Te Araroa 2022/2023

A trend that has gained more and more followers in recent decades is crossing a country on foot, with everything you need to survive in your backpack.

Te Araroa is the name of the Thru Hike in New Zealand, which stretches over about 3,000 km and almost 80,000 meters of altitude from Cape Reinga on the North Island to Bluff on the South Island. It leads over beaches, through forests and mountains. One crosses countless rivers and estuaries. One gets regularly wet and muddy feet and sometimes one dives also completely.

One night when I couldn’t sleep, reading Adam Grand’s “Think Again” gave me the idea to finally change something big in my life and quit my job. At that point, I had already been employed by the same company for 17 years with an interruption to go to college. Subconsciously, I had felt for a long time that I should change something, but it never really came to the surface. Initiating change was always somehow externally motivated in my case. This time it should be different (apart from the book, which is somehow an external factor).😉

Now the push was there, but still without a plan. I still had a year to set the course for my new life. It was clear to me that I can’t/won’t just sit at home, and so the idea gradually emerged to first use my newfound freedom for a really long trip. Since I enjoyed my 30-day hike in New Zealand 2019 so much and I have become a real long-distance hiker by now anyway, I have already hiked across Spain once, I decided to cross the two New Zealand islands in their full length on foot. A distance of over 3000 km in four and a half months.

What seemed unattainable to me in September 2022, I have now mastered. Crossing New Zealand was not only a physical challenge, but above all a mental and emotional journey that gave me many impulses for my personal growth.

In the 136 days from mid-October to the end of February, I covered 3111 km under my own steam. Of this, about 170 km by canoe and 130 km by bicycle. The rest I hiked or walked. In total, I covered an average of 28.3 km per day, with 26 rest days, so every 4.2 days I had a rest day. Some of these were rather involuntary, as I had to wait for better weather or the ferry to the South Island. Including the Zeros, I still have a daily average of 22.9 km.

On this page I want to share everything I learned and experienced with you.

Blogposts

If you want to start reading right at the first blogpost, you can click here.

Overview of all posts from Te Araroa 2022/23

For completeness, here are all the posts from my first trip in 2019

Equipment

The end of Te Araroa – gear I really needed

Here you can find the equipment I took with me on the TA

Expenses

How much money did I spend on Ta Araroa?

stats

Overview map Te Araroa

Elevation profile

Distances walked per day

External links

• Official Te Araroa Website
• DOC – Department of Conservation