I scheduled a shuttle to take me from Takaka to the northern part of the Heaphy track. They picked me up at 11 am and dropped me At the start at noon.
Because I was starting at noon I didn’t want to schedule anything too aggressive, however I either have to get a shuttle back on Thursday at 1:30, meaning a 3 day trip, or Sunday, meaning a six day trip.
Obviously I chose the three day, so the first day was about 24 km, which isn’t bad if I wasn’t starting after noon!
The track was rather easy which is expected for a great walk, they maintain them very well. The first day has almost all of the elevation gain for the whole trip, but it’s gradual, so it doesn’t feel like that much.
There were only a couple view spots going up, and I have to admit I didn’t feel impressed, the forest was nice and all, but nothing I haven’t seen elsewhere. At the highest point in the track there’s a picnic table with a really nice panoramic view of the mountains, I grabbed a snack and enjoyed the view for a little bit before heading on. After that the forest was much less thick and there were more views.
After the first hut the scenery changed from forest to more of a grassy plain. One of the things the Heaphy track is famous for is it’s diverse landscapes, every couple hours it changes completely and it’s amazing!
The trail was much less trafficked than I expected, even though most of the huts are massive, as soon as you are out of the huts you only came across a group about once per hour. It’s a very nice change from the Able Tasman.
There were two Takahe (an endangered bird) hanging around the Gouldand Down hut and just five other people staying there, one of which was camping. Gouldand Down is a smaller, old style hut, I just selected it because of distances, but I really enjoyed that it had great views and wasn’t as busy as some of the others.
