For our last adventure in New Zealand we decided to go somewhere Nicole hadn’t been yet. We decided on New Zealand’s furthest northern region, a 6 hour drive from Auckland, and happened to find a rather unknown hiking trail known as the Te Paki Coastal Track. This 48km walk takes you along the cape of the very top of the North Island and is usually done in 3-4 days but one could easily spend longer there.…
The Tongariro Northern Circuit is the third of the nine Great Walks that Nicole and I did and at the same time our first hike on the north island. It’s pretty much in the center of island in the Tongariro National Park and leads in two to four days around Mount Ngauruhoe. For die-hard Lord of the Rings fans this is not just any mountain, it’s the volcano that was used as Mount Doom, the…
This article might be a bit out of line with my typical posts, bit since I’m heavily depending on it, I thought I’d spread the word. For all my outdoor adventures, if hiking, mountainbiking or even skiing, I am using the free application OruxMaps paired with the open source outdoor maps from openAndroMaps. What do you get? Very detailed outdoor maps for the whole world with GPS positioning, so you’ll always know where you are,…
A little change of program: off our feet and onto some mountain bikes. The target: to cycle the whole Queen Charlotte Track, a well known hiking track at the very north of the south island that opens up for mountain bikers in March every year. The details don’t sound that scary for experienced bikers. A three day tour with about 25km distance and 900m positive elevation a day. But then we were there to enjoy…
The next hike that Nicole and I did after the excellent Routeburn Track was the Kepler Track south of Te Anau. Before the start I thought that it could hardly beat the Routeburn Track. And it didn’t beat it, but it was just as spectacular in its own way. It starts off in the woods next to the lake and our first campsite was directly at a lonely beach. Then it climbs through beech forests…