Te Araroa is a walking path that will provide access to Aotearoa’s history and natural heritage from the top of the North to the bottom of the South Island.

The ambition to establish, by 2010, a hiking trail from the northern to the southern tip of New Zealand moved a step closer recently with the opening of two tracks: the 29 kilometre Motatapu track across Otago high country, and the Long Hilly Track, rich with Chinese New Zealand culture, which accesses a section of Te Araroa in Southland.
Long Pathway Idea is Born

The idea of connecting existing trails and walkways and forging new ones to form a cross-country route is credited to the Federated Mountain Clubs, today a national association that promotes safe use of the back country, environmental preservation and protecting rights of access.

Writer Geoff Chapple gave the idea fresh life beginning in the late 1990s, planning and completing a trial walk from Cape Reinga to Bluff, a distance of about 2600 kilometres. His account of the journey, Te Araroa: The New Zealand Trail (Auckland: Random House 2002) is a frank description of the difficulties he faced getting the project underway, as well as a vivid account of the people and places he encountered.

Chapple established the Te Araroa Trust, which for many years has been grappling with issues of route design and access. The Trust has worked with Maori and local and regional authorities, and has a Memorandum of Agreement with the New Zealand Department of Conservation. In some cases the Trust has employed work gangs to build trails if there was no local organisation with the capability to do so.

Although much of the Te Araroa route is along existing tracks, access has been a big issue. The significance of balancing private property rights and access issues was highlighted by the Report of the Walking Access Consultation Panel to the New Zealand Minister for Rural Affairs, published March 2007.

In terms of the issue of access within Maori tribal boundaries, Chapple’s hope was that walkers would be welcomed as manuhiri or visitors. Tai Tokerau and Tainui are two Maori iwi or tribal groups that have lent their support to the Te Araroa project.
Links with New Zealand Culture

The long-term effort to establish Te Araroa illustrates two aspects of New Zealand character: a love of (and determination to protect access to) the wild outdoors, and a fascination with feats of endurance.

In his modern history Paradise Reforged (Auckland, Penguin Press, 2001) Jamie Belich describes a “modern populist engagement with the New Zealand landscape”, with “the boat, the bach [or cottage], the beach and the barbecue” aspects of European New Zealand folk culture. He also details the rise of “rational recreation”, including tramping (hiking) and mountain sport especially since the 1920s, and the environmentalist movement.

The notion of very long walking also fits with New Zealanders’ fascination with feats of endurance. Sir Edmund Hillary, who with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay was the first to climb Mount Everest in 1953, was a patron of the Te Araroa Trust until his death in January 2008. Author, publisher and recreational mountain climber A.H. Reed walked the length of New Zealand early in the 1960s when he was in his 80s. New Zealand ultra-marathoners have done well in international forums, and gruelling multi-sport events (such as the Speight’s Coast to Coast event which crosses the South Island from Kumara Beach on the Tasman Sea to Sumner Beach on the Pacific Ocean) continue to attract large numbers of competitors.

Supporters of Te Araroa (The Long Pathway) are still working through planning and access issues, but the hope is that the route would one day be accessible to everyday hikers. The recent track openings in the South Island are another step in the right direction.

Read more at Suite101: New Zealand’s Long Pathway: Dream of Country-Length Hiking Trail Moves Closer to Reality http://backpacking-trips.suite101.com/article.cfm/new_zealands_long_pathway#ixzz0icBtETwi

Read more at Suite101: New Zealand’s Long Pathway: Dream of Country-Length Hiking Trail Moves Closer to Reality http://backpacking-trips.suite101.com/article.cfm/new_zealands_long_pathway#ixzz0icBNebE3

A recent article appears to indicate that the parties involved are taking a passive stance on this? At least one Tramping group, on the other hand are opposed / vocal

As Trampers by nature are not defined under one structure, and as we are not represented by a collective, we do not have one strong voice  – what are your thoughts? Should we pay for the right. Or should we have free access to these track sections?

Te Araroa – The Long Pathway has had many descriptors attached to it

• A true necklace of gems
• New Zealands greatest citizen driven initiative
• This country’s best kept secret
• New Zealands National Trail

…and so they go on. None the wiser? Well have we got a surprise for you.

You see 20 odd years ago Geoff Chapple had a dream. Today that dream is all but complete – an off road walkway/ tramp that stretches 3000km from Cape Reinga in the the North to Bluff in the Deep South. It passes through 70 towns / 7 cities and some of the best scenery New Zealand has to offer. It includes some of the so-called Great Walks but for every Queen Charlotte Track and Tongariro Crossing that you can point to enroute, I can show you equally magnificent walking without the hoardes.

Geoff has written a book about it – but more importantly many thousands of people are out there walking it right now – people like John and Corrine (who are hiking the lot!!) or my next door neighbour – who is taking a stroll up the beach – and a coffee at either end.

You see that is the thing about Te Araroa. It probably passes right by your door; and you don’t have to walk the 3000 km’s to experience its magic. Find your piece of paradise and get onto it