Great valley, the Kakapo. It's fairly untouched, and they have been trapping there for a couple of decades, so there are a few whio/blue ducks in the river. I did that circuit in April 2023 when it was just recently recut. Really memorable countryside, vegetation and birdlife, xcept for the bush smash between the end of the trapline and the start of the climb to Kakapo Saddle. The bit between the Little Wanganui swingbridge and the old hut site was like going through a two-hour carwash with all the water held by the ferns. Hard to believe the Wangapeka used to be kept at the Heaphy Track standard, but it has been generally abandoned by DOC, and Taipo Hut is fairly sad and needs some work. You can cut out a night by missing out Trevor Carter Hut, of course. I think it's a great loop, if you are prepared for the two hours of bush bashing.
Cheers, there was a DOC crew at Trevor Carter and Helicopter Flat doing hut and track maintenance, they were only there due to funding and thought it would be at least another 2 years before they are back (maybe). The Kakapo bush bash was challenging to say the least, we couldn’t understand why that was the only section that hadn’t been marked in some way.
Fantastic video. Thanks for sharing. 👍10
Great valley, the Kakapo. It's fairly untouched, and they have been trapping there for a couple of decades, so there are a few whio/blue ducks in the river. I did that circuit in April 2023 when it was just recently recut. Really memorable countryside, vegetation and birdlife, xcept for the bush smash between the end of the trapline and the start of the climb to Kakapo Saddle. The bit between the Little Wanganui swingbridge and the old hut site was like going through a two-hour carwash with all the water held by the ferns. Hard to believe the Wangapeka used to be kept at the Heaphy Track standard, but it has been generally abandoned by DOC, and Taipo Hut is fairly sad and needs some work. You can cut out a night by missing out Trevor Carter Hut, of course. I think it's a great loop, if you are prepared for the two hours of bush bashing.
Cheers, there was a DOC crew at Trevor Carter and Helicopter Flat doing hut and track maintenance, they were only there due to funding and thought it would be at least another 2 years before they are back (maybe).
The Kakapo bush bash was challenging to say the least, we couldn’t understand why that was the only section that hadn’t been marked in some way.
Jungfraujoch in NZ😃