Mica Mine Route across the tops, looking out to the West Coast and over Lake Paringa. Photo: Paul McCredie

The past beneath our boots

January/February 2026

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January/February 2026

Before they became part of the tramping network, South Westland’s tracks and huts served cattle drovers, deer cullers, roadmen and wartime miners. On the Haast to Paringa Cattle Track, each hut reveals a chapter of New Zealand’s pioneering past.

(Listen to Sarah read her story with a follow-up Q&A about the trip with our editor.) Every track and hut has its own story, its reason for existence. On this trip in South Westland, the routes we followed and the huts we stayed at harked back to a bygone era of New Zealand pioneering, farming […]
January/February 2026

Read more from

January/February 2026

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