Once is never enough for Uwe Stemmer, the thru-hiking Cantabrian who has completed three laps of Te Araroa Trail.

Uwe Stemmer’s sparse entries in Te Araroa hut books will be familiar to many TA walkers. While some wax lyrical about the trail, are notes for others or art projects between the lines, his entries most often include just his name, ‘CHCH’, and ‘TA SOBO’, all in a big bold scrawl. 

Or ‘TA NOBO’. Or, last summer, ‘SOBO’ once more. Because Stemmer recently became just the second known person to walk Te Araroa three times: southbound, northbound and southbound again. 

The German-born 61-year-old tackled New Zealand’s 3000km trail for the first time in the 2020/21 season, the summer of Covid. Starting at Cape Rēinga in mid-November, he took 130 days to complete the walk. His second hike began in Bluff in early December 2023 and finished 153 days later at the cape. On his most recent attempt, in the 2025/26 season, he started in early October and walked for 149 days until he reached Bluff. 

His ‘triple crown’ equals the three-time record set by Hamilton sports medicine doctor Tom Palfi, 69, known in Te Araroa circles as ‘Dr Tom’. 

Stemmer has now tramped more than 9000km in about five years. He didn’t always follow Te Araroa exactly. Sometimes he went around; sometimes he took a road. But he always walked every step, creating an unbroken line up and down the motu. He documented his first and second adventures on his YouTube channel ‘Uwe Stemmer – Te Araroa – Every Step’.

His approach is known as ‘EFI’ in thru-hiker lingo, or ‘every f***ing inch’. It’s an iron-clad rule beloved by those to whom it makes sense and viewed as curiously pedantic by those to whom it doesn’t. 

For Stemmer, being an EFI purist is the whole point of walking Te Araroa. 

“I knew that on the day I stopped doing EFI, I could have gone home,” he says. “I wouldn’t have had that energy, that motivation anymore, if I missed 10km. It’s just a character thing. It’s how I am; I need that. I could only fight through it and do the 40km of road walking and the shitty sections because I’d already done every step before.”

Stemmer, a mathematician turned software engineer, has lived in New Zealand for 27 years and first encountered Te Araroa in 2018 when he and his partner met TA hikers at Blue Lake Hut in Nelson Lakes National Park. 

“They said they’d started at Cape Rēinga, and I said, ‘What?’ I was so proud that I’d made it from St Arnaud to Blue Lake in three or four days, and was looking forward to getting into a shower and getting home again. I said, ‘So you can actually do that?’”

The idea took hold and he started to research his trip. By saving up two years’ worth of annual leave, plus another month’s unpaid leave and public holidays, he managed to get enough time away from work to complete the walk as quickly as possible. 

When he finished the first time, he found he simply wanted to turn around immediately and go the other way. However, back to work he went. Three years passed before he could tackle the trail again. He spent his summers working in the office, wishing he was outside. 

Heading northbound on his second attempt, he found the start less inspiring but the trail quieter, and he avoided the hiker bubble.  

Stemmer doesn’t have a favourite section of the trail; from the dairies in Auckland to the dramatic Tongariro Crossing, it’s the diversity he loves.

He isn’t a lightweight purist either, preferring now to pack a little more comfort. His base weight is about 10kg and includes essentials such as a mouse trap, a camp seat and a pillow. After his first walk he upgraded his sleeping pad to a more comfortable Exped Ultra 3R. He uses an MSR Hubba Hubba one-person tent, has two Nitecore power banks, and packs it all into an Osprey Exos 58. His preferred shoe is the Altra Lone Peak trail runner.

Stemmer stopped work two years ago and he and his partner now live frugally in order to enjoy life and tramp as much as possible.

“Hopefully it works out, and if it doesn’t, we’ll just have to work again,” he says. “But you’re not getting the time back.”

As for a fourth round of New Zealand? 

Reluctant to put too much strain on his body, he has forced himself to put a few years in between attempts. “I don’t know when I’m going to do it, but I can’t wait too long.”

Stemmer will have his work cut out if he wants to become the new record-holder for the most number of TA thru-hikes. Dr Tom Palfi will be attempting his fourth Te Araroa thru-hike this summer.