World’s Best Walk

The Tongariro Northern Circuit and Heaphy Track are two of the world’s best unknown treks, an 82-mile “one-two punch that delivers the full range of Kiwi highlights in nine perfect days — and without the conga-line crowds you’ll find on the more famous paths.” A mix of volcanic wilderness moonscape, bubbling mud pots, fumaroles, and steaming craters speckled with white foxgloves and yellow buttercups blooming from lava flows, the loop unravels in awe of the 9,177 ft Ruapehu Volcanoe. The Heaphy track, meanwhile, has ‘more personalities than Sybil,” foraging through dense forest of beech, and traipsing around under the kahikatea and the red flowers of the rata tree. The forest then opens up into limestone caves and arches, rolling tussock hills, crossing rivers along swinging-bridges, and ending on the secluded beaches of the Heaphy River lagoon.