New Zealand Great Walks are really awesome, but they also need proper preparation and booking huts in advance. You can organise your hike on your own, but you need to be aware of few things. Please find the most important tips below.

General advices

• You need to book huts o camping spots for tents. It is not allowed to camp without spot. Rangers will validate your reservation once you come to the spot. You don’t need separate permit to enter into the trek – it’s cover in reservation.
• It’s important to book huts or camping spots in advance. Sometimes you need to make it many months before your trek! You can do it online here: LINK.
• When booking camping spots, make sure to check weather. In some of the areas it will be really too cold to sleep in a tent.
• There are no dangerous animals in New Zealand.
• There are a lot of very annoying Sand flies. They are tiny, but somehow if they bite you it’s really painful and it almost make wounds. You should of course use DETT sprays on you to avoid them, but it only helps to some extent. If they bite you then the only thing that can help to alleviate pain and ickiness are things with antihistamine (the same ones as used for treating allergy).

Food

• There are no shops on the way, so all the food you need to take with you. In some of the treks there is ability to use stoves in huts, but very often you will need also to bring small cooking stove with you.
• Water is available in most of the huts, but in some of them you need to cook it first. So it’s good to take some bottles with you that you can re-use.
• For preparing food I highly recommend to buy foiled food that only needs water to be ready. You can buy them in New Zealand in one of the many outdoor shops (like Bivac). One of my favourite brand is “The Outdoor Gourmet Company”. Example: LINK.
• Remember to take more food than less as otherwise it will be very hard for you to replenish your supply during the trek.
• There are no trash during the walks. You need to take all the trash with you back to the civilisation.

Equipement

• You need proper shoes – in many places you will be walking in wet environment, on the rocks or crossing the river. Good shoes may save your life there.
• As weather can easily change I highly advise wearing many thin layers that you can easily play with when needed. And buy merino wool – it will keep your body temperature longer regardless of external conditions.
• It can rain really heavy. And for many days. So getting very strong water proof gear is a must. I would also advise you to have backpack with cover and additional plastic bag that will protect your most important belongings.
• From my side I highly advise to take trekking poles with you. They are very useful in many different places as terrain may be very different within the same trek.
• Proper sunglasses and strong sunscreen are a must – New Zealand is located in the zone of very thin Ozon layer, so even not strong sun may make a lot of damage to your eyes and skin.
• Huts or tents are not warm. Buy good sleeping bag with proper level of warmness, but also invest in mat that will isolate you from the ground. I highly recommend brand Sea-to-summit as their mats are self inflating and super light.