⛰️#46 - Vandalism, Fun Zips, SAR, Coastal Summer Tracks, & More

And we are back with the 46th NZ Hiking Newsletter, sent every Friday…or you fall asleep at the laptop and it’s now early Saturday.

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.

🥾 Short Hike, Yet Help SAR Required

The Mount Tutamoe Track (Northland) is only 4km return with DOC suggesting a 4-hour return trip. That’s a KM to time ratio that means you’re in for a tough slog. A lad found that out the hard way when he realised he’d lost the track on the way down. Fortunately, he got a smidgen of reception and was able to contact the police (no PLB?) about his predicament. Search and Rescue (SAR) teams eventually made voice contact with the tramper at 9 pm, achieving a good result. Police statement here.

🛑 Destroying Inanimate Objects Doesn’t Make You Cool

It should be as simple, don’t be a dick and ruin track signs. But with 902 signs in the South Island (probably more in the North Island?) currently awaiting repair or replacement, it’s sad that DOC felt the need to go public to tell us to stop being dicks and ruin track signs. Signs closer to towns tend to see graffiti and vehicle damage, while the remote signs get bullet holes. Don’t be a dick.

A couple of facts from the article:

• DOC manages 26,759 signs.

• DOC spent $350,523 on signs in the 2024/25 financial year

☔ Not That Nature Is Helping Track Maintenance

While humans are destroying signs, the weather is keeping DOC staff busy clearing tracks of treefall and slips where it’s safe to do so. The Milford, Routeburn, and Kepler Great Walks seasons are not off to a great start. The Milford Track opening has been pushed further back to November 19th, while the Kepler and Routeburn are partially closed due to snowfall and resulting avalanche dangers.

This weather is putting more strain on DOC staff, and with refunds on offer for those who can’t go on the booked Great Walk because of the weather…DOC is missing out on revenue. Not ideal.

Make sure to squiz the DOC website for track updates, with other tracks like the Rees-Dart not passable due to a recent large slip…and the road to Chinaman’s Bluff being cut off. Plenty of West Coast tracks are damaged as well.

🏝️ Best Coastal Trails For Summer

Living in Queenstown, it gets easy to think that alpine terrain makes for the best track. But this r/tramping reddit thread popped up with someone asking about the best coastal tramps for summer. Mentions include:

• Cape Brett Track

• South Coast Track

• Northwest Circuit

• Southern Circuit

• Queen Charlotte Track

• Abel Tasman Track

• Te Paki Coastal Track

• Nydia Track

• Hollyford Pyke Loop

I’ll throw in the Hump Ridge and Paekakariki Escarpment Track too.

Hike all those and you’ve had a great summer.

🥾 Matematemonga Track Gets A Haircut

The Greater Wellington Backcountry Network do great track maintenance in the Wellington region. Six members, along with the help of a few others recently went to work on the Matemateonga Track in Whanganui National Park over seven days.

For a 17km section of track to get a No.1 haircut, that’s some hard yakka. Full trip report and photos here.

🛤️ DOC Says No, Community Says Yes, DOC Says OK

45km north of Westport, the Charming Creek Walkway connecting Seddonville and Hector has been closed since 2019 due to slips and treefall, putting the track beyond repair (there’s now a digger buried on the track).

The popular local track closing was sad, but now there’s a bunch of locals putting in the big effort to restore a track following 100+ year old tramway that crosses private land.

Once enough data had been used to confirm a plausible route, and the new owners of the private land were happy for construction of the track to happen…DOC agreed the volunteer group could work to open the track. So at the end of 2026, locals should have a new route connecting Hector and Seddonville once again.

Yay for collaboration. Story here.

🛖 Cattle Creek Hut Get Love Our Huts Love

Regan McGillicuddy and James Wood got plenty of appreciation thanks to their efforts at Cattle Creek Hut in the Ruahines. Having chosen the hut for their Love our Huts & Tracks campaign, they posted before and after photos showing what a difference you can make.

Here’s what Regan posted below, and you can see the photos here:

And you don’t have to officially sign up for the campaign (although the data helps plan the future), as Natalie and her hubby show here.

🎧 Podcast Recommendation

Lou Sanson - From Track Cutter to DOC Boss (The Tramping Life)

• In September, Jonty Crane launched a podcast, The Tramping Life. He’s published 6 episodes so far, interviewing people well known in the hiking/tramping scene in NZ. I’ve listened to a few of them so far, and the first episode with Lou Sanson was my favourite. Lou was out hiking in the backcountry with his mates from as early as 12 years old, which led to many adventures and stories in the backcountry before eventually becoming the Director-General of DOC. That makes it sound easy…it’s not.

😹 Hiking Funny

🎁 A Couple Of Competitions To Enter

• 2025 Cottage Gear Giveaway - enter here (closes November 3rd)

🤐 Zip Nerds Unite + Broken Zip Hack

In a previous newsletter, I referenced the YKK Wikipedia page as a good read. This week a 16-minute video on YKK and zipper history popped up in my feed. If you want to nerd out, you’ll learn something!

It also reminded me of a kiwi company I came across last year, FixnZip. If you’ve got a jacket with a broken zip that’s not covered under warranty, their zip sliders may give your jacket a few more years of life at a more affordable price than paying for the jacket manufacturer or a seamstress to replace the zip.

I haven’t used the zips personally, let me know if you have and how your experience was (Whatsapp +642041702764 or [email protected]).

🧔‍♂️ What I've Been Up To...

The weather hasn’t been ideal, but Saturday morning was a goodie and I managed to get up to the top of Crown Peak behind Arrowtown (I had a fun day on the Arrowtown Trails on Sunday too).

On the way to Crown Peak the snow was super grippy and not more than ankle deep, handy. A friend went a couple of days later and had a much tougher time with knee deep snow.

This weekend will (touchwood) take me to a place I haven’t been to before.

Have a great week, hike it up.

Send me anything you find interesting around the web!

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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