Hiking New Zealand's south island

New Zealand’s South Island is one giant hiking trail with towns scattered between them. I spent three weeks there and barely covered a fraction of what’s available.

I started with the Routeburn Track, one of New Zealand’s Great Walks. Three days through the Southern Alps, staying in huts where you cook your own meals and sleep in bunk rooms with other hikers. The scenery was absurd - alpine meadows, waterfalls dropping off cliffs, turquoise rivers, mountains everywhere you looked. The weather changed constantly. I experienced rain, sun, fog, and near gale-force winds, sometimes all in the same day.

The hut system is brilliant. Everyone arrives at roughly the same time each afternoon, tired from hiking. You cook, share stories, compare blisters. By the second night, you know everyone’s trip story. It’s social in a way that hotel-based travel isn’t.

After Routeburn, I headed to Milford Sound, though “sound” is a misnomer - it’s actually a fjord. The drive there, through Homer Tunnel and down the mountain, is spectacular. Waterfalls everywhere, sheer cliff faces, rainforest so green it looks unreal. I took a boat tour through the sound, getting drenched by waterfall spray as we passed close to the cliffs.

Queenstown was my base for a few days. Yes, it’s touristy and full of adventure sports operators, but it’s also incredibly beautiful, sitting on the shore of Lake Wakatipu with mountains all around. I did the Ben Lomond track, a day hike that climbs straight up from town. By the top, my legs were screaming, but the views across the lake and the Remarkables mountain range were worth every painful step.

Wanaka was quieter and more my speed. I hiked Roy’s Peak, famous for its Instagram-worthy summit photo. The hike is basically switchbacks up a mountain for four hours, but at the top, you can see across Lake Wanaka to Mount Aspiring National Park. I got there for sunrise and had the summit to myself for about twenty minutes before other hikers arrived.

Mount Cook National Park was the grand finale. The Hooker Valley Track takes you to a glacial lake with icebergs floating in it and Mount Cook, New Zealand’s highest peak, rising behind. The scale is enormous. You feel very small walking through that landscape.

What makes New Zealand special for hiking is the diversity. You can walk through beech forests that feel prehistoric, cross alpine passes above the treeline, and follow rivers that flow from glaciers. The trails are well-maintained, the huts are clean and well-run, and everywhere you look is another view that makes you stop and just stare.

I met other travelers who’d been in New Zealand for months, working and hiking, and I understood the temptation. With so many trails and such stunning landscapes, you could spend years here and never run out of places to explore.