Te Araroa begins in Cape Reinga and ends in Bluff. Photo: 123RF
Thousands of people walked the 3000-kilometre Te Araroa trail end to end last year, with many more taking day trips for sections of trail. It starts in Cape Reinga and ends in Bluff, crossing farmland, cities, and Cook Strait.
The route was opened in 2011, and founder Geoff Chapple, who also worked on the trail alongside his wife, said he's still hearing from people making the journey.
"People find out who I am, and we get little videos come across, say a group of six people finish the trail and they all do a choreographed leap into the air down at the bluff signpost and say, 'Thank you, Geoff and Miriam!'
Chapple walked the trail before it was established to prove it would work and said aside from a dicey experience crossing the Turakina River it was a great experience.
"I did as I say every effing inch of the route. But it wasn't always bang on the actual trail route as it emerged, because fundamentally the idea of that walk was to popularise the trail, to show the diverse landscapes, the people you meet, the general culture of New Zealand, the history on the way through."
Content creator Sharon Evans was one of thousands to walk the trail last summer and logged her experience under the username Freewheeling Kiwi.
"I thought going into it, 'you're going to have all this time and you're going to be able to figure out all those big questions, get all the answers'. But of course, you don't. You're just so busy day-to-day living and surviving."
Of course, there were some pretty testing moments. Evans said one that stands out was right at the beginning, when the shoes she brought turned out to not be fit for the trail and spent the first few hundred kilometres shredding her feet.
"I carried on just bandaging, taking painkillers, taking anti-inflammatories, dropping, dropping bits of body parts, toenails. Lost half my toenails in that first month."
That episode ended in a trip to A&E for antibiotics, and a new pair of shoes for the next section of trail that were a full size larger to accommodate all the bandaging.
Evans said despite that she had a wonderful time on the trail and one of the best bits was getting to know her fellow walkers.
The number of people making the walk has gone up by around 10 percent each year.
Trail executive director Matt Claridge said these days that's around 2000 a year, and the big focus is on keeping the track going and looking after the environment.
"Every donation we receive goes to care and repair of the trail, that's our pledge and walkers are our primary source of donations.
"We ask the walkers if you're going from one end of the country to the other, donate $850. That's about $0.25 a kilometre."
Claridge said the annual cost of maintaining the trail is between $1000 to $1500 per kilometre.
The next goal is to make the trail a regenerative one.
"The popularity of Te Araroa is certainly growing, and we're really really mindful of that. We've developed a new strategy and new approach called whakahou which is to develop Te Araroa as a regenerative trail.
"Really briefly that means that as a result of walkers being on the trail, the trail, the corridor, the relationships with landowners should all get better."
Chapple is supportive of that objective.
"A big part of our task still is to absolutely secure the route and to maintain that route beautifully.
"I see they now have a strategic plan that goes with this idea of renewal in and around the route. I think that's terrific. I think that's really good."
