New Zealand’s hiking trails offer a catalogue of wonders

The hike had been gruelling but invigorating. A 10km ascent into New Zealand’s Mount Aspiring National Park had brought us to an overlook of Routeburn Falls, a thundering multilevel cascade of crystalline water jumping from the rock face above our heads and rushing into the deep valley below us. There we could see the Routeburn River winding through the high-shouldered Humboldt Mountains on its way to Lake Wakatipu.

We were breathless not only because of the impressive scenery but because we had run out of time.

Sights along the Routeburn Track earlier in the day had slowed us down, and in order to see the falls, we had sprinted the last mile up the steep trail. We were sweating, struggling for air and, most importantly, feeling that the extra effort had been completely worth it.

Other than the danger of overextending yourself, hiking New Zealand’s abundance of trails is almost never disappointing. In fact, if you come all this way and don’t take advantage of them, you’ve truly missed out.

And the Kiwis work hard to make hiking attractive. The maintenance on the trails we hiked was impressive: crushed-rock trail beds; comfortable clearance even in the most dense areas of the beech- and fern-dominated rainforests; boardwalks that meander over wetlands; and well-built, if sometimes unnerving, suspension bridges that span the roiling creeks.

Richard Davies, a recreation manager for New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, says millions of dollars are pumped into the country’s park areas annually, much of it devoted to trail development and maintenance.