Tramping and Hiking in New Zealand.
Tramping and Hiking in New Zealand.
Notes by Don French, with editing by Murray Scott
New Zealand is ideal for this activity, having many mountain and wilderness areas which are rarely visited. Over 10% of New Zealand's land is reserved for Conservation purposes, of which most is mountainous terrain. There are a number of popular "Tourist Walks" such as the Routeburn, Rees/Dart, Kepler, Heaphy and Milford tracks. For those with some Alpine experience the Copeland Pass between Mt Cook and Westland is recommended. You can also find numerous other tourist walks available, many having guides that can be hired if required.
New Zealand has great scope for expedition type walks, where all food and equipment for 10 or more days is carried by the party. On these journeys you would consider yourself unfortunate if you meet another group. Much of the country visited on these expeditions is untracked and may require difficult river crossings or perhaps a crossing of a snow covered pass. It is still possible to make a second ascent of a mountain, or if you are lucky, first ascents. This type of trip requires a great deal of planning and should not be taken lightly. Sometimes parties arrange for a "food drop" at a predetermined spot, usually done by helicopter. This will enable a party to travel deeper into the mountains.
Rivers in New Zealand can be very serious, and have claimed many trampers lives. Like all mountain rivers they can rise very fast. To the east of the Southern Alps the river systems are often very wide and the river may be divided into many flows (braids).
There are many books published on tramping in New Zealand, particularly over the past five years. These contain more detailed information and can be obtained from most popular book shops. Also published are a number of tramping guides. New Zealand has such an extensive amount of country suitable for tramping that is is beyond the scope of this text to list them.
Web sites about NZ tramping:
Page created by Tom Bennion, Alastair Smith, and Murray Scott. Last modified 26 June 1996.