Route: Heaphy Track

The Heaphy Track is a crossing of Kahurangi National Park in New Zealand’s South Island, linking the Brown Hut trailhead in the Aorere Valley with the Kōhaihai trailhead north of Karamea. This route follows the full marked Heaphy Track between the two trailheads and may be completed in either direction.

Described from the Aorere Valley, the track climbs through forest to Perry Saddle before crossing the open tussock country of Gouland Downs, where limestone formations and pockets of stunted forest meet red-grass flats. It then descends towards the Heaphy River and the Tasman Sea, finishing along a rugged coastline of nīkau palms and roaring surf.