Other North Island Walks

The Hauraki Gulf

During our boating days we were lucky enough to be able to walk on the many tracks that existing on the Islands of the Hauraki Gulf.

From the rugged beauty of Great Barrier Island through to the old trails used by Govenor Grey on Kawau. The bird sanctuary on Tiritiri Matangi, the habit restoration on Motuora and the scotching hot walks around Rangitoto. Waiheke had many walks from urban wanders around Oneroa, beach walks at Onetangi to more impressive views that we enjoyed from Stony Batter at the northern end of the Island.

On the mainland, we have enjoyed walks at Tawharanui Regional Park, The Whangaparaoa Peninsular has plenty of walking – try Shakespear Regional Park and for a change, walk around Auckland, we did it like we would any city overseas and really enjoyed the experience.

What an amazing place the Gulf is.

Taranaki

Cliff has climbed to the summit of Mt Taranaki and while it looks easy enough treat the mountain with extreme respect, at last count over 80 people have lost their lives on it. For a pleasant range of scenery, bush and rivers, try one of the many day walks available.

Most of the towns have local walks, we were able to find what Opunake had to offer in early 2017. The New Plymouth Coastal walkway we cycled but a walk will fill in the better part of a day, especially if you walk it from end to end.

We stayed in a BnB on a remote stretch of the Mokau river and were able to spend the better part of a day wandering over the farm tracks in what transpired to be a very pretty area. Try doing something like this, you will have the place to yourselves.

Other North Island Walks

The Tongariro Crossing is probably one of the best known one day walks in New Zealand. We walked in in 2017 and while it was beautiful it was very crowded. It is a tough one day walk but if you go well prepared it is very do-able – even at our age.

A very different experience for us was staying on a farm on the remote East Coast of the North Island. We spent three days hiking over the property and stayed in accommodation such as the old shearers quarters. If was a lot of fun.

I lived in Wellington for many years and have walked most of the tracks that are easily accessible from the city. However, that was before the days of the Internet let alone blogs. We are intending to get back down their soon and do some walking and cycling. Hopefully I can improve my notes in due course.

Unfortunately, many of the walks that we have undertaken have not warranted a blog post.