New Zealand Hiking Blog

My home town Nelson is the gateway city to many tourist gems, amongst them the best day hike in the South Island. The 12.4 kilometer (7.5 mile) walk from Marahau to Anchorage is the start of the Abel Tasman National Park, which is one of the more popular Great Walks of New Zealand (completed in 3-4 days). Described as an easy four-hour walk on a gentle coastal trail, our merry band (a school trip of 11 and 12-year-old girls) set a cracking pace and easily took an hour off that estimate. 

Wanaka is nestled lakeside, surrounded by huge mountain ranges and protected nature reserves, it is like Queenstown’s charming little sister – a lovely little mix of small town warmth and a slow, relaxed pace in one of the most beautiful settings in New Zealand. If you love nature, adventure, relaxing, wine, or all of the above, you will find countless things to do in Wanaka, New Zealand.

The South Island of New Zealand's Secret Day Hikes

The South Island is the ‘crown jewel’ when it comes to hiking, offering an overwhelming amount of the best New Zealand day hikes set amongst an untouched wilderness. We’ve put in the miles for you and come up with six world-­class day walks to consider conquering on your South Island New Zealand vacation.

We are Rosa and Juuso, Tourism Management students from Finland. As a part of our studies we need to complete five months of internship, and we decided to do that at First Light Travel in New Zealand.  During our stay we have explored the country, and one of our trips was to take 3-days and Hike the Tongariro Northern Circuit in the beautiful Tongariro National Park. For us it was something very special as we don’t have anything like that in Finland.