On the Beaten Track - Hillary trail

Auckland’s west coast was where the late Sir Edmund Hillary would go to recharge. Now a five-day walking trail, named in honour of the great explorer, has been created there.

To walk the Hillary Trail is free, and it’s classed as a safe, accessible walk with some challenging sections. Safety is paramount: although it winds over hills and sand dunes, through valleys and gorges, the trail doesn’t venture near cliffs, and there are no major river crossings.

One of the features that sets the Hillary Trail apart, is that walkers can join the track at any of the beaches, and leave when they like. “It’s still close to Auckland, so you can walk for a day and then get transport back to a hotel in the city.

The trail is the only “big walk” in the North Island.

Read the Full Story.

Tuatara Tours

Tuatara Tours specialises in fully-guided walking and cycling adventures in the stunning South Island. Their tours offer quality accommodation, great meals, experienced guides, portage of luggage, all transportation – and wonderful memories!

They are based in Christchurch – the gateway to tourism in the South Island of New Zealand... famous for its soaring mountains, extensive plains, forests, fiords, rivers and crystal clear lakes. Their goal is to encourage and assist people to experience for themselves this beautiful environment.

In particular, their philosophy is to combine the beautiful scenery of the South Island with challenging exercise... and have the ability to enjoy a glass of wine at night, with excellent cuisine, in good quality accommodation. They combine recreation with ambience, exercise with relaxation.

The vision at Tuatara Tours is to encourage as many people as possible to be involved in fun, adventure and the outdoors, particularly in the beautiful South Island of New Zealand.

The team is there to provide the best experience, with high quality tours, delivered efficiently, with humour, at a price that represents good value.

Tuatara Tours is a major sponsor of the tuataras at Orana Wildlife Park in Christchurch.

For more information visit www.tuataratours.co.nz or phone 0800 377 378.

The Purple Chickens Homestay

Bev is a long time Eastern Bay of Plenty resident, she has a passion for people, and is inspired and excited that her new venture is going to bring people into her home who may share or want to know more of the local area of Whakatane/Ohope.

Bev loves to be fit and is willing to take you for bush walks or head you over the hill to the gorgeous Ohope area which has more walks and places to explore. Just along from Bev’s front door are a couple of 6km bush walks – one is the “Bird Walk” and the other the “Board walk” – they speak for themselves once you begin your journey and it doesn’t matter what level of fitness you have – both are easily managed. If however you wish to experience more difficult terrain just ask Bev.

There is so much to say about what is on offer at The Purple Chickens Homestay. What’s nearby – athletic tracks, tennis courts and harrier runs and parks within 2 kms of Bev’s place, plus a great aquatic centre. So if you are coming over for a sporting event, remember your vehicle is safely parked off the street, your mountain bikes, motorcross bike, kayak or golf trundler can all be stored in Bev’s garage…. There is plenty of room.

And no visit to Whakatane is complete without a trip down to ‘The Heads’ – this is the piece of Whakatane Harbour where all boats travel through to get to the open waters. It can be wild and dangerous but always beautiful.

And with all the things to do with Bev – just ask her – she will help you to make your stay in the Eastern Bay a memorable one…. and one you will want to do again and again.

Visit The Purple Chickens Homestay to find out how you can book a room and enjoy a wonderful meal.

Catered Coast Walks - Langs Beach

Get yourself and a group of friends together and come and enjoy a short break walking adventure. Each day, head off from the lodge on a different walk and explore the spectacular coastline of the Southern Bream Bay area. The picture postcard views and white sandy beaches will have you wanting to tell everyone about this beautiful part of Northland barely 90mins from Auckland. You don’t have to worry about a thing, all your meals are provided, your linen is provided and best of all, you don’t have to carry a heavy back pack, just a small day pack. If you find yourself too tired to walk the return journey home, then you just need to ring and you’ll be picked up.

Each daily (unguided) walk comes with an option to extend or shorten its’ length. They cover a range of terrain from stunning beaches to coastal rock hopping to private farmland, rural roads, established walkways and regenerating bush. The base time for most of the walks is around 4hrs. If it’s just a day at the beach you fancy, then that’s ok too. Maps and details will be given on your first night of arrival.

For more information visit Langs Beach Lodge Website

Adventure Walks Fiordland

ADVENTURE WALKS are an ‘off the beaten track’ guided walks company operating in New Zealand’s Fiordland National Park and we offer an amazing alternative to the well known and heavily trafficked Fiordland tracks.

We have access areas of Fiordland most people have never even set eyes on, let alone set foot in. This includes Mt Titiroa, which was recently voted New Zealand’s Number 1 Natural Wonder by “Wilderness” magazine.

Please check out our website www.adventurewalks.co.nz or get in touch via beth@jadvenkturew2alks.jco.nzs.

Brick Bay Sculpture Trail

Brick Bay Sculpture Trail has had a hugely successful summer season attracting over 9,000 visitors to walk the trail. Since opening in January 2007 we’ve had over 15,000 people visit.

During the Auckland Art Fair we worked with Dayle Mace, trustee of the Auckland Art Fair, to provide the Collector’s Circle from Australia an exclusive day trip to Brick Bay Sculpture Trail. This included an introduction to the sculpture by Dr Robin Woodward. We were delighted to host this group.

Our strong relationships with Tourism Auckland and Tourism New Zealand mean we continue to interface with an international art audience, hosting a variety of art collecting visitors.

We are expanding our role to be a premier venue for weddings and special events, while entertaining an increasing number of corporate and art collecting groups. Do be in touch if you have a special event in mind and we will work with you to make it memorable at Brick Bay.

Wilderness Walking in the Queen Charlotte Sounds

MARLBOROUGH, AT THE NORTHERN TIP OF NEW ZEALAND’S SOUTH ISLAND IS A NATURAL WILDERNESS WITH UNEXPLORED WATERWAYS AND TRANQUIL SCENERY. A GET-AWAY-FROM-IT-ALL EXPERIENCE IS THE FOUR DAY INN-TO-INN WALK ON THE QUEEN CHARLOTTE WALKWAY.

The start of the walk is at Ship Cove, an hours water taxi from Picton and far into the Outer Sounds. James Cook made this snug cove his main base in the Pacific while circumnavigating the globe.

It’s easy to envisage the sight Cook first saw of the Maoris paddling their waka out to meet the Endeavour, immortalised against the splendour of the deep green, thickly wooded spurs, rising from the depths of the Sounds. The Queen Charlotte Sound has changed little in two centuries.

The Lakes

"I live in Tauranga and have often driven past the Lakes Development in the Tauriko Valley.The valley has morphed from what was once grassy farmland into a bustling hive of activity.This is not just another subdivision in fact the mission is to create an urban oasis that is safe and secure.This is a unique and expansive residential community developed amongst park like surrounds. Better still if you don't want to leave home they have developed well lit walkways and cycle ways so people can get out and enjoy the community.Check out the walking maps and take a look for yourself."

You can visit www.bridgewatervillage.co.nz for more information.

Dame Susan Devoy

Abel Tasman Coastal Track

“Abel Tasman Coastal Track – the best bit of New Zealand” book
By Mike Crudge

Mike Crudge grew up in Motueka and goes back a few times every year to visit his parents. Every summer for the last eleven years he has walked the Abel Tasman Coastal Track and taken more than 60 of his friends through it with him, this summer he has 12 people walking it with him… He loves the place, and describes himself as a bit of a fanatic, he says walking the track each summer has become a tradition, “it’s four days of the year where I leave my laptop and cell phone behind and escape the national grid… I always tent it, there’s some great camping sites in the park, it’s like being on a tropical island.”

Doogle

If you are looking for some great exercise areas to walk your dog, wanting to adopt, have lost or found a dog in your area, or looking for some people to walk your dog with, then Doogle is for you.

Doogle was initially created due to a lack of easily accessible information on where you can walk your dog, both on leash and off leash. As the site gained popularity, it grew with the demand for more features such as exercise areas and lost and found both incorporating Google Maps to pinpoint locations, an adoption service for re-homing or looking for a new addition to the family.

Outer Queen Charlotte Track

When my wife and I and our three daughters first came a remote Marlborough Sounds peninsula to farm, we hadn’t reckoned on nature teaching us a thing or two about how the world really worked. But day by day and little by little, living in this beautiful place showed us that the world was not just a matter of humans and highways but was instead an almost unimaginably complex interlocking system of natural elements all working together to provide the world we live in and depend on.

Once we had fully appreciated that we wanted to do everything we could to work with nature so we stopped farming, encouraged our paddocks to go back to bush, flashed up the shearer’s quarters a bit and established a network of walking tracks so that visitors could come and share our wonderful environment for a while. Now our daughters have their own daughters and everybody is involved in our Park and environmental work in various ways so not only am I the most well trained man in the world I am also the luckiest.

Waikato River Trails

By Monique Balvert-O’Connor

Plump dewdrops drip from lichen, ponga unfurls and the alluring scent of native blossoms mingles with crisp country air.

A vibrant cloud of fantails flit by, bellbirds trill and up ahead expansive views of the countryside are reflected in lake waters.

I don’t remember the South Waikato ever seeming this good.

But then, it’s about 25 years since this farming and forestry district was my home … and that’s way before the Waikato River Trails were developed to reveal this plethora of hidden gems. These scenic South Waikato spots alongside the Waikato river and hydro lakes just weren’t so accessible back when I was a kid. In fact, public access is a recent phenomenon thanks to the construction of these Waikato River Trails.

The Te Araroa Trail

Te Araroa – The Long Pathway – is a continuous 3,000 km walking track from Cape Reinga to Bluff.

Te Araroa will provide the ultimate 120-day New Zealand through-tramp, but will provide also section tramps lasting anything from a few days to a week or more, and many attractive day- or overnight walks. It is a different kind of trail from the traditional back-country tramping tracks. Te Araroa connects settlements, townships and cities, and is best conceived as a corridor that encourages social and economic transactions en route – for marae stays and other cultural experiences, also food and accommodation. The track corridor will showcase a wide variety of New Zealand experiences – natural, cultural, and historic.
Te Araroa’s boundaries are the natural boundaries of New Zealand itself. It starts and is brought to a natural halt against the sea. En route it explores New Zealand’s tombolos, its volcanoes, its range and mountain uplift, its rivers, lakes and valleys. Successful long trails overseas generally have a geographic and geological unity. Te Araroa’s variety is underpinned by the mightiest geology of all – tectonic plate subduction. When walking New Zealand, you are walking also the Pacific Plate boundary or – at least sometimes – along the Rim of Fire.

The long trail concept in New Zealand has a venerable history. In 1975 just such a “scenic trail” based on the Pennine Way, was the founding idea of the NZ Walkways Commission, which carried the long-trail torch briefly, but found it too difficult. The Department of Conservation (DoC) put the same goal into its Walkways Policy of 1995. As part of that policy, DoC also proposed giving high priority to countryside tracks traversing private land. DoC did not have the budgets, or the co-operation of Regional Authorities (RAs) or Territorial Local Authorities (TLAs) to achieve either goal.

Te Araroa Trust (TAT) and its eight regional trusts have begun to do what the official bodies could not. RAs and TLAs the length of New Zealand have begun to engage with Te Araroa, and TAT is now a leading influence in their local and regional walking and cycling strategies. The New Zealand public is also a trail partner. For ten years our organisation has had a hard battle for funds, and our survival, and lately our flourishing, is due to the efforts of dozens of volunteers who have kept the dream alive, and advancing.

The traili is due for it's official opening in 2010.

Te Araroa – The Long Pathway – is a continuous 3,000 km walking track from Cape Reinga to Bluff.

Te Araroa will provide the ultimate 120-day New Zealand through-tramp, but will provide also section tramps lasting anything from a few days to a week or more, and many attractive day- or overnight walks. It is a different kind of trail from the traditional back-country tramping tracks. Te Araroa connects settlements, townships and cities, and is best conceived as a corridor that encourages social and economic transactions en route – for marae stays and other cultural experiences, also food and accommodation. The track corridor will showcase a wide variety of New Zealand experiences – natural, cultural, and historic.
Te Araroa’s boundaries are the natural boundaries of New Zealand itself. It starts and is brought to a natural halt against the sea. En route it explores New Zealand’s tombolos, its volcanoes, its range and mountain uplift, its rivers, lakes and valleys. Successful long trails overseas generally have a geographic and geological unity. Te Araroa’s variety is underpinned by the mightiest geology of all – tectonic plate subduction. When walking New Zealand, you are walking also the Pacific Plate boundary or – at least sometimes – along the Rim of Fire.

The long trail concept in New Zealand has a venerable history. In 1975 just such a “scenic trail” based on the Pennine Way, was the founding idea of the NZ Walkways Commission, which carried the long-trail torch briefly, but found it too difficult. The Department of Conservation (DoC) put the same goal into its Walkways Policy of 1995. As part of that policy, DoC also proposed giving high priority to countryside tracks traversing private land. DoC did not have the budgets, or the co-operation of Regional Authorities (RAs) or Territorial Local Authorities (TLAs) to achieve either goal.

Te Araroa Trust (TAT) and its eight regional trusts have begun to do what the official bodies could not. RAs and TLAs the length of New Zealand have begun to engage with Te Araroa, and TAT is now a leading influence in their local and regional walking and cycling strategies. The New Zealand public is also a trail partner. For ten years our organisation has had a hard battle for funds, and our survival, and lately our flourishing, is due to the efforts of dozens of volunteers who have kept the dream alive, and advancing.

www.teararoa.org.nz