The must-do tramps of New Zealand

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Okay it sounds like @Waynowski and @Gaiters have set a challenge: Name the New Zealand tramps every tramper should do at least once in their lifetime. Put forward your list and if we can get some sort of consensus maybe Matthew can use it as an article on the site. There shouldn't be too many restrictions on the trips you choose, daywalks, overnighters, week long epics, on-track, off-track. Just choose trips that give a tramper a broad education and experience in tramping in NZ.
The Marchant Ridge, Tararua's. Perhaps THE shittiest track in the country. Everywhere else will only get better after this.
Arete Sidle track from Cow creek to Arete Forks, is a must do, for any Tararua tramper. Will be something to remember :)
well newbies arent necessarily going to pick up on the sarcasm, for those who dont know what the arete sidle track is like... whats the point of putting nasty trips in the list? have a laugh if you want, start a thread for challenging trips and call it what it is ever notice theres only a handful of regulars commenting on posts? if i was starting out tramping I think i'd avoid getting involved in various conversations here, they get a bit inhouse in nature
My vote - aside from the great walks or really obvious stuff: 1. Cass Lagoon 2. Te Puia lodge/to the hot springs - Kawekas 3. Meg Hut (more the hut than the tramp though TBH) 4. Up the Waimak into Carrington But - Not Harper Pass.
In the Tararua. Holdsworth to kiatoke. Holdsworth jumbo loop. Dundas cattle ridge loop. Southern crossing. Northern crossing. Tararua peaks loop. S-K. That will give you what you need.
@TararuaHunter What a total bastard of a choice. I've done it three times and on the third I swore blind NEVER to do it again :-) Just for those of you reading this and have not had the pleasure of this charming wee stroll between Arete Forks and Cow Creek I'll run through the bus driver's commentary. For a start the line on the map is a total deception. It sort of lulls you into thinking it's a pleasant sidle in and out of four gullies, with maybe a bit of up and down. Very quickly you start getting suspicious when the route climbs WAY higher up the first spurline behind Arete Forks than marked. Then it grovels through acres of windfall. You're doing well to find track markers; and quickly any freshness is out of the legs. Then it drops 200m into the first gully. Then up 200m, then around more windfall into a 300m drop. With a nice steep exposed erosion scar thrown in. The third gully is the biggest and it seems to go on forever; by now you're losing hope. The fourth gully drops into a narrow little gut between two waterfalls and a steep rock wall in front of you. There is a track marker in the creekbed, but little hint of how to get out. You can't go upstream, nor downstream. And going back isn't a sane option. In the end you figure out that you've got to grovel (there's that word again) out over the top of the downstream waterfall and haul yourself up on some seriously dodgy veg arm over arm. Actually quite taxing at my age. Mercifully the track gets a little better from here on and the junction with the route up to Table Top and down to Cow Creek is greeted with a mix of faint disbelief and deep relief. It's only another 30 minute stagger down to the hut from here. Despite wayno's thoughts', I'd argue that it does fit the 'educational' criterion implied in the OP.
sounds like fun
But for an answer more in the spirit of the OP. Everyone will pick tramps they know, so this is more or less a list I would love to do again, or really wish to have a crack at: 1. Dragons Teeth. Kahurangi NP ... challenge 2. S-K Crossing Tararuas ... classic 3. Ruapehu Round the Mountain ... unique landscape 4. Stewart Is Southern Circuit ... remote and unforgettable 5. Matukituki -Wilkin ... spectacular and challenging 6. Abel Tasman Inland Track ... surprisingly beautiful 7. The big Whirinaki Loop ... the big timber and deep endless valleys 8. Mt Hikurangi Ruakumaras ... first light 9. Lake Roe Dusky Sound Track ... Fiordland at it's darkest 10. Heaphy Track ... easy, but delightful 11. Haast to Hollyford ... see it while it's still there 12. Lake Waikaremoana ... soulful 13. Rees, Dart Cascade ... never forgotten 14. Five Passes ... on the to do list There lots of more less well known routes I'm very fond of as well, but I stuck to the ones that are reasonably well known and form a really broad sample of great Kiwi tramping.
I personally think if its tramps that "every tramper should do at least once in their lifetime.", then the remote, tough trips should be included.
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Forum Tracks, routes, and huts
Started by nzbazza
On 12 April 2016
Replies 35
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