🏔️#22 - Te Araroa FKT, 1960's Plateau Hut Photos, Dissectioning Tells A Story, & More

And we are back with the 22nd NZ Hiking Newsletter, sent every Thursday (well, just after midnight Thursday this week).

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.

Alright, let’s get into it.

🛖 They Don’t Build ‘Em Like They Used To

Imagine DOC posting photos of a hut build like the one above in today’s PC world? People would be sacked.

This is one of 21 photos shared by Harry Maher of the construction of Plateau Hut (~2,2000 metres above sea level) in Mount Cook National Park from the 1960’s (he had them digitalized).

They’re so cool to look at.

Harry’s Dad, Blue Maher led the construction team. The top photos in the series for me, in addition to the above are:

• the kitchen in the snow cave

• the lad digging, bare-chested

• the snow and wooden frame contrast

I enjoyed this wee chat in the comments as well. The perfect example of how stories can evolve depending on who shares them most.

You can also see some photos Harry shared from the construction of Tasman Saddle hut here.

👣 Doing The Te Araroa Trail In 30 Days?!?!

While most people will say that Karel Sabbe is running the Te Araroa Trail on his attempt at the Fastest Known Time, Stuff.co.nz called him a hiker (I just clicked on the article again, and it seems as though the article has been edited to say running), so I’m going to write a wee section about it here.

In short, Karel Sabbe, a dentist from Belgium left Cape Reinga less than 24 hours ago and is planning to complete the 3,000km Te Araroa in 30 days (all going well). I’m going to be following along over the next month-ish as he heads down the country.

The current record is 49 days (plus change), which is impressive compared to most hikers who take 4-ish-ish months. 30 days? HECTIC.

But there’s a method to this madness and while many will have opinions on how he is not experiencing the TA like it was designed to be, each to their own (he hiked the South Island section in 2015).

Will he hit the goal? I’ll put money on him doing so…he’s got the pedigree.

He’s completed the Pacific Crest Trail and Appalachian Trail in record times among other great endurance feats (here’s a great story in an Instragram post where it doesn’t always work out for him).

People often ask if I have any interest in the TA. Honestly, not really. If I was to do a thru-hike, it’d be overseas. The four I’ve looked into to various degrees are:

• The Trans Caucasian Trail crossing Georgia and Armenia…the only scary thing is the big farm dogs in that area…having come across them hiking in Georgia previously, that’s stressful.

• The Zagros Mountain Trail (does 215km count as a thru-hike?) in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. I did reach out to some guides last year about doing this, but it quickly got annoying with the back and forth so I moved on to other ideas.

• The 615km Jordan Trail…which I’ve only researched briefly, but it’d be a cool way to explore the country, Jordan.

• The 1,200km Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage in Japan…you can bike sections of this one, which could be a fun way to mix it up perhaps?

I’d love to chat with you if you have done one of these hikes!

If you want to follow along with Kare'l’s progress, here are some useful links:

• @Karel Sabbe on Instagram

• @Karel Sabbe Crew on Instagram - the team who is doing everything to keep him moving

• Live Tracking (he completed about 123km on day 1)

• A podcast touching on his upcoming attempt (great conversation)

• Pacing The Pacific - a great doco on his Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) FKT attempt

😹 Hiking Funny

🗒️ Other Track News Etc.

• I’ve never been a fan of the All Trails app/website, but there’s no doubt it’s popular. And I wouldn’t be surprised if the Humpridge Track gets a boost in bookings as a result of the trail getting named in the All Trails Top 25 for 2025. It’s not just based on ratings, and apparently, it took months to form the list? Read how it was formed and the other 24 tracks.

• If you’ve been on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing (or drive around the National Park), you’ll hopefully have seen Ngauruhoe (a.k.a Mount Doom), one NZ’s most active volcanoes. There’s a nice summary of its history here.

• While it would be awesome to have the right to roam all over the country, we have to respect the rules in NZ, and if you need to cross private land you should seek permission (unless there’s an agreement that the public can do) from the landowner before doing so. This might take extra effort, but most landowners are pretty good about granting access if you’re nice about it (and respect them if they don’t, they may have their reasons). In this case, a box of beers worked a charm.

• I recently came across the Mahakirau Forest Sanctuary Facebook page and it made for some interesting reading in regards to insights from trappings. In this post (there are some gross photos) they talk about what they found after directing 19 stoats. And it’s an instant reminder of how vital trapping is to help NZ’s native wildlife. Read here.

🧔‍♂️ What I've Been Up To...

I made it to the summit of Mount Larkins! I’d thought about this one for a couple of years but wasn’t sure if I had the skill/comfort levels to get there, as the route looks a bit intimidating looking up to the summit from Kelly’s Hut (private).

But it turns out I was fine (besides one spot where I considered turning back), but it helped having someone along who had been up there a few times and knew my rough skill level (cheers Zak).

Heather Jock Hut on the Mount Judah Track is becoming an increasingly (I think) overnight hike, and it’s awesome. But it’s also a great gateway to Mount Alaska and/or Mount Larkins if you’ve got the experience.

And I was able to submit 3 kea sightings to the Kea Database.

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.

Thanks to those who have replied over the last few weeks, it’s always fun to see some replies emails in the inbox!

Chur,

Jub

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