⛰️#21 - Abel Tasman Chat, A Kiwi Camino, Day In The Life Of A Hut Ranger, & More.

And we are back with the 21st NZ Hiking Newsletter, sent every Thursday-ish.

I'll let you know what’s going on in the hiking scene in New Zealand, along with other related bits and pieces I find interesting.

Random Fact:

Best known as McKinnon Pass, the famous viewpoint on the Milford Track, had it’s name formally changed to Omanui / McKinnon Pass in July 2022 (used to be spelt Mackinnon). Omanui as it’s known to Maori means the "the great running" or "the great escape".

Alright, let’s get into it.

🏞️ Three Abel Tasman National Park Things

Another Bach Bites The Dust…

The last privately owned bach in Abel Tasman National Park will soon be demolished. Owned by the Park family, it was originally on private land in Uarau Bay, but that eventually became DOC land. The owner at the time, Jack Park was given a lifetime lease to keep the cottage on the land. With Jack passing away last year, DOC hasn’t taken long to let his son, Ricky, know it was going to get demo’ed sooner rather than later. I do think it’d be cool to keep the cottage…maybe it could be a public hut? But that’s not going to happen and Ricky will soon take his last trip to Uarau Bay where he’s had a good lifetime of memories. Full story here.

Spot The Bush Robin…

If you spot a bush robin (same size as a sparrow, grey with a white chest and long legs) in Abel Tasman National Park in January, record your observation with a photo, time, and location. Then report it on the Abel Tasman App or on this link. The bush robin had been more or less unseen for 30 years in the National Park but has been making a comeback. The Project Janszoon team will be using the crowd-sourced observations and bird sounds collected to get a better picture of how big the population is. I always enjoy a robin on the trail, super friendly and inquisitive but not annoying. Good bird. Full story here.

KAKA

Last month three kaka were released into Abel Tasman National Park. That makes 38 released over 12 years, and with 31 being born in the wild over that time period, that’s enough kaka to sustain a population on its own. Thus marking the end of the project. Solid bird and it’s satisfying name to say…KAKA. Full story here.

Visitor Beware

If you’ve read this and are thinking Abel Tasman National Park needs to be revisited again, you’ll be glad to know it gets a 4.8/5 star rating on Google Maps. But you might need to ignore Andrea T’s review from 3 days ago, she gave it a sad 2 stars and cannot recommend.

🗒️ Other Track News Etc.

• There are some cool old photos of National Parks (in black & white) in this article with a few from NZ making the list. The photo above is of George Sound in Fiordland National Park, 1885.

• Submissions are open about a 500km camino-esque walking trail on the east coast between Gisborne and Opotiki. This does sound awesome if it comes to fruition. You can read about it here.

• There was some drama around a report mentioning basic bivys/huts could cost $57/night (and bookable) in a way for DOC to earn more revenue. I need to research into this more before deciding if there’s a chance this might actually happen and forming an opinion. You can read about it here, and listen to FMC President Megan chat about it here.

• ThePress.co.nz re-published a trip report the Christchurch Tramping Club took to Mueller Hut. It’s a handy insight into how Tramping Clubs go about trips and crikey when you think about it, there are often so many small things that go ‘wrong’ on a trip, as they did on this one.

• Iris Burn Hut Ranger Caleb McDonald shares his daily activities (and work schedule) in this interview. It all sounds pretty rosy until he starts listing some of the challenges of the job…

• If you plan to visit the Queenstown DOC Visitor Centre between Jan 13th and 26th, it has a temporary home on Mull Street in Glenorchy. Glenorchy is the gateway to many of the epic hikes (think Routeburn, Greenstone Caples, Rees Dart, Earnslaw Burn to start with). It’ll be interesting to see the reaction to this. (source)

🎁 A Couple Of Competitions To Enter

• Win a Yeti (because they’re never discounted) - enter here (closes Feb 12th)

• Win the ultimate adventure kit with Barnaby Outdoor - enter here (closes Jan 19th)

🧔‍♂️ What I've Been Up To...

The highlight of my week was doing the Rees-Dart loop (clockwise). It’d been about 3 years since I last did the loop, which was totally different from how I remembered it. There was way more sections of cool native forest than I remember. Especially on the Dart River side. I think when I previously did the loop it was super hot, so the sections around Cattle Flat are scorched into my brain. Good loop, but you do need to add the Cascade Saddle side trip to make it epic.

The lowlight…slipping in a boggy section on the Rees side and with that, taking my phone for a bog bath. RIP.

Have a great week, hike it up.

As always, reply to this email (or message me on Whatsapp +642041702764) with anything and everything…I’m happy to chat.

Chur,

Jub

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