.

thank u for your quick reply. we just checked the bookings for milford and the booking opens next week, so we will be quick. so i will check out some other routes here in the forum...

When you are at Tongariro you will no doubt do the Tongariro Northern Circut. This is the Great Walk part, but also consider the Around Ruapehu trip. This is not Great Walk and the huts are exactly the same design and are cheaper and it is less crowded. You can move onto one track from the other so there is no need to choose now. When you are on the way to Urewera to do the Waikaremoana Trip, there is also the Whirinaki Forest Park on the way. Whirinaki Forest Lodge in Te Waiiti will mind your vehicle and ferry you to and from the tracks. Lots of huts, good tracks and combinations of trips that you can do there, and less people too. No lake but lots of lovely forest. Keep us posted as to your plans, I am sure others can provide more suggestions to help you have a great trip.

If you were in Gisborne before going to Waikaremoana you could think about squeezing in a trip to Mt Hikurangi. Could you do your profile so we can 'meet' you?