Tramping: Enjoying New Zealand up-close
On the advice of a friend, we completed our first “tramp” (hike) this weekend. We completed the “Bell Rock Loop Track”, within the Boundary Stream “Mainland Island”.
This particular track took about two hours to complete, and was visually breathtaking. I felt a bit like a character from Lord of the Rings, running across the spine of a mountain. (No, it wasn’t this mountain)
See my attempts at panoramic photos here and here. (You’ll have to scroll sideways.)
Hiking in New Zealand is easy and educational
The start of the walk was well sign-posted, and highly-visible painted wooden “beacons” marked the trail. Poison warnings were prominent, alerting hikers not to take dogs on the track.
We even stumbled across a few educational “Weta Apartments” - little wooden boxes containing weta, plus a few paragraphs describing them.
Hiking in New Zealand is encouraged and promoted
The Department of Conservation does a fantastic job of promoting and making accessible all these great natural resources. They have a section on their website dedicated to recreational enjoyment of New Zealand’s beautiful wilderness.
It’s also really easy to find spots to perform various activities, such as dog-walking, fishing, or activities with children.
May 6th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
Well, color me embarrassed! Sorry… didn’t mean to offend the brown Kiwi bird by calling it dorky! ;o) Who knew? lol
I tried to upload a gravatar from the handy dandy link you provided so… let’s see if it works!
Dorys last blog post..Would you? Could you?
May 6th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Brilliant, and a fun gravatar to boot!
May 7th, 2008 at 5:37 am
Yeah, well - that be me! Always being a goofball.
Hey - got distracted by the gravatar hoopla and forgot to say: your panoramic pics are fabulous! It is truly beautiful there. And it very much is rather Lord of the Ring-ish looking.
Dorys last blog post..Guest Blogger: Damselfly Lady
May 17th, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Congrats on completing your first tramp!
New Zealand is a tramper’s paradise. I live in Nelson and have done a lot of tramping in the nearby parks. If you’d like to see photos of some of the tracks and backcountry huts in the Top of the South, feel free to visit my website and new blog.
Looking forward to reading about your next tramping trip :-)