The Epic Journey to Te Araroa – Featured in Epic by Ray Salisbury

Epic: Adventures across Aotearoa

Over the years, countless sea kayakers, climbers and alpine trampers have attempted journeys across New Zealand’s incredible landscape. In Epic, the stories of a dozen memorable Kiwi explorers are brought together by Ray Salisbury with detailed maps, backstories and stunning images; Geoff Chapple’s is one of them.

Aotearoa is a country of iconic and scenic walking trails and Te Aroroa stands above and at it’s centre. This 3,000km trail spans the length of Aotearoa from the top of Cape Rēinga to Bluff at the southern end of South Island. This trail links together the full length of Aotearoa, connecting all the unique environments across two islands. Encouraging the walker not only to experience the isolation of backcountry Aotearoa but also connecting towns, people and culture on a track that spans both private and public land and could not exist without the work and love of Kiwi’s across the country.

The history of this track is nearly as long as Te Aroroa itself, a New Zealand spanning track was first proposed in 1975 with the creation of the New Zealand Walkways Commission. However it wasn’t until 1994 that the idea truly sprung into the public consciousness with an article by Geoff Chapple, again proposing the idea and naming it Te Aroroa.

I thought the Trail idea would bring the nation together, in a sense. And so I wrote a piece late at night — I often say that the angels visited that night — and it was published the next day. It caused quite a stir.

This idea quickly formed into the Te Arora Trust later that year with Geoff as the executive secretary. However politics, grants and lines on a map only move so quickly and at the core of a Te Arora was always going to be the need to walk.

It took me eight months to do the North Island, because I negotiated as I went. I was an advocate and agent of the Trail. I wasn’t just tramping, I was getting permission, talking to farmers over a cup of tea, talking about the possibilities of a national trail.

It wouldn’t be until 2002 that Geoff stood in Ships Cove ready to make his way even further south to Bluff to truly complete the length of Te Arora. The time between spent fundraising and constructing the northern portion of the track, and studying the best possible route to bring Te Arora through the heart of Te Waka-a-Maui. The tramp through the south would take 4 months of tramping, exploration and negation, leading Geoff through the beauty and danger of the Southern Alps until finally reaching the end of his walk and the future end of Te Arora.

In Geoff’s own words as he reached the end of his tramp:

And so my walk from Cape to Bluff ended. There was only Te Araroa left to do.

It was the 3^rd of December 2011 when Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae officially opened Te Arora. Though many pieces of the track had been in use for years, and many people had completed the track finding connections on roadways. This opening was the true conclusion to the dream Geoff had begun with a newspaper article 17 years earlier and carried with him through countless hours of planning, negotiation and construction as well as 156 days and 2600km of tramping.