Last fall, I vowed to write more hiking-related entries. My travels have given me the opportunity to check several multi-day hikes off the ever-lengthening “bucket list.” The third long hike in this series (you can also read about Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and the Backbone Trail of Southern California) was completed in February of 2009 – six years ago!
One Month in Middle Earth
My first trip “Down Under” – to use common geographical slang marketed to the U.S. by the likes of Paul Hogan, Qantas, and Fosters – was to Australia in 2003. I loved Australia and had long yearned to return to that region of the world. “Across the ditch” from Australia lies New Zealand, a bastion for backpackers and nature lovers. The success of the “Lord of the Rings” films, shot there, effectively priced me (and many other backpackers) out of the market, and it wasn’t until the end of that decade that things went down in cost…and even then only marginally.
The Fiordland region of New Zealand’s South Island is blessed with pristine natural beauty, verdant greenery, Norwegian-style fiords, and more than the island’s fair share of waterfalls. The country’s hiking trails are renowned as being some of the greatest in the world, and many of them are appropriately marketed as such, under the name “Great Walks.” On the North Island you can hike around – and to the top of – what moviegoers know simply as “Mount Doom,” via the Tongariro Crossing. (Mount Doom’s real name: Mount Ngauruhoe.) Three multi-day Great Walks are in Fiordland. Arguably the best of these – and certainly the hardest for which to obtain permits – is the Milford Track.
GringoPotpourri 