Hiking Abandoned Roads

Hiked another barricaded, abandoned road in another lovely valley. With the closure of Volcanoes National Park, and state and county parks, we’re improvising with abandoned roads, back-country roads and former sugar cane haulage roads.

Urupukapuka Island

We’re staying next to the Bay of Islands in New Zealand’s Northland. Today we took a ferry to the largest island, Urupukapuka Island, then hiked. Some of the trails were hard going, but we were often rewarded by gorgeous 360 degree views.

Heaphy Track

The Heaphy Track in nearby Kahurangi National Park gradually climbed up a mountain, occasionally revealing other mountains through gaps in the trees. We hiked for the day, but found ourselves wishing we could hike the full track, end-to-end, over 4 days.

Farewell Spit

Walked through a monotonous landscape on Farewell Spit, a sandbar near where we’re staying. Unseen by us were big numbers: it’s the longest sandbar on Earth (16 miles); the sea recedes up to 4 miles at low tide; this month, bar-tailed godwits will migrate 7,500 miles to Alaska.