New Zealand's latest Great Walk left us breathless – but so too did the scenery

Sydney Morning Herald

27-06-2025

This story is part of the June 28 edition of Good Weekend. See all 21 stories.
I refuse to look up. If I look up, I know what I'll see: another set of steps that require me to lift not only my feet but also the 12 kilograms of food, water, spare clothes and equipment I'm carrying on my back. My 'one step at a time' mantra is now my curse. My glutes are screaming; I've run out of swear words. But still … these trees, dripping with webs of emerald moss, the playful, chatty robins and cheeky, food-stealing wekas, that breath-halting view as we exit thick canopy to stunning vistas of distant islands. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
We're on day one of the Hump Ridge Track, New Zealand's latest Great Walk. The looped, three-day, 62-kilometre track in the South Island's Fiordland National Park is about two-and-a-half hours south-west of Queenstown and 30 minutes from the small town of Tuatapere (the self-declared sausage capital of New Zealand). While Hump Ridge officially became a trail in 2001, it was designated a Great Walk last October, joining 10 others around the country.
My trekking partner and I are also in New Zealand to walk the 85-kilometre Old Ghost Road in the South Island's Kahurangi National Park. But first, we need to conquer this elevation: the much-anticipated, 1000-plus-metre-high 'hump' that is the main topic of conversation among our fellow hikers.
Even though the climb is leaving us breathless, so too is the scenery. We've tramped through a coastal forest, wandered along a desolate beach dotted with perfect conch shells, and wobbled across long swing bridges, high above stony creeks. The canopy becomes less dense as we scale the 3600 steps that were cut into the mountain by local volunteers, and when we reach our rest stop, Stag Point, for a few brief minutes, we see the Southern Ocean and all the way to Stewart Island before the clouds close in. We strap on our backpacks again as the wind picks up and pushes us towards the final stretch of looping boardwalk, framed by alpine plants, and on to the first of our walk's two huts.
The huts – Okaka and Port Craig – are staffed by knowledgeable Department of Conservation wardens who help out with inquiries, advise on the weather and terrain, and make huge vats of creamy porridge in the morning. There are flush toilets (not always a given on the Great Walks) as well as a kitchen with gas stoves and basic utensils. If you want, you can pay $NZ20 ($19) for a token-operated, three-minute hot shower. And of course, we do. The huts also sell basic foods, but we carry our own and keep it as light as possible: hello three days of dried noodles and dehydrated vegies in miso soup.
The lack of any mobile reception makes the huts truly communal. We chat with people from all over the world, including a recently married American couple who thought a New Zealand Great Walk was the perfect destination for a honeymoon. 'Today's climb wasn't as hard as I thought,' the young bride says while the rest of us wait for her to tell us she's joking. She doesn't.
Knowing the toughest part of the walk is over, the atmosphere is light, but day two towards Port Craig brings different challenges: it's largely downhill, with more than 3000 steps interrupted by short, hand-made boardwalks that help us avoid the mud while also protecting the landscape's fragile alpine plants. We stop for a break at Luncheon Rock, a slab of granite jutting out from the ridge. From here, our guidebook states, the views are incredible – and I'm sure they are, behind the insistent cloud cover.
The descent brings us to an old tramline where a steam train once hauled logs, and past three viaducts, including the Percy Burn – the longest wooden one in the southern hemisphere. Port Craig once had New Zealand's largest sawmill, but it closed in 1928.
Our accommodation tonight is the old schoolhouse, and five minutes away (if you can cope with putting your shoes back on) is a small beach where you can watch Hector's dolphins glide close to shore, siren-calling weary walkers. I immerse my swollen feet in the freezing water before myriad ravenous sandflies drive me indoors.
Day three arrives with no rain and plenty of birdsong, including from bellbirds and tui. We meander through bush and bluffs before reaching Blowholes Beach, so named because of the waves that blow up against a rocky outcrop. We're tempted to take a dip but keep wanting to see what's around the next corner, until the beach runs out and we find ourselves heading upwards again. We rejoin the original track for the final 10 kilometres that brings us to the waharoa (traditional Maori gateway) and the Rarakau car park, which signifies Hump Ridge's beer-calling end.
Walk this way
For the Hump Ridge Track you can book the huts independently or through a travel company, although all bookings go through the website. The 2026 rates start at $NZ445 for two nights in a bunk in an eight-sleeper room, or you can upgrade to a private room that can sleep two for an extra $NZ150 a night.
There are guided options, and a helicopter can deliver your backpack to the
first hut. This walk does involve a bit of planning and using a travel company can take a little weight off your mind, if not your shoulders. We organised our hike through a company; for accommodation and transfers to and from Queenstown, we paid about $NZ1450 each.
On the ghost trail
Not all of the country's significant walks fall under the 'Great' umbrella. Our next trek – the Old Ghost Road, in the north-west of the South Island – brings together heritage and wilderness in the form of a long-forgotten goldminers' road revived as a mountain biking and hiking trail. It links the mighty Mokihinui River to the north with an old miner's dray road in the south and can be attempted in either direction.
How the trail came about is as fascinating as the walk itself. In the 1800s, the area experienced a gold rush and prospectors wanted to cut a road through the rugged terrain. But the gold ran out and the project was never finished. The landscape reclaimed it as its own until a Westport local found a survey map in 2007 that showed a 'ghost of a road' between Seddonville and Lyell. A plan was hatched to bring the trail back to life and in 2015, after many thousands of hours of volunteer work, it opened for business.
We start from Lyell and give thanks that we can start at all, as until a few days before the trail was closed due to a massive landslip. But we get the all-clear and ease into the surroundings by following the easy-to-walk, narrow, beech-lined paths. It's incredible to think that this isolated region once supported thriving townships that included a post office and a school. There are regular information boards describing the area's history, and artefacts from the time are displayed in situ nearby.
After the challenges of Hump Ridge, we find the terrain more than manageable. We're also entertained by the unusual names given to the various features along the track: Heaven's Door, which offers spectacular views from the ridgeline; the Tombstone, a foreboding monolith sticking out on a mountain; the shadowy Lake Grim, followed by the sunshine-y Lake Cheerful; and the fascinating 'Boneyard', with its white limestone boulders dotted on the hillside.
The trail usually takes five days to walk (two to three days to cycle) and before we know it, we're choking back our last vegie/noodle/miso concoction (never again) and are heading for the bright lights – and hot showers – of Queenstown. The elevations, rain and sandflies are just notes in our journals as we begin planning our next great walk.
Australia adds more great walks
Australia is literally following in New Zealand's footsteps when it comes to multi-day hikes. Tourism Australia has grouped 13 walks under a 'Great Walks of Australia' umbrella, which include Tasmania's Three Capes, Victoria's Twelve Apostles and the NT's Larapinta. New walks, such as the Snowies Alpine Walk and the Grampians Peaks Trail, are opening all the time to cope with the demand from local and overseas visitors (Tourism Australia says more than 1.8 million international visitors took part in a walk while visiting in 2024). The Uluru-Kata Tjuta Signature Walk in the NT will open to visitors next year.There are plenty of reasons why multi-day hikes are so popular: they are a simpler way of seeing a country that combines fresh air, exercise and, if out of mobile range, a digital detox. Most levels of fitness can be catered for; there's usually a simple grading guide to establish the level of difficulty (a grade 3 walk is 'moderate'; a grade 4 is 'moderately difficult'). Many of Australia's walks have a limit to the number of daily walkers allowed, so it's worth booking in advance. Just make sure you've broken in your walking shoes – your feet will thank you.