Post Tagged with: "New Zealand"

NZ Part 6 – Circling Mount Doom on the Tongariro Northern Circuit, New Zealand

NZ Part 6 – Circling Mount Doom on the Tongariro Northern Circuit, New Zealand

Only the fourth national park established in the world, Tongariro sits at the south-west terminus of a 1600-mile-long string of volcanoes on the boundary of the Indo-Australian and Pacific plates, on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”. The boundary of the park encircles the active Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro volcanoes, with two smaller dormant cones outside the park just to the north and huge Mt Taranaki in view 130 miles to the southwest.

by — January 27, 2014 — 0 comments — Community, Trails
NZ Part 5- In the Center of Nature’s Flow in Aoraki – Mount Cook National Park, New Zealand

NZ Part 5- In the Center of Nature’s Flow in Aoraki – Mount Cook National Park, New Zealand

Never in my life have I felt more in the center of Muir’s flow of nature than from a high windy knob on Ball Ridge under the vertical Caroline Face of New Zealand’s highest peak, Aoraki/Mount Cook.

by — January 8, 2014 — 0 comments — Trail of the Week, Trails
NZ Part 4 – Tramping Above the Clouds on the Routeburn Track

NZ Part 4 – Tramping Above the Clouds on the Routeburn Track

We were on day two of the Routeburn Track, our group’s consensus favorite of the eight different extended trails, from the southern to northern ends of the country, that we would sample during our month-long trekking trip in February of 2013.

by — December 30, 2013 — 0 comments — Trails
NZ Part 3 – Milford Track

NZ Part 3 – Milford Track

In places the green “skin” has sloughed off, leaving stark scars on the cliff face. This is the visual extravaganza offered up all along the Milford Track, the most iconic extended walking trail in New Zealand.

by — December 9, 2013 — 0 comments — Trails
NZ Part 2 – A Multi-Course Feast on the Hump Ridge Track, Southern Fiordland, New Zealand

NZ Part 2 – A Multi-Course Feast on the Hump Ridge Track, Southern Fiordland, New Zealand

Limestone tors, black and lichen-speckled earth-bones, loomed over the choppy water of the several tarns scattered around us on the ridge. We were enraptured. This was the crux of the Hump Ridge, a southernmost promontory of the 450-mile-long Southern Alps of New Zealand in Fiordland National Park, and the goal of the first trekking day of a month-long, multi-trek itinerary that would stretch from the upper end of the North Island to the far south of the South Island.

by — November 26, 2013 — 0 comments — Trails
NZ Part 1 – Why New Zealand?

NZ Part 1 – Why New Zealand?

New Zealand delivers this with great amenities for backpackers. Their extensive backcountry hut system affords inexpensive comforts and international camaraderie throughout the countryside (you could sleep in a hut bed every night even on the remotest of tracks).

by — October 31, 2013 — 0 comments — Trails
Low Tide at Cathedral Cove

Low Tide at Cathedral Cove

Overhead, Two wrists of white sandstone, Palms skyward, Fingers interwoven

by — April 23, 2012 — 0 comments — Fireside
A New Zealand Great Walk: Heaphy Track, Part 2

A New Zealand Great Walk: Heaphy Track, Part 2

The final leg to Perry Hut was growing on us. The trail cut across the spectacularly barren Gouland Downs, which offered uninterrupted vistas of the mountains around us. Although they were nothing more than hints of rugged slopes floating in the fog, I was enchanted nonetheless. I remember being enthralled with openness of the downs—there wasn’t a sign of shelter or cover in sight.

by — December 14, 2011 — 0 comments — Trails
A New Zealand Great Walk: Heaphy Track, Part 1

A New Zealand Great Walk: Heaphy Track, Part 1

As dawn filled the hut with light, I woke long before my fellow hikers and perused the hut’s log book, which spoke of a small cave stream nearby that held one of New Zealand’s most fascinating creatures. Glow worms.

by — December 6, 2011 — 0 comments — Trails