Tuatapere, New Zealand

Kia Ora!

I don’t remember when I first heard of New Zealand or exactly when I had decided I really wanted to go. I know it was before watching the Fellowship of the Ring prance around the New Zealand countryside, though that definitely reinforced the fervor. Maybe it was hearing stories of this mystical, mountainous land where the animals are not trying to constantly kill you like it’s more desert-like companion, Australia, stranded deep in the south Pacific, far from prying, curious eyes.

In another lifetime, sitting at a bar in Ventura, California, friends Nancy and Beau regaled my ex and I with stories of their travels to New Zealand. They made sure specifically to tell me about these hikes they had tried, but unfortunately failed, to do. Weather had thwarted them, closing the paths due to terrible, stormy conditions. They knew that a year prior I had driven with some friends across the United States in a campervan and had attempted the Bright Angel trail in New Mexico with limited success. They knew that adventure called to me the way it did them.

Nancy told me they had planned this walk in New Zealand that went deep into the countryside where you needed to make reservations at huts or campgrounds to go along the trail, further and further, for days, until eventually meandering your way back to civilization. It sounded wild. I hadn’t heard of hikes with overnight accommodations where you wouldn’t need to pack a tent and sleeping bag and where you could experience multiple biomes in one journey. I filed that memory away in the deep drawer of Jennifer’s Great Backlog of Things I Must Do Before I Randomly Die Doing One of These Things.

And on January 31st, 2025, David and I completed our first ever New Zealand Great Walk (see image above of us starting on left and finishing on right).

It took a while for me to figure out what Nancy and Beau had planned wasn’t a great walk, but a Great Walk. New Zealand has ten Great Walks that are treks into the wilderness that are held to a specific, high standard. The country’s Department of Conservation runs the program that bolsters tourism to many different regions of New Zealand. Each Great Walk has its own New Zealand tourism web page describing the multi-day trek, the area it is in, the visages you will see, and what accommodations are offered. Some are more remote than others; all are very popular and can be difficult to get reservations for. You cannot attempt a Great Walk without reservations at the lodges along the trail.*

In October of 2024, New Zealand opened its eleventh and newest Great Walk. The trail actually existed prior and was called the Tuatapere Hump Ridge Track. The town of Tuatapere, however, dwindled after the closing of the majority of its logging mills, so they formed an association for their Track and bid the New Zealand government for the honor of having the eleventh Great Walk. A few years ago, they won the bid, and the organizations came together to get the trail up to the higher standard expected of Great Walks. After repairs, clearances, and other construction, the trail reopened just in time for our trip. We were unable to get lodging for the other Great Walks, but after seeing an announcement for the new trek, I hopped on it – and David and I managed to get lodging!

So, at the very end of our stay in New Zealand, after weeks of beautiful, tropical jungles and beaches and archways and pancake rocks and hot-water holes, we drove down to the bottom of the Land Under the Land Down Under. At the southern end of New Zealand, in the small town of Tuatapere, we wondered through a Māori archway and onto a three-day long hike.

The Hump Ridge Track meanders along the southern coastline, across the Southern Ocean from No Bear Land. It works its way up into the Fiordlands and up across mountainous ridges before turning back down to the coast. The first lodge is nestled just below the summit of a mountain. The second lodge is atop a wooded hill not far from a beach where Hector's dolphins, an endangered species unique to New Zealand, swim. Unfortunately, a metric ton of sand flies also live there, and they are Out. For. Blood. So, while we were able to glance at the cute, rounded fins of the tiny dolphins along the shore, we couldn’t loiter to watch them and had no desire to jump into the frigid Southern Ocean in our limited clothing we would have to pack out and carry wet the next 21 kilometers back to town.

One thing I must say is that Tuatapere did its Great Walk right. When they decided to redo their trail, add better lodges, and make the bid for greatness, they declared their walk would have two things to set them apart no matter what.

1. A bar.

2. Flushing toilets.

We did not end up partaking in the bar after breaking ourselves over twenty kilometers a day. We DID end up partaking in those flushing toilets. The toilets and three minute hot showers, despite being off grid (using solar, rain, and mountain runoff), were miraculous and unspeakably lovely. The lodges themselves were very well kept, had wonderful lounging areas with large tables and a shared kitchen, and really nice, secluded rooms and bunk rooms. We heard from fellow hikers that we may have been spoiled for our first Great Walk and that others did not have lodges nearly as nice. There were also endless wooden walkways (and endless wooden stairs), but I am uncertain if the other walks have those.

The first day of hiking took us from the beach deep into a fairy wonderland covered in bulbs of green moss and shaded by giant, looming ferns. As we began to summit the mountain, the forest turned into gnarled, white trees and then broke into alien shrubbery and tall, red grasses. The air cooled and whipped around us but was admittedly nice after a long day of hiking. I should also mention that interspersed in this lovely forest hike were TWO THOUSAND SEVEN HUNDRED AND THIRTY ONE STAIRS. That is all.

On the second day, we hoped for a straight decent back to sea-level but ended up cresting another mountain before finally heading back down. Hump Ridge Track also has a multitude of historical buildings, hunting lodges, train tracks, and viaducts dotted along the trail. It was interesting to walk through history and experience the remains of a remote logging village along the shore, near where the second lodge now sits. There are three viaducts along the track, including the longest pedestrian viaduct in the southern hemisphere. The bridges and viaducts were pretty fun to cross, even though some were quite rickety.

Both days had optional bonus treks. Both times we heavily debated not doing them, but after a moment of sitting on a couch in front of a fireplace with a nice cup of tea, we decided we should. The first day, the lodge is below a ridge, so you don’t see it until you’re on top of it. The trail that continues straight is not actually park of the required track; it’s a small summit loop just for the mountain. The views are breathtaking. David ran two laps around the summit (AFTER twenty kilometers of hiking, mind you). The second day, also past the lodge, is a trail that goes down to the beach where the dolphins and the demon flies are. Maybe if it was hotter I would have jumped in with our finned friends, but I don’t know if it actually gets hot that far south even with it being summer (in January).

Our legs were a bit sore. David’s knee is cranky and the back of my right foot decided to fall off. But besides that, the eight-hour days of hiking were mindful, peaceful. It didn’t really feel like trekking along the path of Sam and Frodo, but that was alright – getting lost in a jungle was just fine by me. The standards are apparently supposed to include three meters of clearance for the path, mud no deeper than a child’s shoe can handle, and restrooms along the route. The workers did joke with us that some of those metrics may not have been completely met – there was definitely a tree hug here or there and those children might have been wearing some killer platform heels for a few sections, but otherwise the trail was amazingly well done. They gave us a bird guide, but I was notoriously bad at spotting birds except for a giant green one and a giant blue one that said hello, but obviously I do not know my birds.

So, it was, after 61 kilometers, 3+ viaducts and bridges, 3000+ stairs, and 3 days… David and I completed the Tuatapere Hump Ridge Great Walk.

10/10 – Got lost in the woods for three days. Would recommend. (Would have been 13/10, but -1 for 2,731 stairs, -1 for sand is bad but sand flies are worse, and -1 for mud… were those children wearing stilettos? Stilts maybe?!)

Look at him run AFTER walking 21+ km that day. I need that energy.

Bonus Note: The lodges use any leftover food scraps from meals or trekkers to feed the local farm pigs!

*You can walk part of the trail but cannot free camp along the trail. You may also get a start or ending accommodation and turn back if you cannot get accommodations further along the trail – we almost did that for another Great Walk but unfortunately had to prioritize work.