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Top Stories

Where Can I Walk?

Back Blocks Trail Blazer

Otago Tracks Forge Ahead

Where Can I Walk?

Te Araroa Web-Alogued

Information on Te Araroa tracks just got a whole lot easier to access with the launch of a comprehensive section-by-section website guide to be rolled out over the next few months.

Already, full details of the trail are available on line for the section from Cape Reinga in the Far North through to Auckland’s metropolitan Coast to Coast walkway, with the links which are not open clearly identified and alternative by-pass routes indicated.

The guide – put together thanks to the combined efforts of Northland Project Manager Fiona Mackenzie, web consultant Malene Holm, Te Araroa CEO Geoff Chapple and Te Araroa National trustee Kim Ollivier – will make all the information needed to walk different sections readily available.

Accompanied by Google maps for every section, and downloadable GPS files for some tracks, the trail data will answer the question frequently asked by would-be walkers – how much of the track is open?

A standard template provides information like the track start and finish, where to park, local amenities like toilets, the track standard and possible hazards, track distance and likely walking time.

Information for the tracks south of Auckland will be added by regional trusts over the next few months, with the aim of getting Te Araroa’s national route fully web-alogued by October.

Take a look at the results at www.teararoa.org.nz/farnorth and let us know what you think.

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Back Blocks Trail Blazer

Keeping Safe Scoping New Routes

If Te Araroa Northland project manager Fiona Mackenzie had her wish, volunteer Mark Percy would be cloned and duplicated all over the country.

For the last four years Snell’s Beach resident Mark, a recreational hunter, tramper and retired fitter and turner, has been helping build and maintain tracks in the north, turning a hand to everything from spraying gorse and pampas grass to chain sawing windfalls and scoping new routes.

“He has kept me company – and safe - when I’ve been bush-bashing, scoping possible new routes,” says Fiona. “Not many people enjoy this sort of activity – it’s exhausting, slow and cumbersome, takes all day and you end up covered in cuts and scratches . . .

“And Mark’s wife, Elaine, has been a total angel – dropping us off at one end and waiting around for hours to pick us up when we emerged bush-battered & beaten at the other end.

“Mark will walk for hours into tracks to check on their status. Once he dug a hole and lined it with plastic to gather water for spraying gorse at the top of one hill where there is no water supply.”

Mark, who admits to being “a bit of a Do-It-Yourselfer”  offered to help after attending a public meeting in Warkworth to introduce locals to the Cape Reinga to Bluff walking trail in their region.

“I’ve enjoyed it,” says Mark, though he admits at times it would be great to have someone else to share the work with.  “A lot of the time I’m working solo. Not that many people have the spare time. People will offer to help, but then they’ll add something like ‘I’m an engineer, my rate is only $150 an hour.’ They’re expecting to be paid serious money.”

Most recently he’s been scoping tracks between Pureora and Taupo in the central North Island, taking along his rifle in case he came across a deer on the way.  His water bottle froze and he resisted sleeping out, but he’ll return to complete his survey in the spring when it’s warmer.

With more than 70 per cent of the trail in place throughout the country, volunteers like Mark will be increasingly needed to help with maintenance. If you think you can assist, contact your local regional trust (details on the website under About Us) and see if they can use your skills

Mark Percy and Claudia Edwards help scope the Matapouri Bush Track.

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Otago Tracks Forge Ahead

Missing Links Completed

Two newly opened – or soon to be opened - tracks – a 3km ‘five star’ walking and cycling path through Millbrook Resort and the 12km Albert Town to Lake Hawea  section – are rapidly filling in the “missing links” in Te Araroa’s progress through Otago.

The Millbrook Track, providing one of the last pieces in a historic Wakatipu trail connecting Queenstown and Arrowtown, opened in May (see news story). The Albert Town section will open when a bridge is completed in late July or early August.

All the work has been done by local walking trusts, councils, the Department of Conservation and private landowners and provides a “model” for linking communities with high grade recreational tracks. It could work well in other regions, says Te Araroa Otago trustee and spokesman Michael Pullar.

The Queenstown Lakes District Council, the Otago Regional Council, the Wakatipu Trails Trust, the Upper Clutha Tracks Trust, the DOC and adjoining landowners, like Millbrook Resort, are all playing an important part in seeing Te Araroa come together.

“With other work currently in progress, like the Millennium Track extension to Glendhu Bay and a connecting trail to the Frankton end of the restored Shotover Bridge, both the Lake Hawea to Glendhu Bay (via Wanaka) and Arrowtown to Queenstown sections will soon be resolved,” says Michael Pullar.

“These Te Araroa sections are joined by the rugged Motatapu Track, providing a complete contrast in walking experience within a continuous through–route that spans from Lake Hawea to Queenstown.”

Many of the local links are finished to ‘day walk’ standards and are already heavily used by local walkers, runners and cyclists.

The Millbrook joins the popular Lake Hayes Track, a return trip of around 16kms, making an easy half day walk, or an excellent alternative for mountain bike training. For a shorter walk or bike, it’s a 5-km round trip to Arrowtown and back.

Heading towards Lake Hawea. Source: www.uppercluthatrackstrust.org.nz

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