New Zealand's 10 Great Walks

Get off the path you tread everyday: New Zealand’s 10 Great Walks are a collection of astounding multi-day trails*.

*Before planning starts, check the DOC website to see which tracks are open

1. TONGARIRO NORTHERN CIRCUIT IS AN ADVENTURE OF TOLKIEN PROPORTIONS

Most walks on Earth don’t look like this. With desert plains that crash into red craters, steaming blisters, neon-bright lakes and three enormous volcanic peaks, this is doomsday meets the great Gates of Mordor. The three-day circuit initially follows the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, but when the path splits, a barren, lunar-like landscape dares you to come hither.

2. WHANGANUI JOURNEY: IS THE ONE THAT MASQUERADES AS A WALK

Is there any such thing as a 150-kilometre walk where you sit down for the entire jaunt? In New Zealand there is. Rowing downstream in a traditional Canadian canoe, The Whanganui Journey is a three to five-day river adventure. Read more on page 46.

3. LAKE WAIKAREMOANA IS MAGICAL TALES ALONG MAGICAL TRAILS

No one can resist the promise of a goblin forest, ethereal waterfalls and patupaiarehe (forest fairies from Māori folklore). Lake Waikaremoana is located in Te Urewera, an area long considered the ancestral home of the Ngāi Tuhoe tribe – the ‘Children of the Mist’. It’s a highly spiritual place that fully enchants its visitors over the course of three to four days.

4. PAPAROA TRACK IS THE NEWEST GREAT WALK IN 25 YEARS

It’s the newest Great Walk to join the repertoire, but Paparoa Track is hugely historic. From its 1930s miners hut to a 100-year-old quartz crushing battery, remnants of the past are frozen in time; none more poignant than the memorial site commemorating 29 lost lives of the Pike River mine explosions. Crossing the Paparoa Range on a track built for both bikers and hikers, the trail climbs steeply over 55 kilometres and three days. Earnest trampers are rewarded with river gorges, limestone cliffs and sunsets worthy of applause.

Paparoa Track, West Coast

© Stewart Nimmo

5. KEPLER TRACK IS MOUNTAINS FOR MILES

For a trail that spends much of its time above the tree line, look no further than the Kepler Track. For 60 kilometres and four days, navigate knife-like ridgelines while gazing across snow-capped peaks and faraway lakes. Come dusk, the sky becomes a canvas for the sun to slay with colour, and by morning, mountain kea will be tapping at the window. These notorious thieves like to recce the area – like a feathered rendition of Ocean’s Eleven.

New Zealand kea © Kiwi Birdlife Park

6. ROUTEBURN TRACK IS LARGER THAN LIFE

There is no phone reception along the 32-kilometre Routeburn Track; no burning emails, social posts, messages or memes. There is only nature. On any given day (there are three in total), you’ll be walking through clouds, staring into crystalline blue lakes or trailing, like ants, between enormous glaciercarved valleys.

7. RAKIURA TRACK IS HEAVEN FOR KIWIS, AND KIWIS!

Kiwi © Orana Wildlife Park

Stewart Island is a wild droplet of Aotearoa that has eloped from the mainland. Playing host to the 32-kilometre, long-looped Rakiura Track, the trail weaves in and out of verdant forest, dropping into secret beaches and private slivers of sand. Stewart Island also boasts high numbers of kiwi, so keep an eye on what’s rustling in the bush.

8. HEAPHY TRACK IS NATURE LIKE YOU’VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE

Heaphy Track, Golden Bay, West Coast

© Department of Conservation

On the Heaphy Track there are nīkau palms, which means ‘no nuts’ in the Māori language because these trees are void of coconuts. There are also powelliphanta: giant carnivorous snails; ruru, a native owl, and gnarly Grimm’s Brother-style trees called rātā, as well as kiwis, the extremely rare blue duck and the jagged peaks of Dragon’s Teeth mountain range. You have 78 kilometres and four days to find them all.

9. ABEL TASMAN COAST TRACK IS A BEACH HOLIDAY WITH A DIFFERENCE

This walk has 60 kilometres of flat coastal track that ducks in and out of bay-peeking forest, so togs are just as necessary as walking boots. If the weather plays nice, you’ll be presented with one blue vista after another. Navigate various low tide crossings to reach empty golden beaches and surprising swimming holes such as Cleopatra’s Cove.

Abel Tasman National Park

© Mārahau Sea Kayaks/Andre Ismael

10. MILFORD TRACK IS THE FINEST WALK IN THE WORLD

Or so said poet, Blanche Baughan in 1908 having experienced the four-day, 53.5-kilometre walk for herself. Arriving here is like being plucked from modern life and deposited in an untouched pocket of the planet. From one beautiful waterfall to the next; mountain-reflecting lakes and a level of green that only nature knows how to create, Blanche may have been an expressive poet, but she didn’t exaggerate this one.

Tramping on the Milford Track

© Real Journeys