Year long trip – Wonderland Trail –> Arizona Trail –> Te Araroa —> CDT

You have very noble plans–it should be a great year for you. New Zealand will be starting their summer in December, and the nighttime temps should be above 45* F. The huts require reservations usually, so you might want to work on that right away. NZ has no snakes, but they do have the brown recluse spider (very poisonous), so be sure to have full netting for your sleep setup.

You will have the time of your life!

I spent a year when I turned 30 flying back and forth from the east to west coast 4 times a week, billing as many hours as humanly possible as a computer consultant. I'd *much* rather have gone with your plan. You're not near as crazy as I was.

Thanks Gary and Mike, good to hear my sleep system should work well for the TA. I just hope my feet will last!

Does anyone else have any AZT experience? Looks like I'll have to search out some AZT specific forums

Late-September through late-November is pretty dry in AZ – it hardly rains in the fall.

Ask on hikearizona.com what people think.

Just to update some of the stuff Gary noted about New Zealand and some other info about NZ/TA:

There are no brown recluse spiders in NZ. There are only two poisonous spiders in NZ, the native Katipo and the introduced Redback spider from Australia. You have to be exceedingly unlucky to get bitten by either of those. However you will need bug protection from sandflies during the day and from mosquitoes at night. No snakes/scorpions here. Look out for wasps in beech forest, particularly around the top half of the South Island (Nelson Lakes, Richmond Range, Queen Charlotte Sound).

The backcountry hut system in NZ IMO is one of the coolest parts about tramping in NZ, being an integral part of the tramping (hiking) culture in NZ. However some people don't like the huts because of this social aspect. The huts range from massive 40 bunk lodges to tiny bivouacs. All are very welcome when you are wet and cold. The hut generally have a sleeping platform or bunks, an open fire or wood burner (except those above the bushline) and a water tank or water source near by. Most DOC huts are on a first-come-first served basis but are open to everyone, so expect some nights to have more people staying in a hut than there are sleeping spaces. Only the Great Walk and some more popular huts have booked spaces (book using through the DOC website doc.govt.nz). To use the huts, get a 6 month pass from DOC (NZ$100) before starting on the TA.

Two things that seem to catch out overseas hikers are the variablilty of the weather and the rivers in NZ, In the past week, a woman was swept away and drowned while trying to cross a stream in flood on the Milford Track because they weren't prepared to wait for the stream to drop to a safe level or had no shelter and were unwilling to retreat back. Learn and practice safe river crossing techniques and be prepared to wait (spare food and shelter).

Weatherwise this summer appears to be affected by an El Nino pattern, which often means cooler, wetter more unsettled conditions overall, and often drought to areas that are usually dry. One thing to note about the weather here in NZ is the forecast is only good for 1-3 days, after that I wouldn't rely on it. I would be prepared for rainy periods, that maybe while not thunderstorm intensity, can last 2-4 days non-stop.

Temperature wise expect highs from mid 20's up to low 30's (degC) during the day during summer (Dec-Feb) and night lows down to 5 degC. Mar-Apr are autumn months so generally a bit cooler. Snow should be unlikely for you heading north.

The Te Araroa website wwww.teararoa.org.nz has complete sets of topo maps and trail notes to download. These seem to be updated annually with the new edition available from late Oct. Apart from the odd diversion, the trail route seems quite settled so the current maps and notes should work for you. There is a open facebook page too here https://www.facebook.com/groups/26638669574/. Lots of blogs available on the TA website too. One journal that may of interest is Buck 30's. He is a US hiker who has done several long distance hikes (triple crowner?) and he had some interesting perspectives of the TA.

Thanks Barry! That's great info. There's also a guy in Boston who hiked it southbound last year I'd like to buy a beer with, but I want to get the guidebook and do some more due dilligence before I bug him with questions.

I'll planning for high winds, rain and sandflea's. I've got an MLD littlestar coming in the mail and am doing a MYOG-ish bug net that should work with the groundsheet for the sandfleas. Good to know I won't have to deal with snow and freezing rain but I'll still pack a fleece for continued wet days. It sounds like the huts are a nice backup plan if my sleeping bag gets wet, I'll definitely be picking up a hut pass when I get in country.

Thanks for correcting me, Barry. When I hiked part of the Milford track some years ago, the guide mentioned the poisonous spider to watch out for (the katipo?). She probably said that it was LIKE the brown recluse.

When we stopped for lunch at a hut, she indicated that making an advance reservation for them would be would be wise. But then, that was the popular Milford Track, so it makes sense. I'm sorry to have spread bad information, and I'm glad you were able to provide better advice.

Your plans are very similar to what Dirtmonger has done. You should definitely check out his blog: http://freedirtmonger.blogspot.com/

I don't have any advice for you but I'm envious! I hope you have a wonderful trip.

In NZ don't worry about spiders or any nasties in NZ except sandflies and mosquitos. Good repellent is essential and commonly available. There are close to 1000 huts available to the public, so a tent is not essential, but still a good idea for public camping grounds, and when you get caught by rising rivers. At least take a bivvy bag.
If tenting fine mesh protection is essential. A floorless is not ideal, the ground can be very wet. It can be very windy, but generally you can find shelter unless on a high country pass.

Your greatest danger is the wet weather. Tropical cyclones come down from the north, weakened but still bring heavy rain.
Bigger rivers are generally bridged, its the smaller creeks that are the problem. Crossing these when swollen is extremely hazardous, and several overseas hikers drown each year. Kiwis are aware of the danger. Best to wait it out, usually less than 24 hours.
It is not cold in summer,everybody hikes in shorts, but you can get still light snow in the southern high country as late as December.

The other danger to watch out for is wet snow grass on the steeper passes. Mostly there are adequate tracks, ranging from wide footpaths to very narrow, so this will not be a problem on the TA. But in the more remote areas or venturing off-track, this can be a danger unless care is taken.

In some areas you might meet nobody else on the track. If injured due to a fall say, you may not be found for days. Cellphone coverage is non-existent in the back country. Last year an overseas tramper was not noticed missing on the TA for several days, on one of the easier sections, until he failed to collect his next food dump. His body was later found not far off track where he fell.So Solo tramping is not a good idea. Leave route information if you can. SAR is extremely good and efficient, helicopter based,ut cannot fly in very bad weather. No cost unless you are an idiot.PLB's are readily available for hire.

Thanks Alister, the remoteness is probably the biggest challenge. I have and use a SPOT and my parents tend to follow the check-in's pretty religiously. For the TA I'll have to use it more than once per day and set up some time period where if they haven't heard anything to assume there's a problem or checking in more frequently depending on the section. This isn't my first hike, so I know enough to not get killed (hopefully).

Also thanks Valerie, I'm checking out dirtmonger right now!

Also does anyone know how hikearizon.com works exactly? It seems like it's just for trip reports? I'd like to find historic water reports from October and November along the AZT or ask those who know.

Not sure if you could find historic water stat.s for the AZT, because I'm not sure whether any exist…it's not a very old trail, and not that many people have done it yet.

Part of what makes the AZT interesting also makes it unpredictable, because it passes though so many (completely different) life zones. The "sky island" nature of Southern AZ means that you hike out of arid desert, into mountain ecosystems that have permanent or semi-permanent riparian areas…and the AZT makes this type of transition over and over and over.

AZ is in a decade-long severe drought. Obviously this impacts natural water sources severely – even those in the mountains.

This year was a VERY low snow year in Southern Arizona. Because of that, springs in the Rincon mountains (where the AZT passes through) that normally have water were dry.

Generally, S.AZ has two wet seasons (Nov-Jan and July-August monsoons). The availability of water in Sept/Oct will totally depend on the summer monsoons, which have been UNDER-performing for several years now.

That said, I don't want to totally discourage you from your plans. It just might require a little bit of extra planning, and carrying some extra water in some areas.

Thanks Valerie, I'm ok with renting a truck and spending a day or two caching water along the way as well. 25 mile dry stretches are about as long as I'd like to go and looking through the AZT guidebook it looks like there are a some 40-50 mile stretches with nothing but unreliable water. I think that part of the planning will have to come in July/August depending on the rain situation.

Great idea to take a truck out and cache water in advance! We've done a lot of advance caching — usually via day hikes 1-2 weeks beforehand. Just hide it really, really well. You DON'T want somebody accidentally destroying/using your cache.