New Zealands "Great walks"...

I think one of the best ways to explore New Zealand is by just getting out to nature and do some hiking. As this amazing country offers one of the most spectacular and beautiful landscapes I have ever seen!!

Together with Simon and Ewald we hiked two "Great walks" of New Zealand.
According to the Department of Conservation (DOC) of New Zealand there are in total nine "Great walks" (= trails in the most awe-inspiring landscapes of NZ) existing.
Those trails are located on both islands, have an average length between 50 - 120km, are very well marked, pretty easy to hike and there are lots of camp sides and even huts where you can stay overnight.

Queen Charlotte trail

Once we arrived on the southern island of NZ, the weather was for casted pretty well. So we organised our stuff and made our way to Picton. A small sleepy town on the north coast of the south-island, where the trail starts.
First a boat gets you out to Shipcove, which is the trail head. From there you hike 60km along the coast of the "Queen Charlotte sound". It is actually not one of the "Great walks", but has the potential to become one in the next years as the popularity of this walk is rising...


The weather was pretty rainy on our first day and therefore the trail was very wet and muddy.
During the first break I lost the only trail map we had to a duck. Yes, a duck!! The small thief just wanted some of my cereal bar. I gave her (or him) the map instead and thought once it recognised it is not eatable, it will drop it on the ground. But the duck took the map and vanished in the
forest. I tried to follow and catch the duck, saw the map once more in the forest (still in the beak) and then it was gone...

Without the map we still managed to reach Camp bay, our first overnight camping spot. It was pretty tough and we almost got lost because the path is "not marked" and "very narrow" as you can see on the pictures... :-)

On the next day the weather was much better. So we decided to make a short side walk to a lookout, where you can see the whole sound and the thousands islands of the north coast. There we also
met our small friend from yesterday again...

It was totally rainy and super windy on the last 21km on our third day. But during the last kilometres it cleared up and the sun came out. So we dried our soaked and dirty clothes and relaxed on the web at Anakiwa (end of the trail), waiting for the boat to pick us up back to Picton.

I think the trail was still pretty nice with amazing views of the sound and stunning walks through the deep old forest. But as we saw the weather can be very changeable on the north coast, so be prepared for everything!! :-)


Abel Tasman trail

But the highlight of all trails on the north coast is for sure the Abel Tasman trail. This 60km walk along the coast of the Abel Tasman national park is stuffed with scenic lookouts, lonely sand beaches
and deep primeval forests. Really a "must-do" in New Zealand!!

We rented one double and one single Kayak and did the first two days by paddling along the coast of the trail. It was a pretty cool experience by doing a section of the trail by the Kayak. We were able to explore the coastline with its sandy beaches and rocky cliffs. Where we saw lots of seals relaxing and sunbathing. They are totally used to Kayakers and not shy at all. So we could get pretty close and almost touched them...

 

Landing and starting on the shore with a Kayak is a thing need to be learnt! It is not that easy to get out/in the boat as it is pretty shaky, especially with the single Kayak. I fell in the damn cold sea and got totally wet on my first attempt and Simon did no way better on the next day, but it was great fun!! :-)

For the last section of the trail we left our boats on the shore and hiked for one more day north to the Seperation point. This is the official end of the trail and from there you have a great view of the wide open ocean and on a clear day you can see the long stretched shoreline of the Golden bay on the horizon.

We spent one more fu..ing cold night on the camp side before a water taxi took us back to Marahau, where we started our adventure 3 days before. We totally enjoyed the nice sunny boat trip back along the coast and the captain took us for a side trip to the most photographed rock
on the north coast, the split apple rock...

I have already seen lots of beautiful landscapes in New Zealand  but I think the Abel Tasman national park leads that list. I can totally recommend this walk to everybody who visit NZ, as it is also very easy to hike and can be done the whole year round... :-)

On the northern Kiwi island

Auckand:
Arrived well in Auckland and had a warm welcome by my brother Simon and my father Ewald.
(Simon already spent almost a year in New Zealand doing landscaping and Ewald arrived 2 weeks earlier in New Zealand than me, enjoying his retirement...).

We spent a few days in the biggest city in New Zealand because we had to wait that our car gets the Warranty of fitness certificate you need to drive the car in NZ.


North coast:
We headed north first to the most northern point of New Zealand (Cape Reinga) where the Tasmanian ocean and the Pacific ocean meet each other (called the "Meeting of the oceans"). There we also went swimming in the ocean because the weather was very sunny and hot and we visited the memorial of the Rainbow warrior (sunken Greenpeace-flag-ship).

 

East coast:
On the east coast we visited the Coromandel peninsular, where you can find gigantic old gum-trees (Kauri-trees) and lots of hot springs and pools. Went also buddy-surfing one day in the ocean at a place called hot water beach. But the waves crashing to the shore were to high and strong. I almost broke my neck when a big wave pushed me down to the ground of the beach-shore... But it was great fun!! :-)

  

Central island:
When you are in New Zealand, a visit to one of the places where the Lord of the rings (or Hobbit) were filmed is a must. So we visited Hobbingen (where all the Hobbits are chillin...) alias Hobbiton somewhere in the center of the North Island.
It was pretty cool to walk to the whole areal, visit the Hobbit-holes, stand in front of Bilbo Baggins house and drink a cold beer at the "Green Dragon"... :-)

 

 

 

West coast:
On our way to the west coast we had very bad weather, but that made one of the most abandoned highways I have ever seen even more spectacular. We had to go over several passes, always watching out for broken twigs or whole trees and rocks lying on the street due to the bad weather...
We passed so much scenic landscapes where nobody lives, just nature that I stopped counting them. We simply felt like being in another world (maybe Middle-Earth? :-) ).
And that's why I think the name of this highway could not be better chosen by the Kiwis: "The forgotten world highway".  

Adventure outdoor activities 
We also did some adventurous outdoor activities. I tried the first time in my life the "Zorb". Which is an gigantic inflate able ball, filled with a little bit of water inside. You have to get inside the ball and then roll down a hill with high speed. While inside the ball you are shaken like crazy. Imagine the laundry in a washing machine, then you know what I mean... :-)

 

Another day we did "Black water rafting". Where you go down a river in a cave with an inflate able tube, a helmet and headlamps. Was pretty cool, as when you turn of the lamps in the cave, it was completely dark and you can see millions of glow-worms on the ceiling. Looked like the night sky full of stars on a clear night, pretty amazing!!

 

Hiking to a waterfall during very cold weather and pouring rain, with our swimsuits and flip-flops only or sliding down a crazy tunnel-water-slide in a bath in New Plymoth are just a few more to mention...

South coast:
The more we got to the south coast the better the weather got. When we reached finally Wellington it was pretty sunny and we could hike up Mt Victoria, where you have a nice view of this very cool city, the coast and surrounding hills and forests.
We also visited the WETA-cave, a workshop that is specialised for making figures, ropes and weapons for different fantasy film characters.

 Before we took the ferry to the South Island we hiked along the harbour of Wellington, watching people doing different outdoor activities like paddling, sailing, climbing, inline-skating or just relaxing... The possibilities of doing outdoor stuff in this city seems never ending!
Wellington was in my opinion the most relaxed and coolest city on the north island I have been.