A wrap of the biggest stories and best writing about the outdoors from New Zealand and around the world.
Nathan Longhurst of the U.S. has been on a tear to climb New Zealand’s 100 greatest peaks in one season, starting last November.
The 25-year-old completed his task on 28 February, summiting his 99th and 100th peaks, 3,151m Mount Sefton and 2,764m The Footstool. As he often did on this unique project, he paraglided from the top of Sefton to The Footstool and began climbing from there.
Longhurst is only the second person to complete the list and the first to do so in a single season. The first man, Don French, took 30 years to notch them all.
Not only did Longhurst paraglide from each summit, but sometimes, he flew from the top of one peak to the base of another. Occasionally, he has even landed high on a subsequent peak and climbed from there.
“He doesn’t claim to have climbed those peaks in the traditional sense,” Dan Cervelli, who managed Longhurst’s social media, told ExplorersWeb earlier this month. Longhurst has documented all his climbs on Instagram, where his handle is nathan358. Read the full story from Explorers’ Web.
10 of the rudest things you can do on a hike
Going on a hike is a great way to move your body, immerse yourself in nature and release stress. But not everyone knows how to behave on the trail.
“Generally speaking, the hiking community is very accepting,” said Will Pattiz, cofounder of the conservation-focused publication More Than Just Parks. “However, there are a few behaviours that always get grunts, side-eyes, and even stern comments.”
HuffPost asked Pattiz and other outdoor experts to share the most common faux pas on the trail ― and their advice for avoiding these missteps. This is their list:
Marlborough to host One NZ GODZONE in November
Marlborough will host the return of adventure race, One New Zealand GODZONE after a two-year hiatus.
The newly-formed Pure Adventure Charitable Trust (PACT), made up of Richie McCaw, Rob Nichol and Sophie Hart, announced it was bringing the event back earlier in the month. And last week they confirmed this year’s race would be held in Marlborough from November 27 to December 5.
“Marlborough is a showcase of some of New Zealand’s best adventurous locations that we are eager for teams to explore,” Nichol said. “There is an extensive network of natural coastal waterways, peninsulas and islands alongside intricate coastal forests and skyline ridges creating a myriad of options for setting a world-class course.”
Last held in Fiordland in 2023, GODZONE pitches teams of four against each other as they navigate their own route through wilderness areas on an unrelenting and unknown course.
Considered one of the world’s most challenging and spectacular expedition adventure races, disciplines can include mountain biking, trekking, packrafting, kayaking, ropes, abseiling and coasteering. Very few people finish the full course, which covers 550-650km. Read the full story from The Post.
The 300km route shining a spotlight on Sri Lanka’s tea history
The recently opened Pekoe Trail runs for more than 300km through tea plantations, villages and forests and tells the story of Sri Lanka’s complex and chequered history.
The hiking trail is divided into 22 stages. Beginning in Sri Lanka’s second-largest city of Kandy, close to the area where Scotsman James Taylor first planted tea in the country in the mid-1800s. It ends in the hill town of Nuwara Eliya, whose cool climes and misty slopes are said to have reminded the British colonisers of Blighty.
The trail has existed in patches since those initial days of tea cultivation in Sri Lanka, beginning as mud tracks that were used to transport the leaves to factories and then onward to domestic markets and Colombo port for export.
Pekoe Trail founder and sustainable tourism consultant Miguel Cunat, creating this multi-stage, multi-day hike was a labour of love, involving nearly 10 years of research and exploration. “The trails are fairly easy, at low elevation and open all through the year. In that sense, this hike is for everyone,” he said. Read the full story from the BBC.
This winter’s volunteer hut wardens at Luxmore Hut may find it a little harder to manage their backcountry huts after a Department of Conservation (DOC) decision to withdraw their helicopter support.
The volunteers bring their own sleeping bags and provisions and manage their huts for a week at a time. Duties include keeping the hut, kitchen and toilets clean and tidy, ensuring firewood and clean water is accessible, rationing toilet paper and checking (and sometimes collecting) fees.
Volunteers used to be heli-transported to the hut along with their gear, but due to rising costs and a focus on reducing emissions, the Department will no longer use helicopters to transport volunteers and their gear to Luxmore hut, Lucus said.
Fifty-two volunteers from throughout New Zealand are currently signed up to carry out DOC’s ‘out of season’ warden hut duties at Fiordland’s Luxmore Hut on the Kepler Track Great Walk. Read more from The Southland App.
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