Haven’t even started
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 […]
Between here and there
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 […]
Gear
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 […]
Strategy
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 […]
From a dream to reality
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 […]