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Te Araroa (Southern Section of South Island) Thru-Hike

Home Page > Camping > Te Araroa (South) Thru-Hike

Between January and March 2026, we plan to walk the southern section of the Te Araroa Thru-Hike on the South Island of New Zealand. We will start in Invercargill and walk to Lake Tekapo. The total distance is expected to be about 600 km with the route shown on the map below. Walking progress will be shown on the map by placing a marker (dot) at the places we stay/camp.




We left Perth on a 41 degree day, so the southernmost town in New Zealand seemed like a smart choice! We flew Air NZ just before 19:00 so left home 14:45, taking the Green Cat bus from our front door to City West train station and then had a 5 minute wait for an airport train. We do not miss travelling with cycle touring gear at all. Mike remembered that there are showers for travellers' use at the airport. We have never used them. There is one airside and one landside. After checking in we sat for a bit and then had a shower which was great. We have not flown Air NZ since 2009. The flight was to Auckland and then a domestic flight to Invercargill. The first fight was around 5.5 hours, and after some deliberation we had bought exit row seats even though it's a pretty short flight. We were looking forward to that as it's a busy time of year and the flight was full. However, getting on the plane we got to our seats and found they were regular seats. Sad face. We would have to take this up with the airline. When the captain gave him schpiel he explained that due to maintenance requirements of the aircraft initially assigned, the plane had been swapped for this one and so "sorry about that" to passengers that were without their assigned seats. At least we left on time. We did not get any sleep and Invercargill is 5 hours ahead of Perth so that was not great.

In Auckland, we needed to collect our packs and then go through the biosecurity check point as we had camping gear which we declared. There is an online declaration process for NZ which you can do 24 hours before flying and is a great initiative. Biosecurity is something New Zealand takes very seriously, and so they should. In fact, New Zealand are next-level on the biosecurity front when compared with Australia. We had our boots and hiking poles inspected and our tent taken away to be x-rayed. We are happy to report it is in perfect health. The plane to Invercargill was not as full and we had a pleasant flight. Arriving in Invercargill at 11:30 was nice, the weather was overcast, but good, and we took a short 3 km walk into town from the airport to our hotel, the Kelvin Hotel. We dropped our bags and went to get something to eat. We were able to check in at 14:00 and our room was great, even had a bath! There were many windows to open and we did. We caught up on sleep and still slept in the next day. We picked up more hiking food and also fuel for our stove. We have brought the trusty MSR as who could deal with the Primus stove dramas we had in Spain? It turns out the MRS XGK is not even any heavier that the Primus Omnifuel. But of course it does not allow for the use of a gas canister. We were treated to a piped band performance on the next block as there was an event on at Scottish House.

After a restful day, when the weather was good, we set off in the rain on 24 January. It is forecast heavy rain today and tomorrow. The walking was uneventful, all flat along the footpath running along the Oreti Beach road. We picked up some water at the campsite there. The beach sand is good for walking, hard-packed. There were were a few fisherman out. The sea was pretty rough and even though it was high tide, the beach was very wide so at low tide it must be massive. Luckily we had the wind at our backs. We passed two pairs of hikers coming towards us and that must have been tough going, that headwind. It wasn't cold and the rain wasn't heavy, but it was very windy. We are walking towards Riverton, the next town on the coast. We crossed a river, taking off boots and socks to do so and a couple of km's after that found a relatively sheltered spot in the dunes to camp. It was just short of a 6 hour day from start to end and we covered 20 km so that was good. Tired feet and legs by the end from the flat terrain. The wind may drop later.


Windy and wet night but it was a good campsite under the circumstances. We were walking by 08:00. No coffee or oats for brekky as it is too complicated in a tent on a rainy day. We made do with a cereal bar. It was a 12 km beach walk to Riverton and the wind was mostly a crosswind. We passed three hikers coming towards us. There were rain showers, but the heaviest came when we were in the supermarket in Riverton which was lucky. Riverton is a very pretty village with very friendly people. The public toilets were spotless and many people stopped to use them while we sat on a bench outside. We bought a coffee and relaxed for a bit. A local gent came over for a yarn and commented on the weather. Of course it is very unusual for this time of year to have the rain and low temperatures. This is what people always tell us wherever we go. But the rain has not been all that bad and it is not cold. We were perfectly warm in our very airy Hilleberg Rogan tent last night. We were both quite sore all over from the walk the day before. We can't remember if we always feel this way at the start of a hike.

After shopping in Riverton we went to the local skate park which had a well-positioned shelter and had breakfast. We set off up the hill with heavy packs now, heading away from the coast and towards the Mores Scenic Reserve. It was great having views seemingly all the way back to Invercargill from up there. The reserve was beautiful, all ferns and deep greenery. After passing through it we crossed into farmland by way of a very high stile and soon were in sight of the sea again, and plenty of very wooly merino sheep. The trail crosses paddocks and dips down to the ocean and rocky shoreline. We enjoy this more than beach walking.

Mike found a camp spot in a narrow corridor between paddock fence and natural reed beds. It was a bit of a climb to get to. It is such a sheltered spot and there is very little rain now. We can hear the sheep. From here it is 50-odd km's to our next resupply point at Otautau.


We enjoyed our sheltered camp spot and had a good night. We had breakfast in the tent this morning and were on the trail by 08:00. It felt great to have had a warm mug of oats and a coffee, made a real difference. It was uppy downy, from paddock to little beach and back until we hit the flat beach walking before Colac Bay. Even though it was a still raining it was a beautiful morning. We stopped at a shelter before the village to have tea and a snack. Once again, spotless public toilet. A young couple came along and the bloke had a chat to us. He was from Invercargill but living in Christchurch. Once again, very friendly New Zealander. A big rain storm came through while we sat there and we had to leave in it. By the time we got to Colac Bay it had stopped. It's a tiny place on a lovely bay and another friendly man organised us some drinking water at the tavern, taking our bottles to fill up for us. Everyone here has been to Perth or holiday's there, or knows someone who has moved to Perth, or like the young bloke at the shelter, wants to move to Perth for the opportunities. A little further on an open studio door advertised a weaving loom and handmade merino wool products and the lady that came in to talk to us was also lovely. People were warning us now about the Longwood Forest Track that we were almost at the start of. Usual story, "Mud up to your knees/thighs/eyeballs" (the last one was just the way it felt the descriptions were going). The weaving lady had a little dog who sang instead of barking which was novel and also preferable in a dog.

Leaving the coast behind us, we had a few k's of road walking out of Colac Bay (btw we think we came here in 2009 en route to Invercargill by bike) before turning off onto a gravel track up to Longwood Forest Reserve. This was really beautiful. Trees ferns and ground ferns, ground cover, pretty forest woodland and a great little gravel walking track. Once we left the track which was mostly laid on for day trippers, the mud bath did eventuate and just got worse and worse. The going was super slow, eventually only 1 km an hour as we tried to detour off track through bush or otherwise stop to figure out the best way through the mud. Occasionally the mud sucked our boots in but we managed to escape. You just had to be really careful not to slip or fall as every piece of wood is a potential trap. After 2.5 hours of this we had covered just more than a couple of km's. The hut we were aiming for was still 3 km away and it was 16:00. At this rate we would get there by 19:00 and as the track conditions were getting worse and worse, maybe later. It was raining again and as we were making uphill progress, it was a little misty. The Turnbull's Hut, which we were aiming for was very small and we were planning on camping outside it anyway, so when we saw a fairly good spot to camp by the trail we just did it. Wet everything, trekking pants are beyond dirty and boots will never be the same. Into the tent, no shower, just a wipe down with wet towel. Longwood Forest Track will welcome us back tomorrow.


We had a pretty good night, no rain and then quite heavy in the early hours. We were up and on the trail, sharing a cereal bar at 07:15. We felt a little daunted by the day now that we knew what we were in for. We had only 3 km to that first hut, Turnbull's and it took 2 hours 15 min. Mega-mud. Turnbull's would have been a non-starter for anyone who had planned to overnight there. It was a tiny, dingy place and difficult even to make it to the front door through the thick mud. There was a very nice camp spot just beyond it however. The river was a distance away and we filtered water there. We met a young bloke from Georgia, USA who had walked all the way from the North. He was a nice guy, gave us some advice about the rest of the trail through Longwood. We were planning on turning off the trail at Bald Hill Quarry Road to get to Otautau for resupply, however he suggested we rather take the Cascade Trail at Martin's Hut. He had not done that but he knew others who had. A bit further on we met another solo walker, an older man from Newcastle in New South Wales. He had walked up from Otautau and joined the trail at Martin's Hut using the Cascade Trail and recommended it. He had walked from Martin's to where we met him just shy of Turnbull's Hut in around 2 and a half hours and told of very muddy conditions. We soldiered on. The forest was spectacular really, and this trail is the best way to see and experience this ancient landscape, but the mud was a debacle. Also many fallen trees which are left where they fall and walkers have too find a way around or over/under. In this way the forest remains virginal. The weather was good, no rain and we even saw some shadows.

It took around 3 hours to get to Martin's. The hut was a little nicer but showed signs of a leaking roof as the floorboards were wet. There was not room for camping as the grass around the hut was flooded. At this point we had walked 9 km in 5 and a quarter hours. We had lunch and got onto the Cascade Trail at 15:00. We were ready to leave Longwood Forest behind us. It was 1.5 km quite steep downhill and then we joined a lovely unsealed road, still through forest. We found a small beach where the river rushed under the road bridge and had a freezing cold swim in deep water. It was amazing! First swim of the trip! We felt so clean after. We manage to soak and scrub our trekking trousers in the stream and got the mud off. It is interesting to hear people talk of "mud up to my knees", or "mud up to my thighs". But the mud can only actually come up to your ankle, any higher and you would not be able to pull your foot free. Certainly if the mud came up to your knee you would be done for. Looking at our muddy trousers it was clear that we had mud up to our knees and thighs but this would just be from collecting it everywhere.

We had a great campspot just on the road and near the river where we could actually sit in the sun, dry out our stuff and our new Solly got his first outing charging Mike's phone. Even though it was 17:30 when we sat down to relax and have a coffee, enjoying some blue sky, it felt like our first relaxing end to the day since we started the walk.


We really looked forward to an easier, mud free day today! We set off just after 08:30 and the first 10 km was wonderful walking through forest and farmland. The forest was the same ferny affair that we had on the muddy track minus the mud and we were on mostly wide forestry tracks. There are two options with getting to Otautau and both are approximately the same distance and we thought on similar tracks to the one we had been using. We chose the one through Jubilee forest which would bring us into the southern end of the village right next to the arboretum where there is free camping and picnic area. That way we can walk the 2 km through the village tomorrow and on to the next section of the trail. The other track takes you straight into the village which most people do as they stay in the pub or hotel. We had a rest on a fallen tree trunk and then set up the steep hill to the forest. At the gated entrance there were signs advising that there was no access to the forest road due to logging, however we only had a short way to walk before turning off the main track so took a chance that we would be unseen. There was no one about and we cruised up the hill which was called Link Road.

Turning off Link Road onto Glenburn Road we were in Longwood Forest Conservation Area again but the path was grassy and seemed benign, tightly hedged with bushes. Until we hit our first fallen tree. We knew that a severe storm had passed through Otautau in October last year and clearly it had hit this place hard. By the time we had detoured around our tenth fallen tree we stopped counting. The trees which had fallen were very mature ie. HUGE pine trees and they fell directly across the path completely blocking any passage. The trees had massive trunks and branches the size of massive trunks on their own. Lying on their sides over the track they were far, far taller than us. It was carnage and painfully slow as we would have to check out various options with getting around these fallen giants. The root systems alone, pulled up directly next to the path were metres high and it was impossible to walk through the holes they left. The whole issue was made more complicated by very prickly wildrose creepers which the trees brought down with them and made passage impossible. So we were back to very, very slow progress. Not by mud this time but these trees. We did see two curious deer on this track which didn't seem to have the same issue with the trees. Eventually getting to the other side and off the Fallen Tree Alley it was down the hill through cleared forest and mercifully right at the intersection with the national road was our campsite. We got there around 16:30 which was not too bad all things considered. It had remained dry today, no rain at all and we had worn shorts which was really nice. Boots are drying out. We managed a good shower at the campsite with our shower bag and dried out a lot of our stuff in the brisk breeze. The campsite is a lovely facility provided by this community.


Mike did some thinking in the early dawn and worked out that due to camping limitations we would have to walk 24 km per day for two days from Otautau. We had initially planned for 6 and a bit days for the next section of walking, which ends at the road to Te Anu. However if we walked two days of 24 km and three of 18 km we could do the 6 days in 5 which also helps with the amount of food to carry. It was a very windy day and the little arboretum campsite was exactly all we needed. We did not even have to get any food in town (2 km away) as we had enough to make do. So we had a lovely day off at the campsite. There were sunny periods and we could charge our battery, phones, mattress pump, earbuds etc. using Solly which was brilliant as we could leave for the next stint at 100% all round. We also dried out our boots and I dried out my feet which looked to be dissolving after the mudfest.

Friday we felt very ready to set off and it was the best weather day we have had. No wind at all and sunny. Happy face! We set off at 07:15 and arrived in Otautau at 07:45. The supermarket opened at 08:00 so we picked up some cheese buns and coffee's at the bakery and sat in the playground/picnic area until we could go and shop. We bought heaps of food. It was good that the first stint was also 5 full days as we knew what we needed to get and the extras that we wanted. The supermarkets here all do soft white Vienna style bread loaves with cheesy toppings which may have other things like onion, bacon etc. We find these great as they remain fresh and you don't have to put anything on the bread, it is delicious just like that. We did get a kilogram of cheese though. Good value for weight! And 750 g of Nutella. Ditto. We were in the village for 2 hours and then it was road walking to Scott Gap and all through sheep and dairy farming country. Some mountains far away and hills all around. We enjoyed it.

Entering Birchwood Station we chatted to the farmer who confirmed we could pick up water in the stream just before the climb up to the ridge. We walked through some pine forest and it was warm and sunny. We met Anna who had started from the north in September and was from Christchurch. We traded war stories of muddy adventures. Our next fest is due to commence in a couple of days when we hit the Takitimu Track which is muddy too. She had wet feet there. We will see how that goes as there is also rain coming when we hit that area. Most hikers carry the Sawyer filter (we take one as back up when cycle touring) but it is difficult to use when the water source is a trickly stream and very shallow. We use an MSR Guardian which we actually had serviced just before leaving. We did not have far to go to a stream crossing (as described by the farmer) and filtered a few litres. We did the same just after the top of the climb. The climb up the ridge was about 3 km long and steep. Hard work, but through very pretty beech forest with ferns on the ground. No tree ferns though! A much lighter forest that Longwood which was certainly dark and moody. This one felt quite friendly and was a little noiser with Birdlife. After we finally reached the top we walked along a track for a bit, stopping just short of our 24 km aim for the day ad the camping amongst beautiful conifers was too good to pass up. We are in the sun which is still warm on our back at 19:00!