End of February this year, Ollie and I flew over to New Zealand to join Nicky and Cookie on their adventure — the Te Araroa: an epic 3000 kilometer trail across New Zealand, stretching from Cape Reinga at the top of the north island to Bluff at the bottom of the south island. I mentioned the plan of this trip briefly back in december last year.
Nicky and Cookie started this adventure in October, so when Ollie and I joined the escapade for 14 days, they had already completed two thirds of the trail.
This is not the first time Cookie embarked on an epic walking adventure. Back in 2008 he, together with a friend called Paul, walked the Continental Divide Trail — a 5000 km trail across United States, from Mexico to Canada. More on that adventure can be found on his blog: browse the category, or watch the video.
My intentions were to join Cookie and Paul for 2 weeks. I don’t remember what came between, but I ended up regretting it deeply. So I promised that whenever he decides to do it again — I’ll be there. So, really, when Cookie told me about Te Araroa, I really had no choice. The choice was already made.
This was actually my second tramping holiday in New Zealand and my third visit to the country. Back in 2008 I completed two of the so called Great Walks — the Milford Sound and Kepler Track. I do believe, in this case, that Great doesn’t stand for Greater — as of an extent, amount, or intensity considerably above the normal or average — rather Safe and Safer — protected from or not exposed to danger or risk; not likely to be harmed. The nature and weather in New Zealand (especially on the south island) can be very unforgiving, and the Great Walks is a way to offer these extreme experience to tourists without them putting their life on the line.
Besides walking, I have of late acquired an appetite for photography. So even if it was primarily a walking holiday, I partly saw it as an opportunity to explore some landscape photography.
Practicing landscape photography at the same time as being on a mission to cover great distances isn’t ideal. When crossing saddles, passes or ridges, you normally have a time slot to aim for so you don’t end up coming down or climbing up as it get’s dark. So whenever you reach an epic scenery, the sun might be in the “wrong” place or the clouds too low. This doesn’t give you much time to wait around for the conditions to improve. But besides these “not ideal situation”, I still think ended up with a lot of great photographs.
I wasn’t the only one with a interest in photography. Among the four of us we had 3 professional DSLR’s and a hand full of lenses. I had a Nikon D3s, Cookie and Ollie had a Canon 5D Mk II each.
I used to own a Canon 5D MK II, so for me it was like a little field test. What will one camera do better then the other!
The disadvantage with the Nikon is: size and video. The Canon is smaller and have better video capabilities. I don’t shoot video, but Cookie did and the video for this adventure is amazing.
The advantage with the Nikon is: battery life, 11 frames per second and in-camera editing… and, do I dear to say… photo quality. Ollie once asked; “damn, that was sharp, what aperture did you shoot in?” I answered; Nikon. The photos with the Nikon just seem to be a tad bit sharper and have a greater dynamic depth. I mainly shot with 4 primes — 50/1.4, 35/2.0, 28/2.8 and 24/2.8 — while Cookie and Ollie mainly shot the 16-35/2,8 L.
Now follows some headlines and stories.
Hope you enjoy.
Part 1: The North Island
The flight to New Zealand is rather long. Almost as long as they get unless you leaving the atmosphere and aim for the moon. There’s also a +12 hours time difference from Europe. We took off on Saturday morning and landed Monday morning, spending roughly 30 hours in the air. I’ve done a few of these long haul flights and am actually getting used to them. With the right preparations, there is a lot you can get done.
Auckland, working on the jet lag
Knowing this — that it is a long flight — we had scheduled for a few days in Auckland to adjust to the jet lag. I think I speak for both of us when I say that we were struggling. It’s not that you have a hard time to stay awake or go to bed, it’s just that your brain just doesn’t send the signals in it’s normal speed and your not as open to new impressions and adventure. We stayed with Elspeth and James, and I’m sure they can vouch for us being a bit less energetic the first couple of days. The photos above are from Mount Eden — the highest natural point in the whole of Auckland.
The Coromandel and Bay of Islands
So, in an desperate attempt to jump-start our jet laged brains; Ollie and I rented a car and head off on a spontaneous two day road trip. First we went over to the the Coromandel Peninsula on the east coast, and then back to the Bay of Islands on the west coast. It all ended up a bit fuzzy to be honest. But we had a great time in the car, which gave us a great opportunity to catch up with what we’ve been doing since we worked together at POKE 3 years ago.
Leaving the North Island and heading south
The day we woke up to take the flight to Queenstown it all felt slightly different — a sudden changes of emotions. sƒz. A bit of excitement had found it’s way to our stomach. A crescendo. ƒ. Butterflies at the airport. mƒ. We had the luck to get the exit seat on the flight. ƒƒ. So I kindly ignore the call for “turn off all electronic equipment and prepare for landing” and took photographs of the stunning scenery as we landed. ƒƒƒ. Amazing.
Part 2: Gillespie Pass Circuit, Wilkin Valley tracks and Rabbit pass
By the time Ollie and I joined Nicky and Cookie their routine were seamless. We got to witness just as much experience we were free-riding directly as we landed in Queenstown and walked to the closes grocery store. Not only did they know what type of food to buy, they also knew what brands and what extra ingredients that would make that dull noodle dinner on the fourth day a bit more exciting. But it’s wasn’t just grocery shopping, all other things you normally need to plan and research in advance — such as gear, weather conditions, maps, how to get to places — were all thought of or, at least, could be answered. This was a luxury you wouldn’t be able to pay for. Priceless.
Who would have known, for instance, that this is the amount of rum and whisky a party of 4 needs for a 9 day walk?
Our first stint was to do the three different track consecutively; Gillespie Pass followed by Wilkin Valley tracks and lastly Rabbit pass. A total of approximately 9 days. After that the plan was to go back to civilisation and buy more food to take on Cascade Saddle and Rees-Dart Track — an additional 4 days.
First and second day on Gillespie Pass
We took a bus from Queenstown to Makarora to start our walk. We didn’t have to walk far until we embarked on our first little challenge — crossing Makarora River. It had been raining all night, so the river was deep grey and the current was strong. Cookie went out to determine if it was crossable. It wasn’t. So we had to walk about 3 km up the road (to Blue River) and use a bridge and then come back down. So about 2-3 hours later we stood on the other side. This delay made us decide to camp out the first night instead rush on and arrive late to the first hut.
The following day we had a nice walk. It was a good piece of track to practice and get used to carry a full 90 liter rucksack; it had swing bridges, some steep climbs, some rivers to cross and some rough terrain broken by rocks and tree roots.
As we arrived to Young Hut I noticed that the New Zeeland mosquitos liked my blood just as much as the European. My hands were covered in red bite marks.
The climb over Gillespie Pass
When we woke up, the top of the mountain across the hut was beautifully covered with frost. A perfect start for a long adventures day! The plan for this day was to reach the top of the pass before lunch, so we could enjoy a lunch with a view.
It was steep.
It felt long.
My bag was heavy.
We took breaks as we climbed, and the breaks got closer and closer together. “We’re nearly there“, I kept telling myself.
It was tough coming out from sitting at a desk most of the day and do a climb like this. I let my mind wander back in time, fishing memories, recalling past climbing endevours to put this one in perspective and motivate myself. “This shouldn’t be that hard“, I thought.
Reaching a top seldom disappoints. Your pleased with the concur, your glad it’s over and you’re most likely hyptnoticed by the view.
It was beautiful. In front of us we had Mt Awful and in the distance we had Mt Dreadful.
The lunch tasted amazing. I could feel how the body absorbed all of it like a dried sponge absorbs water.
The walk down was beautiful at first, then it got annoying. After about two hours decent we were getting tired and the track was getting difficult. As we hit the tree line the path got covered with tree roots which made it slippery and timely to traverse.
But that’s normally how it is; the climbing is tough, the decent is annoying.
As we reached the valley we decided to camp. The weather was nice and we were tired. The next day we also wanted to do a de-tour to Lake Crucible, and camping here would save us from having to backtrack.
As the sun went down, the blue sky turned black and got dressed with bright stars. Around us birds sang and rivers roared. We were pleased with what we had accomplished and were looking forward to yet another adventures day.
A morning detour to Lake Crucible
With a light backpack and cameras in hand, Cookie, Ollie and I headed for the Lake Crucible! Nicky decided to take the morning off and have a rest.
The first hour or so was spent crossing the valley floor. We had to cross 2-3 rivers doing so. As soon as we’ve crossed the valley we were welcomed with a sign saying ‘LAKE CRUCIBLE 2-3 hrs One Way’, directly followed by a climb.
This climb was very steep. Much steeper than the day before. Thank god we only had light rucksacks! (and no wonder the guide-books recommend you to leave you big-pack at the valley floor while doing the de-tour).
As we approached the lake, the size of the surrounding played tricks on us. We thought we were ‘nearly there’ for about 90 minutes. The destination was larger then anticipated, so the distance was greater. We just kept walking and walking and walking. But, it was magestic, so we weren’t complaining.
Crucible Lake is a small round glacial lake of approximately 400 meter diameter that sits at 1172 meter altitude. It’s right below Mt. Alba (2360 meters).
As you, hopefully, can tell by the photographs;
the scenery was amazing.
When we were heading down we ran into a smaller group of old ladies. Wasn’t expecting to run into older ladies at, what I though, was a rather challenging track. They asked if we had gone for a swim… we hadn’t. I don’t think they would, or that they asked as if they thought we had, but… they did plant an idea with us… inception.
As we got down to the valley again we had a quick lunch and headed for our next stop — Kerin Forks Hut. At this point it felt like we already done a day of walking — not everyday you head out for a 5-6 hours walk before lunch.
Forking Wilkin River
Kerin Forks hut is on the other side of Wilkin River, so to reach the hut you need to cross the river. The river is waist deep (in good places) and the current is rather strong. Most people wait for the jet boats that run up and down the river to hitch a ride across. We aren’t most people.
We stopped by at Sibiria Hut on the way to ask the warden for advise. You could tell that he was rather excited that we were up to challenge mother nature. Cookie had read a lot on how to cross rivers and I think that gave the warden confident that we weren’t just adrenalin junkies. So he encourage us and gave advice on good areas to cross.
As you leave Sibiria Hut the valley floor turns west, so not far after the hut we left the beautiful backdrop we’d been walking with most of the afternoon — Mt Aweful and Mt Dreadful.
As we reached the river we found ourselves in mosquito-land. It reminded me a bit like my experience in Arvidjaour while doing the military service. It was insane. This wasn’t part of the plan and it forced us to hurry along.
It was tricky when the river got waist deep. Each step then was make-it or break-it. But thanks to our splendid forking technic, we never really were in any high risk (beyond getting soaked).
We decided to keep the cameras inside the bags while traversing. So, unfortunately, we don’t have any photographs or video footage of us crossing.
Wilkin Valley tracks
The track between Kerin Forks and Top Forks wasn’t what i would call challenging. But that was rather nice after a few days of intense walking. The rucksacks were getting lighter and our mood were on top!
As we got closer Mt Betsy Jane acted as our golf hole flag, and we walked straight towards her; ignoring the marked track and taking short-cuts; sticking to the valley river and staying wet! During the last hundred meters Mt Pollux appeared on the right. Majestic. And as we arrived to the hut she welcomed us but putting in a show and releasing an avalanche.
The Main Divide — the mountain chains extending the length of New Zealand, provide a barrier for the prevailing westerly winds, dividing the country into dramatically different climate regions. The West Coast of the South Island is the wettest area of New Zealand, whereas the area to the east of the mountains, is the driest.
I can’t remember the figures, but the difference in rainfall on each of the sides of Mt Polloux was immense, and you could tell — the clouds where pushing against the east side of the mountain.
An example of difference in rainfall: Milford Sound receives an annual average of 6500mm, while, Tea Anau — just 116 km away — receives about 1200mm. Tea Anau, though, is still part of the Fiordland (and on the east coast), Dunedin, 290km away, have a yearly average of 750mm.
Unlike the nature in Sweden — which is peaceful and quite — the nature in New Zealand is constantly making itself heard. If it isn’t avalanches, it’s rivers or waterfalls roaring. It keeps you on your toes.
Top Forks Hut to North Branch
We woke up to a beautiful morning. Cookie made us all porridge (as he did every morning), and then we set off for the walk to the three lakes: Lake Diana, Lucidus Lake and Lake Castalia.
The first lake, Lake Diana, is the smallest. Not really noteworthy considering everything else we’ve seen and what the area had to offer. The second lake, Lucidus Lake, on the other hand strikes a completely different accord.
The walk up to the third lake, Lake Castalia, felt rather long and was partly a bit annoying — the path kept leaving the valley floor and going up and down the mountain side. This is actually rather common, even the walks that on a map looks dead flat, can be a rollocoster. This was one of those.
When we arrived to Lake Castalia, Cookie and I decided to take a dip in the glacier water. The idea the ladies planted as we came down from Lake Crucible had blossomed. Time to carry it out.
Damn it was cold. But damn we felt fresh afterwards! Definitely recommend it!
The walk back down went quick. We had a faster stride and we didn’t stop besides a short break drinking some water and eating a energy bar. After Lucidus Lake we spread out a bit, placing 20-50 meter between us. We all walked in our desired phase.
My thoughts started to wonder and I kept processing some passed events and for-seeing some future ones. I had rather spontaneously left my full-time job before I left, so I had a few things to think over.
As I were about 800 meter from the hut, I jump over a tree that had fallen across the track. Not a large jump. Not a large tree.
If you walk all day with a heavy rug-sack, walking with a light one plays evil tricks on your balance.
I landed badly. On a branch. My feet rolled aside and I fell. The pain in my left ankle left me with little hope. Damn it! This is it”, I thought.
I got into rescue-auto-pilot. Bite hard and rushed to the closes river. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. After about 400 ouch’s I reached Wilkin River. I waited until everything that was under water disappeared, and then I waited a bit more.
When I reached the hut I told everyone about my accident. I put bandage on it. Kept it cold and high. It was pretty swollen by the time I went to bed. But decided to leave any decisions and dealing with the consequences in the morning.
The Waterfall Face
Woke up and the foot felt alright. Not too bad. I felt some pain when walking without boots, but with boots i didn’t feel that much. But, it looked terrible. I walked around a bit outside the hut and was amazed how something that looked so bad could feel so little.
That was the foot. Then we had todays challenge — The Waterfall Face.
Ever since day one we had talked about The Waterfall Face. It’s a tricky and steep passage up besides a waterfall. The Department of Conservation warns that it’s nothing you should attempt if your not an experienced walker, nor if it’s wet.
We all knew that this is a point where we might have to return and walk back out the same way as we came.
The Face was at the end of a valley floor, from a distance it appeared quite small, but, it grew and grew during the two hours we walked towards it.
We got about 1/3 up the face before Nicky started to feel uncomfortable. We took a break, but eventually we decided to abort.
Heading back in
The next day we set off early. We had a jet boat to catch from Kerin Fork Hut that would take us down Wilkin River to Makarora.
A lot of conversations during this section was about how much beer we would drink, how much food we would eat and how nice a bed would feel.
My foot was still blue. I had to be careful. It felt alright, but small twist that you normally don’t pay much attention to now sent pain up my leg and hurt quite a bit.
We had another stint of walking planed — we were just getting in to have a bit of a rest and re-fill the bags with food — but I knew that if my foot didn’t get better; this might be it.
At the time it felt alright. I’d had had an few amazing days walking. I was prepared to settle the walking-holiday and do the remaining days in civilization.
Part 3: Refueling at Makaroora and Wanaka
It took about 2 hours in civilization until I was longing to go up the mountains again. I needed scenery like athletes need endorphin and extreme sports people needs adrenaline. No way I’m done with walking.
We spend two nights in Makaroora. It’s little you can do in Makaroora besides resting. For Cookie, resting days equals blogging days. He imported all photos to his iPad, made selections, DipTic’ed a few and then wrote a lot.
Writing a blog — or blogging — takes time. That’s why so many people who starts a blog never gets past the Hello World entry. I find that it’s worth it. As time passes and you look back on the work you’ve done, the time invested doesn’t matter. But, it’s a hobby done mostly in solitude. So seeing Cookie putting the effort in and crafting the content was a recipe that, not only that I’m not the only person who invest a lot of time in writing a blog, but that the passion to do it is shared.
After Makarora, we took the buss into Wanaka to go grocery shopping. For the next stint we planned to experiment a bit with the food. It was a shorter walk, so we could carry heavier food. For the first night we were planing to have sausages, mash and corn on the cob. Oh yeah.
Part 4: Cascade Saddle and Rees-Dart Track
After an adventures off-road bus trip we found ourselves on Raspberry Creek car-park. Welcoming us was a few Kea’s — the world’s only alpine parrot — also known as ‘the clown of the mountains’.
The Kea have a strong personality. They are Cheeky. You can never trust a Kea. 
The plan for day one was an easy stroll along the West Matukituki Valley to Aspiring Hut, and then, for day two; an early morning to manage to make the climb up the saddle and the decent to Dart Hut — a 8 hour walk.
As always, plans changes.
Going Up!
The climb up to the Saddle is steep. Nothing you are recommended attempting during rain. Rain was expected the afternoon the following day. So if we stayed the night in the hut, we might get caught half way up by rain. Which, besides it not being recommended and dangerous, also means mist, low clouds and no scenery. 
We decided to make the climb the same day, camp on top of the pass and then climb down the following day.
Damn it was steep. At times I was wondering if I was on a walking holiday or a climbing holiday! The rugsacks was also rather heavy (since we had decided to bring some luxury food).
I had butterflies in my stomach many sections going up. You would think that Nicky would feel uncomfortable being slightly scared of hights — but hell no — she was like a lizard! Even leaving us far behind in places. This section was by far the most challenging one.
As we reached the top the clouds were hanging low. So the scenery wasn’t great. But since we were camping just 15 minutes further down, Cookie and I decided to revisit the top for the sunrise.
We were high up. In Kea territory. So as the sun came down the Kea’s decided to pay a visit. For most of the night you heard them biting the tent and trying to get in to steal our stuff. It was extremely annoying. Non of us slept that well that night.
Sunrise at the saddle and the walk down
Cookie and I woke up early and started to climb back to the top to capture the sunrise. As we were walking it got brighter and brighter. We were getting nervous that we would miss it. Turned out we had perfect timing.
[lost for words]
After the sun had arisen the Kea’s came and put on a show. Flying in formations. Showing off their beautiful orange “armpits”. The hatred we had against them for keeping us up all night faded. It was a magic morning.
When we got back down to the camping spot we noticed that the Kea had not only eaten a whole in our tent, they had also managed to steel one corn and Ollies deodorant.
Cheeky buggers.
From the camping spot we only had about 10-20 minute walk to reach the actual saddle. It was a beautiful morning and the scenery was hypnotizing.
As you pass the saddle and start to go down you walk along Dart Glacier. Roumers were that they had filmed a scene from Lord of the Ring here — when Gandalf rides up to Isengard in Nan Curunír. Looked very “lord-of-the-ringy” (like many other parts).
As we reached the bottom of the glacier the weather we wanted to avoid going up arrived. Now we were really please with the decision to head up to the saddle the first day.
Rees Saddle
We decided to stay two nights at the very luxurious Dart Hut and do a de-tour up to Rees Saddle. The walk up to the saddle was an easy nice walk, but as we got close to the saddle the weather turned on us. So the view from the top was mostly misty.
Walking back in
The rainy weather sticked until the following day and our walk to Daley’s Flat Hut, where we spent our last night as trampers.
The last morning I had a bit of mixed emotions when leaving the hut for our final walk to Chinamans carpark to catch a bus back to civilisation. It was a nice feeling to have reached the end of an epic walking holiday, but I was also beginning to enjoy it and getting really warm in my cloths.
The last couple of hours did offer some, again, stunning scenery. As seen below.
The bus ride back to Queenstown also offered some nice scenery, and I ended up continuing taking photographs all the way back.
At this point I was considering squeezing in a last day walking and to the third Great Walk in the region — Routeburn Track (which was hiding in these mountains). Routburn is a three day track. But it’s only 32km long and Cookie had read that you could leg it in a day.
Ultimately, we decided it was a bit of a risk. I had no margins and if I didn’t make it, I would miss my flight back to the UK.
As we arrived to Queenstown, we had dinner at the legendary Fergburger.
Finally
There are many many more stories to tell; half a kg of lamb, bridges crossed, river forged, innovating camping cooking technics, funny moments and interesting people who’s life path we crossed. But this post is already longer then most people can be bothered to read.
Again I’d like to thank Nicky and Cookie for inviting us along and share these magic days. It was amazing. You guys feat of completing the whole journey is admirable.
While we were out there, we started to talk about future adventures we could undertake together. We talked a bit about the alps. We talk about how we really wanted to take on the Dusky Track (which is the toughest in New Zealand).
What we’ve been talking about lately, since we got back, is… greater than that. Nothing is decided. But on the table is the Sentiero Italia — a 6000km track across italy — or the Pacific Crest Trail — a 4,286km trail through California from Mexico to Canada.
Next time around, I won’t be joining for just a few weeks. That’s for sure…
Some links
My New Zealand set in Flickr
My iPhone photos
http://www.nickyandcookie.com/
