And we are back with the 50th NZ Hiking Newsletter, sent every Friday night, after much procrastination.

We’ve made it to the half-century! The first 6 issues are scattered on various platforms, but I’ve been rather consistent with them since (there was a 4-ish month break over winter), using Beehiiv. The initial goal was to publish 50 issues, but I feel like I need to write the 56th issue before I start thinking about how this newsletter will look in the future.

Annnyway, as usual, 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.

🏔️ Subpar Parks Makes It To NZ

I’ve followed the Subpar Parks Instagram page for a few years now and Amber (page founder) made it to NZ! The Instagram bio explains the concept of the page:

“Real bad reviews of national parks & landmarks by @ambershares_”

She has posted one from Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park so far. But it inspired me to look up other bad reviews on Google for some spots around NZ which I’ll list below.

Roys Peak:

• Woke up at 1AM and on an hour of sleep to see the sunrise at the peak. Had to leave someone behind and lost an ankle for this view. Would be 0 stars but we saw sheep.

• Horrible bathroom, there were no fountains

Tararua Range:

• was a bit too green for my liking

Abel Tasman National Park:

• Not worth the journey.

• That sucks, trust me, I went there.

Tongariro National Park:

• Didn't even see one pyroclastic flow

• Whole area is just tussocks. Don't expect seeing forest or green area.

• Mountain was dusty - no gift shop

🥾 Permalot Community Is Great

I was taking a look through the Permolat Facebook Group, and what jumped out at me was how helpful the community is…and how cool Andrew Buglass, the Founder, seems to be. He’s active in the group and is always helping (he was interviewed on The Tramping Life podcast).

Some of the useful interactions in there from the last week or so:

• Mark asked about a track he was going to use on his way to doing some Love Our Huts work on the west coast. Based on responses, he’ll take some tools and help with track maintenance while cleaning huts.

• Penzy asked about some recce’s for a traverse she’s planning in Fiordland that gets minimal traffic. She got some promising intel!

• Michal posted some photos from the Lewis Pass area, showing photos how the recent storms had done some damage.

What seems to be a common theme is that huts with cleaning supplies are generally kept in better condition (which is logical). This is a reminder to myself, really. I’ll try and bring some cleaning products when I’m staying at the hut.

🚫 Wairere Falls Track Still Closed

I wasn’t aware that the Wairere Falls Track near Matamata is still closed. It’s a great track, but given it’s so close to Matamata (a.k.a. home of Hobbiton), it gets a lot of traffic from regular hikers to people who haven’t been on any kind of hike before. DOC says the track will be closed into 2026…no specific date is mentioned, but with regular rockfall, they’re urging those who think they’re too cool to ignore the track closed signs to chill out. There’s a 3m wide boulder ready to go at any point. More details here.

😹 Hiking Funny

annnnd, a not so funny….

🐦‍⬛One For The Bird Nerds

I’ve started appreciating birdlife on hikes more. Maybe it helps that I don’t wear earphones as much as I used to and can pay more attention??

Anyway, in bird news this week:

• A study on robin (cool bird) won an award, but shows how vulnerable to predators small localised populations can be. Abstract here.

• This is a cool trip report about finding an unexpected kiwi burrow, and one of the kiwis had quite the history. All good things. Trip report here.

• A good article about the 1080 on Stewart Island that is hoping to save the dotteral population. There are interviews with people on both sides of the tense 1080 debacle on the island. Full article here.

💰 The Te Araroa Trust Wants Donations

The Te Araroa Trust sent an email about their next fundraising target, and what it’s going towards. It’s the Longwood Range, not too far from Invercargill. I haven’t been there, but have eard about this section a lot for its deep boggy sections.

The TA Trust are aiming to raise $30,000 to build a boardwalk through 1000 metres of the worst section. This is phase one of the Longwoods project…though they don’t indicate what the ultimate goal is.

There was a discussion in the TA Facebook Group about the fundraiser. It seems like many loved the hilarity of this section, but know that a boardwalk is a solid solution to protect the environment going forward, especially with TA hiker numbers increasing year on year.

You can read more and donate here.

🧔‍♂️ What I've Been Up To...

I finally made it back to the West Coast for the first time in way too long. The reason for was awesome overnight adventure to Mataketake Hut. Finished in 2021, it’s not gotten overly popular (yet) with plenty of spots bookable over summer.

I can’t help but feel like this would be way more popular already if painted alpine red, like Mueller Hut etc.

Yay for not doing so.

Here’s the full blog I wrote about it: https://churnewzealand.com/mataketake-hut/

If you want to read about the hike, read the blog post. But something that surprised me was how few people potentially sign hut/intention books. On the way into the hut, I chatted with a couple of groups, and one hiker mentioned the hut was full that night, along with two tents.

When we go o the hut, I did the usual thing of filling in the details then browsed the recent entries. For the previous night there was only two entries…for three people total.

That confused me! Looking through the book closer, it seemed that 90+% of entries were from the Otago/Canterbury area.

So now I’m trying to work out if people visiting New Zealand aren’t aware of hut books, people are staying at the hut without paying and don’t want to leave a trace, or just don’t care about filing it out. Who knows! I might try and follow up with DOC about who booked on Saturday night…TBD.

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

p.s. get your friends to sign up to the newsletter: https://nzhikingnewsletter.beehiiv.com/subscribe