A lady and her tramp
Te Araroa (TA), The Long Pathway, is New Zealand’s 3000+km through-hike. Ranging from Cape Reinga at the top of New Zealand to Bluff at the bottom, this epic trail connects wildly diverse landscapes to offer a walk of a lifetime.
And I am about to do about 1/9th of this bad boy as a sectional through-hike. I’ll be walking four sections:
- Queen Charlotte Track — 75km | Medium | 3–5 Days
- Pelorus River Track (non-road) — 39km| Hard | 3–4 days
- Richmond Alpine Track — 100km | Hard | 5–7 days
- Nelson Lakes/Waiau Pass — 115km | Hard | 5–8 days
As you may know, New Zealand is fortunate to not be in any sort of lock-down. We’re pretty lucky here, so I am going to take push my luck and exercise incredibly poor hygiene, complete lack of social distancing and absolutely zero digital COVID tracking while I immerse myself into some serious back-country tramping for the next three weeks.
I am SO excited!
Turns out blogging during this hike required internet and energy, both of which I didn’t often have at the end of long days on the trail. Therefore, I am writing this blog a few weeks ex post facto.
Day 0– Saturday 19 December 2020 — Travel
Auckland — Wellington — Picton
Feeling pretty privileged at the moment….
I am sitting in the Air New Zealand Koru lounge sipping on some bubbles about to head to Picton to start THE WALK. Yep, the 300+km walk.
We’ve wrapped up work for the year and given the team a woppin’ four weeks of holiday to rest, recharge and have some fun. It’s been a challenging year, but one of my most productive and educational years of my life. TBH, I’m absolutely knackered (tired for my USA friends), but it’s been a good year.
And it’s about to end in one of the biggest adventures of my life.
What’s coming up:
Dave, my friend Olivia, and I are heading to Picton — a tiny wee town at the top of the South Island — where we will then start the Queen Charlotte Track. This track is a 71km (44mi) golden sand beach paradise. This will be the first of my four-section through-hike of TA.
Today we are flying to Wellington then hopping on a SoundsAir flight to Picton.
Usually the Wellington to Picton journey is done via ferry, but I want to up the adrenaline levels by taking Dave and Olivia on a little 12 person Cessna 208 Caravan. We’re all either dusty from pre-Christmas functions or exhausted from, well, 2020, so this should get everyone going!
For those considering alternate routes to the South Island, this was an awesome way to travel and not terribly expensive ($60 p/p one way).
We cross the tarmac (no ID or bag scanning required), hop in the plane, take off across the turbulent Cook Strait, and safety land on what could easily be mistaken for a sidewalk about 10 min outside Picton.
The owner of Picton’s iconic Seumus’ Irish Bar is our bus driver from the house-sized airport to town. Through his thick Irish accent we learned a bit about the town of 4700 and got a recommendation for dinner. Yep, you guessed it, the Irish pub. (Really good BTW!).
A pint and a good pub meal later and we turn in for the night. We’ve all had a few hard weeks and need to rest up for the upcoming three day hike.