Two weeks in April, where to go?

@craigo "but the track running north-south down to Cameron Hut, and the track east of the Donald River up to 961m, I wouldn't do again if you paid me. And I did both of those in dry weather" I know exactly the bits of track you mean :-D Did the Donald River ascent after heavy rain and had to haul myself the whole way up on handy bits of scrub. The Cameron track is made even more enjoyable by the steeply angled hard clay pans you have to cross - I slipped on one of these and tore my meniscus, made the haul back out fun...!

I may be biased since I grew up there, but if I was travelling to NZ and interested in hiking/the outdoors I would not miss the South Island. With only a two week window and having other activities on the itinerary some hard choices will obviously have to be made but I would definitely try and head south if possible. Air travel from Auckland to the South Island doesn't take too long (say it will knock out half a day all told) and you can usually get cheap flights to Nelson, Christchurch or Queenstown. I'd probably aim for Nelson or Queenstown personally. From Nelson you can get to Nelson Lakes or Kahurangi National Parks on the same day and have access to some great walks. In Nelson Lakes hunting pressures may not be as great as the Kawekas or Kaimanawas in April. In Nelson Lakes you can easily get to spots like Cupola Hut or the head of the Travers Valley which are really nice and are unlikely to have any snow in early April. The number of other trampers probably won't be too high though this will change as you get to Easter. Kahurangi has the Cobb Valley or Mt Arthur for example as relatively easy to reach (assuming you have hired a car for travel) destinations with lots of interesting options.

Have to agree with Dodgydave about the South Island. I lived in the North and moved down to Nelson in 1997 and wondered why on earth I had not made the move earlier! Admittedly I never explored many of those N. Island ranges mentioned above as I lived way north of Auckland. As we are not climbers or mountaineers we find the size of the mountains down south a bit daunting but the ones around the Nelson area are much gentler but still really interesting. The Abel Tasman is very easy and always there are people. There are no mountains but the beaches are nice. I expect there will still be plenty of people at the camp sites. I personally found the Inland Track rather boring - 2 days of bush with hardly any views. Kahurangi has many tracks to get away from people, and, as they are not a Great Walk (apart from the Heaphy) you don't have to book. The Cobb Valley, Tablelands, Mt Arthur area is great, also the Wangapeka, Mt Owen area. Nelson Lakes - my favorite! The Travers Valley has many options as Dodgydave mentioned. A good option (fine weather only) is via Hopeless Hut over Sunset Saddle to Angelus area (camp by Hinapouri Tarn or book into Angelus Hut) Another is along the St Arnaud Range from St Arnaud to Arnst Basin and down through the bush or down a scree if you are brave! 2 nights of superb camping by beautiful mountain tarns. A warning - Easter will be throbbing with trampers wherever you go! But if you are not on a Great Walk and have a tent there are many great camp sites tucked away beside beautiful streams and rivers, as long as its not a gorge! lol You can camp anywhere in National Parks as long as you are no closer than 500m to a Great Walk. Good luck!

Hello. I cannot add much, but will comment that staying the the North Island 'for the weather' doesn't seem a great strategy to me. Maybe there are other reasons to stay north, but if it's just about weather then you'd potentially miss lots that you could have seen and done without much rational reason. Weather can be horrendous or great at either end of the country. February/March tends to be the most stable summer'ish time of year, but that's also never guaranteed. It's naturally necessary to take sensible precautions wherever you are, but there's still lots of good stuff that can be seen and done at most times if you're prepared. Rain may as well be part of the landscape, and chances are you'll get rain and wind sooner or later whilst here. Enjoy your visit.

@ hutchk Good to know it's not just my lily liver still giving me nightmares about those tracks! On the Donald River ascent my boot lost grip at about the worst place it possibly could. I ended up bearhugging the cliff and slowly sliding down...until my knee hung up on a chance root.

Only got two weeks in nz in April and want to go tramping/hiking? My advice: Go straight to the south island. Don't waste your time in the north island. Fly into Christchurch or Queenstown or Nelson or Dunedin and take it from there. Do your research and 2 weeks in the SI and you'll have it all.

Don't go to Charleston! Go to Wild West Adventures for your glow worm (plus zip-lining if you like) cave tubing adventure! Full disclosure: I currently work for Wild West, although am leaving next week to pursue another opportunity. However, if you tell them Kreig (pronounced Craig, but spelt weird) said you can have a 10% discount, they will honour it. I am only telling you about Wild West because I truly believe it is the best glow worm cave-tubing adventure in NZ.

Lloydy: I find it a little disconcerting that you might suggest to anyone, let alone overseas trampers who a) have yet to experience NZ, her terrain and conditions and b) you don't personally know, that a PLB is 'overkill'. To the original poster: a great many of NZ's tracks have no cell coverage or are patchy at best. Take your beacon with you.

saying that taking a plb is "overkill" on any tramping trip, even when the track is busy is getting reckless. if you're the last person on the track for the day and something goes wrong, theres nothing about a plb that is overkill, but still leave detailed trip intentions with people you know and avoid deviating from the intentions as much as possible. http://www.adventuresmart.org.nz/outdoors-intentions/

I don't have an issue with Lloydy's comment re PLBs. If walking the Heaphy in mid-April was the toughest tramp on someone's itinerary I would not expect a PLB to be a must have item if they did not have ready access to one. I would much rather stress having the appropriate clothing, equipment and skills to survive a night out if for whatever reason that is necessary. Of course there is a chance a situation may arise where a PLB would be beneficial but this could also be the case walking down a rural road or working on a farm and we don't advocate everyone venturing into those situations carries PLBs. I feel sometimes that the first recommendation is always carry a PLB as if this is some catch all solution to any possible problem. *this post is the opinion of a tramper who carries a PLB on EVERY tramp they do, be it two weeks or two hours simply because I own one and am determined to get my monies worth. I carry it on many occasions when it is definitely overkill!*