A solid investment
They say money doesn’t grow on trees. But it does grow in forests.
Keep reading for just $1
$1 trial for two weeks, thereafter $8.50 every two months, cancel any time
Already a subscriber? Sign in
Signed in as . Sign out
Good to go
Booster’s Innovation Fund aims to get New Zealand capital to work for New Zealand by investing in promising local companies that are trying to solve global problems.
Light it up with Ledlenser
Whether you need to light up the hut on a Great Walk, or light up the trail on a night-time mission, Ledlenser has you covered. Since the company started in Germany in 1993, it has developed a reputation for producing some of the world's best LED headlamps and torches and New Zealand Geographic has two of those fine headlamps to give away. All you need to do is email partnerships@nzgeographic.co.nz with the subject line 'Ledlenser giveaway' and we'll put you in the draw to win either the H7R Signature, worth $350, or the H5R, worth $200. Entries close at 11.59pm on September 4th.
A healthy balance
Many KiwiSaver members now expect their money to be invested responsibly. MAS has the credentials to ensure that’s the case, and its unique model means it can take responsibility a step further through the efforts of its charitable foundation.
Conservation in action
New Zealand Geographic and Heritage Expeditions have announced their next partner voyage: an eight-day expedition through the Hauraki Gulf and Bay of Islands from February 12 - February 18 2023, with Island Conservation’s Richard Griffiths as the special guest.
Pick-a-path
In Palmerston North, it doesn’t take a big effort to go bush. There are plenty of pathways close to the city that offer a glimpse at the region’s impressive biodiversity.
Forgotten Islands
New Zealand Geographic's next reader voyage in collaboration with Heritage Expeditions will explore some of the most remote and rewarding parts of New Zealand, taking in the Subantarctic Islands, Stewart Island and Fiordland over 12 days from 28 December 2022 to 8 January 2023 with acclaimed author, scientist and explorer Professor Tim Flannery as the special guest.
Southern sights
New Zealand Geographic and Heritage Expeditions are pleased to announce their second premium adventure, a journey through Fiordland with New Zealand conservation stalwart, award-winning author, photographer and natural history filmmaker Rod Morris.
Make a world of difference as an environmental scientist
The new professionally accredited four-year environmental science degree at Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha University of Canterbury gives its graduates knowledge and skills that are in high demand in the workforce while empowering them to address the world’s urgent sustainability issues.
Buller’s Birds of New Zealand: The Complete Work of JG Keulemans
(New Edition) Geoff Norman, Te Papa, $59.99
Pirongia Traverse
The Pirongia Traverse crosses the old volcanic cone of Mt Pirongia (959 metres) and is part of the Te Araroa route connecting Hamilton and Waitomo. South-west of Pahautea Hut it includes almost a kilometre Pirongia of mountain-top boardwalk. Te Araroa’s construction manager, Noel Sandford, organised the boardwalk construction in 2006 to take trampers across deep mud, and to protect Dactylanthus, the rare ‘wood rose’. Under his instruction, year 12 students at six Waikato secondary schools prefabricated dozens of 10-metre sections, which were then airlifted into place by an RNZAF No. 3 Squadron Iroquois. The boardwalk was completed in time for a December 2009 opening by Prime Minister John Key. From the Kaniwhaniwha carpark on Limeworks Loop Road, the track leads away three kilometres through new plantings to a stopover campground with toilets and water. From there take the Tahuanui Track, a steady and sometimes muddy eight-kilometre climb to the summit, where there’s a lookout with commanding views across the Waikato plains. Onwards from there another kilometre, you can overnight at Pahautea Hut, but it requires a DOC hut pass. Alternatively you can pitch a tent nearby on well-drained dry bark sites. On a clear evening here, the views from the helipad stretch south as far as the Central Plateau and Mt Taranaki. The new boardwalk then leads away from the hut to the Hihikiwi Summit, with another good lookout en route over the west coast’s Kawhia and Aotea harbours. From there, follow the Hihikiwi Track down the southwest flank of the mountain to Pirongia West Road.
Te Hikoi o Te Kiri
The track goes over Mt Tamahunga (437 metres) the highest accessible summit between Auckland and Whangarei. It’s named for Te Kiri, a Ngati Wai chief who in 1864 rescued 180 Waikato prisoners from Governor George Grey’s nearby Kawau Island estate and brought them here, beyond reach of the British military. The Government demanded that the escaped warriors, many captured at the battle of Rangiriri, give themselves up. Government negotiators were met with the reply: “How many birds, having escaped from the snare, return to it?” From the Bathgate Road-end head up steep farm pasture 2.5 kilometres to the ridge, and the Rodney Road-end there. If you want to avoid this quite rough and tiring start, then you can start the track at the Rodney Road-end instead. The track then crosses farmland, then bush, before a final climb up to the summit. The final climb encounters a ‘Hillary Step’ with a foothold hacked out of stone. Immediately above the step is a lookout with views north back to Bream Head. An old helicopter platform at the summit makes a good lunch platform, but you’re enclosed by bush here, and there’s no further view north. You do get views south from lookout spots once you start descending the mountain. The track is often steep on this last section, exiting finally across a private farm, onto Omaha Valley Road. Keep an eye on the Te Araroa website, as negotiations are underway to obtain a route down the south-western ridge, going past the weather radar station that sits like a huge golfball just below the summit, to exit on Matakana Valley Road. This new route, once in place, will eliminate the 14 kilometre road detour that south-bound Te Araroa long walkers presently have to endure before they link to the next off-road section at Dome Forest.
Harper Pass Track
This four-day tramp crosses the Southern Alps at Harper Pass (962m). Low passes through the Alps are rare, so it’s been well used in the past—by Maori as a green-stone route, and by miners coming over from Canterbury during the West Coast gold rush in the 1860s. In 1867, a more direct road route to the Coast opened through Arthurs Pass, and the Harper Pass bridle track lapsed. Yet it has its intrinsic delights—a hot pool, a crossing of the Alps—and in the 1930s the Physical Welfare Division of the Department of Internal Affairs built four substantial huts along the route, and opened it. The Department hoped to emulate the success of the Milford Track, but the Harper Pass Track never got those kind of legs. It remains lightly used, but is relatively easy and interesting. Easy that is, except for its length, and for un-bridged crossings of the Taramakau and Otehake rivers at the southern end, and also—unless you use the Morrison flood bridge—the Otira River. Trampers with river-crossing experience will ford these rivers safely in normal to low flows, but when river levels are high, they’re impassable. When tramping from north to south, the historic Locke Stream Hut near the headwaters of the Taramakau has a radio link to DOC’s Arthurs Pass National Park Visitor Centre on which you can request weather forecasts, and estimate if the Taramakau, Otehake and Otira rivers are going to be a problem. Carry extra food in order to backtrack to huts, or camp, while waiting for river levels to subside. The track follows the Hope Fault throughout, a splinter fault that angles east away from the Alpine Fault and eases the strain of New Zealand’s contending plates by sideways slippage. Te Araroa through-trampers will access it via the Tui Track that comes down from Boyle Village at the end of the St James walkway, but those using it as a standalone tramp will come in from Windy Point.
Return to Pukapuka
After three decades abroad, an anthropologist’s daughter returns to the remote atoll of her childhood, and is welcomed home.
Wellington route
Northern Walkway and City to Sea Walkway
Breast Hill track
May is probably the last practical month to undertake this three- or four-day tramp before winter and spring turn the approaches to Mt Martha Saddle into an avalanche path. Even so, any recent dump of snow will make conditions difficult. Birchwood Rd carpark to Top Timaru Hut – 23 km. Follow the marked route to Avon Burn, ford the burn and head up the farm track to Mt Martha Saddle (1680m). An unmarked bulldozer track then takes you down to Top Timaru Hut, just refurbished by DOC. Top Timaru Hut to Stodys Hut – 14.5 km. Progress is slow on a marked track that sidles along the true left of a steep valley, through to a grassy spot 2.5 km downstream. The 7 km stretch ahead has a dozen river crossings, straightforward in normal flows, and emerges at the Breast Hill Track/Timaru River Track junction. The track then climbs steeply to Stodys Hut. Stodys Hut via Pakituhi Hut to Gladstone Reserve – 16.5 km. The ridge route follows an old farm track with Mt Aspiring standing out to the west. A foul weather route departs to the left before the track reaches the Breast Hill summit (1578 m) but press on to the summit and you look down on Lake Hawea township 1200 m below, and the Wanaka Basin beyond. This is Te Araroa’s memorable entry into Otago. The track hugs a fenceline down to the new 8-bunk Pakituhi Hut (1300 m). The track then descends along the ridgeline to a small saddle, before zigzaging down a steep face to the road and the nearby reserve.
Kerikeri track
Te Araroa trust has just opened the Kerikeri track as a significant extension to the existing 3.5-km DOC Kerikeri River Track. Trampers who use the track simply as a day-walk from Kerikeri can now double that distance, 7 km through to SH10. More ambitious day-walkers can venture another 5 km on to Maungaparerua (241 m) and a wide outlook over the Bay of Islands. The new track is part of the 200-km ‘Ocean to Ocean’ Te Araroa section, Ahipara to Kerikeri. Te Araroa through-walkers will come onto the track from the north-western end at Puketi Forest HQ, then follow Waiare Road for 1.5 km, before crossing onto Landcorp’s Puketotara Farm. Expect some attention from the farm’s curious heifers. The track then breaks out onto Mangakaretu Road before re-entering the Landcorp farm, sidling around Maungaparerua and dropping steeply down to Maungaparerua Stream. The track crosses private farmland as it follows the stream to the Kerikeri River. It then follows the river downstream on the true right, crossing on a new swingbridge, then ducking under the SH10 highway bridge to continue following the river on the true left through totara groves to a DOC viewing platform at Rainbow Falls. The preexisting DOC track then leads through bush and past an old hydro-electric plant, 3.5 km to Kerikeri Basin Recreation Reserve, Kemp House and the Old Stone Store.
Te Paki Coastal Track
The first in a series of guides to the recently opened Te Araroa trail, selected by its founder Geoff Chapple.
Mt Manaia Track
According to one Maori legend there were five brothers, Manaia, Maungaraho, Tokatoka, Motowhitiki and Taungatara, who were disillusioned with their lives in Hawaiki. Under cover of darkness they decided to follow the path of the great explorer Kupe and travel to Aotearoa. At dawn the mighty Atua took away their powers of motion, stranding them in their present resting places. Manaia, Maungaraho, Tokatoka and Motowhitiki all lie in a straight line to Ripiro Beach, where Taungatara, the smallest peak, stands. The songs and legends of Ngapuhi and Ngati Whatua remember this story. Another Maori legend accounts for the five peaks on the summit ridge relating to Manaia and his family. The largest peak represents Manaia himself, the smaller pinnacles are his children, while the last figure is his unfaithful wife, turning her head away in shame. Mt Manaia is the eroded skeleton of an andesite cone, erupted 22–16 million years ago. The layers of andesitic breccia are visible on the summit ridge and rocks in the matrix are visibly exposed on the sides of the pinnacles. Rare plant communities adorn the slopes, with parapara, large leaf milk tree and native angelica being some of the more notable species. The exposed rocky ridge has examples of mountain daisy, native forget-me-not and sprawling pomaderis. Much of the plant and birdlife is shared with the Three Kings, Hen and Chickens and Poor Knights Island groups. TRACK NOTES The track is marked with orange triangles and is uneven and steep. It takes approximately 45 minutes to the signposted Bluff Lookout. This two-minute detour takes you to an opening in the forest at the top of an exposed rock face. Take extreme care while admiring the view as the wind can be gusty. The final ascent to the summit takes approximately 15 minutes. A wooden staircase leads to a flat rock area below the main pinnacles. There is no access to the trig at the summit. An alternative route is signposted from the top and drops very steeply, sometimes aided with a steel cable to steady the descent. This takes 45 minutes and arrives at the start of the track.
Little Mount Peel
There is not much native forest of any kind left in South Canterbury, but most of it is in Peel Forest. Some massive totara live on the fertile flat below Little Mount Peel, and this walk climbs up through the bush to a high alpine peak, with an eye-opening view of the patchwork plains. From the Blandswood carpark take the Deer Spur track, which passes the junction with the Fern Walk and climbs steadily up through a mixed forest of fuchsia, broadleaf, lemonwood (tarata) and mahoe, with a glossy carpet of ferns. There are occasional views of the plains as the track passes the junction with Allan’s Track, and some southern rata trees (look out for the crimson flowers at Christmas time). The track then enters the upper alpine shrub belt, which consists of turpentine, flax and dracophyllums. The tarn, which is at an altitude of 900 m, might be something of a disappointment if it has not rained for a while, leaving little more than a sodden bogland. However, there are some splendid specimens of spaniard with razor-sharp flowering stalks, often reaching over a metre in height. The track winds up the spur onto the tussock, with extensive boardwalks higher up. The last 150 m is a steeper, muddier climb to the small, sharp top of Little Mount Peel. There is a beacon on top and a small shelter 20 m below (enclosed, with seats and water).
