Heaphy track

Now in the South Island at the top of the West Coast. It gets the brunt of the weather crossing the Tasman Sea from the West. The Heaphy track is an 82 km track that joins the West Coast with Golden Bay on the North Coast. By road the same journey is several hundred kilometers to avoid the worst of the mountains. As a result trampers get this wilderness to themselves.
The first coastal section has lots of Nikau palms - NZ's only indigenous palm.

As one of the "Great Walks" the track is well maintained with drained tracks, walkways over the boggy bits and swing bridges over the more volatile creeks.

As a result, despite its inaccessible location, there are loads of people on the track from school kids on holiday with their parents, students, a group of middle-aged women and an old man with his daughter and son-in-law. I realise this is where Kiwis grow up. Everyone lumped in together every evening in the huts, with a few basic rules about cleanliness and hospitality, which are practised outside of the bush as well. The oldies get to pass their lore on to the youngsters. And the kids get to play once they reach the huts and can ditch their backpacks.

The track left the coast after the first day, climbing through beech forest up to the Goulden Downs and Mount Perry. Day 2 I walked 36 km - which I'm petty chuffed about - then climbed Mount Perry on Day 3, looked over into Golden Bay, before turning back the way I had come in. 120 km in five days.