Took a bus up to Kaitaia (I think pronounced kai-Thai-a) from Auckland, then I got a ride to Utea campground, where I’ll stay tonight and start hiking tomorrow! The first day is super short, but might be better to start slow anyway. In the meantime the views are lovely I can’t wait to start!!
Woke up with super sore swollen feet. I found out that the next campground is closed for renovations, so it would be 31 kilometers to the next site after that. I knew I couldn’t do 31, but was talked into catching a lift down the beach where the closed campsite was and then walking from […]
I woke up at 3 AM to the sounds of wild horses in the camp. I was in bed early the night before, so being unable to get back to sleep I got out and took a couple pictures of the stars. The decision to start early was largely based on high tide being at […]
Day 2: I woke up at 4:30, peeked outside and the stars were fantastic! No good pictures from camp unfortunately, but nice to see them. So I packed up camp and set out. The trail from midnight camp climbs up gently over a couple kilometers, then descends rapidly down some stairs to ninety mile beach. […]
Woke up early like every day since I’ve been here. Got ready and got a ride to the start of the trail at cape Reinga. So excited! The trail starts up high by the lighthouse and then makes its way down to the first beach. I thought that the TA is marked by orange triangles, […]
I arrived this morning, Tuesday the 22nd, there’s some extreme weather coming in over the next couple days with gale force winds and snow in the south https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12278484 (the snow isn’t a concern for me because I’ll be far north where it’s warmer), so I decided to take an extra day in Auckland and just […]
Before flying out to New Zealand I visited family and friends in Baltimore, Wisconsin, and San Francisco. We were going to go backpacking in the Sierras, but the temps were lower than our bags are rated for so we car camped at lower elevation instead and did day hikes. One day while hiking I bit […]
This is nearly my entire gear setup for the Te Araroa, the details can be found here on my Lighterpack page, which I won’t change after the hike, instead I will set up a new one when I’m finished to detail what I did and didn’t keep. I’m missing water bottles, I’m planning on using […]
Getting Around I’m planning to use the Inter City bus to get from Auckland to Kaitaia, from there I might hitch (which is common in NZ) or maybe I’ll take the more expensive tour bus to get to Cape Reinga where the hike begins (or ends if you are going NOBO). At the end I’ll […]
I think it was sometime in March 2019 that I became aware of the existence of the Te Araroa trail, which goes from the north tip of the north island of New Zealand to the southern tip of the south island, a total of 3,000 km (1,900 miles). I always wanted to hike a thru […]