June 2023

Te ARAROA
Written By Peter Boyle

Distance Walked: 0

Date 11 June 2023

Hitched

End of day Trail Marker:

Weather: Great end of summer weekend

Note: An Adventure put on hold

Hello to Everybody,

For those of you who don’t know each of the world’s great Trails have what you could call preferred seasons, this is the time of the year that hikers would have the best chance of completing the trail in favorable weather conditions.

Te ARAROA’s season is from the start of October to the end of March the following year.

So you now know there are 6 months of the year that will most likely have suitable weather for most of the time, on top of this you then have to consider what each individual hiker hopes to achieve it could be:

  • The full Trail

  • Just the North or South island

  • Just the interesting parts, that could mean no road walking

And then you need to decide if you are going to be true to the trail and hike the lot (A Purist), or

Get to the end no matter what you have to do i.e. hitch hike, public transport or Trail Angels

Please don’t quote me, however I would think that there would not be too many hikers that have not accepted a lift for one reason or another:

  • Rivers could be too high to cross and there is not enough food to wait until it is safe to cross.

  • Injury, or even re supply.

I was and still am hoping to be as close to a purist as I possibly can.

You may have guessed by now the 2022/23 season came to a un official close at the end of March.

My 2 main hiking companions Astrid & Jerome have recently completed their adventure. I am not sure how much of the trail they actually hiked, what I can tell you is that it would have been different for both and both of them are extremely happy with their achievements.

I have included below their pictures taken at the finish line or maybe it is a little past the finish line but I’m sure you get the idea

They both sent the following with their picture.

  • Astrid: I am at Bluff, I have killed the Bastard off. Tired but Happy

  • Jerome: To me “You have something beautiful to look forward to. It is going to be tough and difficult but also one of the most epic things that you can do, Your journey is going to be different to mine but you are going to do something that will redefine you for the rest of your life”

From what I can tell out of the group that were together on the first night almost 20, only 5 that we know of made it to Bluff.

Jerome finished sometime around the 21st of March 2023

Astrid finished sometime around the 22nd of Feb 2023

In closing, whilst I feel like a beginner again I would be very happy if you all came along for the Journey that remains.

I will be re assessing all of my plans;

  • Fitness, I am already back at the gym 2 times a week.

  • Equipment, I have already changed back to my Z Packs lightweight pack

  • Drop boxes

  • Podiatrist every 3 months

The Blog posts will be random in the short term until I can finalize my new start date.

Take care

Peter Boyle