The planning of New Zealand’s Te Araroa Trail has some quirky aspects that leave you scratching your head.
For example, the trail brings you to two extremely wide rivers, then tells you: ‘This river is dangerous; river crossing is prohibited,’ yet the trail abruptly ends on a desolate roadside with no settlements for kilometres around. If you want to continue on the trail on the other side of the river, you’ll just have to figure out how to get around it yourself.
I’ve always felt that the Te Araroa isn’t just about building physical endurance and strengthening willpower—you also have to devise various solutions to problems, overcome obstacles one after another. Sometimes I treat it like a game.
So some people try their luck hitching rides from the handful of vehicles passing each day, others learn from past hikers that the local postal worker or school bus can help for a small fee, and still others simply walk an extra two days to go around.
Yet there are those who insist on crossing the river on foot, wading back and forth through the tributary-filled riverbed to find shallower crossing points. After successfully crossing, they tell everyone it’s doable: ‘Sure, there were times the current was strong and water reached my waist, but I made it, so can you! Why take a detour and miss the challenge?’ And so some people follow suit, and it becomes one of the talking points whenever hikers meet on the trail: ‘Are you going to ford that river?’
But your waist isn’t the same height as mine, the river conditions you encounter aren’t the same as when I encountered them, and the circumstances are completely different.
Though the Te Araroa has relatively low population density, wherever there are people, a micro-society forms, and it’s quite fascinating to observe. Those dangerous routes that you would never choose based on your own judgment become unavoidable under peer influence. When a shortcut is available, not taking it feels like a waste. After taking the risk, those who survive and can talk about it continue to convince the next person, making their risky behaviour feel less isolated.
I don’t have the height or the heart for that—I’ll just hitch a ride.
(Recalling my diary entry from 17/4/2017)
📍 Te Araroa Trail | New Zealand 3,000km Trekking Diary| Back to complete series index
