Matthew Rabillard-Wong

November 2024 to February 2025

During the Northern Hemisphere winter last year, I spent three months walking the length of New Zealand on Te Araroa (TA). The TA is a 3000 km long trail that connects Bluff to Cape Reinga.

Stats

• Dates: November 22 – February 23
• Total Days: 94
• Zeros: 14
  • 1 day for an allergic reaction
  • 3 days waiting to get on the Whanganui River
  • 2 days for illness
  • 1 day waiting for the Interislander
  • 1 day chilling in Wānaka
  • 6 days road tripping around Southland with a friend
• Daily Average: 31.9 km (19.8 mi)
• Daily Average (excluding zeros): 37.5 km (23.3 mi)
• Longest day: 70 km (43.5 mi)
• Longest Carry: 5 days (Richmonds)
• Base Weight: 8 lbs North Island / 9 lbs South Island
• Things I Lost: Water bottles, tent stakes, gloves, underwear. Probably more.

Resupplies

These probably aren’t perfect; there might be an extra half day somewhere. I haven’t included my resupplies for the North Island cause you can get food practically everywhere. As an aside, I carried 4.5 days of food through the Tararuas from Palmerston North to Waikanae.

• Ship Cove: 2 days
• Havelock (Richmond’s): 5 days
• Nelson Lakes: 3 days
• Boyle Village: 2 days
• Arthur’s Pass: 1.5 days
• Rakaia to Rangitata: 2 days
• Rangitata: 2 days
• Tekapo: 1 day
• Twizel: 3 days
• Wānaka: 3 days
• Queenstown: 4 days
• Riverton: 0.5 day
• Invercargill: 1 day

Conditions

The operative word here is moderate. I don’t think it ever got below 0 C or above 30 C. The overnight lows were typically 5 C and the daytime highs were typically 25 C; I didn’t have a thermometer, so this is all just perception. I will say it was quite humid, I dried my tent practically everyday on the TA.

Gear Notes

LighterPack: In the aftermath of the TA, I managed to delete my LighterPack and I remade it while writing this, so there is a possibility some of the weights aren’t perfect. My base weight was roughly 8 lbs on the North Island and 9 lbs on the South Island; I added a puffy for the South Island.

• The Good
  • Torso length foam mat. I firmly believe that if it’s warm enough and the ground you intend to sleep on is soft enough, you don’t need a sleeping mat. The conditions were fairly mild for most of the TA; so a small foam mat worked really well. I also learned that not all foam mats are not made equal; a Thermarest Z Lite is significantly more comfortable than a comparable knock-off. I had a cheap MacPac mat and after the foam compressed, it was not particularly comfortable. Also, sleeping on hut floors with a foam mat is quite miserable – ask me how I know.
  • A full length spoon. For the first 800 km or so, I carried a cut down spoon that I’d carefully shortened with an axe. Just after Te Kūiti, Ethan pointed out that there was a full length spoon in the cook shelter; I hesitantly took the new spoon, leaving behind my half-length number. I quickly found joy in a full spoon and vowed to never cut another spoon. Seriously, cut spoons suck; especially when you’re eating all your meals out a 1/2 gallon Ziploc.
  • MacPac Nitro Alpha Fleece. The fluffy; this thing was sick. It has a fantastic warmth to weight ratio. It was my only warm layer on the North Island and you could certainly do the entire trail with just an Alpha Fleece.
  • Ziploc for cold soaking. I used a cold soak jar for the first few hundred kilometers until I melted it with boiling water. I used the partially melted jar for a while before switching to a Ziploc. A Ziploc is awesome; it’s high volume, easy to clean, and replaceable. They’re often even free if you take them from the bulk section at the supermarket.
  • Outdoor Research Echo Sun hoodie. A sun hoodie is a necessity in New Zealand. I wore a short sleeve T-Shirt for the first 600 km from Cape Reinga to Auckland. I don’t really burn but I tanned so dark that I was almost unrecognizable.
• The Bad
  • Lanshan 1 Pro SilNylon. This a fantastic tent and the value for money is hard to beat. However, a SilNylon shelter is not ideal for New Zealand given the humidity. It becomes laden with moisture overnight and I found myself drying it practically everyday. My tent also had a solid inner which was just stupid; this exacerbated the condensation.
  • MacPac Trail Rain Jacket. This thing sucks. It’s pretty light but it’s not particularly waterproof and it de-laminated. MacPac did give me a free jacket after the first one failed so kudos to them.
  • Brooks Cascadia 18. I’ve got long narrow feet and these fit quite well. I went through three pairs on trail and each time with a new pair, the upper mesh would begin to fail within 300 kilometers. I stretched each pair to 1000 kilometers with a lot of sewing, Leukotape, and super glue.

Helpful Info

I was hoping to do the whole trail in less than three months. I was at the tail end of a Working Holiday Visa; and I wanted a little bit of time after the trail to visit friends before I went home.

There’s some weird discourse online about doing the TA “quickly”; a lot of people feel as though you’re missing the point if you’re hiking quickly. However, generally speaking, for me, the point of a long trail is the hiking; I’ve never been super keen on chilling in town or in camp. I also don’t think a three month TA is super quick; it breaks down to roughly 33 km per day if you don’t zero. It’s actually a fairly manageable pace if you’re willing to do long-ish days. There’s also a ton of road walking which makes the mileage a bit more manageable.

There were a few things I learned along the way that would have been useful to know beforehand, I’ve compiled these below.

• Base your days off vertical gain not mileage. This is more applicable for the South Island; it’s also important for the Tararua’s. If you are simply basing your days off mileage you’ll end up with some lopsided days. I would look at each food carry then break it down by vertical gain per day; I found this worked quite well. For reference, I tried to keep it under 1500 m of gain/loss per day (2000 m for the Richmonds)
• The tread can make for really slow going at times. There is a ton of slow technical terrain and a lot of mud. All of this combines for some seriously slow going. I found my slowest pace on the entire trail was 2 km/h; this is the pace I averaged through the Tararua’s and a few other spots on the North Island.
• Don’t get discouraged if you’re moving slower than anticipated. New Zealand will often experience four seasons in one day. This is also kind of true for trail quality. It varies from pavement all the way to knee deep mud. However, the surface never lasts for too long; it’s always changing. If it’s slow going, it will almost certainly improve. For reference, I was doing fairly high mileage and I practically never showed up to camp late; even though most days, I was practically crawling along at some point.
• Get the mileage in when you can. On the TA, there are a lot of things out of your control that can slow you down. This includes water crossings, tidal areas, ferries, swollen rivers, shuttles, and numerous other things. It is incredibly important to get your mileage in while you can. For reference, I averaged 37.5 km/day but I was often hiking 50 + kilometers per day if I could; this was in an effort to offset any kind of forced delays. Northland is probably the worst for weird delays; there are a ton of tidal zones and small ferries. My daily distance through Northland looked like a sine wave – with my shortest day being 8 km and my longest day being roughly 55 km.
• Exercise caution on Ninety Mile Beach. The surface is very fine hard pack sand; it’s tough on your joints/feet because it’s so hard. The fine sand also penetrates your shoes; it can give you some really nasty blisters. There were hikers who ended their entire trip on Ninety Mile Beach. I had to stop every 3-5 km to empty my shoes and tend to any issues. It added time but it was certainly worth it; I only had two small blisters on my pinky toes. It’s really easy to ruin a trip on Ninety Mile Beach.
• The Laissez Faire logistics method works pretty well. There are plenty of logistics on the TA; ferries, shuttles, tidal crossings, even a 4 day canoe trip. While some hikers will carefully plan this sort of stuff, I found that if you were simply in the vicinity of other hikers, things would work themselves out. That isn’t to say don’t help with logistics but also don’t stress it too much.

Trip Blog

I’ve been sitting on this trip report for about a year so I’m not going to do any sort of day by day thing. I plan to just write about the interesting moments. I hope my writing can capture the feelings I had while I was out there.

There are two things that stand out to the most about my time on trail: the people I met and the days where I hiked in a flow state.

I’ve chosen to split my sections in a different fashion than what’s provided by the TA Trust. This is intentional; these sections represent my mental division of the trail.

The North Island

A fellow walker, Lucas, said something pretty spot on when we were in Havelock, “The North is more of a cultural walking tour, while the South Island is more akin to a traditional thru hike”

Northland

This section connects beaches and forests with a series of a road walks. Most of the forests suffer from Kauri dieback; it’s a soil-born illness that is fatal to the Kauri trees. The dieback has also lead to the closure of most forested sections; this meant even more road walking than usual.

After finishing 90 mile beach, you’re immediately faced with the reality of New Zealand road walking: tiny shoulders, and fast traffic. A friend and fellow Vancouver resident, Kiki, made a spreadsheet to track all the road walking; in the end, there was close to 700 km. I didn’t really mind the road walking. It’s mileage with a guaranteed pace and you often got nice views; the forests are so dense in New Zealand that typically you couldn’t see anything.

My experience in Northland was colored by the walkers I met along the way. Northland has a number of tidal zones and water crossings that act as natural barriers; this means a lot of walkers end up traveling together for extended periods of time.

I met Ethan and Krissy for the first time in Kerikeri. They’re two Americans who have completed the Triple Crown and numerous other trails; Krissy has even done the TA before! I ended up walking with them for much of Northland. They were incredibly kind, and generous with their knowledge; I learned an endless amount of things, big and small, from them. At one point, we had a conversation about age; I don’t remember everything, but I do remember how Ethan ended the conversation “Thru hiking keeps you young.” I’ve thought about this so many times since then.

Harry is a Brit who’s currently residing in Australia. We initially met somewhere in the vicinity of Helena Bay, and walked a good part of Northland together. For reference, Ethan and Krissy both had tiny packs; for a while, Harry had been asking them to give him a rundown of what they were carrying. On a slow afternoon, while waiting for a ferry, Ethan showed us the contents of his pack. Amongst other things, he had an umbrella. I still recall Harry’s exclamation “You’ve got an 8 lb base weight and you’re carrying a fucking brolly?” I still laugh about it.

Another major highlight from Northland was getting to see my friend Blake! We went to university together at UVic and he was in NZ visiting some other friends; it’s kind of crazy seeing a friend from home on the other side of the world.

Auckland to Hamilton

After the endless beaches and dense forests of Northland, the sprawling metropolis of Auckland comes as a slight shock to the system. Auckland also acts as a natural division; a lot of walkers take transit to Hamilton to avoid the 200 km of road walking to get there. I opted to do the road walk. I’m still not entirely sure why. I’d told some other walkers that I was hoping to do the trail in 3 months and I felt a bit odd skipping an entire section when I’d verbalized a time goal. As the trail progressed, I got better about ignoring the opinions of others when making decisions; however, I still found thought about the opinion of others when I considered skipping something.

In general, the walking in this stretch is fairly pleasant; most of it is on fairly quiet roads with a few sections through farmland. There is only one really awful section of bushwhacking just south of Mercer.

I had my worst day of the entire TA when walking from Mercer to Huntly. I’ve had pretty bad seasonal allergies my whole life and I guess something triggered it. I was having trouble breathing and by the end of the day, I could barely walk for 5 minutes before having to lie down. These aren’t normal symptoms for me. In hindsight, I should have just called it quits early and hitched into town; a farmer even offered me a ride – I was just too stubborn to accept it.

The town of Huntly is split by the Waikato River. The TA comes into town along the East bank and the campground sits on the opposite bank. Because of the river, walkers have to retrace their steps for about 2 km on the opposite bank to get to the campground. This u-turn essentially broke me; I distinctly remember lying in a field across from the grocery store and crying. I took my first rest day in Huntly.

During my day off, I went to the chemist and got eye drops; someone standing on their front lawn also offered to sell me weed. I didn’t accept it; I probably should have.

Hamilton to Whanganui

As I mentioned before, a lot of walkers choose to skip the Auckland to Hamilton section. Most of my friends had actually opted to skip it; this was a pleasant surprise because it meant I would have a good chance of seeing them again! The trail in the Waikato Region is similar to Northland; in the sense that there are a number of logistical challenges that make it such that most walkers move at the same pace. This meant if I caught my friends, I’d get to walk with them for a while – their loss, my gain.

The Timber Trail

The Timber Trail is an 80 km wilderness trail that is also a cycle path. Because of this, most walkers choose to cycle instead. I was one of 20 walkers to start cycling on the same day; we all chose to split it over two days. This was one of my favorite days on trail; out of all the walkers, only two of us had done any long distance touring: Joe and myself.

I got to the end of the Timber Trail around noon on the second day; by 2 PM there were maybe 10 TA walkers in the small shelter and the surrounding grass patch. Most of us chose not to hike the additional 25 km into Taumarunui. This meant, we had the better part of the afternoon to chill. Some opted to swim in a really silty river; I, along with about five others, opted to listen to Joe tell stories about paddling trips for the better part of five hours.

Taumaranui acts as the staging area for the Whanganaui River; it’s home to one of the major canoe outfitters, Taumaranui Canoe Hire. Ethan, Krissy, and I arrived into town, did chores, and resupplied at the supermarket. We were buying 5 days of food for the river and 4 days for the upcoming section; this makes 9 days in total. The supermarket was chaos; it was a few days before Christmas and there were also about 20 walkers wandering around with shopping carts doing the same thing as us. I think it took me two hours to figure out what food to buy.

After the grocery gauntlet, we made our way to the outfitter. The camping area was nearly full and the briefing room was standing room only. With most of us having never canoed before, we were given a quick explanation of the basics; then it was time to pay up. In the midst of the briefing, one of the workers in the yard backed a trailer over a dog, killing it. The two women working in the office, a mother and daughter, came running in absolutely distraught. Johnny, the fellow giving the briefing, seemed completely un-phased; he continued explaining the finer points of a J-Stroke.

Christmas in National Park

National Park acts as a sort of holding pen before walkers begin paddling the Whanganui River. I ended up in National Park for 3 days during Christmas. I spent most of Christmas Eve hitching to Taumarunui to collect supplies to repair my tent; I needed to re-seal the seams. Christmas Eve is a terrible time to hitch; I took me well over two hours to get a ride Taumarunui. My trip back to National Park was much quicker; I got picked up first by a farmer, then by someone heading to a Christmas dinner. The fellow heading to dinner told me stories about doing the Milford Track with his family of four and a 30 kg (66 lb) pack. Side note, I thoroughly believe non-ultralight hikers are far stronger; doing the TA with a 25 lb base weight is way harder than what I did.

The rest of Christmas was spent hanging with friends, mini-golfing, and eating ribs at the pub next to the hostel. $25 for a rack of ribs – crazy good deal. I think I went three separate times. Also, there’s no tipping in NZ and tax is included in the price, so it’s actually $25. The hostel we stayed also had a built-in climbing wall; my room was literally under one of the top ropes.

The Whanganui River

Krissy sold the paddle of the Whanganui as a “booze cruise.” Due to low water levels, we were faced with a slower than usual current; there was also a head wind for the entire paddle. Thank god Joe had four bottles of wine.

I’d met Joe the day before we started the Timber Trail. Joe is an American anesthesiologist; during his entire career, he’s never worked more than 7 months in a year. In his free time, he’s paddled all over the world; various trips in South America, Africa (the Blue Nile), 20 plus trips down the Grand Canyon, and countless trips in the Canadian Territories – he even found a Woolly Mammoth tusk on one occasion. Not to mention, he hiked the PCT in 1974 and has done a variety of bike trips all over the world.

We road walked for nearly four hours together. During this, Joe told countless stories ranging from 40 day pack rafting trips on the Nahanni River, to his volunteer work with functional plastic surgery in Bangladesh, and countless stories about the Grand Canyon. Every time Joe explains his volunteer work, he makes sure to clarify that the plastic surgery is functional; he is not out there giving nose jobs. Joe had a deep impact on me; in his lifetime, he’s managed to see the world while developing a meaningful career and helping others. I think I always saw these as two options; two things that could be done at different times in life. I never really considered the possibility that you can build a career while seeing the world.

Joe asked me if I wanted to partner up for the paddle of the Whanganui River; I was absolutely thrilled by the offer. He’s an incredible paddler and I was just stoked to get a chance to learn from him. I spent the next four days paddling into a headwind as Joe told stories and steered the canoe.

Whanganui to Palmerston North

This is another section that walkers commonly skip. It’s 120 km of road walking with a short beach section to break it up.

Walkers will occasionally attempt the 24 Hour Challenge. It’s exactly what it sounds like; walkers try to cover as much distance as possible in 24 hours. In the context of the Whanganui to Palmerston North road walk, this means covering the entire 120 km in 24 hours.

I left Whanganui with the intention of completing the challenge. There was a logistical reason for this, it wasn’t entirely ego (just mostly). My rain jacket had failed just before National Park and I was hoping to get it replaced; this meant I had to go to the MacPac in Palmerston North. If I were to walk through the night, I would arrive to Palmerston in the early afternoon. I could then replace the jacket, resupply, get a long nights sleep, then hike out the following morning.

In short, I didn’t complete the 24 hour challenge. I ended up getting lost in a swamp at 2 AM coming off the beach. After my detour, I opted to sleep for three hours and get going at 5 AM again. Does this mean I hiked two 60 km days or a 120 km day with a 3 hour nap in the middle? I’m not sure.

I ended up getting sick and taking two zeros in Palmerston North; thanks to Paula and Brian for hosting me! Practically everyone I heard of that tried the 24 Hour Challenge either got sick, injured, or took multiple zeros in Palmerston. Also, practically everyone that tried it were young men, myself included. Coincidence? I think not; I’m sure it says something about a lack of critical thinking.

The Tararua’s

The Tararua’s are the first real test of the North Island and probably the hardest section of the entire TA. The combination of vertical gain, mud, and technical terrain make for incredibly slow going; I averaged 2 km/h for the main range.

A lot of hikers were forced to skip the Tararua’s due to poor weather. The Tararua’s sit right off the coast and katabatic winds rip up the face of the range; this leads to really temperamental weather and frequent storms. I was lucky to get a two day window to pass through the main range.

Nichols hut is a 6 bunk hut near Mt. Crawford; it’s in an alpine zone and there is no surrounding camping, meaning every walker has to stay in the hut. When I arrived around 7:30 PM, I was the 11th person to arrive. I ended up sleeping in a small cubby above the doorway; thanks to Mark and Johnny for helping me up there. I’m just glad I didn’t have to pee in the middle of the night; I was not making it back up there on my own.

Wellington

Coming out from the Tararua’s is a bit of a shock to the system. In the span of a few kilometers, you move from lush forest to a literal light rail station; I heavily contemplated taking this the rest of the way into Wellington.

The section along the Kapiti coast into Wellington is quite wonderful. The TA traces a series of walking paths. Once you get closer to Wellington, you climb through grassy hills. Finally, you see the city; the end of the North Island.

The South Island

Some consider this the meat of the trail; I consider it the tofurkey.

The Queen Charlotte Track

I used to live in Nelson and I’d previously done sections of the Queen Charlotte Track, so this felt like home turf. On a clear day, the Marlborough Sounds are absolutely stunning; I had two overcast days for it. I was feeling pretty down this whole time. Perhaps, it was the weather or the fact that the Queen Charlotte Track masquerades itself as this wilderness experience when in fact there’s houses everywhere on it. I think what was really getting to me was the fact most of my friends were still on the North Island and I knew I likely wouldn’t be seeing them again; I was fairly tight on time with my Visa.

I did see a pod of orcas; it felt like I was back on Vancouver Island.

The Richmond Ranges

If the Tararua’s are the crux of the North Island, the Richmond Ranges are certainly the crux of the South Island. The difficulty of the Richmond’s comes from the overall elevation gain; walkers end up covering roughly 8000 m of gain in roughly 120 km.

The Richmond’s are stunningly beautiful; I spent a lot of time sat down simply taking the view in. It’s also one of the first times on trail where you actually feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere. There is little true wilderness on the TA; the Richmond’s are one of the few properly wild places on the TA. And for this reason, they’re an incredibly special place.

If you don’t send a box for the Richmond’s, you’re faced with resupplying out of the small Four Square in Havelock. Everything there is quite expensive so I opted to get most of my calories from a couple of affordable staples: cheese and peanut butter. I was planning a 5 day carry to St. Arnaud. I eat roughly 4000-5000 calories per day; this meant, I needed a kilogram of both cheese and peanut butter. I also bought 40 wraps. In an effort to save time while hiking, I pre-made 20 peanut butter wraps and 20 cheese wraps; I would eat 4 of each per day and this would be the bulk of my calories.

I was slightly worried the cheese would go bad. This didn’t prove to be a problem; however, after the first day, the peanut butter went rancid. I didn’t have any other food so I was forced to continue eating it. From the second day until St Arnaud, I used every single pit toilet I found; there is a pit toilet roughly every 5 km through the Richmond’s. Shockingly, I never ran out of toilet paper.

Nelson Lakes National Park

Two lovely trail angels gave me a Coke as I was coming down to the highway and St Arnaud; they also let me stay at their place in town. I’m pretty bad with names, especially a year later, but it doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate acts of kindness like this. So many people helped me during my hike; some with hitches, others with places to stay, and many just with words of encouragement. I don’t remember all the names, but I certainly remember all the acts.

Waiau Pass is unbelievably beautiful. I spent close to two hours sitting on top of the pass. It was dead calm the entire time; I guess mother nature was smiling down on me.

After Waiau Pass, you drop into the St. James Conservation Area. The TA follows a series of wide valleys for the better part of the next 50 km. There’s something about these great wide spaces that make me feel really small and vulnerable. For some reason, I absolutely relish this feeling.

Boyle Village to Arthur’s Pass Village

In the preamble to the trip blog, I talked about how my favorite parts of the TA were the people I met and the moments I hiked in a flow state; this section had some exceptional hiking and met some even more exceptional people.

Hope Kiwi Lodge is a 20 bunk hut in Canterbury. There were maybe 15 hikers there when I arrived. It’s got a slightly bizarre layout with two bunk rooms and a huge common area. The bunk rooms were split between hikers leaving at 5 AM and 6 AM; I grabbed a bunk in the 6 AM dorm. After claiming a bunk, I prepared dinner in the common room (read: I put ramen, tuna, and water in a plastic bag then waited). I found a spot at the emptier of the two tables and I quickly began a conversation with an American hiker from Oregon, Austin. We spoke for ages about the differences between North America and New Zealand; most of the conversation revolved around the differing cultures regarding hunting. At a certain point we realized the two walkers sitting close us hadn’t said anything to one another in about twenty minutes, they were just listening to Austin and I; we were fully yammering at this point. This was the single most interesting conversation I had during the entirety of the TA; Austin’s ability to listen and expand on topics was truly unbelievable. I aspire to someday be half as thoughtful as he is. I learned he’d gotten a PhD; both my parents are professors at a university. All three of them have a very similar method of holding a conversation. I left really early the following morning before he woke up; I never ended up getting his contact info and I regret it to this day.

The following morning, I left just before 6 AM; the earliest departure of either bunk room. Though I think they might have been kidding about the 5 AM departure. I left early because I was hoping to make it 70 km to the Morrison Foot Bridge that evening. Why? The foot bridge marks the beginning of the Mingha to Deception route; a 30 km section where walkers travel directly through a river. It is crucial that this be done in the dry; in the wet, the river can rise quickly, and the track can be become impassable. The forecast was calling for rain in the coming days and I was hoping I could outrun it by making it to the footbridge that evening. I was a bit nervous. I was only carrying two days of food; I’d left most of my resupply box at Boyle Village. It went really smoothly. It felt practically effortless; even though the tread was poor around Harper pass and the river stones in the Otira River kept shifting under my feet. By the end, I’d covered 70 km in 15.5 hours – just under 5 km/h pace. This was my third day on trail where I thought I was in a flow state.

Arthur’s Pass Village to Lake Coleridge

Occasionally other walkers would ask how I tolerated cold soaking; the answer was simple, I was never really away from town for too long. On the North Island, town is everywhere. And on the South Island, I opted to hike slightly faster and carry less food; this meant I was in town roughly every 2-3 days. All this is to say, when I got to town, I feasted. In Arthur’s Pass, I ate exceptionally well; I think I spent $100 on warm food across an evening and a morning. I had 2 dinners and 1.5 breakfasts.

The stretch from Hamilton hut to Lake Coleridge featured the worst weather I encountered on the entire TA; we had near freezing rain for a couple hours. I put all my clothes and was still shivering; I also learned my rain jacket didn’t really work. As a side note, I’d cut off the bottom third of my rain pants about 1000 km earlier so that they were easier to put on. This did however mean, they didn’t work too good when it actually rained.

The Rangitata River to the Rakaia River

I can’t remember anything notable happening in this section. But I did take some photos!

Whenever someone asks to compare NZ and Canada, I usually say you can find every part of NZ somewhere in Canada. This stretch was highly arid; similar to the interior of BC.

The Rakaia River to Lake Tekapo

I was given the tramping hat in Geraldine just before getting on the shuttle to the south bank of the Rakaia River. The tramping hat was a pink cowboy hat that started its life at Cape Reinga. Everyday, the hat is passed to a new walker before it reaches Bluff; each walker that has it, also signs it. Within 15 minutes of putting it on, I managed to drop it in a river. About 4 hours later, I managed to fall in a separate river. Safe to say, I quickly found another hiker to give the hat to; it seemed like it was bad luck.

Lake Tekapo to Twizel

A series of canals connects Tekapo to Twizel; a highway also connects them, but the canals are way cooler because they function as a cycle path too. Most walkers will opt to ride the 55 km between Tekapo and Twizel. I didn’t book in time so I got the privilege of walking these 55 km. Shoutout to Tim and Always for the trail magic; they gave me a fresh orange about half way through my road walk. In the end, I managed to cover the 55 km in less than 10 hours; I was quite pleased with this – a near 6 km/h pace. My feet were less pleased about this though. The following day, they were in serious pain; I found myself having to stop every few kilometers to give them a rest. Across my entire trip, I found that road walking did the most damage to my body; I think it’s the incessant pounding.

Twizel to Wānaka

I misjudged my food carries a few times while on the TA. The worst of these was the Twizel to Wānaka stretch. I was hoping to get this done in about 3.5 days; roughly 40 km per day. As soon I left town, I realized that I probably didn’t have enough food to even get me to Lake Hāwea, let alone Wānaka. Also, a significant portion of my calories were left over Thai food; shockingly, this was unappealing in 30 C weather. This section was honestly pretty miserable; I saw some cool horses though.

I was hoping to make it Stody’s Hut on the second night. I fell just short – stopping right before the final climb; I luckily found a tent pad on a shelf above the river. The following day, I tackled the climb in the cool morning air. I found I do my best hiking in the morning. I got to the hut around 7 AM just as another hiker was leaving, Louise from Belgium. We spent entire day hiking together and chatting. She also very kindly shared some of her food with me; I was highly grateful.

We got to Lake Hāwea around midday; I was planning to press on, but Louise quickly convinced to me stay put with the promise of free camping. There’s a restaurant in town that would let walkers camp for free if they ordered dinner; $25 for dinner and camping is an absolute steal.

As soon as we got to town, we hit the supermarket and collapsed in the parking for close to three hours. A very kind local offered to take us to the beach; he even bought us ice cream. And we only had to listen to a little bit of bible bashing.

Wānaka to Queenstown

I’d hiked from Ship Cove to Wānaka in three weeks. Most of these miles had been alone. So, I was stoked to take a zero in Wānaka with some new friends.

The Mototapu Track ended up being pretty chill as well; I took it at a relaxed pace as I had a few days to kill before meeting another friend in Queenstown. During this section, I met Mike, Pisa, Chloe, Erna, and Kaz; they would go on to be a huge part of my TA.

Queenstown to Riverton

I left Queenstown hoping to cover the 240 km to Riverton in 4 days; I wasn’t carrying any extra calories either. I’m not sure why I chose this resupply strategy. Perhaps, it was because there were no convenient resupply options actually on trail – everything required hitching. However, I think it was really because this was my last chance to push myself from a physical perspective. When I started the TA, I’d been hoping to push myself; both mentally and physically. Up until this point, I really hadn’t pushed myself in either fashion. I felt this final stretch was a good opportunity to see what I was capable of. Long story short, I almost made it to Riverton in 4 days. I ran out of food in Colac Bay; just 12 km short of Riverton. I ended up camping at the pub in Colac Bay, and carried out some chips the following morning to tide me over until I got to the grocery store in Riverton.

The Hitch

Before even getting to start hiking, walkers need to get around Lake Wakatipu. The road contouring the lake has been declared a hazard zone by the TA trust, so most walkers opt to take a shuttle or hitch; EFIs will choose to walk. I opted to hitch. I don’t like hitching in the best of times and by this point in the trail, I was sporting a seriously overgrown beard so I knew it was going to take a while to get a ride. I met another hiker at the edge Queenstown; he was a much cleaner cut than I, so I stuck with him hoping to get a hitch.

Mt Linton Station

The station is an intensively farmed property just before the Long Woods. The terrain itself is gorgeous, but I often found myself waiting behind herds of stock as musterers moved them. In total, I spent 2+ hours just waiting as stock was moved; I even managed to dry my tent during one of these breaks.

Crossing private land is simply a reality of the TA. On the North Island, I found myself constantly criss-crossing private land; often times, next to barbed wire or a bull fence. It really felt as though most land owners were simply tolerating walkers. However, much of the South Island is conservation land; so, a return to the confines of private land felt even more jarring. The route through the station was well marked. If I even so much as got slightly off route, I was promptly greeted by signs telling me I would face fines and imprisonment if I continued. I took me half a a day to make it across the station; I kept wondering why the station allowed walkers if it was so hostile towards us. At the time, my assumption was that there was some sort of easement that been in place for ages that allowed access to the station. And they were begrudgingly honoring it.

The Long Woods

The Long Woods is the final test of the TA – one last chance for the TA to sink its teeth into walkers. It’s a roughly 40 km forest comprised of primarily shin to waist deep mud. Walkers agonize over it, myself included. I started before sunrise, hoping to complete it in a single day. As you hike, you learn to read the mud; you see the areas where you can step and maintain momentum, you look for the roots to bridge. Sometimes you misjudge a patch and you plunge up to your waist; this happened to me twice. Ice cold mud up to my testicles was not pleasant.

There are lots of muddy sections on the TA, but the types of mud can be broken down into two rough categories: thick clay like mud and watery mud. I always found the clay like mud to be much worse; it could swallow shoes and lead to full on wipe outs. If the terrain wasn’t super technical, the watery mud was actually fairly quick to move through.

Riverton to Bluff

If I’d hiked from Riverton to Bluff in a single day, I would have completed the TA in exactly three months. Then I ran into Mike in the supermarket, and plans changed quick. We walked to Invercargill together where we met with the rest of his crew at a hostel. Mike is one of those friends that I haven’t known for super but it feels like I’ve known him my entire life. We talked for hours on the beach walk out from Riverton. Mike was one of the most thoughtful and reflective people I met on trail; I learned a lot from him.

Invercargill to Bluff felt like a party. We were a group of 6: Mike, Piza, Chloe, Erna, Kaz, and myself (thanks to the others for adopting). We left the hostel in Invercargill around noon and made it to Bluff around 8 PM. Most of the day was a pretty boring road walk along the side of the highway. But the final few kilometers traces rolling grass hills above high sea cliffs. With the setting sun, it felt the TA had turned it on for us one final time.

I spent a lot of time thinking about why I’d hiked quickly; I could have just found a trail family and hung out. Part of the reason is time; if I’d hiked with a group (or groups) the entire time, I probably would have run out of time before making it to Bluff. Another reason is solitude; I need time to myself, and often a lot of time. I enjoy hiking because I experience the full range of human emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, pain, doubt, relief, etc. However, if you’re willing to push yourself, you experience these emotions in a far more intense fashion. I think the reason that I hiked primarily solo was so that I could push myself and experience these intense emotions.

Post Te Araroa

I met up with a few friends, Louise, Louis and others in Invercargill and we had a sushi dinner. It was also my birthday!

A few days later, I ran into Pisa, Erna, and Kaz in Te Anau then spent the next couple days traveling around with them. I had a great time and we learned a couple things; primarily, Pisa and I should not hitch together; nobody wants to pick us up. We spent a good couple hours waiting for a ride in Te Anau. Photos are from Gertrude Saddle. It’s stunning; almost like the Yosemite of New Zealand.

After parting ways with everyone, I came down with Giardia and spent 9 days in the Wānaka holiday park recovering. From there, I slowly made my way back to Auckland, and eventually back to Canada.

Afterword

I’m writing this trip report more than a year after I started the TA. I’m still not entirely sure what to say about it. It was, without a doubt, one of the formative experiences of my life. It fundamentally changed how I view the world and my place in it. During the TA (and realistically, during my entire time in NZ), I began to realize that the most important thing to me was my happiness. I realized that it should be at the forefront of every decision I make. Yes, work is absolutely necessary, but I should make an effort to do work that I enjoy. Then I should take the fruits of my labor, the money, and use that to do something I enjoy, whatever that may be. The other thing I realized, is that I’ll probably never really settle down. I want to walk the world; I want to see vast expanses; I want to feel small and insignificant; I want to explore the earth. At my core, I just want to see the world. I’m still not sure how I’ll make it happen, but I know this isn’t the last long trip I take.

Also, I realize how privileged I am to be able to do this sort of thing and have these sorts of dreams. I come from an upper middle class background with two parents who are both highly supportive; they’ve helped to facilitate so many things in my life including my education, my hobbies, and countless other things. Without their support, and the massive leg up they gave me, I wouldn’t have had any of these opportunities to travel and explore the world. I also recognize that as a cis white (passing) male, most things (including travel) are easier and safer for me.