Back to page

Bird Walk - Te Araroa

  • Te Araroa update - Day 111

      3 March 2024
    Main image

    Hello again all you misfits, miscreants, mystics and mischief-managers. Waaas going on? It’s been a day or two, how about another update on this wee journey, hmm? So! What’s new? Well, my beards a little longer, the days are a little shorter.

    I’ve covered another 1500km. So that’s something. As of writing this I’m straddled between Lake Ohau and Lake Middleton (it windy!) at the 2500km mark. Only 500 to go.

    I’m next to yet another spectacular set of water bodies, which sort of sums up what the trail is all about: a continuous path linking one amazing water feature to the next.

    E.g. the tour has delivered:

    • the crater lakes of the Tongariro;

    • the mighty canyons of the Whanganui;

    • the driftwood-dreamland of the Turakina coast;

    • the splendour of Kapiti Island from the Tararua ridges

    • and a pod of orcas chasing stingray through the Paekākāriki shallows

    Across the Cook Strait ferry even more awaited in the South Island:

    • ANOTHER pod of orcas (there’s only 200 or so in NZ waters) in Queen Charlotte Sound

    • many a spot to skinny dip and skinny fail on the Wairoa river (Richmond Ranges)

    • Campside tarns and waterfalls of the Waiau pass

    • Trail-side hot springs on the Hurunui

    • fording the snow-fed braids of the Rakaia and Rangitata

    • cyan-washed basins of the Mackenzie hydro scheme lakes

    NZ is just one big water park.

    Wish me luck for the final stretch. I’ll send out another post once I slappa da signpost at Bluff.

    Big love Xo

      0 comments  |  Login to leave a comment