14km Day : 1035km Total
13 March 2015
-40.73753, 175.398656
With only a few weeks left in New Zealand I’ve been giving consideration to which trails to hike during the time I have left.
While I was hiking on the South Island I had several other trampers tell me that the best trails on the North Island are in the Tararua Range. So here I am.
I started at the trailhead at the end of Poads Road near Levin at 8 o’clock this morning. Briefly walking through a pasture before climbing a forest path into the mountains.
Most of the morning I walked through a light fog so that even when in an open section of track it looked as if I was on an island in a sea of white. It was a day mostly of climbing, starting with a thousand meter climb to Waiopehu then a 350m descent to Butcher Saddle before climbing another 250m.
The fog started to lift in the afternoon and gave me some views of the surrounding mountains.
I arrived at Te Matawai Hut at 5pm with sore legs from all of the climbing. The last 2 weeks of being a tourist and doing little hiking has reduced my hiking fitness and made this walk a lot more difficult.
About the Hike 