DOC has said that a slip on the Dart Track between Daleys Flat Hut and Chinamans Bluff has made the Rees-Dart circuit “impassable” for trampers. “Rangers have assessed the slip and the Dart Track is closed indefinitely.”

The Dart Track is located in Mount Aspiring National Park. It starts near Glenorchy. DOC said alternative options for trampers were to walk from Muddy Creek to Dart Hut and back out the same way through the Rees Valley, or to walk over Cascade Saddle to Dart Hut and out along the Rees Valley.

The closure is another blow for people looking to head into the back country in the south, coming after the closure owing to safety concerns of Skippers Bridge near Queenstown and the introduction of paid access into Macetown, near Arrowtown. Read more from Star News.

80 campers trapped at Puriri Bay after massive slip

About 80 campers trapped at Whangaruru since Sunday have finally made it home after earlier having to walk to safety over a massive slip.

Jude Thompson, of the Whangaruru Residents and Ratepayers Association, said the campers were staying at the popular DOC Puriri Bay campsite when the deluge hit.

The torrential rain sent floodwaters pouring through the campground and triggered a 50-metre-wide slip across the only access road. Thompson said many tents were flooded or swept away, and campers had to hike over the slip to safety.

“The local community were able to provide them with food, clothing and bedding. Many of them literally only had what they were standing in, so they were very happy to be looked after by the local hapū.”

Since then, Thompson said DOC and its contractors had worked hard to clear the slip, and by late Monday, campers were able to return to collect their vehicles and what was left of their camping gear. Read more from RNZ.

Adventurer carrying kilos of rubbish the length of New Zealand

Léo Ragonneau, 23, who goes by the name Léo Nomade, is walking and swimming the length of New Zealand, hauling a growing bag of rubbish he finds to show how pollution weighs on the environment.

Speaking to Stuff, film-maker and Nomade’s expedition partner Louis Boyer, said: “He keeps all the trash in a bag with him. Even if it becomes 200 kilos he will keep it, to show people if we don’t do something with the pollution, it will be the same for us.”

The journey, called the ITE ORA Expedition, is expected to span more than 3000km and take several months. One of the most ambitious and risky stages of the expedition still lies ahead: an attempted crossing of Cook Strait using the hydrospeed – possibly a first of its kind if successful.

In just 20 days, Nomade collected around 5kg of rubbish. “That’s just bottles, plastic, bits of paper. It depends on what he finds,” Boyer said.

The expedition is being filmed for a documentary, with daily updates shared on social media. Boyer said the hope is to not just highlight environmental damage, but to encourage people to act. Read the full story from Stuff.

Tramper missing for 19 days found in Kahurangi hut

Graham Garnett, who had been missing and feared dead since December 30, was discovered around 2.30pm on Sunday by DOC contractors installing signs at Venus Hut. Disoriented by heavy cloud, he had taken a wrong turn that pushed him deep into the Tasman wilderness for 19 days.

His disappearance prompted a major search and rescue operation across some of the park’s most challenging terrain, enlisting a Defence Force NH90 helicopter, specialist radar technology and multiple Land Search and Rescue teams.

The police search had been called off on Thursday after extensive efforts failed to find Garnett.

Sergeant Jonny Evans, the officer in charge of the police search and rescue operation, said Garnett, “Had tried to get himself out numerous ways, by following streams and ridges and finally finding the Karamea River, which he recognised, and which led him back to Venus Hut.” Read more from One News.

Hiking is Oprah Winfrey’s new favourite form of exercise

The legendary talk show host and entertainment mogul outlined what appeals to her about hiking in an interview with Today. Oprah has gone on regular hikes after having double knee surgery in 2021.

“The reason why I love hiking so much is because you’re looking at the top of the hill, and this is what happened when I got my knees done. I would just look at the window because I couldn’t walk and think, ‘God, I would like to get to the top of that hill.'”

“You get halfway there and you look how far you’ve come,” she said. “That gives you the fuel and the strength to keep yourself going. And that’s a great metaphor for life: Don’t look at how far you have to go, look at how far you’ve come!”

Winfrey, who writes about her new lifestyle in her new book, sees hiking as something more than just moving her body. Read more and watch the interview from Today.

After a four-year hiatus the kākāpo is breeding again

With a population of just 236 across New Zealand, efforts to rebuild kākāpo numbers by physically shielding them from predators have been painstakingly slow and hindered by an obscure breeding schedule. The parrot only mates every few years when the native rimu tree undergoes a mass fruiting event, which last took place in 2022.

Conservationists were relieved this year to observe a bumper crop of the tree’s berrylike fruit, a crucial source of calcium and vitamin D. The mass fruiting has lent kākāpōs a much-needed lifeline, leading – officials hope – to a prodigious mating season that could help stave off the risk of extinction.

Andrew Digby, a biologist at New Zealand’s Department of Conservation, said the crop has been so plentiful that he anticipates over 50 new chicks to hatch, marking the species’ most prolific mating season on record. Read more from the New Zealand Herald.