I sometimes feel we get a little hung up about the wonder of the outdoors in New Zealand. We’ve got ‘great walks’, unrivalled anywhere, and this magazine does an exemplary job of celebrating them. But the truth of the matter is, there’s a whole world of incredible tramping opportunities out there – ‘great hikes’, as Europeans might call them.

I know, because I’ve been fortunate to do plenty myself in Europe and North America, but also because at least once a month someone gets in touch to tell me about their amazing overseas hiking experience. From the Camino in Spain to the outback in Australia, Wilderness readers like to make the most of their overseas trips by lacing up their boots and strapping a pack to their back to see a slice of a foreign country at walking pace. 

In the past, when asked if I am interested in a story about an overseas experience, I have always declined. We have a limited number of pages and there’s so much New Zealand content still to publish. However, as we usher in another winter, the thought of tramping somewhere different (warm!) suddenly seemed appealing. 

So, in this issue we asked contributors to share their favourite overseas walks, and here present seven that share both similarities and disparities with tramping in Aotearoawe asked contributors to share their favourite overseas walks, and here present seven that share both similarities and disparities with tramping in Aotearoa. 

If overseas content in a Kiwi tramping magazine makes you see red, then I’ve got the perfect story for you: ‘Roaming the red rocks’ follows Jo Stilwell’s mission to reunite two very red rocks separated by 500km and hundreds of millions of years.