Media Release For Immediate Use     3rd June 2010 Commercial Operators Accept New Track Access Fee   Recent announcements regarding a $12 fee to walk the Queen Charlotte Track only apply to multi-day and single day users that cross private land on the track.   Twenty one percent of the track crosses private property [...]

Melina Ridge Track   mountain bike, picnic, horse riding, no dogs Lindis River: 13km Mt Prospect: 20 km (6-8hr by mountain bike) Signposted south of Lindis Pass on SH8; follow the marked track through to Smith Creek before climbing up and over to emerge at the Lindis River.  Experienced mountain bikers can continue on to 1,770-metre Mount [...]

Upper Clutha River Track   mountain bike, dog, picnic, historic, fishing 3-4hr – 14km The track starts at Albert Town Bridge and winds along the Clutha River/Mata-Au to historic Reko’s Point Conservation Area. A trackside feature is the network of century-old gold mining workings.

 Mount Iron Walk   lookout, dogs, no bikes, DOC 1.5hr return – 4.5km                                          Mount Iron is an impressive, glacier-carved, 240-metre rocky knoll. From its summit a great panorama unfolds: Lakes Wanaka and Hawea, the Cardrona and Upper Clutha Valleys and all the surrounding peaks; many of them in Mount Aspiring National Park in the west.

Do you want it on track completely? Any particular grade? Fr’instance: http://www.tramper…view=object&id=4631 This 2 day circuit involves a bit of off-track tramping in tussock and down a stream with the option of either staying at Lagoon Saddle Hut or West Harper Hut. You would need some visibility or ability to navigate in clag. Not many [...]

29 km – 6 hours We managed to locate yesterday’s pick up point along the Mangaokewa Rd, so it was on from there, reaching the end of the Mangaokewa Stream, then over the saddle into the (upper) Waipa Valley – following the river via roads for a while , through a farm, then the theory [...]

25.6 km – 7.2 hours A chilly autumn start in the steep sided Mangaokewa Valley that soon warmed up with the sunny day. This track leaves from a camp site and heads upstream for 16 km – bush reserves, farm land, various forest types, all the while following a super stream. Given its cachment area though, [...]

from http://egtravels.blogspot.com/  Seven hours. The cold blue sky, touching down, presses against us. Us making slow progress against the vertical thrust of a mountain side. Caught between the blue infinity and a land mass escaping from Hades. A sense of crushing freedom. Seven hours of being reminded of the forces buried deep below. City life, [...]

Saturday April 10th – 6 km – 1.2 hours This walk was done in two sections in between being in Te Kuiti on the day of the annual Great Muster – when a mob of somewhere between 1000 and 4000 sheep is run down the main street of the town (pic). This is the fun [...]

13 km – 5.25 hours This track alternates between open farmland and patches of bush – and as promised a few significant up and down sections that were fairly steep. Reasonably slow going, but being careful I did not deviate from the marked route too much after the first valley. The second patch of bush [...]

Check these out – breath-taking

Sunday 4th April – 25 km (and some) – 10.5 hours An early start took me through farmland, then on an old track through the forest from Honikiwi Rd to Mahoe Rd. Shoulder high ferns to brush past – fine except for where a farm bike had been through and coated them with (now) dried [...]

Walkers and mountainbikers on the Queen Charlotte Track will be charged $12 from July 1. Landowners along the 71km track announced in March they would start charging people on the track for using their land. They talked about fees between $10 and $15, depending on the number of days people were planning to be on [...]

So – it’s official. The Te Araroa Trek has turned from a solo journey into a team event. I have finally found someone as crazy and passionate about New Zealand’s newest long distance trail as me and we have decided to go together. Alex Ward and I met only a week and a half ago [...]

Saturday 3rd April – 33 km – 8.8 hours Not yet used to the reduced daylight hours, we had a mostly dark drive to the north end of the Mt Pirongia track. Daylight arrived soon after, as I headed off alongside a then into the bush for a steady climb for a while on a [...]