6 May 1, 2022The Sunday TimesTravel New Zealand
CLASSIC CAMPERS
New Zealand is best taken in from
behind a camper van windscreen.
You’ll have a good shot at ticking
off the highlights on this itinerary,
which includes digging yourself
a natural bath on Hot Water
Beach, taking in the colourful
craters (and sulphurous stench)
of Rotorua and picnicking beside
glacier-fed, lupin-fringed Lake
Tekapo. You’ll end on an
adrenaline high in Queenstown,
where you can try jet boating.
Details Sixteen nights from
£3,944 for a family of four,
including motorhome hire
(trailfinders.com). Fly to AucklandDITCH THE DRIVING
Don’t drive? Have
someone else do it for
you. After stepping
off the plane in
Auckland you’ll be
met by a private
driver, and from
here the glowworm
caves of Waitomo,
night-time kiwi-
spotting in Wellington,
Marlborough wine and
cruises around Doubtful Sound
await — with the option of
swimming in the fjord if you’re
brave. You’ll travel by car,
coach and train — including on
the world-famous TranzAlpine.
Details Eighteen nights from
£7,950pp, including flights,transfers and some meals
(audleytravel.com)CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
The islands of New Zealand are
home to wildlife found nowhere
else on Earth, from kiwis to the
Jurassic Park-like tuatara. You’ll
tick off rare creatures on this
22-day itinerary, with the chance
to see white-backed Hector’s
dolphins in Kaikoura, yellow-eyed
penguins on the Otago peninsula
and mischievous kea on Mount
Cook (beware, they have a taste
for windscreen wipers).
Details Twenty-one nights from
£4,077pp, including transfers,
car hire with GPS and some
meals (discover-the-world).
Fly to AucklandBIG ADVENTURES
Fancy replicating Claire’s journey
on two wheels? Travel the length
of New Zealand on a 1,850-mile
cycle route from Cape Reinga
in the north to Bluff on
the southern tip. It’ll
be tough going, but
fully supported,
with all logistics,
first aid and
mechanical help
taken care of.
Highlights include
freewheeling the
Waikato River Trails and
pedalling up and over the
Southern Alps. And if you don’t
fancy tackling the whole thing,
there are options to do sections.
Details Thirty-nine nights
from £8,994pp, including
transfers and some meals
(responsibletravel.com).
Bike hire extra. Fly to Auckland4
GREAT
NEW ZEALAND
HOLIDAYSCanterbury and Otago are rich in striking
scenery... braided rivers and mountain
passes interspersed with a series of
luminous turquoise lakes. Up on Stag
Saddle, the trail’s highest point, I sat and
made a cup of tea to enjoy with my view
of the Southern Alps.
These rewards came hard won. Walking
Te Araroa my feet were wet more than
they were dry, and my legs became an
abstract canvas of scrapes, bruises, stings
and bug bites. By Wanaka, two thirds
down the South Island, my two-month-old
boots had holes big enough to put my
hand through, and they went in the bin.
Yet as long as there was more island ahead
I was keen to continue, tuned into the
simplicity of this life on trail: wake up,
pack up, start walking, discover.
As I crossed into Southland the days
got shorter; the air noticeably crisper,
rows of poplar trees gilded with early
autumn. Much of the trail here cuts across
cattle stations — vast sections of private
farmland where accommodations become
fewer and farther between: a grassy
section of DOC land where walkers can
camp, or an old
shearer’s hut to
bunk down in
for £5 in an
honesty box.
Feeling clean was
a lost battle.
Clothes were
handwashed again
and again, hung
damp above hut
fireplaces, but
even when cleaned they
never smelt like it.
So at this stage I didn’t have
much concern about striding
into Longwood, a sprawling ancient
forest notorious for deep mud pits
that sometimes reach mid-thigh. It was
a miracle my shoes stayed on my feet as
I yanked my legs out of one bog after the
next, with audible slurps. Moments afterbut I soon discovered the value of
community on the trail. I felt bonded to
the people I met by a shared purpose and
sore joints; we traded snacks, remedies
and life stories. We decided to join forces
again for the Tararua Range — safety in
numbers being wise for the North Island’s
toughest section, where the weather
can turn on a dime. Thankfully we were
blessed with ideal conditions. For days
we sweated up steep bush track, through
mossy, hobbitesque forest and along the
ridgelines, where we could see all the way
to the ocean.
By now I should have felt ready for
the South Island, New Zealand’s wilder
half... I’m not sure I did, although it
begins relatively gently with the Queen
Charlotte Track: picturesque blue-green
coves dotted with comfy lodges, for those
not into roughing it. While rough it I did,
I still stopped in at one for a cold beer on
the jetty. It would have been rude not to.
Then things got real. I was soon into the
Richmond Ranges, the first of many week-
long sections in the remote back country
where there’s no resupply or phone signal
(carrying a personal locator beacon or
satellite messenger is crucial). This is
where I met the first of the South Island’s
big tests: climbing two vertigo-inducing
peaks of scree known as the Rintouls. The
next day it was eight river crossings. And
just for a little extra frisson there were the
constant wasp nests to avoid, both on the
forest floor and in the occasional long-
drop lavatory. (You quickly learn to use
the bushes.)
It’s challenging country but remarkably
beautiful and the landscape can change
several times in a day. In Nelson Lakes
National Park I started the morning at
Blue Lake, a sacred natural lagoon with
the clearest water recorded in history,
climbed up and over Waiau Pass, the
trail’s most formidable alpine crossing,
and spent that night bunked in a small
DOC hut in the flats of a river valley.→Continued from page 5n:agrassy
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egs out of one bog after the
ible slurps. Moments afterA signpost on Cape
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most northerly point,
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a carving along the
Queen Charlotte Track