New Zealand's Great Walks by Paul Hersey & Shelley Hersey

Author:Paul Hersey & Shelley Hersey [Hersey, Paul & Hersey, Shelley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780143774112
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2013-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

HEAPHY TRACK

PALMS, GRASSES AND TAKAHĒ

High grasslands cover the middle section of the Heaphy Track.

HEAPHY TRACK

PALMS, GRASSES AND TAKAHĒ // 78 KM, 3–6 DAYS

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HIGHLIGHTS

» Choose between walking or cycling the track.

» Pass through a land of diversity.

» Watch out for takahē in the Gouland Downs area.

» Keep an eye out for the rare and native giant land snail.

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THINK ALPINE BASINS of tussocks and grasses waving in the breeze. Imagine rainforests filled with our unique nīkau palms, and the nearby roar of the Tasman Sea – keep an eye out for a rare takahē. This is what it means to travel through New Zealand’s second-largest and second-newest national park, the Kahurangi – as the Māori name suggests, a treasured possession. And there is probably no better way to experience the Kahurangi than via the Heaphy Track.

While this land may not be filled with high mountains or wide alpine lakes, it has many other unique features making the Heaphy just as appealing as any of the Great Walks. Indeed, the constantly changing terrain is a large part of the reason for journeying here.

Parts of Kahurangi are believed to have been occupied by Māori since the 1400s. Certainly the upper West Coast region was travelled in search of pounamu (greenstone). The track is named after Charles Heaphy who, in 1846, worked as a draughtsman with the New Zealand Company. He and surveyor Thomas Brunner, accompanied by a Māori guide named Kehu, became the first Europeans to traverse the coastal portion of what has become the current track.

By walking the Heaphy, you are also exploring one of the pathways taken by early Māori seeking their pounamu, and then later the similar trails used by Pākehā searching for gold. Make your own journey either on foot or mountain bike (during certain times of year), enjoying the varied nature of the countryside, scenery and wildlife. After you emerge from forest at either end of the track, the interior grasslands of Gouland Downs are a pleasant surprise and, for many, the highlight of the trip. The basin of the downs is held in a cusp of mountains to the north, while to the south stretches the largely untracked wilds of the remote interior of Kahurangi National Park. The Arthur Range marks the eastern border of the park, protecting much of the north-west corner of the South Island.

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