Latest news with #NZ20
Sydney Morning Herald
27-06-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
New Zealand's latest Great Walk left us breathless – but so too did the scenery
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 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.
The Age
27-06-2025
- The Age
New Zealand's latest Great Walk left us breathless – but so too did the scenery
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 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.
Scoop
25-06-2025
- Business
- Scoop
New Zealand Withdraws Millions In Aid From Cook Islands
New Zealand has abruptly halted nearly $NZ20 million ($US11 million) in funding to the Cook Islands in retaliation for a partnership agreement the tiny Pacific Island nation concluded with China in February without consulting Wellington. NZ Foreign Minister Winston Peters informed the Cook Islands government of the decision early this month, but it only became public on June 19 after a Cook Islands news outlet saw its brief mention in a government budget document. The New Zealand government declared it will not consider significant new funding 'until the Cook Islands government takes concrete steps to repair the relationship and restore trust,' a spokesperson for Peters said. Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown told parliament that the 'punitive' financial decision was 'patronising' and would hit core sectors including health, education and infrastructure. 'It also disrupts long-term planning and the sustainability of vital public services,' he said, adding it would 'harm the country's most vulnerable citizens.' New Zealand has long maintained a neo-colonial relationship with the Pacific nation as one of its so-called 'Realm' countries along with Niue and Tokelau. The Cook Islands, with a population of just 15,000, has been a self-governing territory in so-called 'free association' with New Zealand since 1964, administering its own affairs with Wellington providing oversight in the key areas of foreign affairs and defence. In 2001, New Zealand and the Cook Islands signed a Joint Centenary Declaration, which broadly states that the two governments must 'consult regularly on defence and security issues.' Peters demanded that the Cook Islands share the proposed text of the agreement with China before it was signed, which Brown flatly refused to do. The declaration nowhere defines the scope and nature of bilateral 'consultations.' It explicitly affirms the Cook Islands' right to enter independently into 'treaties and other international agreements' with any governments and international and regional organisations. Brown maintained that Wellington was advised the China deal would not include matters of security and that there was 'no need for New Zealand to sit in the room' while it was drawn up. He declared that his government was legitimately exercising the Cook Islands' autonomy and its ties with both New Zealand and China should not be construed as a threat. The 'comprehensive strategic partnership' is broad in scope, referring positively to China's Belt and Road Initiative and the US-backed Blue Pacific development strategy adopted at the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in 2022. It pledges cooperation over economic and environmental resilience, infrastructure, including port and wharf facilities, and cultural exchanges. It also promises to 'explore areas for further cooperation within the seabed minerals sector' and offers joint consultations over regional forums. In response, Peters made increasingly belligerent threats, seeking to destabilise the Brown government. He warned that if the Cook Islands opted for more 'independence,' beyond the 'free association' framework, its citizens would lose their New Zealand citizenship. This would call into question the status of 80,000 of Cook Islanders living in New Zealand and another 28,000 in Australia. The China-Cook Islands agreement was hysterically denounced by the entire New Zealand political and media establishment as an existential danger and used it to justify the country's further integration into US-led plans for war against China. Right-wing New Zealand Herald columnist Matthew Hooton provocatively declared that NZ troops should be sent to invade the Cook Islands. In a complete inversion of reality, Martyn Bradbury, editor of the pro-Labour Daily Blog, wrote on June 21 that the Cook Islands was 'seeking to destabilise NZ' by publicising the fact that NZ aid had been stopped on the eve of NZ Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's visit to China last week. Bradbury denounced the Cooks as 'acting as an enemy to us' and engaged in 'treason.' The blog's unvarnished belligerence reflects the attitude of the NZ ruling class to the entire Pacific, which has not changed in the past century. The funding halt by Peters, who is leader of the far-right NZ First Party in the governing coalition, is a brutal reprisal. New Zealand is the Cook Islands' major source of development aid. The money is part of $NZ200 million directed to the country over the past three years as part of an almost 60-year arrangement. Peters' Trump-like ultimatum that the Cooks must scrap its deal with China is a clear threat that the funding could be permanently stopped. Significantly, Peters has refused to criticise the Trump administration's cuts to USAID funding in the Pacific. The Biden administration had pledged $US1 billion to help counter China's influence. All aid has now been frozen, which along with Trump's planned tariffs, is deepening the economic crisis in the region. Diplomatic relations between the Cook Islands and China were first established in 1997. Beijing has consistently defended its pacts, saying in February that the deals were not intended to antagonise New Zealand. China's ambassador to Wellington, Wang Xiaolong stated that as far as China was concerned, the Pacific was 'not a chessboard and should not become one.' New Zealand is now considering additional national security clauses in its agreements with Pacific Island nations. These would be modelled on the neo-colonial deals Australia has signed with Tuvalu, Papua New Guinea and Nauru which explicitly give Canberra the right to veto engagements with any other states on security and defence-related matters. In a Pacific-France summit convened in Nice last week by French President Emmanuel Macron, Peters mounted a thinly disguised attack on China, urging Pacific leaders to 'stand together as a region' against 'external forces' which he declared are seeking to 'coerce, cajole and constrain.' Peters explicitly criticized countries he claimed pressured Pacific partners 'not to publish agreements or avoid the [Pacific] Forum Secretariat when organising regional engagements.' The propaganda that China wants a military foothold in the Pacific turns reality on its head to justify the accelerating preparations for war by the US and its regional allies. New Zealand, under the previous Labour Party government and the current National Party-led government, has been intent on rolling back Chinese influence in the region. While engaged in strengthening security and defence ties with both Canberra and Washington, Peters has made multiple visits across the Pacific to cajole and bully island governments into line. The small impoverished island nations are caught in a fraught balancing act. Brown's visit to China in February followed similar trips last year by Fiji's Sitiveni Rabuka, Jeremiah Manele and Charlot Salwai, the prime ministers of the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, and Fiamē Naomi Mataafa of Samoa. All met with President Xi Jinping and secured economic agreements. In response to the NZ government's funding freeze, the opposition Labour Party's Pacific spokesperson Carmel Sepuloni wrote on Facebook that 'the Cook Islands signing the agreement with China was out of step with our free association agreement.' She merely criticised the 'timing' of the government's decision and called for diplomatic negotiations. Former Labour prime minister Helen Clark, who was a signatory to the 2001 Declaration, told Radio NZ last week that the Cook Islands had 'caused a crisis for itself' by not consulting Wellington before signing the deal. 'There is no way that the 2001 declaration envisaged that Cook Islands would enter into a strategic partnership with a great power behind New Zealand's back,' Clark told RNZ. In fact, the regional imperialist powers—Australia and New Zealand—have maintained neo-colonial control over the Southwest Pacific, keeping the fragile island nations in a state of dependency with conditions of poverty and under-development endemic. New Zealand is now working to further cement its interests in the region in collaboration with Australia, France—which placed New Caledonia under an armed occupation last year following anti-colonial riots—and the United States. All these countries are rapidly building up their militaries in preparation for a US-led war against China. 24 June 2025
