Out of the entire 3,000 kilometre TA, I was about to hit its most unpopular section. Everyone who was already cherry-picking and skipping sections, was definitely going to skip this. And those who hadn’t, were considering it.
Are you preparing for your first thru-hike and find yourself completely overwhelmed by all the gear lists, technical terms and lightweight or ultralight musings? Like when you read other hiker’s blogs and they talk about their trail runners getting soaked while walking through wet grass and you just think: ‘What in the world are trail runners? Aren’t hiking shoes waterproof?’ If that’s you, then this blog post is for you.
If there’s one element that pervades everyone’s experience of walking the TA, it’s water. Streams, rivers, the sea, inlets and estuaries. New Zealand loves them. The TA loves them. They haunt you.
‘Trail name or real name?’ That was my reply whenever another hiker asked for my name, those first few weeks on trail. Trail names are a funny thing. Some hikers are keen on them, some not so much.
The Te Araroa settled into its typical north island behaviour. Each day the trail would take me though a variety of beach, farmland, 4wd backroads, forest tracks and roads: a collection of everything and nothing in specific. But I was about to create my own drama for a couple of days. And this is what happened.
The muddy forests. Three Northland forests made of nothing more than a jungle of trees and mud. It’s an introduction to bushwhacking more than anything else, with rivers to replace eroded tracks but mostly, it’s a cruel initiation to mud.
The first time the tidal wave hit me, I was running along the beach, trying to get to the next rocky section when suddenly the lashing of water hit…
It was twenty to eight on a Saturday morning when I alighted the train where I’d spent the past eleven hours playing origami on my
I’m really excited I wrote a story for GLAMOUR! If you’re interested in backpacking and curious about how to get into it, this is a good tale of what you probably don’t want your first trip to be like. But let me tell you, it was definitely an adventure!
My day-to-day account of this 3-week hike from Tokyo to Kyoto, an urban hike along the 53 stations of Tōkaidō, interspersed with several nature trails and old Edo architecture…
Early January 2017 I flew to Japan, landing with the cold of winter and ready to walk the 514 km old Tōkaidō route, from Tokyo to Kyoto. This page discusses all the planning and logistics to start this 3 week hike.
Update your bookmarks! A new blog name and a short post on what’s to come…
Trying to figure out what to pack for Iceland? This is my hiking gear list for a 2,500 km trek around the country and includes everything to keep you safe and warm…
Everything you ever wanted to know about (wild) camping in Iceland! A guide to campgrounds and amenities and stories about camping wild!
Do you want to know what it’s like to hike around Iceland’s ring road twice? I thought I’d put together a Q&A post to answer what’s it really like to walk 2,500 km around a country that is notorious for being icy cold and always wet…
© 2020 ROSIE HOOD-KING
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