Top 5 Multi-Day Hikes in New Zealand (Great Walks Excluded)
- May 2
- 13 min read
The Great Walks were not the only multi-day hikes I’ve done during my time in New Zealand. As it typically goes, on those various trails, I come across people who tell me, “If you like this hike, then you should really try…” Thus, the scope of my adventures was bound to expand to include these lesser known, but just as spectacular hikes. I ended up including 5 other big trails into my plans, and I rank them here.
5. Mount Taranaki
Mount Taranaki is located on the North Island, in Mount Egmont National Park. Mount Egmont is, in fact, the British name for the summit I climbed, but it has become more common and encouraged to use the older Māori name of Taranaki. This stratovolcano is the second-tallest peak on the entire North Island. Its looming contrast to the landscape around it is striking. I remember driving toward it, waiting to catch a glimpse in the distance, looking at the clouds along the horizon, and then realizing that the volcano’s peak was jutting out above the clouds.
The first day of the hike was a climb to the peak and then down to a hut near its base. This may have been some of the most uphill I’ve ever climbed in a single session. It began somewhat simple, going up the base along a wide dirt path until the tree line was passed. The second stage consisted of a grueling set of stairs climbing up steeply. The third part, however, was by far the worst. This was entirely made up of scree, loose rock on a very, very steep surface. For every step, my foot would sink a few inches and threaten to slip out from under me. Meanwhile, I saw people coming down with skidded arms and bloody knees. I, myself, busted my ass three times coming down and
nearly a dozen other times, losing all my balance on the unsteady surface beneath me. The last section was basically rock climbing with a backpacking backpack on.
Eventually, I made it to the top of the volcano and got beautiful views all around. It was a gorgeous day, and I could see for miles. After making it back down the rocks, the scree, and the stairs, I took a path taking me along the side of the Taranaki, offering beautiful views of its lower ridges, before descending down to a hut for the night. The next day, I took a small side trip to visit a waterfall before continuing my loop up a different set of hills that stood off the side, offering good views of the Taranaki from afar. I discovered that these hills were in fact steep and mountainous, and it was only in comparison to Taranaki that they seemed small. Eventually, I struggled my way back at the car park where I began.
Although this was a very unique and beautiful place, I rank it fifth because Taranaki is the main draw and the main view. The others on this list offer tons of unique sights, which make them difficult to compete with. Nevertheless, I was very happy and proud of this feat. It is certainly a classic, and I’d argue it’s a more fascinating and rewarding tramp than several Great Walks.
4. The Travers-Sabine Circuit
The Travers-Sabine Circuit is a 50 mile loop trail location in Nelson Lakes National Park on the South Island, south of Nelson and northwest of Kaikoura. Usually done in 4-5 days, the trail goes along Lake Rotoiti and the Travers Valley before climbing up a to a saddle and down along the Sabine River toward Lake Rotoroa. It then cuts back up and over some mountains to end back in the small town of St. Arnaud. Some people add a side journey to the beautiful and pristine Blue Lake, but I did not have that kind of time, as I was cramming this loop into Easter weekend.
The first day started off easily, being a relatively flat walk along the lake. It was pleasant, though cloudy, and I was able to average about 5 kilometers per hour. Some people opt to skip this section and take a boat taxi to the end of the lake and begin from there. After walking along the valley, the path started to climb up steadily. After about 20 miles, I made it to the Upper Travers hut a little before nightfall. Some of the later arrivals didn’t have a spot on the bunks and had to sleep on mattresses on the floor of the cooking area.
I was the first hiker out the door the following day, departing at daybreak. I finished the climb to
the saddle, and although it was misty, the wind was blowing and eventually granted me fairly exposed views of both sides of the saddle. I could see a group of 5 kea flying and calling in the distance. Although the climb was not as challenging as I was worried it would be, the downhill was long and steep, brutal to my knees. Once I made it down, I thought that the rest of the day would be easy, since it was relatively flat to everything else I’d dealt with. However, the terrain was rife with tree roots and uneven surfaces. I eventually made it to the lakefront Sabine Hut. Due to the sandflies and my exhaustion, I did not enjoy the lakeside very much, though.
The last day began with an immediate climb up another mountain, mostly in the trees, but with a few nice viewing opportunities. It was still a pretty trail, which eventually ended at the Mount Roberts carpark. Since I still had time, I decided to make it a full loop by walking down the road back to St. Arnaud where I began.
Nelson Lakes was the last National Park in all of New Zealand that I hadn’t been to, and it was certainly pretty. The weather was better than I was worried it would be, and although the lake and the saddle were certainly stunning, my top three were truly outstanding.
3. Old Ghost Road
Old Ghost Road is a 53-mile point to point trail southwest of Kahurangi National Park. Like the nearby Heaphy Track, this is made for both hikers and cyclists. The trail got its name because it connects a network of forgotten mining trails in the area back during the gold rushes of the 19th century. You can see leftover rusted metal, collapsed bridges, and the old carved paths navigating these mountains. Noteworthy spots along the way include long-gone settlements and viewpoints with names like The Tombstone, Heaven’s Door, and The Boneyard. This was my last multi-day hike.
My first day was basically 18 miles of near-constant uphill. That said, because it had a gradient sympathetic to bikers, this was not nearly as challenging of a vertical climb as any of the other hikes on this list. Most of the first day was in the trees, with occasional views where slides had occurred. In fact, storms and earthquakes have altered the landscape often in this area. After
finally escaping the trees, however, the views really opened up. The weather was spectacular, and the rest of the day was spent walking along the ridgelines toward Ghost Lake Hut.
The second day may be the furthest I’ve ever backpacked in a single day, clocking in at over 24 miles. It began with a relatively steep downhill. The views were limited because of misty and rainy weather. Thankfully, the bad weather did not last terribly long. I continued downhill into a valley before climbing over another, smaller mountain and back down into a different valley. I ended my day at Specimen Point Hut.
The last day was a fairly straightforward and flat 10 miles out while tramping alongside the Mokihinui River.
When I was hiking the Paparoa, a cyclist said that out of the three trails of Paparoa, Heaphy, and Old Ghost Road, he liked Old Ghost Road the most for cycling, as it’s in many ways a longer version of the Paparoa. There is a lot of truth to this, even when it comes to hiking instead of cycling. I definitely feel like this trail had a lot to offer. The huts were in very good shape, and I am particularly grateful I had such good weather for the most scenic portion of the hike. Each day had something beautiful about it, and the history associated with the trail, as well as its maintenance, earned its place in the top 3. My only complaints are the difficulty of logistically doing a point-to-point trail, and that the second two days had less outstanding views and weather.
2. The Gillespie Circuit
The Gillespie Circuit is a trail in Mount Aspiring National Park, north of Wanaka on the South Island. Although ostensibly a loop trail, completing the loop comes with logistical challenges, mostly due to the need to cross the Makarora River, which only has one bridge over it, over 4 miles north of the official start of the hike. In order to complete the circuit, you are required to either cross this river by wading through it (a strategy which leads to annual deaths due to the strength of the current, especially after rainfall), or to take a speedboat back to the nearest town and get a ride back to the trail parking lot. I opted for the second option. Similar to the Travers-Sabine, this hike involves going up one valley, and then climbing up and over a saddle into a different valley. Likewise, there is a lake that can be visited on a side trail, and I ended up doing that one.
On the first day, I began at the Blue Pools carpark. After a short, easy stroll, the path became more rugged, and I eventually joined the Gillespie Circuit proper. The day was long, and most of the time I was in the woods, with occasional views of the mountains surrounding me or the Young River I was following. The hut I stayed at was not very crowded, and in fact, got less crowded later that night. I woke up in the middle of the night to a helicopter landing outside of the hut, and later discovered that a woman was evacuated from the shelter. She had sustained an injury getting off of the speedboat at the beginning of the trail, and despite toughing it out that day, was in a much worse condition. A paramedic who happened to also be at staying at the hut assessed her and called in the helicopter.
I woke up the following morning well before daybreak, aware that a helicopter flew in, but unaware of the details. I had a very big day ahead of me. I continued my ascent toward the saddle with my headlamp, reaching the steep section just as dawn began. It was turning out to be a clear day, and by the time I reached the top of the Gillespie Pass, the sun had just begun to crest the mountains. I got a very nice view of a glacier from the top of the saddle, saw an avalanche from far away, caught sight of a hare, and heard kea in the distance. After my descent into the next
valley, I took the side route to Crucible Lake. It was brutally steep, more so than the Gillespie Pass. Eventually, the trail took me up to a glacial lake that stood in the crook of encircling mountains. The sight was stunning, with ice floating on a beautifully hued surface. After a time, I worked my way back down and made it to Siberia hut. The trail involved several smaller river crossings, all of which froze my feet painfully after about 20 seconds. It made me glad that I had decided to book the speedboat, since I could not imagine having to cross a much wider one that could go up to my waist in places.
On the third day, I had the luxury of sleeping in a little bit. The speedboat pickup would occur several miles upstream from where I would theoretically have to cross had I opted for the river crossing. The hike was relatively easy, and although it was cloudy, the weather held. I boarded the speedboat with a few other hikers, as this was a much more popular option than crossing on foot. One couple was kind enough to agree to drive me from the speedboat dropoff to the carpark where I left my rental vehicle. The speedboat turned out to be much more fun than I imagined.
Not only was it very quick, but also wildly impressive to see the driver navigate water that twisted and turned and sometimes was as little as a foot and a half deep at such speeds.
I put this one second because it offered so many great things. Although it was challenging, I was really happy with the weather, and the glacial lake was really something special. The speedboat turned out to be a perk, and the presence of wildlife enriched the journey as well.
1. The Cascade Saddle
The Cascade Saddle is really just one part of what I did here. Unlike the other trails on this list, I kind of created this journey by sewing together a couple of popular trails. The path took me from Raspberry Creek Park, north of Wanaka in the South Island, to outside the town of Glenorchy, a beautiful hour’s drive from Queenstown. Most of the trail is located in Mount Aspiring National Park. My route connected the Rob Roy Glacier to the Rees-Dart trail via the Cascade Saddle.
Therefore, it was a logistically complicated point-to-point trail, where I relied on one shuttle company to drop me off and a separate one to pick me up.
I arrived at the carpark as the sun was beginning to rise, and I was the first person on the trail to climb the popular Rob Roy Glacier trail. It was a pleasant out-and-back path that gave fairly good
views of the glacier. The weather was great. The rest of the day was spent walking to Mount Aspiring Hut. At the hut, a circus of ten kea (yes, that’s the term) were hanging around. It was the most kea I had ever seen in one place, and I ended up having to bring my crocs indoors because one of them had already begun to nibble chunks out of them.
I also discovered that soon after I planned and booked this trek, a landslide occurred along the Dart valley, making it completely impassable for over a month. Instead, I would have to head down the neighboring Rees valley meaning that my shuttle pickup was in question. I had foolishly not double checked the trail after booking everything, and so only discovered this after talking with the hut warden. At the hut, I also happened to meet another American, a 26-year-old named Corey, who was solo traveling and doing a bunch of hiking while he was here. Like me, he had plans to cross the Cascade Saddle the next day and double up on hiking days to stay at Shelter Rock Hut that night before hiking out the following morning. Being in agreement, we decided to start the next day’s hike together at 6am.
The next day was one of the longer hikes of my life, taking thirteen hours to complete, with about 45 minutes of rest time total the whole day. The day began with a massive ascent from the bottom of the valley to the top of the pass. We began with headlamps and hoisted our way upward, the trail becoming increasingly steep, until we were nearly rock climbing. This took 4 hours, climbing around 4500 feet and around 4 miles. The view at the top, however, was spectacular. We had clear skies, and we were some of the only people up there. We rarely saw people coming from the opposite direction.
Some kea took notice of us up there and flew around to see us up close. Once we got past the saddle, we had phenomenal views of the Dart Glacier. It is my favorite glacier I’ve seen in New Zealand. It’s large and magnificent. We carefully made our way down the scree slope enjoying the beautiful valley and walking alongside the Dart River, formed by the glacier above and fed by various other glaciers and waterfalls cascading from the mountaintops. When we finally made it to the Dart Hut, we paused for a late lunch before continuing on to the second major climb of the day, mounting the Rees-Dart Saddle. By now, my thighs were totally shot and I could barely climb a dozen feet without pausing to recover. It was brutal. Eventually, however, we made it to the top and descended back down into the Rees Valley, where we stumbled our way to the Shelter Rock Hut, arriving as the light was dimming.
On the third day, we got started at dawn. It was a beautiful valley to walk along, and after about an hour or two, we stumbled upon a pair of takahe out in the wild! This is one of the luckiest things to have happened to me, considering how exceedingly rare these birds are in the wilderness. They are large, beautiful, and fascinating birds in person. We continued along the valley, making several river crossings over the freezing water. As we approached the end, wesuddenly came across a large group of people. Some were sporting Argentina flags. Some had Croatian colors painted on their cheeks. Sombreros were adorning some heads. It turned out they were filming a World Cup commercial. Concerned about my shuttle booking, I ended up hitching a ride with an Irishman who spent the day acting like a Scotsman and was heading back into Queenstown anyhow.
The extraordinary scenes and wildlife opportunities traversing the Cascade Saddle were unprecedented. It was challenging and rewarding to the extreme, and the weather was unbeatable the entire time. Additionally, it was a really pleasant change of pace to do one of these hikes with another person. I really enjoyed Corey’s company, and yet to also have the trail nearly completely to ourselves. The excitement of having to adjust my plans added to the memorability of the tramp. This hike may have been my favorite one I’ve done in my entire time in New Zealand. It is at least on par with the Kepler Track, my favorite Great Walk. I am very grateful to have had such an awesome experience.
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