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Prime Minister John Key opens Pirongia

Prime Minister John Key opened the much awaited Pirongia section of Te Araroa in December, the 18km section over the Waikato mountain that’s been four years in the building. The section includes a 800-metre boardwalk along a summit ridge on Mt Pirongia, southwest of Hamilton, Click here for Full Story.

Sir Stephen Tindall Backs Te Araroa

On a recent flying business trip to the South Island philanthropist and entrepreneur Sir Stephen Tindall took time out doing something he loves – getting away from it all in the wild.

While in Central Otago, he spent a night on the 34-km Motatapu Track, the Te Araroa link between Wanaka and Arrowtown. Te Araroa Trust played a pivotal role in obtaining this alpine track and its 3 classic huts over Canadian singer Shania Twain’s high country properties, and Sir Stephen was pleased to see Te Araroa’s route acknowledged within the hut.

Pleased, because money from his foundation was critical in giving Te Araroa Trust its early momentum. Sir Stephen’s philanthropic work in giving New Zealanders in need a “hand up” through his Tindall Foundation family trust, founded in 1995, is well known.

What is perhaps as not as well known is the Kiwi businessman’s stalwart support over more than a decade for building Te Araroa, the 3000km walking trail from Cape Reinga to Bluff to be officially opened in November 2010.

Te Araroa CEO Geoff Chapple recalls in 1997 the trust was operating as a “ginger group”, trying to get councils and other authorities interested in the idea of a New Zealand-long walking track.

“Councils responded to the idea, but no-one did anything. I realised it was because the councils had no route, and no agency was going to set time aside to try to co-ordinate a route through the many jurisdictions. Our job was suddenly clear.”

A Tindall Foundation grant allowed him to travel the North Island for several months on an intensive scoping exercise.

Stephen Tindall

“The grant allowed me to go around all the North Island Department of Conservation conservancies, all of the 20 local authorities talking mainly with planners, asking them for assistance in putting together an intelligible trail. I remember in particular a planner I met in Te Awamutu.

“When I explained what we were trying to do he stared out the window and said – more to himself than me – ‘Imagine just being able to put a pack on and go’ His eyes lifted, it was one of those moments when someone “got” the vision – and it was great for me to see someone captured by the idea.”

The exercise resulted in the first Te Araroa Trust’s first publication – Te Araroa – North Island Foot Trail. It was published in 1997, and distributed to many councils, to DOC and other agencies, with a big thank you: “The research and publication of this report was financed by a grant from the Tindall Foundation.” For the first time, supporters of Te Araroa had a definite through-trail route they could refer to for their planning.

Over the next few years, Tindall Foundation seed money given through the Mayoral Task Force For Jobs kept the Te Araroa dream alive, says Geoff. “It was the main trail budget money for a number of years. And the best thing about it was it was reliable, year upon year.”

The 58km track between Tekapo and Twizel was built entirely with Tindall Foundation funds, and many other tracks throughout the country benefitted from Sir Stephen’s generosity.

His recent visit to the Motatapu Track is just one of many Sir Stephen has made to different sections of Te Araroa over the years.

Sir Stephen regularly walks parts of the North shore section of Te Araroa – Long Bay to Devonport - and has also done Dome Valley to Matakana.

Says Sir Stephen; “The vision of Te Araroa is something we saw from the outset, and were delighted to support. We have watched the growth of the Trail over the years and have been very pleased with the progress.”

Adventurers Ahoy

Two of this country’s leading adventurers have headed out onto Te Araroa – Graeme Dingle from Bluff, and Jamie Fitzgerald from Cape Reinga. They’re already known as blokes who don’t stand still, but there’s more to it.

Graeme is a hard man of the mountains and rock climbing, but he’s well-known too for bringing outdoor challenge to youth, and both he and Jamie have recruited teams of mainly 16-18 year-olds to join them on long sections of the route.


Jamie Fitzgerald	Graeme Dingle

Outdoor adventure as a stimulus for youth: that’s the plan, and on November 30, Dingle set off from Bluff with Jo-anne Wilkinson. They walked from Stirling Point to the township with 100 Bluff Community School 100 kids and a police car in front, all lights flashing.

The kids then saw them off with a haka, and the two set off walking accompanied by a smaller and older youth group from the YMCA.

Back at Cape Reinga, Jamie – winner with Kevin Biggar of the 2003 Trans-Atlantic rowing race, and first Kiwi to reach the South Pole unsupported in 2007 – was getting his communal adventure underway. It was his idea to do what he’s called The Big Walk.

By December 21 they were in Auckland leading a group of adventurers on The Big Walk up Rangitoto Island. They plan to meet in the middle of Te Araroa – Wellington - in early February.

Along the way youth teams – usually recruited from programmes already set rolling by the Foundation for Youth Development which Graeme and Jo-anne founded – will join them for specific sections. They’ll give talks around the campfire at night of adventure, commitment and the thousand things that the outdoors bring.

You can follow the adventure on www.thebigwalk.org.nz

Children help launch The Big Walk

New Pit Stop on Ninety Mile Beach

A critical factor for Te Araroa walkers on 90 Mile Beach has always been how much water to carry and where to get it. Streams do cross the beach, but they're few and far between and in summer, they can retreat back into the dunes.

But now, by repute, there's a quality of water rising at Hukatere that you'd walk 90 miles to get to anyway.

Paul and Tania Desmond, are about to open a campsite that’ll cater to Te Araroa hikers. Paul, a builder by trade, is completing a shower and toilet block, a communal kitchen, and laying out the campsite. But most notable of all, he says, is the water that wells up from a bore 80 metres deep.

“We hit trees at 30 metres, a second layer at 60 metres, and we were lucky to strike a shell bed at 80 metres,” says Paul. “The drill brought up complete shells. There’s a whole lot has gone on here over time, and this is an old river bed. It’s the source of the sweetest water on 90 mile beach.”

Hukatere is 30 kms south of the Bluff, and 16 km before Waipapakauri. The idea for a campsite was, Paul says, sparked partly “by walkers coming in off the beach.”

The distinctive mound of Utea Hill marks the southern boundary of Tania’s Ngati Kuri lineage.

“There was a pa on Utea Hill, and we're calling the new site Utea Park after the hill,” says Paul. “We see ourselves as caretakers here, and we’d like everyone to come and enjoy it like we are.”

Israeli hiker Eyal Schwartz on 90-Mile Beach; Pic: Amos Chapple

Buying a GPS for Christmas?

Most outdoor activities in NZ sooner or later require a hand held GPS suitable for use in the bush – and fortunately getting a good signal under bush cover is now no longer limited to a few models - as it was 3 years ago, according to Christchurch outdoorsman Tony Savage.

Tony is the man behind Kiwi GPS, a local website which has become a byword for trampers looking for good information on GPS units.

As Consumer magazine reported (June 2009 - #492) you should treat your GPS as an aid . . . and you should still have basic map and compass reading skills.

But if you’re looking to buy a GPS unit to back up maps, Consumer reported the Garmin models performed consistently better. They were “all much easier to use and functioned better in wet conditions.”

Deciding Your Needs

Tony suggests giving “earlier models a miss as they will not have the high sensitivity antenna which is such a benefit. In the Garmin model range you'll need to look for an eTrex model with an H in the name or a 60 or 76 model with an x in the name.

“The new Oregon and Dakota models are also worth a close look - these all have colour and high sensitivity but not very good battery life.”

Things to look for when buying a hand held GPS unit:

Colour screen for displaying maps

Maps on a mono screens are hard to read - particularly topo maps as the tracks, contours, roads and creeks are all the same colour.

All the high sensitivity Garmin units (except the eTrex H) have colour screens.

Splash / rain proof casing

All the hand helds are regarded as rain proof – but don’t count on them surviving if you drop them in a stream.

Additional features like free maps, auto-routing to addresses – not essential but nice to have.

Specific Model Features

Tony comments:

“Though the entry level eTrex H (RRP$199) will give you a very good satellite signal it does not have maps or a colour screen and uses serial communication, and does not use USB for data delivery. (An issue as most laptops no longer have the connection for serial data.)

“Cables and software are extra with this unit but included with the others apart from the Dakota and Oregon.”

Being able to transfer data to the GPS from the computer is extremely handy for when you have more than 1 or 2 waypoints to store in the GPS. It's so much faster than manually inputting the coordinates and of course much less prone to error.

The Venture HC (RRP$399) is the next model up and if funds allow, is a far better value unit. It has the same high sensitivity antenna but with a colour screen and a map (though small) memory of 22MB built in. It uses USB communication and comes with a USB cable.

The Garmin MapSource CD is also included - this is the programme that is used for sending maps to the GPS and for transferring waypoints / Tracks to and fro.

Most Popular Unit: the 60CSx

Tony says by far the most popular model for hunters, trampers, pest control workers, forestry Contractors and SAR personnel is the 60CSx (RRP$599)

The C stands for Colour, S for Sensors (barometric plus electronic compass) and x for expandable memory (via the microSD card, there’s no user accessible internal map memory).

It's a high sensitivity unit which means you'll be very hard pressed to lose the satellite signal - it'll even work indoors if you're by a window.

Most people just leave them running while carrying in the back pack or pocket - so long as it's not under metal it will track your position well.

No longer is it necessary to carry an external antenna for bush work. Battery life is around 20 hours on 2AA's. High quality rechargeable is a good idea too.

For very cold snow conditions, use lithium AA batteries - they are quite expensive but will last ages and do not die like all the others with sub zero temperatures.

Tony is generous with his advice, willing to spend a lot of time discussing pros and cons of various units, and sells all these units at below RRP. You can reach him at (03) 3421302 or email KiwiGPS@paradise.net.nz

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