Te Araroa (The Long Pathway) is a long-distance trail along the length of New Zealand. It starts in Cape Reinga, the trails northern terminus, and finishes off in Bluff, the trails southern terminus. The length is about 3000km. Roughly 1700 on the north (the numbers in the figure are not completely accurate) and 1300 on the south island. The official opening of the trail was in 2011.

Over the 3000km, the trail offers a variety of different geographical landscapes, from rainforests, volcanoes, farmlands, mountain ranges and many more. While the north island is more densely populated and you might easily resupply along the trail as well as find a great number of trail angels helping you, the south island is less populated and has long stretches where you are far away from civilisation.

Both Islands offer their own unique experience to the trail. While you might find a great amount of trail magic and a superb community on the north island, you will also have long stretches of road walking. On the south island you will find more wilderness, but this comes also with the drawback of more planning going into the journey. Food packages should be send to certain locations in order to avoid horrendous prices and small selections at the one store on a mountain pass, or having to hitch-hike into the next town for resupply. Furthermore, due to the many river crossings as well as the mountain ranges that need to be crossed, the weather plays a huge factor while hiking the south island and if the weather turns bad, there might be a delay of a day or two at a hut, which is why one should be prepared to be stuck for additional days.

The South Island portion of the trail starts with the Queen Charlotte Track in Ship Cove, the only section of the trail that is privately owned and requires a permit. The rest of the trail can be walked without any permits, though it is recommended to donate some money to the trust, as they maintain the track and pour a lot of work into the maps and trail notes which are updates every September and available for free. The other necessary purchase (especially for the south island) is a DOC hut pass for either 6 or 12 months. This allows one to stay at any of the DOC huts (except the ones on the great walks) where you usually find a water source, some bunk beds, a fire place as well as a dunny. You could alternatively pay in cash at each hut that you are staying, but this saves the hassle and is not actually that expensive.

So, as I only have the time and money to walk one island, I have chosen to do the south island as I prefer to be out in nature and away from civilisation for days at a time. It will be quite the experience and I hope that the weather settles down a bit before I start in January, as I really don’t want to hike through snow in the Richmond Ranges.

With little more than three weeks to go I am now in the final stages of selecting my gear. I am by no means an ultralight hiker, especially as I like my good old Gregory Deva backpack to much to give it up for one of those <1kg backpacks that I cannot try on before ordering, and I also do not have the monetary means to spend hundreds on the lightest gear. Regardless of my heavy backpack though, all the important gear, except new clothes, has been tested by me in the past. The gear has held up well last year in Norway, where I carried 9 days worth of food with me and the backpack had an initial weight of 25kg including consumables. I managed the starting weight well and got through days of cold temperatures and rain alright. I will see how it goes this time. I might end up uploading my packing list but I do not know yet, as I can already hear all the ultralight hikers commenting “you do not need this and that”.

This is it for now, in the coming days I might post some more preparation stuff. As the countdown trickles down I am getting more and more excited and ready to go:)