Welcome back to the Off Trail Podcast!
We are bringing in Season 3 with a (2) part series as our co-hosts, Constantine and Magpie, break down all things The Te Araroa Trail.
The Te Araroa Trail is a 1880~ (official) mile hike in New Zealand. With the alternates and connecting footsteps of this hike, in total 1909.4 miles were hiked and 108.6 canoed, totaling 2016.2 miles of human powered movement. As of 2022/2023 season, if you hike it in the "purist" form this will be the mileage that you find is actually on the ground. It connects the top of the North Island at Cape Reinga to the bottom of the South Island at Bluff traversing the entire length of the country.
In this first part of our 2 part series we focus on the North Island. We begin the show by trying to paint a broad picture of the Te Araroa Trail and how we experienced it. First we tackle the assumption and perception of this hike vs. the reality. If you are coming from the US/Canada and expect this trail to be the same as what you have experienced elsewhere... well get ready... the only thing that is the same is you are using walking as your method of travel. Everything else? Well, everything else is New Zealand tramping!
We chat our own beliefs in the creation of the Te Araroa and from what we experienced and saw the thought that the TA was desingned to experience New Zealand. Yes, you hike. Yes, you climb and descend. Yes, you resupply. Yet, the route of the trail we saw was used by many as more of a "guidepost" to explore New Zealand and less of a "classically defined" thru-hike. No right, no wrong, only our observations.
With that being said, we discuss the culture shock of the "New Zealand hiking culture." The culture of New Zealand was familiar while being different, but what we focus on is the culture of the TA and hikers themselves. We chat the differences in hiking culture vs US & Canada hiking and how it lead to an initial confusion on trail.
We chat mileage and campsites being defined for you on the North Island, we chat connected steps and the struggle of being outside the norm, and we chat Holiday Parks. If there is one phrase that could be used to describe the hike on the North Island it would be Holiday Parks. Wonderful hybrids of campsites/motels that are extremely pleasant and mostly front country for a hiker.
We chat the Auckland Sprawl, percentages of the North Island that is road (due to forest closures), and pace being defined for you. We discuss hikers sorting by pace and how this becomes almost impossible when legally camping on the TA. We chat hitching culture, camping etiquette, and lack of trail family. We give shout outs and theorize what we would do differently if we knew what we knew now.
We chat mud, mud and more mud. We chat "mystery miles" and the hardest part of the hike is the flat topo lines. We chat lack of pace estimation, 90 mile beach only being 60~ miles, and the Taruaras. We then diverge and try to break apart this hike section by section, and well it becomes chaotic. Strap in.
We dicsuss flat miles, campsites per person charges, and throwing a fish from the ocean to a shop. We broad stroke the North Island and chat ferries, tides, roads, and logisitical daily routines. We chat rain, alternates, floods, river paddles, and people all over the place.
Finally we wrap with the discussion of Wellington. Constantine unpacks more without getting too deep the turbulent emotions that led to what Magpie defined as his grumpiest mood in years. Possible mid-life crisis?
We end the show with a shout out to what gave us fuel, the most important part of any hike, CHONKY DOGGOS!
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